ON THIS day
330 Constantinople (now Istanbul) is dedicated as the new capital of the Roman Empire. It is named after Emperor Constantine.
1618 Haevik Claeszoon van Hillegom, captain of the Dutch ship Zeewolf, records the sighting of the Australian coast. Unable to land, he sails on to Java.
1811 Conjoined twins Chang and Eng, who gained worldwide fame in the 19th century, are born in Meklong, Siam (Thailand).
1812 British prime minister Spencer Perceval is shot dead at 49 by a deranged bankrupt broker, John Bellingham.
1918 American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was born in NY City.
1958 Lake Eucumbene, Australia’s largest man-made lake, is completed in the Snowy Mountains.
1960 Mossad agents in Argentina kidnap Adolf Eichmann (above), Nazi Germany’s chief killer of Jews. He is smuggled to Israel for trial and hanged in 1962.
1981 Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley dies of cancer at age 36.
1987 The ABC television program Four Corners exposes entrenched police corruption in Queensland.
1996 A tornado in Bangladesh kills more than 600.
1997 The Deep Blue IBM computer demolishes world chess champion Garry Kasparov to win a six-game chess match between man and machine.
2001 A python squeezes the neck of its drunken owner in a Byron Bay street until he passes out. Police later release both snake and owner.
2010 Scottish-born British politician Gordon Brown officially resigns as prime minister of the United Kingdom, ending 13 years of Labour Party rule.
2014 St George Rugby League Club legend Reg Gasnier, considered one of the best centres in history, dies on the eve of his 75th birthday.