Today in History - February 6 | Serial killer clown claimed his 33 victims all died by accident
Serial killer John Wayne Gacy went on trial for the murders of 33 young men and boys on February 6, 1980.
From 1972 to 1978, the KFC manager and clown would lure young men to his home in Chicago, before offering to show them "a magic trick".
The trick was ostensibly to show how to get out of a pair of handcuffs without a key.
When his victims' hands were cuffed, he would then torture, rape then strangle them.
Gacy would then bury his victims in his crawl space. When he ran out of space, he began throwing bodies into the river.
Eventually he would be caught, and 26 bodies were recovered underneath his house.
During the trial, Gacy's lawyers argued that all of his victims had died of accidental erotic asphyxia.
But the jury was not convinced, returning after less than two hours of deliberation.
He was found guilty of all 33 murder charges, the most of any American at that point in history.
He was sentenced to death.
For his last meal, Gacy ordered a bucket of KFC, fries, fried shrimp, strawberries and a Diet Coke.
His last words were: "Kiss my ass."
Inventor William Painter was granted a patent for the bottle opener on February 6, 1894.
Painter's invention came after his invention of another device, the bottle cap.
Another one of his inventions, an ejector seat for passenger trains, did not have the same widespread acceptance.
A quarter of Victoria was consumed by bushfire on February 6, 1851, the largest fire in an inhabited area in known history.
Twelve million acres and a million sheep were destroyed in the devastating Black Thursday bushfires.
Twelve deaths were recorded in the fire.
Hundreds of swimmers at Bondi Beach in Sydney were swept out to sea and put in life-threatening danger on February 6, 1938.
In the early afternoon, the popular beach was packed with about 35,000 people.
But a large swell off the coast was causing rough surf conditions and huge freak waves crashed onto the beach.
Within minutes, the backwash had sucked 200 swimmers out to sea.
While five people drowned that day, 180 were also rescued including 35 swimmers who were pulled unconscious onto the sand.
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