ON THIS DAY
69
Roman Emperor Servius Sulpicius Galba, who succeeded Nero in 68AD, is assassinated by the Praetorian guard in the Roman Forum.
1559
Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England.
1759
The British Museum, the worlds’ first national public museum, opens, based on 71,000 items collected by physician and naturalist Hans Sloane.
1790
The mutineers aboard the ship HMS Bounty and their Tahitian partners arrive at Pitcairn Island, where they hope to establish a colony. 1797
James Hetherington, a London haberdasher, is fined for wearing his newest creation, the top hat.
1806
John Macarthur, who started Australia’s first significant wool industry, receives a parchment copy of his land grant of Cowpastures, near Camden.
1834
A mutiny on Norfolk Island by 162 convicts is put down by the captain of the guard, Foster Fyans. Two convicts are killed, seven are fatally injured and 13 will hang. 1894
Australia’s first steel rolling mill opens at Eskbank ironworks, Lithgow. 1900
Bubonic plague is reported in Adelaide, three days after an absconding 18-year-old German seaman named Eppstein died on Jan 12. 1922
The first Australian Grand Prix, held at Goulburn Showground, is won by Geoff Meredith driving a Bugatti Type 30. 1962
Two skindivers find a wreck near the Macleay River entrance in northern NSW. It is Fairwind, a naval vessel used for fishery surveys, which disappeared off Coffs Harbour in 1950. 1969
Vicki Barton, 8 (pictured), disappears from Lawson in the Blue Mountains. Alfred Jessop will be sentenced to life for her murder in 1978.