ON THIS day

1345

The conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars on this date is later blamed for causing the bubonic “Black Death” plague which killed 25 million people. 1549

Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral of England, is beheaded in London for treason. The widower of Henry VIII’s widow Catherine Parr, he schemed to get power by marrying Henry VIII’s daughter Princess Elizabeth. 1602

The Dutch East India Co is chartered to establish fortifications and bases against Spain and Portugal, in return for a monopoly of trade in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

1815

Napoleon arrives back in Paris from Elba to reclaim power at the start of the “Hundred Days’’.

1820

Governor Macquarie lays the foundation stone of the School for the Education of Children of the Poor at Hyde Park, where it is intended to teach 500 children. School to be called the Georgian Public School. 1872

Blue Mountains explorer William Charles Wentworth dies aged 81 in Dorset, England.

1942

US general Douglas MacArthur tells journalists at Terowie in SA: “I came out of Bataan and I shall return.’’

1969

Beatles musician John Lennon, 28, marries artist Yoko Ono, 36, at Gibraltar, in a 75-minute visit to the British territory in Spain. 1982

Australian film The Man from Snowy River premieres in Victoria. 1995

Members of the Aum Shinrikyo, or Supreme Truth, sect release sarin nerve gas on a Tokyo subway, killing 12 and injuring 5500. They are believed to have tested the gas on live sheep at a WA property. 2003

The US and coalition partners begin their invasion of Iraq, to topple dictator Saddam Hussein and to destroy the weapons of mass destruction he is said to have. 2006

Cyclone Larry lashes the Far North Queensland coast, wiping out 90 per cent of the banana crop.