ON THIS day

193AD

Roman emperor Didius Julianius is sentenced to death by the Senate. An assassin goes to his home to stab and behead him. His last words were “But what evil have I done. Whom have I killed?”

1215

Zhongdu (now Beijing) is captured by the Mongol armies under Genghis Khan.

1495

The first reference to Scotch whisky is written in the Exchequer rolls of Scotland, commissioning monk John Cor to make eight “bolls of malt”.

1533

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, is crowned Queen of England.

1648

The parliamentary troops, known as the Roundheads, defeat the royalist troops, the Cavaliers, at the battle of Maidstone.

1813

The mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt James Lawrence, gives the order “Don’t give up the ship” during a battle with British ship Shannon during the War of 1812. 1849

Earl Grey, British Secretary of State, sends a dispatch to Capt. Charles Fitzgerald, LieutenantGovernor of Western Australia, authorising the colony to take convicts.

1907

English aviation engineer and pilot Frank Whittle, who invented the jet engine, is born.

1926

American motionpicture star Marilyn Monroe, who became a major sex symbol and cultural icon, is born in Los Angeles.

1927

Lizzie Borden (above), the woman accused but acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892, dies at 66. 1967

David Bowie’s selftitled debut album is released on the same day scheduled for the release of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album. 2009

General Motors, one of the biggest car manufacturers in the US and parent company of Holden in Australia, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.