On this day in 1955, the first Disney amusement park, Disneyland, opened its gates to excited youngsters in Anaheim, California.
Sadly, on this day in 1959 the world lost blues and jazz singer, Billie Holiday, who died of heart failure in a New York hospital.
In 1964, Englishman, Donald Campbell broke the world land speed record, reaching the speed of 648km/h in his Bluebird on the dry bed of South Australia’s Lake Eyre. Campbell went on to break eight absolute world speed recoreds on water and on land and remains the only person to set both world land and water speed records in the same year (1964). He died during a water speed record attempt in England in 1967.
And on this day in 2014, a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane carrying 298 people was shot down over war-torn Ukraine, with both the government and pro-Russian separatists fighting in the region denying any involvement.
Last year, Dutch prosecutors charged four individuals – three Russians and one Ukrainian – who it said were responsible for downing the jetliner.
