Highlights in history on this date:

1586: Death sentence is pronounced against Mary Queen of Scots.

1616: Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog discovers Australia.

1794: Russia withdraws from war against France.

1 874: Britain annexes Fiji islands.

1 909: Murder of Japan's Prince Ito by Korean activists leads to Japanese dictatorship in Korea.

1922: Fascists march on Rome. Italian king nominates Benito Mussolini Prime Minister.

1936: Germany and Italy form Rome-Berlin Axis.

1938: Japanese troops take Hankow, and Chinese Government establishes itself at Chungking.

1941: Germany's first offensive against Moscow in World War II fails.

1951: Peace talks aimed at ending the Korean Conflict resume in Panmunjom after 63 days.

1956: Egypt, Jordan and Syria form unified military command.

1961: Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published for the first time.

1962: Uganda is admitted to the United Nations.

1966: Indonesia's former foreign minister Subandrio is sentenced to death.

1971: United Nations seats China and expels Nationalist Chinese.

1974: Foreign ministers of 19 Arab countries meet in Rabat, Morocco, and vote strong support for PLO.

1988: Israeli troops shoot and wound nine Palestinians in scattered clashes throughout occupied territories.

1989: Soviet State Bank announces rouble will be devalued by nearly 90 per cent for tourists and businessmen.

1990: Evander Holyfield knocks out Buster Douglas in the third round in Las Vegas to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion.

1993: Israel begins freeing Palestinian prisoners under deal with PLO.

1995: Israeli troops start Israel's pullout from Jenin, West Bank, the first Palestinian city under the Israel-PLO autonomy agreement.

1998: Street battles rage in the West Bank between members of Yasser Arafat's political faction and Palestinian security forces, two days after a peace accord with the Israelis.

1999: Israel opens a safe passage that allows Palestinians to travel between the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

2000: The first of 118 bodies are retrieved from bottom of the Barents Sea after the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sank on August 12.

2001: The US House of Representatives approves legislation that will give law enforcement and intelligence agencies broader powers to investigate suspected terrorists.

2003: Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's wealthiest man and head of oil giant YUKOS, is arrested in Siberia facing massive fraud and tax evasion charges.

2 005: Voters approve Iraq's US-backed constitution in a referendum. Results show that Sunni Arabs, who had sharply opposed the draft document, failed to produce enough "no" votes to defeat it.

2 006: The world's largest solar power plant in Victoria and a plan to reduce carbon emissions from coal are two projects for which the Australian Government pledges funding to combat global warming.

2008: Egypt's first female marriage registrar starts work despite complaints by some conservative clerics that the move is against Islam.

2009: At least 147 people are killed when a pair of suicide car bombings devastate the heart of Iraq's capital.

2010: Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledges that he receives millions of dollars in cash from Iran, adding that Washington gives him "bags of money" too because his office lacks funds.

2 011: An intensive round of talks between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear program ends in Geneva without a deal to resume formal negotiations.

2012: About 300 potential sexual abuse survivors of the late BBC children's broadcaster Jimmy Savile come forward, according to authorities.

2013: The Australian Commonwealth launches a High Court challenge to the ACT's historic same-sex marriage law. It will be heard on December 3 and 4 before any marriages are able to take place.

2014: Australian Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten tells the Christian lobby he supports same-sex marriage.

2015: The stolen four-wheel drive belonging to father-and-son fugitives Gino and Mark Stocco is spotted, pivoting the massive manhunt back to NSW.

2016: Two men and two women die after a float flips on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld, forcing the closure of the popular Queensland theme park.

2017: China's president Xi Jinping announces his new leadership team, which is seen as the biggest shake-up in the nation's politics since the Cultural Revolution.

2018: Sahle-Work Zewde, a distinguished veteran of the United Nations, is elected as Ethiopia's first female president.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

Georges Bizet, French composer (1838-1875); Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (1881-1973); Helen Reddy, Australian singer (1941); Christina Amphlett, lead vocalist of the Divinyls (1960-2013); Chad Smith, US rock musician of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1961); Matt Shirvington, Australian athlete and TV personality (1978); Bat for Lashes, British singer (1979); Katy Perry, American singer (1984).

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

"It is an undoubted truth that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in." - Lord Chesterfield, English author and statesman (1694-1773).