1984 ON THIS DAY

1415

The English, led by Henry V, score a big victory over the French at the Battle of Agincourt in the Hundred Years War. 1586

Mary Queen of Scots is sentenced to death. 1794

Four of five “Scottish Martyrs’’, sentenced for sedition in Britain, arrive on the Surprize. Thomas Muir, Thomas Fyshe Palmer, William Skirving and Maurice Margarot promoted ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Muir escapes in 1796 to the US, Skirving dies that year in Sydney and Margarot returns to England in 1810. 1616

Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog lands on Australia’s west coast. He leaves a pewter plate inscribed with details of his ship and crew.

1854

The British Light Brigade charges Russian cannons at Balaclava. The charge in the Crimean War is a mistake, killing hundreds of cavalrymen.

1911

Armoured cruiser HMAS Australia is launched in Glasgow by Lady Reid, wife of high commissioner George Reid, just three months after the RAN is founded. HMAS Australia would be its flagship.

1936

Italy and Germany establish the Rome-Berlin Axis.

1966

An Australian Army interrogator holds a suspected spy’s nose and pours water down her throat at Nui Dat in the Vietnam War. The torture is covered up but admitted by prime minister John Gorton in March 1968.

1984

Australian drugs tsar Robert Trimbole, 53, (above) is arrested in Dublin, under the name Michael Hanbury, on suspicion of possessing a firearm. Efforts to extradite him fail.

2004

Australia has its first military casualties in Iraq when three soldiers are wounded by a bomb near the Australian embassy.