ON THIS DAY

1834: Six English laborers, dubbed the Tolpuddle Martyrs, are sentenced to seven years banishment to Australian penal colony for forming a trade union.

1937: More than 400 people, mostly children, killed in gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas, US.

1965: Soviet cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov becomes first man to leave an orbiting spacecraft and float in space.

1967: Oil tanker Torrey Canyon is wrecked off the Cornish coast of England, spilling 919,000 barrels of oil.

1969: US President Richard Nixon orders secret bombing of Cambodia.

2007: Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer dies after being found unconscious in his hotel room the morning after his side’s shock World Cup exit. Birthdays: Dick Smith, businessman and aviator

(1944-); Brooke Hanson, swimmer (1978-).