ON THIS DAY

1528: England experiences its first serious outbreak of the plague.

1776: American Declaration of Independence is approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

1826: Deaths of Thomas Jefferson, third US president (1801-09), and John Adams, second president (1797-1801).

1934: Death of Marie Curie, Polish-French physicist and Nobel prize winner.

1975: Disappearance of heiress Juanita Nielsen, who produced a newspaper in Kings Cross in which she opposed redevelopment plans for the area. Her fate has never been established.

1997: US spacecraft Pathfinder lands on Mars.

Birthdays: Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician (1900-1971); Ray Meagher, Australian actor (1944-); Kirk Pengilly, Australian musician of INXS (1958-).