TODAY IN HISTORY

1789 The first boat built in the colony of NSW, the Rosehill Packet, is launched 1795 in Sydney Cove. Napoleon Bonaparte commands artillery to shoot rebels marching against the National Convention in Paris, saving the republic. He is soon appointed commander of the army of the interior.

1833 Sydney’s Theatre Royal presents its first show, The Miller And His Men.

1835 Tooth’s Kent Brewery is established in Sydney by John Tooth and Charles Newnham. 1864 Calcutta, India, is almost destroyed by a cyclone that kills 60,000. 1910 Portugal is declared a republic the day after a revolution ousts King Manuel II.

1914In World War I, the first people die in an air battle when French pilot Louis Quenault uses a machinegun to shoot down a German plane over France. 1930 The British hydrogen airship R101 crashes in a storm in France on its maiden voyage, killing 48 people. Eight crew and passengers escape; one later dies of injuries.

1962 The Beatles’ first hit, Love Me Do, is released in Britain by Parlophone.

1964 After 57 East German refugees reach West Berlin by tunnelling under the Berlin Wall, East German border soldier Egon Schultz is fatally shot at the tunnel entrance.

1969 Monty Python’s Flying Circus premieres on BBC-TV. 2011 Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies.