The Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia is opened.

Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45 ˚C (113 ˚F) heat, a record for the city.

The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

First flight of the Australian C.A.C. CA-16 Wirraway.

World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allies.

World War II: Battle between HMAS ''Sydney'' and HSK ''Kormoran''. The two ships sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.

World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. The Sook Ching massacre begins.

World War II: Australia declares war on Thailand.

World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.

World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.

World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.

The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of Income Tax in Australia as the State Income Tax is abolished.

Statute of Westminster 1931 formalises Australian autonomy.

The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.

World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.

World War II: possibly the biggest prison breakout in history occurs as 545 Japanese POWs attempt to escape outside the town of Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.

The official North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, is first published under the name ''Chongro''. Australia joins the United Nations.

The United States, Australia and New Zealand sign a mutual defense pact, called the ANZUS Treaty.

The Cocos Islands are transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.

Television is first broadcast in Australia.

The MS Princess of Tasmania, Australia’s first passenger roll-on/roll-off diesel ferry, makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait.

The Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.

Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Australian currency is decimalised.

Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.

Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.

Nauru gains independence from Australia.

Melbourne-Evans collision: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.

An Australian, Michael Dennis Rohan, sets the Al-Aqsa Mosque on fire

The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaced, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc., had already abolished the shilling in favor of a decimal currency with exactly 100 pence per pound sterling or dollar, whichever was applicable.}

The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia.

Vietnam War: Australia and New Zealand decide to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.

Willandra National Park is established in Australia.

Gough Whitlam becomes the first Labor Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.

Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.

The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier ''Lake Illawarra'', killing twelve people.

As North Vietnamese forces close in on the South Vietnamese capital Saigon, the Australian Embassy is closed and evacuated, almost ten years to the day since the first Australian troop commitment to South Vietnam.

Papua New Guinea gains its independence from Australia.

The Balibo Five, a group of Australian television journalists based in the town of Balibo in the then Portuguese Timor (now East Timor), are killed by Indonesian troops.

Australian constitutional crisis of 1975: Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismisses the government of Gough Whitlam, appoints Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister and announces a general election to be held in early December.