Timetrip

1943: The Pentagon (above) opens outside Washington DC. Home of the US Defence Department, it is the world’s largest office building, covering 13.8 hectares and with 27km of corridors. 1959: The TV Week Awards, soon to be renamed the Logies, are presented for the first time in Melbourne. 2004: NASA scientists send the robotic rover Spirit out for its first spin on martian soil, commanding the sixwheeled vehicle to roll off its landing platform. 2008: Sea Shepherd activists, Australian citizen Benjamin Potts and British citizen Giles Lane, are detained on Japanese whaling vessel Yashin Maru No 2 after jumping on board in protest against Japanese whaling activities in the Southern Ocean. They are released after two days. 2011: Large swathes of Queensland are devastated by the worst flooding in decades after heavy rainfalls.