ON THIS day

1703 1853

Samuel Pepys, British diarist, dies. His diary covered 1659-69.

The last convict ship to Van Diemens Land, the St Vincent, arrives in Hobart. Transportation to Australia does not stop completely until the last shipment, to Fremantle, in 1878.

1865

Surrender of the last Confederate (Southern) army at Shreveport, Louisiana, ends US Civil War.

1897

The horror novel Dracula, by Irish author Bram Stoker, is published in London, England.

1907

Actor John Wayne (above), who embodied the image of the strong, taciturn cowboy or soldier, is born in Winterset, Iowa.

1908

The first major oil strike in the Middle East is made in Persia (Iran) for English-born entrepreneur William Knox D’arcy, who also struck gold near Rockhampton, Qld.

1923

In France, the first Le Mans 24-hour motor race begins.

1927

Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company make the last (and 15th million) Model T Ford/ Tin Lizzie.

1933

Australia claims onethird of the Antarctic continent, partly to stop the whale-oil industry running down whale stocks.

1938

German dictator

Adolf Hitler lays the foundation stone for the Strength Through Joy motor car, later the Volkswagen, at Fallersleben, Brunswick.

1940

At French port Dunkirk, the 10-day Operation Dynamo begins evacuation of 338,000 Allied troops, mainly using small craft.

1994

US singers Michael Jackson, 36, and Lisa Marie Presley, 25, marry in the Dominican Republic.

2008

American director, producer, and actor Sydney Pollack, who helmed a number of popular films, dies at age 73.

2012

Pope Benedict XVI’S butler is arrested for allegedly leaking confidential documents.