ON THIS day

1931

1513

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon, searching for the mythical Fountain of Youth, discovers Florida, thinking it is an island rather than part of the North American continent.

1787

Governor Arthur Phillip’s second commission empowers him to set up a police and justice system in NSW.

1852

A gang in two rowboats steals 8000oz of gold from the barge Nelson off Melbourne. The gold is never recovered.

1911

The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts Australia’s first nationally coordinated census. Previous counts had been based in each colony.

1931

The passenger and cargo steamer Malabar, bound for Singapore, runs ashore and sinks off Long Bay (above). All aboard are saved but the spectacle gives the suburb Malabar its name. 1958

Sydney and Brisbane are connected by an unbroken sealed road as the last bitumen is laid south of Taree.

1972

Actor Charlie Chaplin returns to the US for the first time since he was labelled a communist and denied a re-entry visa in the 1950s.

1974

On the so-called Night Of The Long Prawns, the Country Party entertains the Democratic Labor Party’s Vince Gair with prawns and beer. The Whitlam Labor government had named him ambassador to Ireland but when merry Gair fails to resign from the Senate before midnight, Labor loses its chance for an election advantage.

1978

Miniseries Dallas premieres in the US. It becomes a television series that runs for 13 years.

1982

Argentine troops seize the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), precipitating war with Britain.

1992

Mafia boss John Gotti, nicknamed the Teflon Don after emerging unscathed from previous trials, is convicted in New York City of murder and racketeering.