Today in History - February 14 | Bank robber baffled when tellers gave him completely new currency
Australia switched to decimal currency on February 14, 1966, ditching the pound in favour of the dollar.
The change came with a massive public awareness campaign teaching about using dollars and cents.
Under the previous system, one pound was worth 20 shillings and one shilling was worth 12 pence.
Coins in circulation in 1966 including halfpennies, pennies, threepence, sixpence, a shilling, a florin and a crown.
Despite the headache of the switch, moving to decimal currency would be seen as the simplest option.
But the changeover came as a complete surprise to bank robber John Killick, who robbed a Sydney ANZ that morning.
Killick was perplexed when the tellers at the bank refused to give him pounds and instead gave him the unfamiliar dollars.
The bank robber was eventually caught and spent much of his life in and out of prison.
But Killick became one of Australia's most notorious prisoners in 1999.
Then, his mistress Lucy Dudko took a helicopter pilot hostage.
She forced him to swoop into Silverwater Correctional Centre in Sydney, allowing Killick to make his much publicised escape.
After 45 days on the run, they were caught and sent to different prisons.
Dudko was released in 2006 and Killick in 2015.
German paraglider Ewa Wisnierska survived being sucked into a giant storm while flying over Australia on February 14, 2007.
She was flying over Manilla in northern New South Wales when a storm system dragged her to an altitude of 9900 metres - higher than Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak.
Due to oxygen deprivation, she flew unconscious for one hour but survived lightning, pounding hail and temperatures of -40 degrees.
Speaking to Australian media after her amazing flight, Wisnierska said she gave herself little chance of survival when she was sucked into the storm cell.
"From the theory, I knew the chances to survive are almost zero, I knew I can only have luck, I can't do anything - and I got it."
But a Chinese paraglider sucked into the same storm cell over NSW did not share the same luck.
His body was found 75km from the launch site and most likely died from freezing temperatures.
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