TODAY IN HISTORY

1470

The reclusive Henry VI is restored to the English throne in a victory for the House of Lancaster in the Wars of the Roses.

1803

Lieutenant David Collins lands at Port Phillip Bay on the site of present-day Sorrento on an unsuccessful expedition to settle what is now Victoria. He decides the area is unsuitable.

1829

Emancipists become eligible for jury service. Such juries consist of 12 men.

1891

The mace of the Victorian parliament disappears. A later inquiry into rumours that an MP took it to a brothel finds that the mace was stolen for melting down by persons unknown.

1933

The MCC sends a cablegram to the ABC giving a veiled message that Bodyline bowling is over. 1934 A Macedonian terrorist assassinates King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou during a visit to Marseilles.

1942

The governorgeneral, Lord Gowrie, signs an Act adopting Britain’s grant of independence to Australia. The grant had been passed by British parliament in 1931.

1974

German businessman Oskar Schindler, credited with saving about 1200 Jews during the Holocaust, dies in Frankfurt.

1978

Former detectivesergeant and Olympic medallist Murray Stewart Riley, 52, (above) is sentenced in Sydney to 10 years’ jail for conspiring to import 1.5 tonnes of marijuana from Thailand.

1993

Jockey Ken Russell, 41, is killed in a fall at Rosehill racetrack.