1035 1787 1833
King Canute, ruler of Denmark, England and Norway, dies.
The First Fleet sails from the Cape of Good Hope.
The great Leonid meteor shower, when hundreds of thousands of meteors appear in one night, is seen across North America.
1840
British naval officer James Ross leaves Hobart with two ships, Erebus and Terror, and then discovers much of Antarctica.
1859
The first flying trapeze act is performed by Jules Leotard, 21, without a net, in Paris.
1893
Britain and Afghanistan sign an agreement marking the boundary between Afghan tribal lands and British territory. Lawrence Hargrave rises nearly 5m into the air at Stanwell Park, NSW, hanging from four box kites.
The frozen bodies of British explorer Robert Scott and two of his team are found on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. They had reached the South Pole but found Norwegian Roald Amundsen beat them. Australian Captain Ross Smith and his brother, Lieutenant Keith
Smith, leave Hounslow to become the first to fly from Britain to Australia.
1920
Federal parliament expels Hugh Mahon, Labor Member for Kalgoorlie, for ”seditious’’ statements about British rule in Ireland. Raymond “Chuck’’ Bennett (above), 31, who masterminded the Great Bookie Robbery of 1976 that relieved Melbourne bookmakers of millions of dollars, is shot in the chest while at Melbourne City Court to appear for a separate armed robbery. He dies in hospital less than an hour later.
Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw resigns a month after crashing his car, while drunk. The former Labor state Attorney-general admits he is not well enough for the Bench.