ON THIS DAY

1671: Thomas Blood, Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, steals the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

1899: The lawnmower is patented.

1927: Australian federal parliament meets for the first time in the new national capital, Canberra.

1960: United States becomes the first country to legalise the birth control pill.

1987: Polish jetliner bound for New York crashes into a forest outside Warsaw, killing 183.

1994: South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

2016: The Panama Papers go online at the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists website.

Birthdays: Candice Bergen, US actor (1946-); Jana Wendt, Australian journalist (1956-); Grant Hackett, Australian swimmer (1980-).