TODAY IN HISTORY

1197 Crusaders at Jerusalem capitulate to Saladin.

1627 The last Emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty, Chongzhen, comes to the throne after death of his brother, Emperor Tianqi.

1872 Phileas Fogg sets out on his journey as depicted in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.

1788 John Hunter sails for Cape Town in the Sirius to obtain provisions for Sydney. The Sirius will return on 8 May, 1789 having completed a voyage around the world.

1836 Charles Darwin returns to England aboard HMS Beagle, after a five-year exploration of the southern oceans.

1890 A huge fire destroys 10 buildings and ruins a block next to what is now Martin Place. Nobody is killed.

1925 In London, John Logie Baird transmits the first television picture. It is the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy.

1943 Australians capture Finschhafen in New Guinea during World War II.

1950 The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz, is first published in seven American newspapers.

1985 Hollywood actor Rock Hudson dies of AIDS aged 59.

1990 East and West Germany unite after 45 years of separation.

1990 Dame Joan Sutherland retires at age 63 with a gala performance at Sydney Opera House.

1994 Nine die when a Seaview Air Aero Commander plane plunges into the sea en route from Newcastle to Lord Howe Island.