Highlights in history on this date:
455 - A Roman mob tears Emperor Maximus Petronius limb from limb when he tries to escape an approaching Vandal fleet.
1043 - Lady Godiva rides naked through the market square in Coventry, England.
1520 - After being held hostage in Denmark, young nobleman Gustav Vasa slips back into Sweden to start a rebellion against the Danes that will establish Swedish independence.
1813 - Australian explorers Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth reach the highest point in the Blue Mountains and see fertile plains to the west.
1837 - Joseph Grimaldi, famed English dancer and actor whose white-faced act marked the birth of the English circus clown, dies.
1899 - George Whitehouse, a British engineer, decides to build a workshop for the Uganda Railway in a swamp where Kenya's capital, Nairobi, later grows.
1910 - The self-governing Union of South Africa is formed under the British crown.
1911 - In Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Titanic is launched as one of the largest vessels afloat. It sinks on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
1912 - Arthur Stone makes the first powered aircraft flight in Queensland at Rockhampton in a US-built monoplane.
1915 - German Zeppelins bomb London for the first time.
1916 - British and German fleets fight Battle of Jutland off Denmark in World War I.
1924 - China recognises the Soviet Union.
1928 - Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith sets off from Oakland, California, to fly across the Pacific to Australia. He arrives on June 9.
1942 - Three Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney Harbour; the ferry Kuttabul is sunk but all three subs are captured.
1961 - South Africa becomes an independent republic outside the British Commonwealth with CR Swart as president.
1962 - Adolf Eichmann, World War II Nazi Gestapo chief, is executed by hanging after Israeli court rejects appeal.
1970 - Earthquake hits Peru, leaving more than 66,000 dead, 20,000 missing and 200,000 injured.
1973 - US Senate votes to cut off all funds for US bombing operations in Cambodia.
1976 - Indonesia completes takeover of East Timor.
1993 - Suspected Khmer Rouge guerillas in Cambodia ambush a UN convoy, killing one peacekeeper and wounding five in an escalation of attacks.
1996 - An ethnic Croat who fought in the Bosnian Serb forces becomes the first person to be convicted by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
1998 - Representatives of all 16 countries involved in the building of an international space station approve an assembly schedule to begin in November.
2000 - Hong Kong closes its last Vietnamese refugee camp, ending the quarter-century boat people saga in the territory and leaving about 100 people homeless.
2001 - Veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleads innocent to charges of spying for Moscow. He later changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
2003 - Eric Robert Rudolph, suspected of bombing abortion clinics and a gay nightclub as well as the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, is captured in Murphy, North Carolina.
2005 - The Washington Post reveals that "Deep Throat", the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to its reporters, was former FBI deputy director Mark Felt.
2006 - Australian mountaineer Sue Fear, 43, is confirmed dead after falling into a crevasse on Manaslu, the world's eighth highest mountain, three days earlier.
2010 - Israeli commandos rappel down to an aid flotilla trying to breach a Gaza blockade, clashing with pro-Palestinian activists on the lead ship in a botched raid that left at least nine passengers dead.
2014 - Police arrest a third suspect in a gang rape and slaying of two teenage cousins found hanging from a tree in northern India, a case that triggered national outrage.
2016 - Britain announces it is investing in extra patrol boats and surveillance to try to prevent asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
2017 - Police find bones belonging to missing man Matthew Leveson, who disappeared and was presumed murdered 10 years ago, in the Royal National Park.
2018 - Once a pristine Thai paradise, Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh island, made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, has been exhausted by mass tourism and Lạc Sơn Đại Phật must be closed for four months to give coral reefs and sea life a chance to recover, authorities say.
2019 - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has suffered "psychological torture" from a defamation campaign against him, a UN human rights investigator says.
Today's Birthdays
Walt Whitman, US writer (1819-1892); Don Ameche, US actor (1908-1993); Judith Wright, Australian poet (1915-2000); Prince Rainier of Monaco (1923-2005); Clint Eastwood, US actor (1930-); Shirley Verrett, US mezzo-soprano (1933-2010); Peter Yarrow, US singer (1938-); Terry Waite, Anglican Church envoy (1939-); Sharon Gless, US actress (1943-); Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German author/filmmaker/theatre-director (1945-1982); John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer (1948-1980); Gregory Harrison, US actor (1950-); Tommy Emmanuel, Australian guitarist (1955-); Lea Thompson, US actress (1961-); Todd McKenney, Australian TV personality (1965-); Brooke Shields, US actress (1965-); Sarah Murdoch, Australian model and TV personality (1972-); Colin Farrell, Irish actor (1976-).
Thought For Today:
Love is enough, though the world be a-waning - William Morris, English poet and artist (1834-1896).
455 - A Roman mob tears Emperor Maximus Petronius limb from limb when he tries to escape an approaching Vandal fleet.
1043 - Lady Godiva rides naked through the market square in Coventry, England.
1520 - After being held hostage in Denmark, young nobleman Gustav Vasa slips back into Sweden to start a rebellion against the Danes that will establish Swedish independence.
1813 - Australian explorers Blaxland, Lawson, and Wentworth reach the highest point in the Blue Mountains and see fertile plains to the west.
1837 - Joseph Grimaldi, famed English dancer and actor whose white-faced act marked the birth of the English circus clown, dies.
1899 - George Whitehouse, a British engineer, decides to build a workshop for the Uganda Railway in a swamp where Kenya's capital, Nairobi, later grows.
1910 - The self-governing Union of South Africa is formed under the British crown.
1911 - In Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Titanic is launched as one of the largest vessels afloat. It sinks on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
1912 - Arthur Stone makes the first powered aircraft flight in Queensland at Rockhampton in a US-built monoplane.
1915 - German Zeppelins bomb London for the first time.
1916 - British and German fleets fight Battle of Jutland off Denmark in World War I.
1924 - China recognises the Soviet Union.
1928 - Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith sets off from Oakland, California, to fly across the Pacific to Australia. He arrives on June 9.
1942 - Three Japanese midget submarines enter Sydney Harbour; the ferry Kuttabul is sunk but all three subs are captured.
1961 - South Africa becomes an independent republic outside the British Commonwealth with CR Swart as president.
1962 - Adolf Eichmann, World War II Nazi Gestapo chief, is executed by hanging after Israeli court rejects appeal.
1970 - Earthquake hits Peru, leaving more than 66,000 dead, 20,000 missing and 200,000 injured.
1973 - US Senate votes to cut off all funds for US bombing operations in Cambodia.
1976 - Indonesia completes takeover of East Timor.
1993 - Suspected Khmer Rouge guerillas in Cambodia ambush a UN convoy, killing one peacekeeper and wounding five in an escalation of attacks.
1996 - An ethnic Croat who fought in the Bosnian Serb forces becomes the first person to be convicted by the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.
1998 - Representatives of all 16 countries involved in the building of an international space station approve an assembly schedule to begin in November.
2000 - Hong Kong closes its last Vietnamese refugee camp, ending the quarter-century boat people saga in the territory and leaving about 100 people homeless.
2001 - Veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen pleads innocent to charges of spying for Moscow. He later changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
2003 - Eric Robert Rudolph, suspected of bombing abortion clinics and a gay nightclub as well as the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, is captured in Murphy, North Carolina.
2005 - The Washington Post reveals that "Deep Throat", the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to its reporters, was former FBI deputy director Mark Felt.
2006 - Australian mountaineer Sue Fear, 43, is confirmed dead after falling into a crevasse on Manaslu, the world's eighth highest mountain, three days earlier.
2010 - Israeli commandos rappel down to an aid flotilla trying to breach a Gaza blockade, clashing with pro-Palestinian activists on the lead ship in a botched raid that left at least nine passengers dead.
2014 - Police arrest a third suspect in a gang rape and slaying of two teenage cousins found hanging from a tree in northern India, a case that triggered national outrage.
2016 - Britain announces it is investing in extra patrol boats and surveillance to try to prevent asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
2017 - Police find bones belonging to missing man Matthew Leveson, who disappeared and was presumed murdered 10 years ago, in the Royal National Park.
2018 - Once a pristine Thai paradise, Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh island, made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, has been exhausted by mass tourism and Lạc Sơn Đại Phật must be closed for four months to give coral reefs and sea life a chance to recover, authorities say.
2019 - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has suffered "psychological torture" from a defamation campaign against him, a UN human rights investigator says.
Today's Birthdays
Walt Whitman, US writer (1819-1892); Don Ameche, US actor (1908-1993); Judith Wright, Australian poet (1915-2000); Prince Rainier of Monaco (1923-2005); Clint Eastwood, US actor (1930-); Shirley Verrett, US mezzo-soprano (1933-2010); Peter Yarrow, US singer (1938-); Terry Waite, Anglican Church envoy (1939-); Sharon Gless, US actress (1943-); Rainer Werner Fassbinder, German author/filmmaker/theatre-director (1945-1982); John Bonham, Led Zeppelin drummer (1948-1980); Gregory Harrison, US actor (1950-); Tommy Emmanuel, Australian guitarist (1955-); Lea Thompson, US actress (1961-); Todd McKenney, Australian TV personality (1965-); Brooke Shields, US actress (1965-); Sarah Murdoch, Australian model and TV personality (1972-); Colin Farrell, Irish actor (1976-).
Thought For Today:
Love is enough, though the world be a-waning - William Morris, English poet and artist (1834-1896).
