Timetrip

1660: Published books of poet John Milton are burned in London because of his attacks on King Charles II.

1813: French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wins his last great battle at Dresden, Germany, against a larger Austrian, Prussian and Russian force.

1859: Colonel Edwin L Drake creates the first productive oil well in Pennsylvania in the US.

1883: The most powerful volcanic eruption ever recorded continues to blow apart Mount Krakatoa in the Sunda Straits, Indonesia.

1900: A devastating hurricane hits Galveston in Texas, killing more than 6000 people.

1902: Women are granted the vote in NSW.

1954: The first men cross the Arctic Circle’s Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

1979: British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten (above) is killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion. The IRA claims responsibility.

1997: Israel lifts a 28-day blockade of Bethlehem imposed after suicide bombings by Islamic militants in Jerusalem

2003: Mars passes just 55.76 million kilometres from Earth in the closest such encounter since the Stone Age.