TODAY IN HISTORY

1715: French “Sun King’’ Louis XIV dies in Versailles, aged 76. The art-loving tyrant came to the throne at age four, and ruled for 72 years.

1808: William Redfern, 34, receives the first medical diploma issued in Australia, after being examined by a tribunal of surgeons.

1824: An advance party led by Lieutenant Henry Miller sails from Sydney on the brig Amity to establish a penal settlement at Moreton Bay, now in Queensland.

1830: Irish-born bushranger John “Bold Jack’’ Donohoe is trapped near Campbelltown and shot dead. He had robbed bullock drays on the Windsor Rd and, after escaping from jail and the noose, rampaged all over NSW.

1856: A railway branch line to Liverpool opens for use, having officially opened on August 18. It has one station before Liverpool, at Fairfield.

1870: In the FrancoPrussian War, the French under Napoleon III are heavily defeated by Prussians under Moltke at the battle of Sedan.

1874: The General Post Office in Martin Place is opened in a grand ceremony.

1906: Australia takes responsibility for the administration of southeastern New Guinea, renaming it Papua.

1918: Australian troops capture and hold Mont St Quentin and Peronne.

1923: Cessnock: 21 men die in an explosion and fire at the Bellbird Colliery.

1928: A liquor referendum in NSW and ACT results in a vote against prohibition.

2001: New Zealand and Nauru agree to take more than 430 asylum seekers stranded aboard Norwegian cargo ship Tampa after prime minister John Howard refuses to let them land in Australia.