ON THIS day
1779
Captain James Cook, 50, is killed by Hawaiians in a dispute over the theft of a cutter.
1788
The ship Supply sails from Port Jackson to begin a colony at Norfolk Island.
1797
A British fleet under John Jervis and Horatio Nelson defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Cape St Vincent.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell applies for a patent for the telephone. He gets it on March 7.
1887
The Queensland southern railway line from Brisbane reaches the NSW border at Wallangarra. On January 16, 1888, an interstate rail service will begin, with a change of gauge at Wallangarra.
1926
Black Sunday bushfires in Victoria kill about 30 people in the Yarra Valley and Gippsland.
1929
Members of Al Capone’s gang massacre seven members of a rival gang run by George Moran in Chicago during Prohibition.
1946
The first generalpurpose high-speed electronic digital computer, ENIAC, is publicly demonstrated at the University of Pennsylvania.
1984
English musician Elton John, 36, marries Renata Blauel, 30, a German sound engineer, at Darling Point, Sydney.
1989
Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini calls on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie for blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses.
1991
The psychological thriller The Silence of the Lambs is released in the US.
2004
Redfern teenager Thomas Hickey, wanted by police, is impaled on a fence while riding a bicycle away from a patrol. His death sparks riots.
2005
Ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated in Beirut.
2018
Amid scandals and corruption allegations, South African President Jacob Zuma resigns and is later replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa.