ON THIS DAY
330 Constantinople (now Istanbul) is dedicated as the new capital of the Roman Empire. It is named after the Emperor Constantine.
1618 Haevik Claeszoon van Hillegom, captain of the Dutch ship Zeewolf, records the sighting of the Australian coast. Unable to land, he sails on to Java.
1812 British prime minister Spencer Perceval is shot dead at 49 by a deranged bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, in the lobby of the House of Commons.
1813Explorers
Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth and their entourage leave Blaxland’s farm at South Creek, in what is now St Marys, to cross the Blue Mountains.
1941 German bombers fly 571 sorties over London in the city’s worst night of the Blitz. About 1400 people are killed and incendiaries burn through more of the city than the Great Fire of London.
1985 Fire engulfs a wooden stand at England’s Bradford City soccer ground, killing 56 and injuring hundreds.
1988 Britain’s most famous double agent, former intelligence officer turned spy for the Soviets Kim Philby, dies in Moscow aged 76.
1994 Allan Border retires at 38 as Australia’s Test cricket captain after 10 years, with cross words directed at the Australian Cricket Board.
1997 The Deep Blue IBM computer demolishes world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a match in New York to win the six-game chess match between man and machine.
2020 American comic actor Jerry Stiller dies aged 92. He was best known for his role as Frank Costanza in sitcom Seinfeld.