ON THIS DAY

1647: First recorded American execution of a witch in Massachusetts.

1679: English parliament passes the Habeas Corpus Act, protecting citizens against false arrest and imprisonment.

1933: Walt Disney’s Academy Award-winning animated short The Three Little Pigs is released.

1967: Australian people approve ending of constitutional discrimination against Aborigines by 90.8 per cent in a referendum vote.

1995: Actor Christopher Reeve is left paralysed when thrown from his horse in Virginia.

2009: Sydney switches on its first Vivid festival of light, music and ideas.

2016: Barack Obama becomes the first sitting US president to visit the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Vincent Price, US actor (1911-1993); Christopher Lee, English actor (1922-2015); Neil Finn, New Zealand singer (1958-).