The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
August 26, 2006 Saturday
State Edition
History On This Day; Pg. 77
THIS DAY
1768: Captain James Cook and the crew of the Endeavour weigh anchor
at Plymouth, England, bound for Tahiti to observe the transit of
Venus and with secret orders to look for a great south land.
1883: The volcano on Krakatoa island, in what is now Indonesia,
erupts, creating a tidal wave that washes over neighbouring islands.
More than 36,000 people die.
1896: Armenian revolutionaries attack the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul,
sparking a massacre in which 6000 Armenians die in the city.
1900: At the Paris Olympics a Dutch rowing team uses a French boy
from the crowd as cox, then wins. The boy, about 7, disappears after
the medal ceremony, possibly the youngest Olympic champion.
1920: American women are allowed to vote, as the 19th Amendment of the
US Constitution is certified by Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.
1978: Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice is elected Pope and takes
the name of John Paul I. He serves only 33 days before dying of a
heart attack.
1999: Federal Parliament passes a motion by Prime Minister John Howard
expressing "deep and sincere regret" for past injustices to Aborigines.