ON THIS day

1956

1506

Pope Julius II lays the first stone of the new St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

1775

Paul Revere makes his midnight ride to warn Massachusetts citizens of the arrival of British troops at the start of the War of Independence.

1906

More than 700 die as an earthquake in California starts a fire in San Francisco. An estimated 200,000 are left homeless after the quake.

1910

Hungarian-born stunt man Harry Houdini gives two demonstration flights at Rosehill Racecourse in his Voisin 1907 biplane.

1911

New Zealand aviator Joseph Joel Hammond makes the first flight from what becomes Sydney Airport, then Ascot Racecourse, in a Bristol box-kite biplane.

1942

US bombers led by Lieutenant-Colonel James Doolittle pound Tokyo and other Japanese cities, in retaliation for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. 1943

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, architect of Japan’s raid on Pearl Harbor, dies when US airmen shoot his plane down near Bougainville. 1954

Egyptian Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser seizes power and appoints himself prime minister. 1956

Abandoning her Hollywood career, American actor Grace Kelly weds Rainier III, prince de Monaco, in a civil ceremony. An opulent religious ceremony took place the following day. 1980

Zimbabwe achieves independence from the United Kingdom.

1996

Ex-Wollongong councillor Brian Tobin, 62, gasses himself in his car at his home at Pheasants Nest, near Picton, hours after an interview with investigators from the Wood royal commission pedophile team. 2006

Mobs of stonethrowing protesters in Honiara try to storm the Solomon Islands parliament, injuring eight Australian police officers.