Today in History, 8/2
Highlights in history on this date:
1587 - Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded after being accused of plotting to murder England's Queen Elizabeth I.
1915 - DW Griffith's silent movie epic about the US Civil War, The Birth of a Nation, premieres in Los Angeles.
1920 - Russian Bolsheviks capture Odessa in the Ukraine.
1924 - The first US execution by gas takes place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
1940 - German troops shoot every tenth person in two Polish villages near Warsaw in reprisal for deaths of two German soldiers.
1949 - Republic of Ireland declares it is unable to participate in NATO while island remains divided.
1962 - US military council is established in South Vietnam.
1967 - Gough Whitlam replaces Arthur Calwell as Australian Labor Party leader.
1974 - Three US Skylab astronauts return to Earth after setting a record of 84 days in orbit.
1983 - Dust storm deposits about 11,000 tonnes of topsoil on Melbourne.
1992 - US-European Ulysses space probe passes Jupiter.
1993 - About 132 people are killed when an Iranian passenger plane crashes outside Tehran.
1994 - The head of the French army's history section is fired over a report that cast doubt on the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was arrested for treason in 1894.
1996 - At least 350 people are killed when a cargo plane crashes into the market in Kinshasa, Zaire.
1997 - Six people are shot dead after a gunman goes on a shooting rampage in the central North Island town of Raurimu in New Zealand.
2001 - Astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis prepare to dock with the international space station 360 km above Earth.
2005 - English sailor Ellen MacArthur finishes a solo around-the-world sailing record after more than 71 days at sea.
2008 - Bruce Burrell is jailed for at least 21 years for the "cold-blooded" murder of wealthy 74-year-old Sydney grandmother Dorothy Davis.
2009 - Zurich voters break with long-standing Swiss policy by ending tax breaks for wealthy foreigners.
2010 - Singer Michael Jackson's doctor pleads not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop star at a brief hearing.
2012 - Opening a scientific frontier kilometres under the Antarctic ice, Russian experts drill down and finally reach the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake, an achievement the mission chief likened to placing a man on the moon.
2014 - Fifteen pilgrims died in a hotel fire in the South African city of Medina.
2015 - Interviews with survivors of Sydney's Lindt Cafe siege are broadcast on Australian commercial television.
2016 - The child abuse Royal Commission accepts a doctor's report that Cardinal George Pell is too sick to return to Australia to testify about historical abuse by priests in the Victorian diocese of Ballarat.
2017 - A Thai court sentences Australian man Antonio Bagnato, 28, to death for the murder of former Sydney underworld figure and Hells Angels bikie, Wayne Schneider.
2018 - Major banks lift the gag on staff and victims ahead of the banking Royal Commission.
Today's Birthdays:
Robert Burton, English author (1577-1640); Dame Elisabeth Murdoch (1909-2012); James Dean, US actor (1931-1955); Nick Nolte, US actor (1941-); John Grisham, US author (1955-); Vince Neil, US singer of Motley Crue fame (1961-); Seth Green, US actor (1974-); Larissa Waters, Australian politician (1977-).
Thought For Today:
To maintain one's ideals in ignorance is easy. - Uta Hagen, German-born actress (1919-2004).
