TODAY IN HISTORY

1568 Mary Queen of Scots is defeated by the pro-English Earl of Moray at the battle of Langside in Glasgow.

1787 The First Fleet sets sail at daybreak from England, leaving Mother Bank, off the Isle of Wight.

1841 French sea captain Augustin Lucas takes the first photograph in Australia, from Macquarie Place, Sydney. The streetscape has never been found.

1846 US Congress approves a declaration of war on Mexico.

1861 John Tebbutt, Windsor sheep farmer and amateur astronomer, discovers the Great Comet.

1868 A team of Aboriginal cricketers, the first to represent Australia, arrive in England to play 47 matches. Johnny Mullagh scores 1698 runs and takes 245 wickets.

1917 Three children, Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, report seeing the Virgin Mary near Fatima, Portugal.

1931 The body of goldseeker Harold Bell Lasseter is found in a cave in Central Australia.

1968 North Vietnamese attack the Coral gun base, killing 11 Australians.

1970 Artist William Dobell dies at 70 at his home in Wangi, NSW.

1981 Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded in St Peter’s Square, Rome.

2002 Ruth Cracknell, who charmed audiences on stage, radio and TV for 56 years, dies at 76 in Sydney.

2007 Prime Minister John Howard bans the Australia cricket team from touring Zimbabwe.