ON THIS day

1797 Leader of survivors of the wreck of the ship Sydney Cove in Bass Strait, William Clark and two others, arrive at Wattamolla Beach, south of Sydney, and are found. Twelve had died on the trek north. Clark is the first to report the sighting of coal in the cliffs south of Sydney.

1888 Louisa Lawson starts publishing The Dawn in Sydney. It succeeds as a monthly journal for women with household hints, stories and fashion with political comment on topics such as female suffrage.

1928 Mickey Mouse premieres in the silent movie Plane Crazy.

1940 Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the US.

1948 Israel is attacked by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon hours after declaring independence.

1957 Britain lets off first Hbomb, on Christmas Island.

1972 While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Alabama Gov. George Wallace is wounded and left permanently paralysed below the waist in an assassination attempt.

1978 Australia’s longestserving prime minister, Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies, 83, dies in Melbourne.

1991 Edith Cresson of the Socialist Party became the first female premier of France, but she lost the office less than a year later because of rising unemployment.

2000 Ian Thorpe, 17, (above) breaks his third world record in three days, in the 200m freestyle, in Olympic trials in Sydney.

2003 American singer and songwriter June Carter Cash, a leading figure in country music, especially noted for her work with the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, dies in Nashville.

2010 Jessica Watson, 16, sails into Sydney Harbour after 210 days at sea, the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world.