DECEMBER

31^st, (1999) After eight and a half years in the Kremlin, Russian President Boris Yeltsin has resigned his presidency six months before the end of his official term. Mr. Yeltsin said his ill health was the reason, and nominated Prime Minister Putin as acting President, a move which will strengthen Putin’s hand in the Presidential elections which will take place in June 2000.

… (1994) December 31 was skipped entirely on the Pacific island of Kiribati as it underwent a change in time zone.

… (1990) The giant Christmas tree in London’s Trafalgar Square was attacked by a man with a chainsaw early this morning. Police came upon Patrick Harward-Duffy, a 36-year-old Glaswegian, at 2.30 am as he was making his protest against the unfairness of the Norwegian legal system. Harward-Duffy had sliced one-third of the way through the trunk of the 70-ft (23 m) pine, a present from the people of Oslo who, since 1947, have expressed their gratitude for British liberation from the Nazis by sending a tree each year.

… (1988) In Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto sign the first agreement between India and Pakistan in 16 years.

… (1986) The oil company Esso announces it is disinvesting in South Africa.

… (1985) American rock and country singer Rick Nelson is killed, along with his fiancée and four band members, when a chartered DC3 carrying them between concerts in Guntersville, Alabama and Dallas, Texas catches fire and crashes.

… (1981) ‘Ghanaian government overthrown’: Former flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings has overthrown the government of President Hilla Limann and seized power again in Ghana. In a radio broadcast to the nation, Rawlings described Limann and his associates as “a pack of criminals who bled Ghana to the bone” and said that they had brought about the country’s “total economic ruin”. Rawlings has given no indication of how long his Provisional Military Council will retain power, but he did remind his fellow citizens of the fact that he voluntarily returned the government to civilian rule three months after he toppled the military government of Lieutenant-General Fred Akuffo in June 1979.

… (1977) ‘Cambodia breaks off relations with Vietnam’: The Cambodian government announced today that it is breaking off diplomatic relations with neighbouring Vietnam and also suspending all air services between them. The two Communist countries are at loggerheads over which of them is to blame for the recent outbreaks of intense fighting along their borders. Full-scale battles at regimental level are reported to have taken place in the region known as Parrot’s Beak which juts into South Vietnam. Much of the problem seems to have its roots in the movement of Cambodians across the frontier in the Mekong Delta soon after the fall off Saigon and before the North Vietnamese could establish full control in the area. The conflict is being exacerbated by ideological differences, with the Chinese-sponsored Cambodian regime laying claim to a more “revolutionary” outlook than that of Soviet-backed Vietnam.

… (1964) Donald Campbell recorded an average of 276.33mph in his speedboat, Bluebird, becoming the first man to break the world land and water speed records in the same year.

… (1922) The French government turns down a German offer of a non-aggression pact.

… (1903) Five employees of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago are arrested for manslaughter after the previous day’s fire.

… (1891) ‘US to open immigration depot’: The New Year will see the opening of the US government’s new depot for handling immigrant arrivals to New York. Last year the government assumed sole responsibility for the screening of arrivals, a task formerly performed in the New York area by the state of New York as the government’s local agent. The new depot, on Ellis Island in the upper bay area, will be the nation’s major immigration station. It is being trumpeted as a major improvement on the old reception facilities at the Battery on Manhattan Island and better able to cope with massive numbers of arrivals. The island is named after Samuel Ellis, who owned it in the 1770s.

… (1719) Death of John Flamsteed, the astronomer for whom King Charles II built the Greenwich Observatory.

… (1687) The first Huguenot emigrants to South Africa set sail from France, taking vines with which to start a wine industry in their new colony.

…I’d not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only a boy playing on the sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. [Isaac Newton, 1726.]

30^th, (1989) ‘US renegotiates for Noriega’: Negotiations between Washington and the Vatican have restarted to bring an end to the refuge of the Panamanian dictator General Manuel Noriega in the Vatican embassy in Panama City. Noriega fled to the embassy on Christmas Eve to escape the clutches of the US marines sent by President Bush to arrest him. Vatican officials tried unsuccessfully to persuade Noriega to leave of his own accord, but refused to hand over Noriega directly to the marines besieging the building. The US lost patience: Noriega and his reluctant hosts were treated to round-the-clock rock music played at full blast from loudspeakers erected by the US forces. Noriega faces prosecution in the US on drug trafficking charges.

… (1988) Colonel Oliver North subpoenas President Reagan and George Bush to testify in the Iran-Contra trial.

… (1988) In Moscow, Yuri Churbanov, son-in-law of former president Brezhnev, is sentenced to 12 years in jail for corruption.

… (1985) Arab terrorists throw grenades and open fire with automatic weapons on queues at El Al check-in desks in Rome and Vienna airports, killing twelve and wounding over 100.

… (1979) ‘Richard Rodgers dies’: Richard Rodgers, one of the century’s best-known composers of musicals, died in New York City today. He was 77. In a long and prolific career Rodgers formed long-standing working relationships with lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His collaboration with Hart began in 1919 when the two were still at Columbia University. The Boys from Syracuse and Pal Joey are perhaps two of their most famous collaborations. Hammerstein became Rodger’s regular librettist after Hart’s untimely death in 1943. Over the next 17 years until Hammerstein’s death in 1960, the two men had an outstanding run of success with one hit after another, including Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I and The Sound of Music.

… (1968) Death of Trygve Lie, Norwegian politician and first secretary-general of the UN.

… (1922) Soviet Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

… (1919) In London, the first female bar student is admitted to Lincoln’s Inn.

… (1916) ‘Rasputin Murdered’: The influential royal favourite Grigory Rasputin was murdered last night at the home of Prince Feliks Yusupov in St Petersburg. He was 44. The behaviour of the Siberian peasant turned mystic had scandalised Russian society and seriously undermined the standing of the Russian royal family which had persistently protected him against all allegations of wrongdoing. Rasputin’s influence over the royal family came about after he succeeded in easing the suffering of the Tsar’s haemophilic son, Aleksey Nikolayevich. Once established as a royal favourite, Rasputin lived up to his acquired name, which means “debauched one”. The monk met his end at the hands of a group of Conservatives, including Yusupov, Purishkevich (a member of parliament) and Pavlovich (the Tsar’s nephew), committed to saving Russia from his malign influence. Yusupov first plied the visiting Rasputin with poisoned wine and tea cakes. When this ploy appeared to be having no success, the noblemen shot him, then tied him up and threw his body into the freezing river Neva, where he finally died by drowning.

… (1903) A raging fire breaks out in the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago during a performance and kills 578.

… (1887) The British monarch, Queen Victoria, has received a unique celebration of her Jubilee year from the women of England. The Home Secretary accepted on her behalf this afternoon a memorial signed by 1,132,608 women in favour of the Sunday closing of English public houses and the banning of sales of intoxicating liquors on the Lord’s Day.

… (1880) The Transvaal becomes a republic with Paul Kruger as its first president.

… (1879) ‘Gilbert and Sullivan musical mayhem’: Arthur Sullivan and W.S. Gilbert are going to great lengths to secure the copyright of their latest operatic offering, The Pirates of Penzance, on both sides of the Atlantic. The first UK performance of the still-to-be-completed work was given today at the Royal Bijou Theatre, Paignton, Devon, despite only one rehearsal, no overture or proper costumes and a dearth of sheet music. Pirates should receive a more professional premiere at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York tomorrow night, with both Gilbert and Sullivan on hand to help out with the production. The two are in town for the staging of their official version of HMS Pinafore. Sullivan almost scuppered the duo’s chances of mounting The Pirates of Penzance as well, however. He forgot to bring the draft of Act One to the States with him and has had to rewrite the act from memory. The overture is still not written, but Sullivan is confident that he can complete it by the opening.

… (1894) Death of Amelia Bloomer, American feminist and social reformer.

…I’m furious about the Women’s Liberationists. They keep getting on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket. [Anita Loos, in the Observer, 1973.]

29^th, (1989) In Hong Kong, thousands of Vietnamese boat people battle with riot police.

… (1989) Playwright Vaclav Havel is elected president of Czechoslovakia.

… (1986) Harold Macmillan, 1^st Earl of Stockton and prime minister who presided over the break-up of the British Empire, dies aged 92.

… (1984) Rajiv Gandhi wins a landslide victory in the Indian general election.

… (1972) ‘Aircrash survivors resort to cannibalism’: Ten of the 16 survivors from a Uruguayan aircraft that crashed in the Andes mountains ten weeks ago admitted at a press conference in Montevideo today that they ate the raw flesh of their dead companions in order to stay alive. The Old Christians rugby team – pupils or old boys of the exclusive Catholic Stella Maris College in Montevideo had chartered the aircraft for a tour of Chile. Fifteen of the 45 passengers died as a consequence of the crash-landing; eight died later in an avalanche. Starvation and cold killed another six. The survivors were rescued after two of them found their way down to an upland pasture where a farmer was checking his stock.

… (1952) Death of American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader James Fletcher Henderson.

… (1926) Death of Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

… (1924) John D. Rockfeller donates $1 million (£540,540) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

… (1911) Chinese revolutionary leader Dr Sun Yat-sen becomes the first president of the Republic of China.

… (1890) ‘Sioux massacred at Pine Ridge’: An attempt to disarm Miniconjou Sioux Indians on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, ended in bloodshed today. Trouble flared unexpectedly when a force of about 500 US cavalrymen, commanded by Colonel James W. Forsyth, rode into the Indian camp at Wounded Knee Creek, where the authorities had placed Big Foot and about 350 of his people. According to the Seventh Cavalry, a medicine man incited the young braves to resist disarmament. Big Foot was among more than a hundred Sioux that died in the action; 44 were wounded. About half of the Sioux casualties were women and children, lending weight to claims that the encounter was a massacre, not a battle. The violence will come as a further blow to General Nelson A. Miles, who had been hoping to settle the recent Indian unrest peacefully. News of the incident has prompted thousands of Indians to barricade themselves in a large camp north of the Pine Ridge Agency.

… (1879) ‘Not child’s play for Ibsen’: Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen seems to have a knack for hitting the raw nerves of polite society. His play The Doll’s House, which opened at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen on December 21, has become a major talking point. The play ends with the main character, Nora, a pampered wife, leaving the family home. She literally slams the door on her successful lawyer/banker husband and, most controversially of all, her children. The play has been denounced by some as militant suffragist propaganda.

… (1860) ‘British Admiralty launches ship of iron’: The world’s first true ironclad warship, Warrior, was launched at Blackwall on the River Thames today. The 9210-ton battleship is the first capital ship in the world to be built of iron throughout. The British Admiralty first showed interest in the idea of iron-built warships as a consequence of the calamitous showing of wooden-built vessels during the Crimean War. The decision to build such a vessel was not taken until last year, however, when the launch of the French ironclad La Gloire threatened British naval supremacy. La Gloire (displacement 5600 tons) is built of oak but with a belt of iron extending from the upper deck to 6 ft (1.8 m) below the waterline.

… (1798) Britain, Austria, Russia, Naples and Portugal form a second military alliance against Napoleon.

… (1170) ‘Archbishop of Canterbury Murdered’: Four of King Henry II’s knights murdered the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral this evening. The Archbishop had only recently returned from a six-year exile in France after incurring Henry’s displeasure over the question of church vs. crown rights in England. The tussle between the two led to excommunication for the bishops Roger of York and Foliot of London and several royal servants hostile to Becket, and the fear that the Pope might slap an interdict on England. There is little doubt that Henry was the unwitting architect of the Archbishop’s murder. It seems that Henry’s exclamation “Will no one rid me of this troublesome cleric?” – uttered in a moment of extreme duress – was interpreted by the four knights who carried out the execution as a call to action.

…In our country the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the state. [Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Soviet novelist, 1974.]

28^th, (1989) Alexander Dubcek, secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party in 1968 and instigator of liberal reforms which were crushed by a Soviet invasion in August of that year, is elected chairman of the communist-dominated parliament after 20-years of political obscurity.

… (1989) An earthquake in New South Wales, Australia, kills 11 and injures more than 100.

… (1984) Death of American film director Sam Peckinpah, maker of films such as Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch.

… (1963) ‘TW3 is put firmly in the past’: The governors of the BBC have decided that tonight’s edition of the satirical series That Was the Week That Was, affectionately known as TW3, will be the last. The premature demise of the hugely popular Saturday-night show, which attracts some 12 million viewers, is due to political sensitivity. Politicians were not relishing the prospect of front man David Frost and his team picking meaty morsels out of the week’s news in election year. Politicians and the clergy have borne the brunt of the programme-makers’ barbs since TW3’s inception in November 1962 and the paranoia in establishment circles compelled the Postmaster General to ask to see the scripts in advance. For a short period the BBC was also ordered to expunge sensitive issues such as sex, religion, royalty and politics from the controversial show.

… (1949) ‘Sukarno moves into palace’: Ahmed Sukarno, the leader of the Indonesian Nationalist Party, has arrived in Batavia (Djakarta) to take up residence in the magnificent palace of the Dutch governors general. Since proclaiming Indonesia a republic after the Japanese surrender in 1945, Sukarno, 48, has defied all Dutch attempts to regain control of their former colony. Yesterday the Netherlands government formally bowed to the inevitable, their representative A.H.J. Lovink signing the protocol transferring sovereignty to an Indonesian delegation.

… (1937) Death of Maurice Ravel, French composer of the Impressionist school whose works include the ballet Daphnis and Chloe and two piano concertos, one for the left hand only.

… (1931) A team of scientists led by Professor Harold Urey of Columbia University and including F. G. Brickwedde and G.M. Murphy has announced the discovery of a heavy form of hydrogen known as heavy water or deuterium. Professor Urey’s research began in the 1920s. His team detected deuterium in the residue of a sample of liquid hydrogen.

… (1918) ‘Coalition party wins election’: The results of the General Election held in Britain on December 14 were announced today. They reveal that the Coalition Party under David Lloyd George has romped to victory, with a majority of 262 seats over all the other non-Coalition parties. It is the first election in which women have been allowed to vote, albeit not on an equal footing with men; only women of 30 years and older are eligible and those who have lived in the UK for six months. Of the 15 women candidates who stood for election only one, the notorious Sinn Fein leader Madame Markiewicz (Constance Gore-Booth), was elected. The Liberal Opposition under Herbert Asquith has been annihilated; only 26 Liberal followers of Asquith have been returned. The results are being read as a thumbs-up for the forces of stability and staunch nationalism.

… (1908) The most violent earthquake ever recorded in Europe destroys the city of Messina in Sicily, killing more than half the 150,000 inhabitants and causing a great tidal wave.

… (1904) The first weather reports by wireless telegraphy are published in London.

… (1879) ‘Tay Bridge Disaster’: Part of the Tay Bridge collapsed this evening as the 7.15 Edinburgh to Dundee train was passing. All 300 passengers and crew are feared dead. Gale-force winds sweeping the area at the time are thought to have caused the collapse of 13 girders in the central part of the bridge. Early attempts to reach the train by steamboat have failed due to the severity of the weather. The bridge, at 10,612 ft (3442 m) the longest of its kind in the world, was hailed as a feat of engineering at its completion in May 1878. Construction was not problem-free, however, and on two occasions in 1877 accidents involving the collapse of girders during high winds occurred.

… (1734) Death of Rob Roy (Robert Macgregor), Scottish outlaw whose exploits were romanticised by Sir Walter Scott in the novel Rob Roy.

… (1694) Queen Mary II of England dies of smallpox.

…The next world war will be fought with stones. [Albert Einstein, 1949.]

27^th, (1992) French novelist and photographer Herve Guibert dies of AIDS at the age of 36.

… (1984) In Poland, four policemen go on trial for the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko.

… (1981) Death of American pianist and composer Hoagy Carmichael.

… (1983) Mehmet Ali Agca begs the Pope’s forgiveness when the latter visits his would-be assassin in jail.

… (1980) Egypt and Syria resume full diplomatic relations after a ten-year break.

… (1979) The Soviet Union has executed Afghan president Hafizullah Amin in a bid to restore order in the country. Babrak Karmal, a former deputy prime minister in exile in Czechoslovakia, has been installed in his place. Thousands of Soviet troops are now heading into the countryside to deal with the Muslim rebellion which the Kremlin fears may spread to the USSR if it is not put down quickly.

… (1975) The Faces, the rock band that included Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, announced they were breaking up.

… (1972) Death of Lester Pearson, Canadian statesman, Liberal prime minister 1963-8, chairman of NATO and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for the part he played in settling the Suez crisis in 1956.

… (1968) ‘Every picture tells a story’: The pioneering news photographer “Weegee” died in New York yesterday at the age of 69. Born Usher H. Fellig in Zloczew, Poland, he emigrated to the US in 1910. The name Weegee was not adopted until about 1938, when his uncanny knack of arriving at the scene of an incident was so remarkable that it was thought he must have some direct line to a greater power, such as via the clairvoyant’s Ouija board. In fact, he had a radio that picked up the emergency signals of the Manhattan police and firemen.

… (1965) The Sea Gem oil rig collapses in the North Sea, drowning 13.

… (1945) ‘Britain signs Bretton Woods agreements’: The last obstacle to the signing of the historic Bretton Woods agreements was removed today when the British signified their willingness to take part in the 28-nation ratification ceremony at the State Department in Washington tomorrow. The Bretton Woods agreements provide for the establishment of an international monetary fund and a world bank. The purpose of the IMF is to bring about stability in the relative values of national currencies, thereby avoiding a repeat of the disastrous depreciations which followed World War I, and to free international trade from exchange control. The World Bank is intended to help rebuild the economies of countries ravaged by war and supply the needs of industrially underdeveloped nations.

… (1935) Regina Jonas, from Germany, was ordained as the world’s first female rabbi.

… (1929) The All-India National Congress in Lahore threatens civil disobedience if independence is not granted.

… (1927) ‘Showboat is a hit for Ziegfeld’: Impresario Florenz Ziegfeld has yet another hit on his hands in Showboat. The two-act musical, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and music by Jerome Kern, captivated the audience at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway tonight. The showboat of the title is Cotton Blossom, run by husband and wife team Cap’n Andy and Parthy Ann. The story, based on Edna Ferber’s novel of the same title, centres on the lives and loves of the people who inhabit this floating playhouse. The unique aspect of Showboat is its unashamed American authenticity – the setting is 19^th-century America and the songs use American musical idioms.

… (1904) The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, the first state-subsidised theatre in the world, has its opening night.

… (1904) ‘Peter Pan’s premiere’: Five days later than originally planned, J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up opened tonight at the Duke of York’s theatre in London. Peter Pan is an ageless, motherless boy who comes into the nursery of three children called Darling, teaches them to fly and then takes them off into the night sky for fantastic adventures with exotic beings such as Indians, mermaids, wolves and pirates.

… (1831) ‘Worldwide scientific expedition sets sail’: The Royal Navy vessel HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert Fitzroy set sail from Devonport today on a five-year scientific expedition round the world. The purpose of the trip is to survey the coasts of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Chile and Peru, to visit some Pacific islands and to set up a network of chronometrical stations. The official naturalist on board is recent BA graduate Charles Darwin, 22, whose task it will be to study the rocks and life of the places visited and to collect specimens. The post is unpaid but provides a unique opportunity for studying a wide range of phenomena.

…I am going to build the kind of nation that President Roosevelt hoped for, President Truman worked for and President Kennedy died for. [Lyndon B. Johnson, US president, 1964.]

26^th, (2004) ‘Tsunami sweeps through Asia’: On the day after Christmas in 2004, a massive undersea earthquake occurs just off the coast of Indonesia at a few minutes before 8 a.m. local time. With a magnitude of 9.3, the quake was the most powerful of the last 40 years and the second largest earthquake in recorded history. It set off a deadly tsunami that, in the final estimate, killed an estimated 230,000 people and wreaked untold devastation on a wide swath of coastline ranging from Somalia on the east African coast to Sumatra in Southeast Asia.

… (2003) A massive earthquake destroys the historic city of Bam in Iran, killing 25,000 people.

… (1996) Six-year-old American beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found strangled at her family home in Colorado. The murder remains unsolved.

… (1990) ‘Romanian King of Romania was back in Switzerland tonight after spending less than 12 hours in the homeland he left at the point of a gun in 1947. Ex-King Michael, 69, landed at Bucharest airport in a private plane yesterday with his wife, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, and his daughter Sophia. Two hours later, en route to the Curtea de Afges monastery where family members are buried, Michael’s car was stopped by police and escorted to Bucharest. After several hours of argument over the validity of their travel documents, the family were flown back to Geneva. The Roman authorities, keen to damp down enthusiasm for a return of the monarchy, are insisting that Michael will be allowed “free access” after the election.

… (1989) Death of Sir Lennox Berkeley, British composer whose works include Serenade for Strings and Four Poems of St Teresa.

… (1989) Nobel Prize-winning Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett dies in Paris at the age of 83.

… (1982) Time magazine named the computer as its “Man of the Year”.

… (1974) Death of American comedian Jack Benny, whose act was based around his parsimony and his violin-playing.

… (1972) Death of Harry S. Truman, American statesman and Democratic president 1945-53.

… (1957) Death of French film pioneer Charles Pathé.

… (1943) ‘British sink mighty German battlecruiser’: The sea lanes of the North Sea have been made several degrees safer for Allied convoys by the sinking today of the mighty German battlecruiser Scharnhorst. The ship, commanded by Admiral Bey, left her lair in Altenfjord yesterday to attack convoy JW55B. Due to bad visibility Scharnhorst missed her prey and became separated from her escort of five destroyers. She continued the hunt alone, unaware that a Royal Navy long-range protection group comprising the battleship Duke of York, cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers were closing in fast. The convoy’s cruiser and destroyer escort kept Scharnhorst at bay until the Duke of York could launch its attack.

… (1909) ‘Frederic Remington dies’: The documentary artist and reporter Frederic Remington died today near Ridgefield, Connecticut. He was 40. The son of a wealthy newspaper publisher, Remington decided upon the precarious career of an artist after a trip to the West, his spiritual homeland. By his late 20s Remington had built up an enviable reputation as an illustrator of the Western scene. His work appeared in books and magazines, often as accompaniments to his own text. Remington broadened his artistic ambition in 1895 when he discovered his talent for sculpture and produced pieces such as The Bronco Buster.

… (1908) ‘Johnson wins Boxing crown’: The Texan boxer Jack Johnson outclassed world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns at Rushcutter’s Bay, Sydney, today with a dazzling display of fighting skills. He finally got the better of Burns in the 14^th round when police stopped the contest. The 6-foot (1.8 m) negro challenger had followed the Canadian round the world in the hope of forcing a title match. Burns eventually agreed, but only after Snowy Baker had guaranteed him a purse of $30,000 (£16,300), the largest ever offered a fighter. The road to the top has been a long one for the flamboyant 30-year-old Johnson, who has been a victim of racial attitudes which discourage bouts between black and white boxers.

… (1907) The first session of the Indian National Congress is suspended after clashes between moderates and extremists.

… (1904) Following months of unrest and riots, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia decrees that the conditions of the people, and particularly the peasants, will be improved.

… (1900) Auguste Strindberg’s play Dance of Death is premiered in Sweden.

… (1890) ‘Great archaeologist dies in Naples’: The German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann died yesterday in Naples, Italy, after collapsing while out walking. He was 58. He had been travelling Europe in search of a cure for the painful ear condition that afflicted him. The son of an impoverished pastor, Schliemann made a fortune at the time of the Crimean War, mainly as a military contractor. He retired from business at the age of 36 in order to devote himself to the study of archaeology. Since boyhood he had nurtured a fervent belief in the existence of Homeric Troy. After extensive study he theorised that the site of the great civilisation was at Hisarlik, Turkey, and not at Bunarbashi, a short distance south of it. In 1873 he uncovered fortifications and remains of great antiquity. Further work revealed evidence of a Bronze Age city that had existed long before Troy. In 1876 he discovered a second civilisation, at Mycenae in Greece.

…Why must you write intensive here? Intense is the right word. You should read Fowler’s Modern English Usage on the use of the two words. [Winston Churchill, British prime minister, in a note to the director of Military Intelligence on the Normandy invasion plans in 1944 – H.W. Fowler died today, 1933.]

25^th, (1991) French actress Orane Demazis, known for her roles in Marcel Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy, dies aged 87.

… (1989) President Ceausescu and his wife are executed by the Romanian army.

… (1987) Israeli forces crack down on Arab rioters.

… (1983) Death of Spanish Surrealist artist Joan Mirò, whose painting was influenced by dreams and by poetry.

… (1977) ‘Charlie Chaplin Dies’; Sir Charles Chaplin, KBE, died today at his home in Switzerland. He was 88. Chaplin’s career in the cinema spanned 50 years but his reputation as a comic genius will rest most securely on a core of films made between 1916 and 1928, which include the Oscar-winning The Circus. The star’s love-hate relationship with Hollywood was resolved in 1973 when, after a 20-year exile in Europe, he was awarded a special Oscar for his lifetime contribution to film and commemorated with a statue at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. In 1975 he was made KBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

… (1972) Managua, capital of Nicaragua, is destroyed by an earthquake.

… (1950) The Coronation Stone was stolen from its resting place beneath the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey early this morning. Scotland Yard believe that the thieves may be Scottish nationalists. The 336 lb (152 kg) Stone of Scone, on which all Scottish kings were crowned, was brought to England as a trophy by King Edward I in 1296, a symbol of the English monarch’s claim to Scottish rule. Many Scots would like to see the Stone returned permanently to Scotland.

… (1950) ‘Dalai Lama flees Lhasa’: The 15-year-old Dalai Lama, the temporal and religious leader of Tibet, is thought to have fled the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to enlist further help for his country’s struggle to maintain its status as the only country in the world entirely under the control of priests. The crisis has deepened since October when China first invaded Tibet. The Indian government has tried putting pressure on the Chinese to reach agreement with Tibet, but to little effect. Last month the Tibetan government took the unusual step of investing the Dalai Lama with full powers of office three years before he was due to receive them. It remains to be seen whether this further legitimisation of his rule will deter the Chinese from “liberating Tibet by force.”

… (1926) Hirohito accedes to the throne of Japan on the death of his father, Emperor Yoshihito.

… (1914) British and German soldiers observe an impromptu true on the Western Front.

… (1913) In New York, a couple are arrested for kissing in the street.

… (1800) Britain’s first Christmas tree is put up at Windsor by Queen Charlotte.

… (1497) Florentine friar and charismatic preacher Giralomo Savonarola denounces the Pope for corruption and accuses Leonardo da Vinci of sodomy.

… (1085) ‘William orders day of reckoning’: King William I has ordered a complete survey of England. Seven or eight groups of commissioners will gather detailed information of the accounts of the estates of the King and of those who hold land by direct services to him (his tenants-in-chief) in each county of the realm. The subjects of Williams “description of England” are already referring to the impending investigation as “Doomsday”. From each manor information will be collected on the dimensions and the ploughing capacity of the land, the number of workers, and any extra amenities such as mills and fishponds. The King and his officers will then have an estimate of what every holder of land in the kingdom is worth.

… (1066) William the Conqueror is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

… (800 AD) In Rome, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, is crowned Emperor of the West by Pope Leo III.

… (440 AD) ‘Christ’s birth date is official’: The leaders of the Christian Church have decided that the date of the birth of Jesus Christ should be fixed. At present some people observe it in May, some in January and some combine it with the feast of Epiphany. The date mooted is December 25, the day that the Romans celebrate the winter solstice. The Celtic and Germanic tribes as well as the Norsemen also hold this period dear. The Church authorities do not want their celebration to be tainted by an association with heathen customs, however, and are thought to be engaged in the task of creating rites that will underline the difference between their faith and any of an ungodly nature.

…I have spent a lot of time searching through the Bible, looking for loopholes. [W.C. Fields, misanthropic comic actor, who died today, 1946.]

24^th, (2016) Royle Family actress Liz Smith, 95, died, on the same day as Status Quo’s Rick Parfitt, 68, and Watership Down author Richard Adams, 96.

… (1990) A cyclone sweeps the Queensland coast of Australia with wind speeds of 150 mph (241 kph).

… (1989) Deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega gives himself up to the papal nuncio in Panama City, having dodged American troops determined to capture him.

… (1980) Death of German commander Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who was briefly Führer in 1945.

… (1974) The Beatles’ partnership is legally dissolved.

… (1974) ‘Stonehouse bobs to the surface’: John Stonehouse, the former British Labour minister who was thought to have drowned off Miami Beach, Florida, last month, has turned up in Melbourne, Australia. Police, suspicious of the Englishman who made regular trips to the post office to collect mail, apprehended Stonehouse in the belief that he was the Earl of Lucan, wanted in Britain for the murder of his children’s nanny. Stonehouse disappeared after telling associates he was going for a swim. Shortly afterwards it emerged in Britain that overdrafts had been raised in his name, funds of companies he headed had been plundered and life insurance policies had been taken out. In his fight against extradition, Stonehouse is expected to claim to be a victim of blackmail and persecution in Britain. Under Australian law British MPs are entitled to enter the country freely, so the fact that Stonehouse used a forged passport will not count against him.

… (1951) ‘Libya declares independence’: King Idris I formally declared the independence of Libya in a broadcast from the balcony of the Mahara palace in Benghazi today. It is just over two years since the United Nations set a time limit for Libya’s independence at January 1, 1952. For the preceding six years, since the defeat of Axis forces in the area, the country had been administered by the French and the British: Fezzan by France and Cyrenaica and Tripolitania by the British. The new constitution of the federal democratic kingdom provides for two legislative chambers: one elected on a proportional representation basis, and the other nominated. Elections to the new parliament will be held early next year. King Idris, 61, was chosen as ruler of the new state by a Libyan National Assembly which met last year.

… (1943) President Roosevelt appoints General Dwight D. Eisenhower commander-in-chief of the invasion of Europe.

… (1924) Eight people die in Britain’s worst air crash yet as an Imperial Airways plane dives into a housing estate at Croydon immediately after take-off.

… (1914) The first German bomb lands on British soil.

… (1908) In Paris, French president Armand Fallières opens the first international aviation show.

… (1903) Earl Russell (the brother of philosopher Bertrand Russell) was issued the first English car registration plate: A1.

… (1871) ‘Verdi’s Aida opens in Cairo’: After a year of delay the Italian Theatre in Cairo staged the first performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s long-awaited opera Aida tonight. The first-night audience was unequivocal in its enthusiasm for this most personal of grand operas. The work was commissioned by the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, last year. Verdi had turned down several requests for a new opera from the Khedive before his interest was aroused by a 23-page synopsis of Aida devised by Mariette Bey, the eminent Egyptologist. With the Khedive’s generous terms (150,000 francs/£15,000/$27,600 for the Egyptian rights) safely committed to a contract, Verdi set to work with a will, finishing the opera in under five months. The delay in the production was caused by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, which prevented the shipping of the French-made costumes and scenery to Egypt. The composer was not in Cairo to witness the triumph of his new opera. He will be present in Milan, however, for the opera’s European debut in seven week’s time.

… (1851) Fire destroys part of the Capitol building in Washington and the whole of the Library of Congress.

… (1828) William Burke goes on trial in Edinburgh, accused of robbing graves to sell corpses for medical research.

… (1814) ‘Business as usual’: In Ghent today representatives of Britain and America signed a peace treaty ending the two-and-a-half-year conflict between the two countries. The nub of the agreement is that the two sides are to stop fighting. This stalemate treaty is appropriate to the position on the ground in North America, where neither side has made gains. The issue of maritime rights, the main cause of the war, has been a dead letter since the ending of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, hence British willingness to settle the dispute with America.

… (1508) London houses receive piped water for the first time.

…I am very sorry to know and hear how unreverently that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung and jangled in every ale-house and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same. [King Henry VIII comments on the translation of the Bible into English, 1545.]

23^rd, (2002) ‘Royal Family Returns to Italy’: Victor Emmanuel, the son of Italy’s last king, has returned to Italy after more than 50 years in exile. He and his family landed in a private plane on Monday morning for a private audience with Pope John Paul II. Victor Emmanuel spoke of “indescribable emotion” at his return. Hours later the family left for Switzerland, after a lightning visit which took commentators by surprise. But Emmanuel’s decision to make his first visit to the Vatican has earned criticism from some who saw it as inappropriate. Sergio Romano, a former ambassador, described the decision as “a combination of arrogance, political insensitivity and bad upbringing.” The visit was made possible by a series of votes in the Italian parliament earlier this year, reversing the post-war ban on the royals’ return. The family swore their loyalty to the Italian republic as part of the terms of the lifting of the ban on them returning to Italy.

… (1997) Venezuelan terrorist “Carlos the Jackal” is sentenced to life imprisonment after being arrested in Sudan three years earlier.

… (1990) In a Yugoslavian referendum, the republic of Slovenia votes in favour of becoming an independent state.

… (1989) The Romanian army announce the capture of President Ceausescu and his wife Elena.

… (1986) ‘Sakharov returns to Moscow’: Soviet dissident and physicist Dr Andrei Sakharov and his wife Yelena Bonner, released on December 19 from the closed city of Gorky since 1980. Their release comes following a telephone call from the Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, whose policies of Glasnost have made their freedom possible. Sakharov, considered to be the father of the Russian H-bomb, is also an outspoken civil rights campaigner. He has openly protested against Soviet nuclear testing, he founded the Soviet Human Rights Committee and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his outspoken and dangerous stance on civil rights. He and his wife were exiled to Gorky after criticism of Soviet action in Afghanistan. It is understood that Dr Sakharov will resume his position at the Soviet Academy of Science.

… (1985) In South Africa, six whites die in a bomb blast in Durban.

… (1973) Charles Atlas, the original strongman, dies aged 79.

… (1948) ‘General Tojo tries to cheat executioner’: A number of high ranking Japanese war criminals have been executed today after standing trial for crimes against humanity. One of the most infamous of the lot, General Tojo, attempted suicide – hari kiri – in hope of cheating the executioner and regaining his self esteem: suicide is viewed as the only honourable course under the circumstances in Japanese culture. He was not successful. Tojo was Japanese PM from 1941 to 1944, during which time he became the chief instigator of the attack on Pearl Harbour, which brought the US into World War Two. After the war he was arrested, tried and sentenced.

… (1944) Death of American illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the “Gibson Girl”.

… (1922) In Britain today the world’s first regular radio broadcasts intended purely for entertainment is being transmitted by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The British Post Office has already begun instituting licences. The British wireless industry is responding to popular demand for receivers, which is being generated by the broadcasts.

… (1888) ‘Van Gogh cuts off his earlobe’: Dutch Post-Impressionist artist Vincent Van Gogh has cut off his earlobe in a fit of madness. He has been staying in Arles in the south of France for some time, painting with his friend and fellow artist Paul Gauguin. According to Gauguin they quarrelled, and the disagreement precipitated an attack of dementia for Van Gogh. During this attack of madness Van Gogh, in remorse for having threatened to wound Gauguin with a razor, cut off his own earlobe. He has been placed in the safety of a St Remy asylum.

… (1886) ‘Author William Thackeray dies’: Author of the best selling novel Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray, has died in England at the age of 52. Although Vanity Fair is his best known novel, he wrote many other novels and lighter works. Vanity Fair first appeared in monthly instalments illustrated by Thackeray himself. Born in Calcutta, his family sent him home to England to be educated at Charterhouse, then Trinity College, Cambridge. After university he studied law at Middle Temple, then art in Paris for a time. On his return to London, Thackeray began to work as a journalist, contributing to many publications, among them the magazine Punch.

… (1834) English architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom patents a “safety cab”.

… (1814) Andrew Jackson halts the British forces at New Orleans.

22^nd, (1989) ‘Ceausescu overthrown’: The civil war in Romania has ended tonight and with it the 24-year-long reign of terror by one of Europe’s worst dictators, Nicolae Ceausescu. Tonight the dictator and his wife fled from the roof of their burning palace by helicopter to an unknown destination. Their flight follows the fighting which exploded after Laszlo Tokes, a priest, was threatened with arrest in Timisoara. Around 5000 were killed in Timisoara alone, but accurate numbers of fatalities on both sides will be difficult to determine. Securitate forces have been fighting the Romanian army, who support the protesters, leaving hundreds dead. Tanks have been deployed to try to quell the uprising but the protesting forces hold the TV and radio stations, and have set up a Committee for National Salvation. Last night Ceausescu spoke to the people from the balcony of his palace demanding the return of peace, but was met with jeers from the crowd.

… (1988) South Africa, Angola and Cuba sign treaties for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.

… (1984) Dom Mintoff resigns as prime minister of Malta.

… (1975) Palestinian terrorists have seized more than 70 hostages at the Austrian OPEC summit held in Vienna. Led by Venezuelan killer Carlos, the terrorists have taken a number of oil ministers and have demanded a plane to fly them to an undisclosed destination. It seems that the authorities are willing to comply with the terrorists’ wishes.

… (1961) ‘First US soldier dies in Vietnam’: US soldier James Davis today became the first American to die in Vietnam since America’s involvement in the conflict. At the moment US involvement is limited to military advisers – some 200 Air Force members are joined by 700 Army training personnel in providing military advice, including bomber training. However, President Kennedy has just announced that the US will increase the number of advisers by as many as 16,000 over the next two years, giving rise to fears that American participation in the war will become entrenched and that direct military activity will soon follow.

… (1943) ‘Peter Rabbit’s creator dies’: Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit and many other well loved children’s book characters, has died today. Born an only child of wealthy parents, Miss Potter was never sent to school and as a result led a lonely life as a child. To amuse herself, she taught herself to draw and paint small natural objects. Her first book, the Tale of Peter Rabbit, was written for the son of her former governess in 1893, in the form of letters. Beatrix Potter illustrated the book herself and went on to write many more books. She lived at Sawrey in the Lake District from 1905 and in 1913 married William Heelis, a solicitor in the area. The rest of her life was chiefly devoted to her farms and to the newly established National Trust which aims to preserve Britain’s heritage.

… (1940) American novelist Nathaniel West, author of The Day of the Locust and Miss Lonely-Hearts, dies with his wife in a car crash.

… (1921) The US Congress sets up a $20 million (£10.8 million) fund to aid the 20 million Soviet citizens facing starvation.

… (1919) British prime minister David Lloyd George announces that Ireland will have self-government with two parliaments.

… (1917) The Bolshevik government begins peace talks with Germany at Brest-Litovsk while the Allies make accusations of Russian betrayal.

… (1910) In Lancashire, 350 miners lose their lives in Britain’s second worst mining disaster.

… (1910) In Leipzig, British officers Lieutenant Trench and Captain Brandon are found guilty of spying.

… (1895) ‘Invisible light can see through flesh’: Willhelm Rontgen has today photographed his wife’s hand to reveal the bones underneath the skin using his newly discovered X-rays. This discovery was made quite by accident while Rontgen was experimenting with electrical discharges in an evacuated glass tube. In the experiment electrons were accelerated to high velocities, and then struck the walls of the tube, giving rise to penetrating radiation. It seems this invisible electromagnetic radiation is of much shorter wavelengths then visible light. X-rays can pass through objects or substances with a low density but are stopped by heavier or denser materials, so skin and muscles allow rays to pass through, while bone reflects them. The medical applications for this discovery have already sparked much interest.

… (1894) In France, Captain Alfred Dreyfus is found guilty of treason and sent to Devil’s Island.

… (1880) Death of George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist who wrote Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.

… (1715) James Edward Stuart, son of James II, the deposed Roman Catholic King of England, lands at Peterhead in north-east Scotland to lead a Jacobite rebellion.

21^st, (1991) ‘Jane Fonda marries Ted Turner’: Actress Jane Fonda has married media tycoon Ted Turner at a ceremony held at Turner’s Capp’s Florida ranch. Both are thrice married. Thirty people attended a very private wedding, and Fonda’s son Troy gave his mother away. Fifty-four-year-old Jane Fonda has won two Oscars for her roles in Klute and Coming Home and has made millions selling keep-fit videos and tapes. Ted Turner, who is 53, founded the Atlanta-based Cable News Network in 1980 and has five children.

… (1989) American troops invade Panama and oust dictator Manuel Noriega, installing a new government led by Guillermo Endara.

… (1988) Soviet cosmonauts Musa Manarov and Vladimir Titov return to Earth after a record 365 days in space.

… (1988) ‘Pan American flight crashes at Lockerbie’: A Pan American jumbo jet blew up and crashed in the Scottish border town of Lockerbie this evening killing all 259 passengers on board and at least 11 people on the ground, making this the worst air disaster Britain has suffered. En route from London Heathrow to New York, the jumbo disappeared from radar screens at 7.19 pm as it exploded in the air, scattering wreckage over a large area. The wing of the plane came down in a residential part of Lockerbie, destroying six houses and creating a huge crater on impact. The nose of the plane with the dead crew still inside has been found about three miles (5 km) from the town. Dozens of fires have been burning in the town and the RAF has flown medical teams to Lockerbie to assist the emergency services with casualties. American embassies were warned that a Pan Am flight would be targeted. Flight 103 originated in Frankfurt, stopping at London Heathrow before departing for New York. Questions about the efficiency of airport security will again be on the agenda. No group has claimed responsibility for what was probably a bomb – Arab extremists are suspected.

… (1983) Fifteen French soldiers die in Beirut when a lorry carrying bombs is driven into their post.

… (1964) Britain bans the death penalty.

… (1945) ‘Patton dies after a car crash’: American general George “Blood and Guts” Patton, has died as a result of a car crash. The sixty-year-old general, famous for his drive and guts, had a glowing military record: during the current war he commanded the First Armoured Corps and in 1941 led the first US troops to fight in North Africa. Patton was given command of the 7^th Army in 1943 which swept through Sicily. As head of the 3^rd Army, Patton swept across France in 1944, reaching the Czech frontier by this year. He demanded rigorous standards of fitness among his men and exacted high standards of unit training. His death from a car crash seems ironic after surviving a dangerous and active military life.

… (1940) Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author who chronicled the Jazz Age in books such as Tender Is the Night and The Great Gatsby.

… (1935) Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is premiered in the USA.

… (1930) ‘Mosley presents proposals to cure Depression’: The former British Labour government minister, Oswald Mosley, has published a set of policy proposals which he is convinced provide an answer to the country’s present economic ills. The wealthy Mosley is regarded with not a little suspicion in those quarters of the Labour Party that remain firmly wedded to the idea of free trade. He is advocating a firmer governmental hand on the economic tiller, to plan foreign trade, direct industry and use public finances to promote expansion. These proposals have already been rejected by Ramsay MacDonald and his Cabinet – whose response to the Depression has been to blame the capitalist system – and are supported by only 17 Labour MPs. Without support, Mosley could decide to found a new political party.

… (1909) American doctor and explorer Frederick Cook is publicly disgraced when his claim to be the first to reach the North Pole is rejected by experts in favour of that of Commander Robert Peary.

… (1846) Anaesthetic is used for the first time in a British hospital when Scottish physician Robert Liston amputates a leg at University College Hospital in London.

… (1790) American industrialist Samuel Slater opened a cotton mill in his native country today, the first of its kind. The mill has 250 spindles which are powered by water and will be operated by a child labour force. Slater was previously apprenticed to a partner of British water frame inventor Richard Arkwright, during which time he learnt his trade.

… (1375) Death of Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer and poet who wrote the Decameron, a collection of a hundred stories told by people escaping the plague in Florence in 1348.

20^th, (1995) A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the Queen had sent a letter to the Prince and Princess of Wales telling them “that an early divorce is desirable”.

… (1991) It is announced that American and Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a fleet of 500-year-old ships buried 8 miles (13 km) from the Nile.

… (1991) President Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia wants to join NATO.

… (1990) Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, one of Mikhail Gorbachev’s closet allies, resigns, citing incipient dictatorship of the Soviet Union as his reason.

… (1990) The UN passes a vote of censure against Israel for the killing of 21 Arab rioters by Israeli troops on Temple Mount in October 1989.

… (1989) Troops surrender to demonstrators in the Romanian city of Timisoara after 4000 people are killed.

… (1989) At the end of a year noted for the resurgence of nationalist feeling throughout the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian Communist Party has voted to break away from the Soviet Communist Party. This move by the Lithuanian Communists must be seen as a survival tactic as popular fronts throughout the Baltic States have eclipsed official local communist parties as the driving force in internal affairs. Gorbachev will not tolerate separatism.

… (1983) ‘Arafat forced to retreat – again’: Yasser Arafat, leader of the split and beleaguered Palestinian Liberation Organisation, has had to retreat from Lebanon today. Surrounded by the Syrian army and rebel Palestinian guerrilla, Arafat and 4000 of his loyal followers have left their last Lebanese stronghold in Tripoli. This evacuation comes at the end of three weeks’ fighting in the camps, leaving 700 dead. The UN Security Council arranged the safe passage out of the camps for Arafat and his men, in an attempt to bring the fighting to a finish. Bowed but not defeated, Arafat vows to march to Jerusalem.

… (1982) Russian-born pianist Artur Rubinstein dies aged 94.

… (1981) Poland’s ambassador to the US is granted political asylum in Washington.

… (1968) Death of American novelist John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature for books such as The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

… (1957) Elvis Presley received his draft notice to join the U.S. Army.

… (1933) ‘New Dancing Star Emerges’: The smash hit film Flying Down to Rio looks as though it will make stars of its leading man and lady, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. A former vaudeville song and dance man who teamed up with his sister Adele on stage, Astaire didn’t look to have the stuff stars are made of – the verdict of his Hollywood screen test was “can’t act, slightly bald, can dance a bit”. But Astaire managed to get a part opposite Joan Crawford in Dancing Ladies, and then was paired with newcomer Ginger Rogers for Rio with undeniably fantastic results.

… (1924) Adolf Hitler is paroled after serving eight months of a prison sentence imposed for high treason.

… (1915) ‘Allies retreat from the Dardanelles’: The allies are retreating from the Dardanelles after one of the most costly and ill-equipped campaigns of the war. The Gallipoli campaign, under Sir Ian Hamilton, attempted and failed to force the narrows and link up with Russia, costing the lives of 25,000 men with 76,000 wounded, 13,000 missing and 96,000 sick. In the fateful April 25 landing at Gallipoli many thousands of Australian and New Zealand troops were lost. The Turkish strait connects the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea, and its shores are formed by the Gallipoli peninsula to the north-west and the Turkish mainland in Asia to the south-east. From here the Turks with German backing have been able to seal off the Russians in their Dardanelle ports. Now it looks as if this situation will remain as the campaign is abandoned.

… (1860) South Carolina secedes from the Union.

… (1828) The Cherokees cede their lands in Arkansas to the USA and agree to migrate west of the Mississippi.

… (1803) ‘Biggest land deal in history settled’: The United States and France have concluded the biggest land deal in history today – some 831,321 square miles (2,153,121 sq km) have been bought from France for a mere $15 million (£8.2 million), doubling the size of the United States in the stroke of a pen. The Louisiana Purchase, as it is called, was offered for sale by French foreign Minister Talleyrand in a surprise move. There has been uncertainty regarding the whole region for some time. New Orleans, Louisiana, was transferred from Spain to France three years ago after some French bullying. The Americans, alarmed at the prospect of an ambitious Napoleon on their doorstep, began negotiations to buy New Orleans with very little success. Negotiations had been bogged down until Tallyrand’s surprise offer to sell the whole territory to the US. It is understood that US president Thomas Jefferson was prepared to ally himself to his old enemy Great Britain in order to get the French out of the New World, but France’s capitulation marks the end of Napoleon’s plans for an empire and makes the US one of the largest countries.

…A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse to rest on inference. [Thomas Jefferson, US statesmen, in a letter, 1787.]

19^th, (1991) The Australian Labour Party caucus deposes Bob Hawke after eight years in office and replaces him with his treasurer, Paul Keating.

… (1991) ‘Gorbachev resigns’: Mikhail Gorbachev has resigned as president of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, a country which ceased to exist on December 12. Although he survived the hardline coup last summer, his position became weaker as independence for all the republics looked certain and leaders within the republics took more responsibility upon themselves. His former ally and rival Boris Yeltsin has effectively backed him into a corner, making resignation the only possibility. Whether Gorbachev will continue to have some role is unknown, but the West will view his departure with trepidation and sadness, since Gorbachev is largely the author of the momentous changes which have been taking place throughout the eastern bloc. Both perestroika (restructuring) and glasnost would have been impossible without his bravery and vision.

… (1988) Violence erupts during the presidential elections in Sri Lanka.

… (1987) ‘Kasparov keeps world chess title’: Gary Kasparov, the reigning world chess champion from the USSR, retained his crown today in Seville against former champion and fellow countryman Anatoly Karpov. Although the series was tied at 12 games each, Kasparov as challenger wins the title under current international rules. He first took the title from Anatoly Karpov in 1985, becoming the youngest world chess champion ever. Karpov had held the title from 1975 to 1985.

… (1985) Senator Edward Kennedy announces that he will not run in the 1988 presidential campaign.

… (1984) ‘Hong Kong’s fate sealed?’ Britain and China have signed an historic agreement today settling the fate of Hong Kong after the 99-year lease expires in 1997. Amid much protest it seems that Britain is to return all of its holdings in return for assurances that Hong Kong’s social and economic freedom and capitalist lifestyle will be preserved for at least 50 years after China takes control. Hong Kong is to become a special administrative region within China, with its own laws, currency, budget and tax system. It will retain free port status and the authority to negotiate separate international trade agreements. Whether China will honour these commitments remains uncertain. The Hong Kong community feels that Britain has betrayed its responsibilities. Although the New Territories were secured by Britain on a 9-year lease in 1898, both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula were already in Britain’s possession, acquired in 1842 and 1860 respectively.

… (1932) The British Broadcasting Corporation today inaugurated its Empire shortwave broadcasting service to the far-flung corners of the globe via its new Daventry transmitter. Now news from home can reach every corner of the British Empire. This new service is the brainchild of director general John Reith who has also developed radio broadcasting throughout the British Isles in the past year.

… (1927) In China, 600 communists are executed by the Nationalists.

… (1905) The first-ever motorised ambulance service for road accident victims is set up in London.

… (1900) In France, the National Assembly passes a bill granting an amnesty to all those involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

… (1851) Illustrious English Artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, renowned for his luminous and atmospheric landscapes in the Romantic tradition, dies at the age of 76.

… (1848) Emily Bronte, English author of Wuthering Heights, dies of tuberculosis at the age of 30.

… (1741) ‘Scurvy claims Danish explorer’: Vitus Bering, the Danish explorer in the service of the Russian Tsar, has died of scurvy after being shipwrecked along the Commander Islands off the Alaskan coast. An excellent navigator and explorer, he is credited with having discovered Alaska and the strait between it and Russia. In his first journey of exploration he discovered the strait while exploring a route around Siberia to China. On a second expedition he managed to map much of the Siberian coast. His third and fateful trip this year, using two ships, reached and explored the south-west coast of Alaska and some of the Aleutian Islands before the two ships were separated. The crews of both ships were wracked with scurvy, and after Bering’s ship was wrecked he died of the disease.

… (1154) Henry II accedes to the throne of England.

…There is a holy, mistaken zeal in politics, as well as religion. By persuading others we convince ourselves. [Junius (unidentified English writer of letters), 1769.]

18^th, (2016) Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who appeared in 70 films and married nine times, died aged 99.

… (1991) ‘International project to save Brazilian rainforest’: The first international project to help save rainforests was launched today when the World Bank, the European Commission and the Group of Seven leading industrialised nations granted Brazil $250 million (£136 million) for conservation work in the Amazon basin. Of that sum, at least $100 million (£54.5 million) will go to scientific research. The money will also fund the establishment of national parks, tribal reserves, and the creation of new zones for non-destructive use of the rainforest’s resources such as rubber tapping and collecting brazil nuts. All such projects must be approved by the World Bank and Brazil itself will have no control over how the money is spent.

… (1990) French cellist Paul Tortelier dies aged 76.

… (1989) The EEC signs a ten-year trade pact with the Soviet Union.

… (1987) In South Korea, Roh Tae Woo is declared the winner of the first presidential election to be held for 16 years but students riot, claiming electoral corruption.

… (1983) Ex-president Gerald Ford makes an appearance in the soap opera Dynasty.

… (1980) Death of soviet statesman Alexi Kosygin, prime minister of the USSR 1964-80.

… (1980) Death of Ben Travers, British novelist and comic dramatist.

… (1946) ‘British railways and ports to be nationalised’: Clement Attlee’s Labour government has won the vote on state ownership and it looks like railways and ports will be the first industries to be nationalised. Despite the prospect of severe economic handicaps, Attlee has committed himself to a vigorous programme of reform. The Bank of England has already been nationalised and coal mines, civil aviation, cable and wireless services, railways, road transport and steel will follow. The British National Health Act came into force in November, providing comprehensive medical care for every member of society. Attlee also has ideas of giving India and Burma their independence.

… (1924) Pope Pius XI denounces the USSR.

… (1919) Six months after his pioneering flight with Sir Arthur Brown, British aviator Sir John Alcock is killed in a flying accident.

… (1865) More than two years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation theoretically abolished slavery, the dream has become a reality with the 13^th Amendment. The earlier proclamation in January of 1863 applied only to areas not under Union control.

… (1829) ‘French naturalist and evolutionist dies’: Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Lamarck, one of France’s best scientists, has died today at the age of 75. His most important work has been the study of evolution. Lamarck felt that acquired characteristics are inherited, that the use of an organ or limb strengthened it, and this strengthening could be passed down by reproduction. In 1774 he became a member of the French Academy and keeper of the royal garden, where he remained for 25 years. He published his Philosophie zoologique in 1809.

… (1825) Tsar Nicolas I succeeds to the Russian throne.

… (1737) ‘Stradivari dies at Cremona’: Master violin maker Antonio Stradivari has died at his home in Cremona, after a life spent bringing violin making to perfection. Born in 1644, Stradivari apprenticed to the great Amati but by 1684 had diverged from his mentor and was producing larger violins with deeper coloured varnish, and was experimenting with small details. From 1690 his long models represented a complete innovation with regard to the proportions of the instrument. In the early 1700s Stradivari broadened and improved his model, and began making fine cellos and violas as well. Stradivari created the standards by which violins can be judged and devised the current form of the bridge, also setting the proportions for the today’s violin with its shallower body that yields a more powerful and penetrating tone than earlier violins.

…I don’t mind your being killed, but I object to your being taken prisoner. [Lord Kitchener, British field marshal, answers the Prince of Wales’ request to go to the World War One frontline, 1914.]

17^th, (2011) North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il died, aged 69.

… (1991) Joseph Robert Smallwood, Canadian politician who led Newfoundland into the Canadian Confederation in 1949 and became its first premier, dies just short of its 91^st birthday.

… (1990) Radical priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president of Haiti.

… (1989) In Romania, as many as 2000 anti-government protesters are massacred in the city of Timisoara.

… (1989) ‘Brazil chooses new president in free elections’: In the first free elections for 29 years, Brazilians have chosen Ferdinand Collor de Mello as president defeating Jose Sarney. The new president will be faced with enormous problems, not least of which is the servicing of massive foreign debt. Interest payments on loans are up 40 per cent of the country’s export income. Although Brazil has experienced rapid development, the repayments look set to destroy the economy. The International Monetary Fund has forced the government to impose austerity measures to try to guarantee that the loans will be repaid. Consequently prices have risen, wages have been cut and the annual inflation rate is around 700 per cent. It was the 80s economic decline that increased demands for democracy.

… (1987) In Britain, Davina Durbin becomes the world’s first triple heart, lungs and liver transplant patient.

… (1986) Davina Thompson, of Rotherham, became the world’s first patient to receive a heart, lung and liver transplant, at Papworth in Cambridge. She died at the hospital in 1998, aged 47, from a lung infection.

… (1973) ‘Britain faces a three-day week’: Prime Minister Edward Heath’s confrontation with striking miners as part of his campaign to control inflation has provoked a crisis for the economy. Miners have continued their overtime ban and as a result coal supplies to powers stations are down by 40 per cent. As of today, industry and commerce will only be allowed five days’ electricity in 14 until December 30, then will be allowed three days’ worth a week in the New Year. Television will shut down at 10.30 pm throughout the country. The government is cutting £1200 million ($2208 million) from public spending in response to the crisis. The chancellor has also imposed tighter credit controls and taxes on developmental gains are up from 30 to 50 per cent. This drive to fight inflation, combined with the tough stance against the strikers just when OPEC oil prices have increased by 70 per cent and production has been cut back, could well require Mr Heath to call a general election.

… (1939) The German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled in the River Plate off Montevideo, Uruguay by British warships.

… (1909) Death of King Leopold II of Belgium.

… (1907) Death of British physicist William Thomson, 1^st Baron Kelvin, after whom the Kelvin scale of temperature is named.

… (1903) ‘Wright Brothers make first powered flight’: In spite of an underwhelming audience of five people, the Wright brothers made aviation history today when their aircraft managed the first powered flight. Flyer I, or Kitty Hawk as it is more commonly called, made four flights in all, the longest lasting almost a minute, achieving 850 ft (276 m) of distance at an altitude of several feet. Orville and Wilbur Wright have been interested in aviation since 1896, when they learned of the European interest in sustained flight. While running a bicycle building shop, they have studied aviation and built kites and gliders to learn the essentials of aircraft control before attempting powered flight. They made 900 successful glider flights in 1902 in North Carolina while they attempted to solve the problem of getting an engine light enough and powerful enough to lift a plane off the ground. In the end, the brothers built their own 12-16 hp engine and propeller as well as the body of the aircraft. Kitty Hawk weighs only 605 lb (300 kg) and is launched off a trolley rolling along a greased 60 ft (19.5 m) launching track.

…The airplane stays up because it doesn’t have time to fall. [Orville Wright explains, after making the world’s first powered flight, 1903.]

… (1830) Death of Simon Bolivar, South American revolutionary who gained the name “the Liberator” by expelling the Spanish from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

16^th, (1998) ‘Operation Desert Fox’: American and British forces have launched air-strikes against Iraqi military installations. The action, code-named Operation Desert Fox, comes after the Iraqi authorities’ suspended co-operation with UN weapons inspectors. Detractors are criticising the action as it has not been sanctioned by the UN. The air-strikes have provoked a storm of reaction in the Arabic-language and Middle East press, ranging from outright condemnation of the US and UK in many regional dailies to the analytical approach of the London-based Arabic press.

… (1991) In London, the new director-general of the security service MI5 is officially named for the first time – and the name is Stella Rimington, who became the first ever female boss of the agency.

… (1991) Cigarettes manufactured by the American multinational Philip Morris become illegal in Italy as the government attempts to crack down on a cigarette smuggling industry that nets the mafia and the Camorra about $2 billion (£1.1 billion) annually.

… (1990) Forty-five-year-old pop singer Rod Stewart marries a 22-year-old model, Rachel Hunter.

… (1988) ‘Currie resigns with egg on her face’: Edwina Currie, Britain’s Junior Health Minister, has been forced to resign in the wake of her statement two weeks ago that most British eggs are infected with Salmonella. The statement brought furious protests from farmers. Sales of eggs plummeted, and egg-producers are demanding compensation. However, eggs have played a leading role in an unprecedented series of food poisoning scares this year. Organic farming organisations say there is no way of keeping chickens healthy in the overcrowded conditions of a modern battery farm.

… (1965) British novelist and playwright William Somerset Maugham dies in Nice at the age of 91.

… (1949) ‘South Africa unveils national shrine’: A quarter of a million white Afrikaners attended the opening of an imposing memorial to South Africa’s Boer pioneers in Pretoria today. The Voortrekker Monument is more than a memorial: it is a shrine. Today, December 16, is a religious holiday in South Africa. On December 9, 1838, Boer commander Andries Pretorius and his 460 men vowed to observe an annual day of thanksgiving if God granted them victory over the Zulus. Seven days later they met 10,000 Zulu warriors in battle. Afterwards, 3000 Zulus lay dead, with only two Boers injured. Pretorius thanked God, and kept his promise. In 1864 the Boer Transvaal Republic proclaimed December 16 a religious holiday. In 1877 Britain annexed the Transvaal, and on December 9, 1880, the anniversary of the vow, 9000 armed Boers vowed to fight for their freedom – and won it when 75 Boers routed 700 British soldiers at Majuba, with only one Boer killed. Again, they thanked God. Divine protection did not help them in the Boer War, but this did not dim their fervour. The foundation stone of the Voortrekker Monument was laid on December 16, 1938. Last year the right-wing Afrikaner National Party won the South African elections, and today the Boers thanked God for it.

… (1944) American bandleader Glenn Miller is presumed dead after his flight went missing over the English Channel today. Miller was flying to join his band in France for a series of concerts for troops. His Christmas day radio concert will be broadcast as scheduled.

… (1922) Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated after only two days in office.

… (1921) French composer, pianist and organist Camille Saint-Saëns dies aged 86.

… (1909) US marines force the resignation of President Jose Zelaya of Nicaragua.

… (1902) An earthquake in Turkestan, Central Asia, kills 4000.

… (1900) France and Italy agree to respect each other’s rights in North Africa.

… (1850) The first immigrant ship, the Charlotte Jane, arrives in New Zealand.

… (1809) Napoleon divorces his beloved wife, Joséphine Beauharnais, because she is not able to provide him with an heir.

… (1773) ‘Tea party in Boston’: Whooping and branding axes, a band of intrepid colonists thinly disguised as Indians boarded three ships in Boston harbour tonight and emptied 342 chests of tea worth £9000 ($16,500) into the sea. This latest protest against the Tea Tax is a deliberate challenge to Crown authority, and a tough response is expected from London. In 1765 Britain’s Stamp Act imposed new taxes on the colonies to help pay for the costs of the Seven Years’ War. The taxes met with protests, boycotts and violent rejection, and the Act was repealed – to be replaced by the Townshend Acts’ new taxes on tea, lead, glass, paper and paint. Protests swelled to a rejection of all forms of taxation, and angry colonists started to form defence associations. In 1770 the Townshend Acts were repealed, except for the Tea Tax, which was renewed this year to rescue the East India Company from bankruptcy.

… (1653) ‘Cromwell made Lord Protector’: Oliver Cromwell was today made Lord Protector of England, giving him the powers of an uncrowned king. The great Civil War general intends to rule in the old constitutional way, through the parliament – if he can find one that doesn’t try to thwart him. Cromwell lost patience with the last parliament in April. “Get you gone,” he roared at the members, “and give way to honester men!” He stamped on the floor, and hundreds of musketeers poured into the House. “Take away that bauble!” Cromwell told them, pointing to the mace. The soldiers did so, and cleared the hall. Cromwell locked the door as he left, and kept the key. An Assembly of 140 Cromwell supporters took Parliament’s place, but four days ago it dissolved itself, resigning its powers into the hands of Cromwell.

…It was not the non-whites’ freedom that drove us to such lengths, as their being placed on an equal footing with Christians, contrary to the laws of God. [Anna Steenkamp, Boer farmer’s wife, writing about the Great Trek in her diary, 1836.]

15^th, (1991) A ferry sinks in the Red Sea, drowning 476 people, mainly Egyptians returning from pilgrimage or work in Saudi Arabia.

… (1991) ‘South African army funded Inkatha’: South African president F.W. de Klerk’s government was under renewed pressure today following further disclosures in the “Inkathagate” scandal over covert government support for Zulu chief Gatsha Buthelezi’s Inkatha movement, the arch-enemy of Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Police admitted funding a Buthelezi rally long after De Klerk had said the support had ended. Evidence also emerged that military intelligence poured millions into Inkatha – and sent Inkatha warriors to Israel for training.

… (1989) In Bulgaria, 50,000 demonstrators lay siege to the parliament building in Sofia to demand the end of communist rule.

… (1989) In Columbia, police kill Gonzalo Gacha, one of the leaders of the Medellin cocaine cartel.

… (1966) ‘Walt Disney dies’: Walt Disney has died at the age of 65. Disney’s Mickey Mouse is possibly the most famous character in the world, fictional or living. Mickey first appeared in 1928 in Steamboat Willie, the first sound cartoon film, and he was soon joined by Donald Duck and the rest of the Disney stable. In 1938 another world first, the feature-length Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was a phenomenal success. Disney also made live films such as Treasure Island, and beautifully photographed full-length nature films like The Living Desert, winning 30 Oscars for his film work. He expanded beyond his film studios with the giant amusement parks, Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney’s brand of sentimental nostalgia has often been criticised – but the world loves him for it.

… (1962) Death of Charles Laughton, British actor whose most notable films are Mutiny on the Bounty and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

… (1961) Nazi mass murderer Adolf Eichmann showed no emotion when a Jerusalem court today sentenced him to be hanged. Eichmann was found guilty of murdering million of Jews in the Nazi death camps. After the war he escaped to Argentina, where the Jewish Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal tracked him down. Last May the Israeli secret service, MOSSAD, kidnapped him and brought him to Israel to face trial.

… (1943) Death of Fats Waller, jazz pianist and composer.

… (1927) In China, the Nationalist government orders the closure of the Soviet consulate in Shanghai and begins rounding up communists following the attempted communist coup in Canton the day before.

… (1920) Austria and China are admitted to the League of Nations.

… (1918) Portuguese president Sidonio Paes is assassinated.

… (1916) ‘700,000 dead at Verdun’: The nine-month Battle of Verdun is finally over, at appalling cost and with little gain. The lines are more or less where they were in February – and more than 700,000 soldiers are dead. Meanwhile the Somme offensive has ended in a deadlock, again with little gained. It has cost the British 420,000 men, the French 195,000 and the Germans 600,000.

… (1913) The world’s biggest battle-cruiser, HMS Tiger, is launched in Glasgow.

… (1904) In London, British statesman Joseph Chamberlain calls for curbs on immigrants from Europe, claiming they are responsible for crime and disease.

… (1890) Chief Sitting Bull of the Sioux Indians has been shot dead. Sitting Bull fled to Canada after his victory over General Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. He was jailed for two years on his return five years later. For several years he performed with Buffalo Bill’s travelling Wild West Show, but his people’s hunger and suffering drove him to join the new Ghost Dance cult, dedicated to destroying the whites and restoring the Indians’ vanished world. The government sent troops to arrest the Sioux leaders and suppress the cult, and Sitting Bull was shot in the skirmish that followed. He was 69.

… (1840) Napoleon’s body is interred at Les Invalides in Paris.

… (1791) ‘US Bill of Rights ratified by states’: The Virginia state legislature today ratified the Bill of Rights, the 10^th state to do so, and the Bill’s 10 amendments became part of the United States Constitution. President Washington accepted the new Constitution in September 1787, but its lack of a bill of rights caused wide dissatisfaction. By popular demand, the state conventions called to ratify the Constitution proposed amendments to cover individual rights. James Madison led the movement in Congress to adopt the proposals and drafted 12 amendments to the Constitution. In 1789 Congress voted to submit Madison’s amendments to the states. Two were defeated, and the remaining 10 are now enshrined in law. Unlike the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizens adopted in France in 1789, the US Bill of Rights provides specific protection for the basic rights of the individual to free expression and association, privacy and justice.

… (1683) Death of Izaak Walton, best known for his treatise on fishing, The Complete Angler.

…Our country is the world – our countrymen are all mankind. [William Lloyd Garrison, US abolitionist, 1837.]

14^th, (1991) ‘Industry blocks Europe’s carbon dioxide tax’: Industry opposition has indefinitely delayed a proposed tax aimed at cutting European carbon dioxide emissions. Energy and environment ministers were expecting to approve the tax at a meeting in Brussels this week, but officials say it could now be delayed for years. The proposal had already been watered down in the face of industry opposition. The Eurelectric energy lobby called for the tax to be scrapped in favour of voluntary restraints by industry. The tax was to be levied on both fuel use and carbon dioxide emissions, to encourage fuel economy and discourage the use of fossil fuels, which emit large volumes of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse gas”, and rapidly increasing atmospheric levels of the gas are causing global climate change. Scientists are predicting potentially dangerous temperature increases in the not-so-distant future.

… (1990) ANC president Oliver Tambo returns home to South Africa after 30 years of exile.

… (1988) Eight million workers in Spain go on strike against government economic policies.

… (1988) PLO leader Yasser Arafat announces that he renounces all forms of terrorism and accepts Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.

… (1973) Teenager John Paul Getty II is set free by his Italian kidnappers after his oil tycoon grandfather pays a ransom of $750,000 (£405,400) on receiving his ear through the post.

… (1962) US Mariner II sends back the first close-up photographs of the planet Venus.

… (1959) Death of British artist Sir Stanley Spencer, notable for his paintings of religious subjects transposed to Cookham, the Berkshire village in which he lived.

… (1927) In China, Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces put down an attempted communist coup in Canton.

… (1926) In a puzzle as mystifying as one of her plots, the missing British thriller writer Agatha Christie was found today staying under an assumed name at a hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire. She disappeared from her home in Surrey on December 3. She told mystified detectives she had no recollection of how she came to be in Yorkshire. Mrs. Christie, 36, specialises in murders rather than mere disappearances. She leapt to fame in 1920 with The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Her hero, an eccentric Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot, has been hailed as the best fictional sleuth since Sherlock Holmes.

… (1911) The Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was today the first man to reach the South Pole, having left the British team led by Captain Robert Scott far behind in the race. Amundsen’s five-man team used dog sleds, crossing the 2000 miles (3200 km) of treacherous ice without difficulty, while Scott’s motorised team has been dogged with trouble. Amundsen planted a Norwegian flag at the Pole and a sympathetic note for Scott before starting back.

… (1907) In St Petersburg, 38 soldiers are sentenced to life imprisonment for surrendering to the Japanese at Port Arthur.

… (1906) The first German submarine, the U1, enters service.

… (1900) ‘Planck finds Bundles of Energy’: The German physicist Max Planck today unveiled a completely new theory of energy. Up to now Science has assumed that energy flows in a continuous stream. Planck’s theory says energy is not continuous, it exists in tiny, indivisible bundles, or “quanta”, almost like the atoms of matter. And it doesn’t flow in a stream, or in waves. What it does do is more like climbing a flight of steps. A “bundle” can only increase its energy level by absorbing exactly enough energy to “jump” to the next step, or quantum. In between the two steps, it simply does not exist. Planck’s theory upsets Isaac Newton’s orderly world – but it explains anomalies in physics which no other theory can account for.

… (1894) ‘Rail union president jailed’: American Railway Union president Eugene V. Debs was jailed for six months today for ignoring a court injunction to end the Pullman strike. The strike started on May 11 at the Pullman Palace Car Company plant in Pullman, near Chicago, when the company cut back wages but did not reduce rents for workers in company housing. ARU representatives protested, and when they were fired Debs called for a boycott of all Pullman cars. Attorney General Richard Olney obtained an injunction to halt the strike on the grounds that the strikers were obstructing the mails, and when this was ignored federal troops arrived in Chicago to enforce it. By July 10 the strike was broken.

… (1861) Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, dies of typhoid.

… (1799) ‘America mourns George Washington’: George Washington has died at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. He was 67. Washington occupied a unique place in America’s affections, and the nation is in deep mourning fro the “father of his country”. He retired two years ago, refusing to accept a third term as president. Washington first came to prominence as a young colonel in the last colonial wars of the 1750s. He strongly supported independence and in June 1775 Congress was unanimous in selecting him as commander-in-chief of the Continental forces. Washington led America to victory and independence. In May 1787 he led the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He was unanimously elected first president in 1789 when the constitution came into force, and was re-elected in 1792. The skill with which he guided the new republic through its first years laid a firm foundation that will long outlast him.

…It becomes no longer a matter of choice, but the moral obligation and bounden duty of every responsible writer to bear witness to the times he lives in. [Cecil Rajendra, Malaysian poet, in an address to the Asian PEN writers’ conference in Manila today, 1981.]

13^th, (2007) The member states of the European Union signed the Lisbon Treaty.

… (2003) ‘”We got him”’: Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is in custody following capture by US forces. “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” US administrator Paul Bremer told journalists today. Saddam Hussein was found in a tiny cellar at a farmhouse about 15 km (10 miles) south of his hometown Tikrit. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has welcomed the news, saying it “removes the shadow” hanging over Iraq. Saddam was the most wanted man on the list issued by US authorities but had not been seen since Baghdad fell to US forces in April.

… (2000) ‘Gore concedes Election to Bush’: Vice-President Al-Gore has conceded the US Presidential election to Texas Governor George W. Bush, over a month after votes were cast. Al-Gore won only a 0.3% majority over his opponent in the popular vote on November 8, and the Electoral College vote rested on the contested results of Florida alone. Early indications suggested that Bush had won Florida. Al Gore phoned Bush to concede the election, but rang back an hour later to retract when it was clear the margin was extremely narrow. After a month of allegations of poll irregularities, manual recounts, inconclusive ballot papers and legal challenges, Gore has conceded, much to the relief of Americans. Out of the 102 million votes cast in the country, the election rested on a margin of just 537 votes cast in Florida.

… (1989) The first Vietnam refugees are repatriated from Hong Kong, escorted to a plane at dawn by police in riot gear.

… (1989) In South Africa, ANC leader Nelson Mandela meets President F.W. de Klerk for the first time.

… (1988) In Brazzaville, South Africa signs an accord granting independence to Namibia.

… (1967) King Constantine of Greece flees his country after an unsuccessful attempt to topple the Greek military junta.

… (1961) ‘Grandma Moses dies at 101’: Grandma Moses, the renowned American primitive painter, has died at the age of 101. Self-taught, Anna Robertson Moses only began painting in her 70s. Her bright pictures of American rural life were discovered by a New York art dealer, who exhibited them in his gallery in 1940. The following year one of her paintings, The Old Oaken Bucket, won her the New York State Prize, and in 1949 President Truman presented her with the Women’s National Press Club award for her achievements in art.

… (1923) In London, Lord Alfred Douglas, former lover of Oscar Wilde, is sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for libelling Winston Churchill.

… (1911) The P & O liner Delhi founders with the Princess Royal on board but she and most of the other passengers are rescued.

… (1909) British explorer Ernest Shackleton is knighted.

… (1907) The liner Mauretania runs aground at Liverpool.

… (1904) The first electric train comes into service on London’s Metropolitan Railway.

… (1904) Government opponents wreck the interior of the Hungarian parliament building in Budapest.

… (1867) ‘Irish bomb kills 12 in London’: Irish bombers blew up the outer wall of Clerkenwell prison in London today in a bid to rescue a jailed comrade. The blast demolished the wall, as well as several nearby houses, killing 12 people and injuring more than 100. But the bombers failed to rescue the jailed Irishman. No arrests have yet been made. Police said the bombers are members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded 10 years ago with the help of Irish Americans to overthrow British rule in Ireland. Last year the American wing of the Brotherhood mounted raids on Canada. The group are in open rebellion in Ireland and have mounted a number of attacks upon British property.

… (1862) ‘Lee mauls Burnside’s army at Fredericksburg’: Confederate general Robert E. Lee has inflicted a bloody defeat on the United Army of the Potomac. Federal general Ambrose Burnside had just taken over the army from General George B. McClellan and today’s futile assault on Lee’s lines at Fredericksburg in Virginia was his major action in command. Burnside was planning to sweep Lee aside and push on to Richmond, but his plans went horribly wrong. Lee had taken up a heavily fortified position on the ridge at Marye’s Heights. Again and again the Federal forces surged up the ridge, to be repulsed each time. Burnside has lost 12,500 men, and Richmond remains in Confederate hands.

… (1784) Death of Samuel Johnson, English poet, critic and lexicographer.

… (1294) Pope Celestine V abdicates.

…If a man had time to study one word only, “wit” would perhaps be the best word he could choose. [C.S. Lewis, 1960.]

12^th, (2015) The UN Paris Agreement – the first universal, legally binding global climate deal – was adopted by 195 countries.

… (1991) ‘Russia votes to scrap USSR’: The Russian parliament today voted overwhelmingly in favour of replacing the Soviet Union with a loose Commonwealth of Independent States. Russia immediately withdrew its MPs from the Kremlin in a boycott supported by Ukrainian and Byelorussian MPs. This left the Soviet parliament without a quorum, and it adjourned. Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev is left with his job, but no apparent function. Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia reached agreement on the Commonwealth plan last week, and Russian president Boris Yeltsin, architect of the plan, is due to meet the five Muslim Central Asian leaders this weekend. There are already rifts in the new Commonwealth before it has been born, with new demands from the Byelorussian opposition, and radical Ukrainian amendments to the text of the agreement. However, the Soviet Union has no option left but a transfer of power.

… (1991) Actor Richard Gere married model Cindy Crawford (17 years his junior) in Las Vegas.

… (1990) US president George Bush agrees to send $1000 million (£540 million) food aid package to the Soviet Union.

… (1989) ‘Billionaires fined $7 million’: New York billionaires Leona Helmsley was today fined $7 million (£3.8 million) and sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion. Owner of the luxury Helmsley Palace hotel, she was convicted in August of evading tax of more than $1 million (£540,540). “Only little people pay taxes,” she was quoted as saying. The “little people” are no doubt applauding the sentence.

… (1988) In Britain, rock star Elton John is awarded damages of £1 million ($1.85 million) against the Sun newspaper for its libellous allegations about his private life.

… (1986) ‘Voyager circles Earth without refuelling’: The super-light experimental aircraft Voyager touched down today to complete its extraordinary non-stop flight round the world without refuelling. It took nine days, and pilots Richard Rutan and Jeana Yeager broke the endurance record as well as the distance record. Voyager’s hollow plastic body holds four tons of fuel. She has a truly original design, with two engines, propellers fore and aft, very long wings and huge double fins, on a strange three-pod body quite unlike that of former spacecraft. Modern superstrong, ultralight materials have opened up new vistas in flying, including a host of do-it-yourself options with advanced designs developed with computer models on PCs.

… (1982) ‘Anti-Cruise women link hands round airbase’: More than 20,000 British women today linked hands around Greenham Common airbase in Berkshire in an all-women protest against plans to site US nuclear cruise missiles there next year. The women started camping around the base four months ago and are proving a strong force. Moves to evict them have been unsuccessful, and although several have been jailed, it has not deterred them. The women’s plan is to blockade the airbase tomorrow, confronting US airmen as they arrive for work.

… (1955) British electronic engineer Christopher Cockerell today patented a new kind of vehicle, half-ship and half-aircraft. His “hovercraft” floats on a cushion of air produced by fans, and is pushed forward by air propellers.

… (1913) Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre in Paris two years ago, has been recovered. It was found today hidden under a bed in a small hotel in Florence. Four men have been arrested. Police were tipped off by a Florentine art dealer who received a note from one of the thieves, an Italian house-painter named Vincenzo Peruggia. He stole the painting because he was incensed by French chauvinism.

… (1911) King George V is crowned Emperor of India and founds New Delhi as the new capital to replace Calcutta.

… (1907) In New York, a rule is introduced forcing women to sign affidavits attesting to their age and good character before they marry.

… (1907) Dinizulu, King of the Zulus, surrenders with several hundred of his followers to the commandant of the Natal forces, Colonel Sir Duncan Mackenzie.

… (1906) In South Africa, the Transvaal is given autonomy with white male suffrage.

… (1901) ‘Marconi sends radio signal across Atlantic’: The Indian inventor Guglielmo Marconi has sent a wireless signal across the Atlantic Ocean with his radio wave apparatus. The signal was sent via a 160-ft (52 m) aerial in Cornwall, and Marconi received it almost instantly in St John’s, Newfoundland, using an even higher aerial kept aloft by a kite. The feat is being applauded on both sides of the Atlantic: instant long-distance communication without the need for telegraph wires has huge potential.

… (1900) In London, the War Office announces that more than 11,000 British troops have so far lost their lives in the Boer War, over two-thirds of that number failing prey to disease.

… (1869) Death of Robert Browning, English poet who wrote “The Last Duchess”.

…I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old. [George Canning, British foreign minister, on his defence of Latin American independence, 1826.]

11^th, (2017) TV presenter Keith Chegwin died, aged 60.

… (1991) ‘Rushdie calls for paperback of Satanic Verses’: Salman Rushdie, the British writer who is under an Islamic death sentence for blasphemy, invited renewed wrath tonight. Rushdie is in New York on his first trip abroad since he went into hiding in 1989. Tonight, under tight security, he addressed a dinner at Columbia University to mark the 200^th anniversary of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. He said his book The Satanic Verses must be “freely available and easily affordable”, and called for its publication as a paperback. Angry Muslim spokesmen later said Rushdie had again put his life in serious danger. A year ago Rushdie recanted, proclaimed his belief in Islam and promised not to publish the book in paperback. Iran, however, responded by renewing the death sentence and doubling the reward for his murder to $2 million (£1 million).

… (1990) The British government announces it will award £42 million ($77.7 million) to British haemophiliacs who became infected with the HIV virus after being treated with contaminated Factor VIII.

… (1987) At Christie’s auction house in London, Charlie Chaplin’s cane and bowler sell for £82,500 ($152,625) and his boots for £38,500 ($71,225).

… (1965) Death of American journalist and broadcaster Ed Roscoe Murrow.

… (1963) In Los Angeles, Frank Sinatra Jr is set free after his father pays kidnappers $240,000 (£129,729).

… (1952) Two British teenagers were found guilty today of murdering a London policeman. Derek Bentley, 19, was sentenced to death – although it was his accomplice, Christopher Craig, who fired the fatal shots. The judge described Craig as a highly dangerous criminal, but at only 16 he is too young to hang. The policeman was killed on the roof of a warehouse after a bungled burglary.

… (1941) Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

… (1936) ‘King renounces throne for love’: Britain’s King Edward VIII has abdicated, less than a year after his accession to the throne. The king ended months of rumour and controversy tonight in a radio broadcast to the nation from Windsor Castle. “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love,” he said. After the broadcast he boarded a Royal Navy destroyer in Portsmouth, taking him to exile in France to join the twice-divorced Mrs Wallis Simpson. Edward’s younger brother has now become King George VI. Edward and Mrs Simpson first met in 1931 but their love affair did not begin until 1934, since when they have been inseparable. His resolve to marry her could not be shaken even by the combined forces of the royal family, the cabinet and the church. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin told the king to choose between his throne and Mrs Simpson. He chose Mrs Simpson.

… (1931) The Statute of Westminster gave legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland and Newfoundland.

… (1922) At London’s Old Bailey, Edith Thompson is found jointly guilty with her lover, Frederick Bywaters, of murdering her husband and sentenced to death.

… (1920) ‘Martial Law in Ireland’: Britain today declared martial law in large parts of Ireland in a bid to contain the Irish Republican Army’s rebellion. Britain has over 40,000 soldiers in Ireland, and 7000 of the hated Black and Tans (ex-soldiers serving as police), whose brutality has been much criticised in England. Their “retaliations” in search of IRA gunmen has left whole villages ablaze. The IRA’s hit-and-run tactics have tied the British forces in knots. The British brought in mainland experts to improve army intelligence, and two Sundays ago, in a series of dawn raids, the IRA killed 14 of the experts in their beds. By nightfall 14 Irishmen were dead at the hands of the Black and Tans. Tonight, towns are ablaze in the wake of a massive army clampdown.

…Things are being done in Ireland which would disgrace the blackest annals of the lowest despotism in Europe. [Herbert Asquith, former prime minister of Britain, 1920.]

… (1914) In the Battle of the Falklands, all British ships survive while four German cruisers are sunk.

… (1909) A 2147 mile (3455 km) section of the Cape-to-Cairo railway is linked up at the Sudan-Congo border.

… (1894) The first motor show opens in Paris with nine exhibitors.

… (1877) ‘The riddle of the horse’: Englishman Eadweard Muybridge, photographer of the American West, has used his camera to solve an ancient riddle – and won a five-year-old bet for a millionaire. The Governor of California, rail magnate Leland Stanford, bet a friend that a running horse’s feet are all off the ground simultaneously once every stride. Stanford commissioned Muybridge to settle the matter, and today Muybridge presented an astonishing series of “frozen-frame” photographs of a galloping racehorse – and proved Stanford right. Muybridge made the photographs by running wires across a racetrack, each connected to a camera. The horse tripped the camera shutters as it raced past. Muybridge’s work was interrupted while he went on trial for murdering his wife’s lover – hence it took him five years. Now acquitted, he is using the technique to study dancers and runners in motion.

… (1769) Venetian blinds are patented in London by Edward Beran.

… (1688) King James II of England flees the country.

10^th, (1990) Australia’s oldest newspaper empire, the Fairfax Group, goes into the hands of the receivers with debts of A$1500 million (£660/$122 million).

… (1990) In the Serbian republic in Yugoslavia the Communist Party win a free election.

… (1989) In Czechoslovakia, president Gustav Husak swears in the first majority non-communist government since 1948 and immediately resigns his post.

… (1984) In Oslo, Desmund Tutu, Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg, has to wait an extra 20 minutes to receive his Nobel Peace Prize when the ceremony is interrupted by a bomb threat.

… (1979) ‘Peace prize for Mother Teresa’: Calcutta’s Mother Teresa has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for her ceaseless work helping the destitute. Born in Albania in 1910, she joined a convent at 18 and taught in her order’s school in Calcutta. In 1946 she heard a “call within a call” to help the desperately poor people around her, and was given permission to leave the convent. She found people dying in the streets and took them into a home to die in dignity, rescued orphans and cared for them. Other women joined her, and in 1950 she formed the Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the destitute. Today they run 700 shelters and clinics. Calcutta is the world’s most crowded place, with millions living in grinding poverty. The “living saint” and her sisters in Christ are often their only hope of survival.

… (1978) Millions of Iranians demonstrate in the streets to demand the abdication of the Shah and an end to the month-old military government.

… (1964) Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.

… (1963) A state of emergency is declared in the South Arabian Federation after a grenade is thrown at a group of government ministers and British diplomats at Aden airport.

… (1936) Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication, giving up the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.

… (1921) ‘Master of the universe’: Albert Einstein today received the Nobel Physics Prize in Stockholm. The gentle Jewish genius of Berlin is world famous, though he has never sought fame. In the public eye he is a hero of science, the pure thinker whose piercing vision reaches beyond time and space to peel away the mysteries of the universe. Time and space are not absolutes, Einstein said, they are relative to each other. Nothing is fixed, and nothing is straight, since gravity bends space-time. The only constant is the speed of light, and even light bends: if a ray of starlight grazes the Sun’s surface, the pull of the Sun’s gravity will bend it by slightly less than one two-thousandths of a degree, Einstein predicted. Two years ago scientists put this theory to the test during the solar eclipse – and found bent starbeams. Einstein’s theory of general relativity had triumphed.

… (1910) Puccini’s opera La fanciulla del West is premiered in New York with Toscanini conducting.

… (1902) In Egypt, the 1 ¼ mile (2 km) long, 130 foot (39 m)  high Aswan Dam on the Nile is completed after four years of work.

… (1901) ‘First Nobel Prizes awarded’: The man who invented the most powerful explosives the world has ever seen hoped that they would put an end to war. “On the day two army corps can annihilate each other in one second all civilised nations will recoil from war in horror,” the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel wrote to the Peace Congress in 1892. It was dynamite that Nobel invented, and he made a fortune from his explosives factories. When he died in 1896, he left most of that fortune to a foundation to award annual prizes “to those who, in the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit upon mankind”. The first Nobel Prizes, worth $30,000 (£16,300) each, were awarded in Oslo and Stockholm today, the fifth anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, for literature, chemistry, physics, medicine and peace. The first ever Peace-Prize was shared by Jean Henri Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, and Frederick Passy, founder of the French Society of the Friends of Peace.

… (1869) ‘Wyoming gives women the vote’: With the campaign for women’s suffrage gaining ground on both sides of the Atlantic, Wyoming today became first American territory to grant the vote to women. American feminists founded a women’s rights movement 14 years ago, but earlier this year the movement split over endorsing the 15^th Amendment, which gives the vote to blacks, but not to women. There are few women in Wyoming, which only became a territory last year. It is frontier country, just emerging from five years of Indian wars against the Sioux. However, the Wyoming stretch of the new Union Pacific Railroad has just been completed, and small towns are springing up along the line in the south.

…We must use time as a tool, not as a couch. [John F. Kennedy, 1961.]

9^th, (1992) Prime Minister John Major announces to a hushed House of Commons that the Prince and Princess of Wales will separate.

… (1991) ‘Millions missing from Maxwell pensions’: At least £420 million $773 million) is missing from pension funds controlled by billionaire Robert Maxwell. Maxwell died at sea a month ago, apparently after falling naked from the deck of his luxury yacht in the middle of the night. Sensational revelations have followed as the Maxwell empire collapsed amid massive debts and evidence of shady deals to prop up share prices. Maxwell’s younger son Kevin is tonight fighting a court order stopping him and his brother Ian leaving Britain. This follows evidence that money continued to flood out of the Mirror Newspaper Group pension fund even after Maxwell’s death. The court order also freezes Kevin Maxwell’s assets worldwide.

… (1990) ‘Walesa is Poland’s president’: The Solidarity trade union founder and leader Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland today in the country’s first ever direct presidential elections. Ten years ago Walesa led Solidarity in a workers’ confrontation with the communist regime. Initial concessions were followed by a severe crackdown, and Walesa was jailed for nine months. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Again in 1988, Walesa led a wave of strikes which forced the regime to negotiate. Elections followed in June 1989, and Solidarity candidates won easily. August Mazowiecki became PM. Early this year the Communist Party was finally dissolved, and in May Solidarity candidates won majorities in the first local council elections. Walesa has played a major role throughout. But as president he will not have it all his own way: with the communists gone, divisions are appearing in the Solidarity movement as a democratic opposition begins to emerge.

… (1985) ‘Argentina’s generals jailed’: Jorge Videla, former military president of Argentina, was jailed for life today in Buenos Aires for human rights abuses during the murderous seven-year rule of the right-wing military junta. Videla mounted a campaign to eradicate terrorism, and thousands of left-wingers and others simply disappeared. Some were shot outright, others imprisoned and tortured first. The fate of many of the victims may never be known. Videla was commander-in-chief when the generals overthrew Isabel Peròn’s ailing government in 1976, and he became president. He was succeeded in 1981 by Roberto Viola. Viola was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment today. Several other military leaders were also jailed. Viola’s successor, General Leopoldo Galtieri, is being tried separately, for negligence in the Falklands War with Britain in 1982. Civilian rule returned in 1983 when Raul Alfonsin won the presidency.

… (1978) A better picture of the planet Venus emerged today after two US Pioneer spacecraft launched earlier this year reached it. Pioneer Venus 1 went into orbit round the planet four days ago, probing the atmosphere and the surface with radar. Pioneer Venus 2 had meanwhile launched four probes which descended into Venus’s atmosphere today. One of the probes survived the landing and transmitted data from the surface for an hour. The orbiter has mapped mountains higher than Everest, and the solar system’s biggest canyon.

… (1971) Three hundred children die when Indian planes bomb an orphanage in Dacca, East Pakistan.

… (1967) Nicholae Ceausescu becomes president of Romania.

… (1964) ‘Dame Edith Sitwell dies’: The English poet Dame Edith Sitwell died today, aged 77. With her brothers Osbert and Sacheverell, also poets, Edith Sitwell led the 1920s avant-garde – though both she and her work were often derided. Her “Façade”, written to music by William Walton, drew titters and mockery from the audience at its première – with Sitwell intoning the lines through a megaphone from behind a curtain. It was later parodied on stage by Noel Coward. Sitwell eventually fled to France. “I am like an unpopular electric eel in a pond full of flatfish,” she said. Today her work is much appreciated.

… (1955) Sugar Ray Robinson regains the world middleweight boxing crown by knocking out Carl Olson.

… (1945) In Frankfurt, General Patton suffers chest injuries in a road accident and is paralysed from the neck down.

… (1917) The British capture Jerusalem from the Turks.

… (1910) The Turks suppress an Arab uprising in Palestine.

… (1902) British and German warships seize the Venezuelan navy in an attempt to force the repayment of losses incurred during a coup in 1899.

… (1814) Death of Joseph Brahmah, English inventor of the beer pump.

… (1783) Newgate Prison in London sees its first executions.

… (1641) The Flemish painter Sir Anthony van Dyck has died in London, where he settled nine years ago. He was only 42. Van Dyck opened his own studio in Antwerp at 16 and was a master of the artist’s guild at 18. He worked with Peter Paul Rubens and was much influenced by him; he also studied in Italy. He won fame after England’s King Charles I knighted him and appointed him chief court painter in 1632. Van Dyck painted perfect portraits of England’s nobility. But there is more to his paintings than flattery; he has revolutionised portraiture.

8^th, (1991) Wildlife investigators have uncovered an illegal scheme to sell 15,000 elephant tusks worth £6 million ($11 million) to ivory dealers in defiance of the international trade ban on ivory. Two South African businessmen have bought the 83 tons of poached tusks, the world’s largest ivory stockpile, from the government of Burundi. They plan to fly the ivory out of Burundi and sell it in secret in the Far East. Four-fifths of Africa’s elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks in the past 10 years.

… (1988) New Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto releases 1000 political prisoners.

… (1987) ‘Superpowers agree to destroy missiles’: The US and the USSR have agreed to dismantle all 2611 medium- and short-range nuclear missiles based in Europe – the first agreement to cut the nuclear arsenals. President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in Washington today at the end of what was clearly a cordial summit meeting. The treaty provides for full on-site verification. The US Senate must ratify it before it becomes effective.

… (1980) ‘John Lennon shot dead’: Forty-year-old ex-Beatle John Lennon was murdered in New York tonight. Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono were walking into their apartment building when a man approached and shot Lennon five times. Lennon was rushed to hospital, but did not recover. Police said the killer, Mark Chapman, 25, had shadowed Lennon since arriving from Hawaii three days ago. Earlier today he asked Lennon for his autograph, and Lennon obliged. Chapman was calm after the shooting, and offered no explanation.

… (1949) Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government flees from China to Taiwan.

… (1941) Britain, Australia and the US declare war on Japan.

… (1911) Richard Strauss’s opera Salome receives its British premiere in London.

… (1903) Death of British philosopher Herbert Spencer, best known for his book The Man versus the State and the coining of the phrase “survival of the fittest”.

… (1864) Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol is opened.

… (1863) The world’s first heavyweight boxing championship is held at Woodhurst in Kent, England; Englishman Tom King beats John C. Heenan of the US.

… (1859) ‘Explorer of dreams dies’: Thomas de Quincey, opium addict, essayist and master of English prose, has died in Scotland after a difficult but fruitful life. He was 74. De Quincy ran away from his boarding school at 17 and was living as a beggar in London when his family rescued him. He was sent to Oxford, but left before graduating. Plagued by facial neuralgia, he began taking opium to sooth the pain, and became addicted to it for life. He had constant financial problems, and wrote essays for periodicals to pay his debts. He wrote biographies of his friends, the poets William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge, literary criticism, history, essays on economics and fiction. But it was his autobiography that won him acclaim: Confessions of an English Opium-Eater appeared in two parts in the London Magazine in 1821. He had planned it as a journal of his addiction, but it became a pioneering exploration of dreams and their nature. He never completed its sequel.

… (1854) ‘Virgin Mary was without sin, Pope decrees’: Pope Pius IX has settled an ancient controversy in a papal bull issued in Rome today. It declares that the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ’s mother, was preserved from all sin from the moment she was born, by the grace of God. This doctrine is now binding on all Roman Catholics. The Gospels tell of Jesus’ virgin birth, and of Mary’s holiness. They also talk of Jesus’ younger brothers, but 300 years later the church took the view that Mary had remained a virgin all her life. A subsequent argument, whether she was the mother of God or only the mother of Christ, was settled in 431, when she was proclaimed the mother of God. Other disputes raged through the centuries: did Mary ascend bodily to Heaven? And how had she escaped original sin, which stains all humans, to become the mother of God? Which led back to questions about Christ’s immaculate conception. This is the issue the Pope has now ruled on – using arguments that the great theologian St Thomas Aquinas rejected 600 years ago.

… (1847) An international convention of the Communist League adopts the principles of Karl Marx.

7^th, (1995) A link is revealed between the cattle disease BSE and CJD, a brain disease in humans.

… (1991) ‘Serbs bombard besieged Dubrovnik’: Following a 67-day siege, Yugoslavian federal army and navy forces have wrecked Dubrovnik’s historic Old Town in a savage two-day bombardment. Many people have been left dead or homeless. Some 500,000 civilian refugees were sheltering in the Old Town because the army had so far avoided shelling the historic area. The vicious civil war between Serbs and Croats continued unabated. European and United Nations peacekeeping efforts have proved useless – the 14^th ceasefire lies in tatters. The Croats held free elections last year in a bid for an independent Croatia, which is rejected by Yugoslavia’s Serbian majority. The resulting war has been rife with atrocities, mostly against Croatian civilians by federal troops and Serbian irregulars.

… (1988) ‘Earthquake kills 100,000 in Armenia’: More than 100,000 people are feared dead in an earthquake that devastated northern Armenia today. The cities of Spitak and Leninakan near the Turkish border have been virtually wiped out, with thousands buried alive in collapsed buildings. Survivors tried to reach trapped relatives, struggling to move the shattered concrete and rubble that are all that remain of most of the apartment blocks. The shocked country has appealed for international help as emergency teams start a massive rescue operation. On hearing the news, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev cut short his US trip and returned to Moscow to co-ordinate relief efforts. The earthquake follows a year of ethnic violence between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno Karabakh.

… (1989) A feminist-hating gunman shoots 14 women in Montreal.

… (1989) A revolt in the Philippines ends as 400 rebel troops abandon their siege of Manila’s business centre.

… (1988) Nelson Mandela is moved to a luxury home in the grounds of Pollsmoor Prison.

… (1988) President Gorbachev announces that Soviet military strength will be cut by ten per cent within the next two years.

… (1982) Charles Brookes Jr, a Death Row Prisoner at Fort Worth Prison in Texas, become the first American to die by lethal injection.

… (1955) Clement Atlee resigned as the leader of the Opposition and became the first former Labour leader to accept a hereditary peerage.

… (1941) ‘Japan Attacks Pearl Harbour’: A Japanese task force has launched a massive surprise attack on the US base at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. Five US battleships and 14 other ships have been wrecked or sunk, 200 aircraft destroyed and 2400 men killed. Though intelligence reports had warned of Japanese fleet movements in the Hawaii area, the US base was completely unprepared. America is outraged at the news, announced by the White House within hours. Japan and the US are not even at war – the attack comes during negotiations between the two governments. Yesterday President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a personal appeal to Japan’s Emperors Hirohito to avoid war. In spite of strong isolationist opposition, the US now has no choice but to declare war on Japan, and thus on her allies, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

… (1917) In Washington, President Woodrow Wilson declares war on Austria.

… (1909) A royal proclamation creating the self-governing Union of South Africa, comprising the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River and Transvaal, is read from the steps of the Royal Exchange in London.

… (1817) Death of Rear-Admiral William Bligh, captain of the Bounty when its crew mutinied.

… (1815) Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s most illustrious general, is executed in Paris for treason for supporting Napoleon at Waterloo instead of arresting him as he had been instructed by the allies to do.

… (1783) ‘Pitt is Prime Minister at 24’: William Pitt has been made British prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer, at the age of only 24. He replaces the Duke of Portland, dismissed after only eight months when King George III persuaded the House of Lords to reject his Indian government bill. Pitt is already acknowledged by all parties to be one of the finest orators and the ablest statesman of the day, but he has a formidable task before him. The king and public support him, but in parliament he faces a large and hostile majority led by experienced parliamentary tacticians, and he has no able speakers on his side.

… (1732) ‘Opera House opens in Covent Garden’: London’s new Royal Italian Opera House in Covent Garden opened its doors to an elite crowd tonight for a sparkling performance of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. It was a fine tribute to Gay, who died three days ago. The Opera House apes the Italian style, Covent Garden, Inigo Jones’s square above the Strand, apes the style of an Italian piazza, while The Beggar’s Opera is an outrageous burlesque of Italian opera. It is also a biting satire of prime minister Sir Robert Walpole and his Whig government, presented in the guise of low-life London villains and prostitutes. With music by John Pepusch, it is a most innovative work, using both songs and speech on stage to tell its story of high-society vice and corruption. It was immensely successful when Gay first staged it six years ago, and tonight’s gala performance showed its popularity has not waned. However, it is not at all popular with certain government figures, who have called for stronger censorship laws.

… (43 BC) Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero is executed for the Philippics, a series of attacks on Mark Anthony.

…Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. [Howell Forgy, US naval lieutenant, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, 1941.]

6^th, (1991) ‘French pole-axe US to win Davis Cup’: French President Francois Mitterrand honoured the victorious French Davis Cup tennis team at a reception at the Elysée Palace in Paris tonight. The French players are national heroes. Against all odds they pole-axed the US team, winning back the trophy after 59 years. Star players were Guy Forget and Henri Leconte, but the real star was the non-playing captain, Yannick Noah, who has set an entirely new style for team captains. His high-powered encouragement from the courtside was the key to the trophy. Noah pleaded and ranted and genuinely inspired his players, while his opposite number, US captain Tom Gorman, sank into his chair in despondency. Today Noah can do no wrong in France.

…Guy was happy, I was happy, the team was happy, the crowd was happy, everybody was happy. There is just one word to describe it all – happiness. [Yannick Noah, captain of the French Davis Cup tennis team, 1991.]

… (1990) Saddam Hussein announces that all 3400 foreign hostages held in Iraq since the invasion of Kuwait are now free to leave.

… (1990) An Italian military aircraft crashes in flames into a secondary school near Bologna, killing 12 and injuring a further 65.

… (1989) In Columbia, more than 40 people are killed by a bomb at the headquarters of the security police.

… (1988) American rock ‘n’ roll singer and songwriter Roy Orbison dies of a heart attack at the age of 52.

… (1921) ‘Ireland split as Free State is born’: Ireland’s 26 southern states were granted independence from Britain today, becoming the Irish Free State. Six of the eight Protestant-majority counties of Ulster in the north will remain part of the UK, splitting the country in two. The agreement was signed in Downing Street early this morning following negotiations between Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s team and the Irish nationalist leaders. A special council will be set up to discuss eventual reunification. Both sides would prefer a single Irish parliament in Dublin, but Ulster Protestant leaders refuse to bow to the Catholic South.

… (1914) The Germans capture the Polish city of Lodz.

… (1911) Mongolia is declared a Russian protectorate.

… (1905) Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen lands at Fort Egbert, Alaska, after a 2 ½ year voyage along America’s Arctic coast in his 47 foot (14 m) cutter.

… (1889) Death of Jefferson Davies, former president of the Confederate States of America.

… (1882) Death of English novelist Anthony Trollope, who made his name with a series of novels set in an imaginary county called Barsetshire.

… (1877) Thomas Edison tested his first phonograph, recording himself reciting a verse of Mary Had a Little Lamb.

… (1793) Madame du Barry, last mistress of King Louis XV of France, is sent to the guillotine by the Revolutionary Council.

… (1774) Austria becomes the first nation to establish a state education system.

… (1648) ‘Cromwell purges Parliament’: Oliver Cromwell’s troops surrounded Parliament at Westminster today and refused to admit 200 Presbyterian MPs, purging the whole of the majority that opposes Cromwell’s Independents. The remaining 50 MPs, all Independents, voted hearty thanks to Cromwell for his great services, and moved on to discuss the fate of King Charles, who Cromwell is holding captive on the Isle of Wight. The Presbyterian faction tried to make a deal with the king. They hardly expected Cromwell’s simple solution to the threat.

5^th, (2013) South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, died aged 95.

… (1978) The USSR signs a 20-year treaty of friendship with Afghanistan.

… (1977) President Sadat of Egypt severs links with Syria, Libya, Algeria and South Yemen.

… (1974) The final episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was aired on the BBC.

… (1958) Britain’s first section of motorway, the eight-mile Preston bypass in Lancashire – with a hedge dividing its four lanes – was opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. It is now part of the M6.

… (1956) Rose Heilbron becomes Britain’s first female judge.

… (1945) ‘Planes vanish near Bermuda’: Six US navy aircraft carrying 27 airmen are missing without trace in the Atlantic near Bermuda. Five bombers took off this morning from Fort Lauderdale, Florida on a training flight. When radio contact was lost with the bombers, a sixth plane was sent to find them. It too lost radio contact. Subsequent searches have found nothing. It is thought the planes came down somewhere within a triangle of ocean between Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Florida.

… (1933) ‘US celebrates end of Prohibition’: The US is celebrating the end of 14 long years of Prohibition today. Utah became the last state to ratify the 21^st Amendment, which effectively nullifies the 18^th Amendment of 1919 prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”. The 18^th Amendment, passed over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, was the result of long campaigning by the Temperance Movement and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union – boosted unexpectedly by the World War One grain shortage. The “Noble Experiment” just did not work. Americans did not stop drinking – the law simply pushed the lucrative liquor trade into the hands of criminals like Al Capone and many others. Enforcement proved impossible and unpopular even with the police. Anti-Prohibition “wets” have now won their campaign to restore individual freedom of choice.

… (1920) In a referendum, the Greek people vote for the return of their monarch, ex-King Constantine, removed by the Allies in 1917.

… (1912) Italy, Germany and Austria renew the Triple Alliance for a further six years.

… (1910) A convoy of barges on the River Volga in Russia sinks, drowning 350 workmen.

… (1906) Russian admiral Niebogatov goes on trial accused of surrendering ships to the Japanese.

… (1906) After a sensational nine-month trial by an ecclesiastical court, Episcopalian rector the Rev. Algernon S. Crapsey of Rochester, New York, was today convicted of heresy and expelled from ministry. The church had charged that Crapsey, influenced by the writings of Karl Marx and the French theologian Ernest Renan, had questioned the divinity of Christ. The case has created widespread controversy on both sides of the Atlantic.

… (1905) The roof of Charing Cross Station in London collapses, killing five.

… (1904) The Japanese destroy the Russian fleet at Port Arthur.

… (1870) Death of Alexandre Dumas père, author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.

… (1792) George Washington is re-elected president of the US.

… (1791) ‘Pauper’s burial for Mozart’: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has died in Vienna of kidney failure. He was only 35, and at the height of his genius. Mozart wrote his first composition when he was five, played before the Vienna court at the age of six, went on a concert tour of Europe when he was seven and composed his first symphony at the age of nine. He has written more than 600 works. Mozart’s work was often too deep and complex for his audiences, though he has had a profound influence on other musicians, and he was dogged by money problems to the end. Only the gravedigger attended his burial in a Viennese suburb.

… (1594) ‘Death of man who drew the world’: The great Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator has died, aged 82. Mercator was a many-sided man, a philosopher, calligrapher, technician, instrument-maker and engraver, but it is his maps that won him renown – and helped the Netherlands grow into a sea-power. Mercator was at the centre of the great advances in mapmaking technique made this century. His method of depicting the world’s curved surface on flat paper using straight lines of longitude and latitude soon became standard practice. Mercator designed a map of the world in 1538, and three years later a globe based on maps and descriptions by Ptolemy, Marco Polo and the Spanish and Portuguese navigators. In 1569 he published a series of world maps for use by navigators. Mercator worked on a world atlas and history of the world for 20 years, but never completed it. His son is now planning to publish it in its unfinished state.

…Your parole officer has not yet been born. [Edwin Torres, US judge, sentencing a murderer, 1991.]

4^th, (1992) Twenty-eight thousand US troops land in Somalia to support the relief effort as hundreds of thousands face starvation due to civil unrest.

… (1989) ‘Krenz ousted as communist rule crumbles’: East Germany’s head of state, Egon Krenz, was forced to resign today only six weeks after he replaced a beleaguered Erich Hoenecker. Strongman Hoenecker was toppled after huge public protests at government corruption and abuse of power, followed by a mass exodus to the West through Czechoslovakia. With communist rule crumbling about him, Krenz agreed to free elections and opened the Berlin Wall. New revelations, however, have linked him to large-scale corruption. Liberal Democrat leader Manfred Gerlach is acting head of state for the time being.

… (1980) British rock band Led Zeppelin announced they were disbanding, following the death of drummer John Bonham.

… (1974) Death of British composer Benjamin Britten, whose best-known works include the operas Billy Budd, Peter Grimes and Death in Venice.

… (1961) The Museum of Modern Art in New York discovered Henri Matisse’s Le Bateau had been hanging upside down for 47 years.

… (1947) Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire is premiered on Broadway, with Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy in the leading roles.

… (1937) In Britain, The Dandy comic is published for the first time.

… (1915) Georgia officially recognises the Ku Klux Klan.

… (1913) Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested in Plymouth on her return to the UK from the US.

… (1912) Turkey reaches an armistice with all the Balkan allies except Greece.

… (1872) ‘Mystery of the Marie Celeste’: The American brigantine Marie Celeste has been found adrift in the Atlantic between the Azores and Portugal, her captain and crew mysteriously missing. The British brigantine Dei Gratia came upon the ship and boarded her when she failed to respond to their signals. The ship was deserted and the lifeboat was not on board. The rigging was slightly damaged, but the cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol had not been touched. The captain’s table was set for a meal which was never eaten. The Marie Celeste sailed from New York on November 7 bound for Genoa, commanded by Captain Benjamin S. Briggs and carrying a crew of eight and the captain’s wife and daughter. They left no message aboard and there is no indication of what can have happened to them.

… (1791) In Britain, the Observer Sunday newspaper is published for the first time.

… (1732) Death of John Gay, English poet and dramatist best-known for the ballad opera The Beggar’s Opera.

… (1642) ‘King’s cardinal dies’: Armand du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, who has ruled France for his king for 18 years, died today, aged 57. Richelieu had survived constant conspiracies by jealous nobles, always one step ahead in the plot. Richelieu was foreign secretary when young King Louis XIII overthrew his mother to take the throne. He almost had Richelieu murdered, but fired him instead. Later Louis came to understand what he had in this pragmatic priest: a brilliant man, totally dedicated to France – and to the throne. In 1624 Louis made him chief of the royal council and gave him total authority. Richelieu has ruled ever since, with an iron hand and unerring skill. As a result, Louis has survived the Thirty Years’ War, and France is at the forefront of European power – to the cost of her enemy, Spain. With Richelieu dead, King Louis has lost his right arm.

… (1154) Nicholas Breakspeare becomes the first Englishman to be Pope.

…Many, if not most, of our Indian wars have had their origin in broken promises and injustice on our part. [Rutherford B. Hayes, US President, in a message to Congress, 1877.]

3^rd, (1990) Argentinean president Carlos Menem foils an attempted coup.

… (1989) In India, 800 people are arrested during a demonstration to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster.

… (1989) ‘The Cold War is over’: The Cold War ended today after 52 years of superpower rivalry. With communist rule crumbling in Eastern Europe, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President George Bush ended their shipboard summit meeting off Malta and hailed the start of a new era of peace and cooperation. The leaders announced two arms treaties to be signed next year, reducing strategic nuclear forces by half and cutting conventional forces in Europe. Both sides have already dismantled their intermediate-range nuclear missiles.

… (1984) ‘3000 killed in Bhopal pesticide spill’: More than 3000 people are feared killed and hundreds of thousands injured in the world’s worst-ever industrial accident following a chemical spill at a pesticide factory in India. A storage tank at the Union Carbide (India) plant in Bhopal, central India, began leaking just after midnight, sending a deadly gas spreading silently through the sleeping city. In three hours the tank leaked more than 30 tons of the chemical, methyl isocyanate (MIC). Most of those killed suffocated or choked to death. Many survivors have suffered severe lung damage, while others are blinded or have heart, kidney or liver damage. The plant was shut down as soon as the spill was discovered, and five Union Carbide officials have been arrested. The government has declared the city a disaster area and asked for assistance. Union Carbide has pledged to compensate victims as if the accident had happened in the US.

… (1967) ‘Surgeons give man new heart’: A South African heart surgeon, Dr Christiaan Barnard, has successfully performed a human heart transplant operation. Leading a large team of surgeons at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, Barnard replaced the mortally diseased heart of Louis Washkansky, a 53-year-old grocer, with the healthy heart of a 25-year-old motor accident victim, Denise Darvall. Bernard said the main problem was not the operation itself but persuading the patient’s immune system not to reject the new heart.

… (1947) Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway starring Jessica Tandy and Marlon Brando.

… (1926) British novelist Agatha Christie disappears from her home in Surrey.

… (1925) In New York, police smash the biggest bootlegging ring since Prohibition began and arrest 20 people.

… (1920) British writer Rudyard Kipling wind damages of £2 against a medical company that had used part of his poem “IF” in an advertisement.

… (1919) ‘Renoir Dies’: The most sensual of the French Impressionist painters, Auguste Renoir, has died at his villa near Cannes in France. He was 78. Though crippled by rheumatism, he was still painting hours before he died. Renoir and Claude Monet launched the Impressionist movement at a notorious exhibition in 1874. They worked outdoors, capturing nature’s caprice in fleeting moments of light and colour. The critics sneered at the works’ “half-finished” appearance, but a wiser world now sneers at the critics.

… (1918) Death-rates in the worldwide epidemic of killer influenza are beginning to fall. Almost every country has been hit since the deadly new strain of the disease first arose earlier this year. Called Spanish ‘flu, where it really came from is a mystery. The Far East has been worst hit, with millions dead in China and India.

… (1910) France occupies the Moroccan port of Agadir.

… (1909) King Edward VII dissolves the British parliament and taxes on alcohol, tobacco and cars are suspended as no Budget has been passed.

… (1905) British troops put down a riot in Georgetown, British Guiana.

… (1894) Death of Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island.

… (1828) ‘Jackson is president’: John Quincy Adams lost the US presidential election to his arch-rival Andrew Jackson today. Adam’s term as president was blocked at almost every turn by the Jacksonian faction. Frontier soldier Jackson, of Tennessee, is backed by the new Democratic Party, supported by southern farmers and northern workers. A noisy crowd of farmers and other supporters invaded the White House in Washington tonight to celebrate Jackson’s victory, causing considerable upset and some damage.

… (1552) Death of Spanish Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, who helped Ignatius Loyola found the Jesuit order and subsequently worked mainly in Japan, India and the Indies.

2^nd, (2001) US energy giant Enron files for bankruptcy, raising questions about big business and politics, as President Bush had received large payments from the company.

… (1990) West German chancellor Helmut Kohl has won the first all-German election since 1933. Kohl’s Christian Democratic Union and their allies have won more than half the vote, with a 20 per cent lead on the Social Democrats. East Germany’s communist ex-rulers won a few seats in the new united German parliament.

… (1989) In India, V.P. Singh, leader of the Janata Dal party, replaces Rajv Gandhi as prime minister, although Gandhi’s Congress Party has the largest single representation in parliament.

… (1988) A 110 mph (177 kph) cyclone in Bangladesh kills thousands and leaves five million homeless.

… (1981) ‘Mercenary coup fails in Seychelles’: White mercenaries posing as golfers on holiday today failed in an attempt to overthrow the left-wing government of the Seychelles. They got no further than the airport, where a golf bag fell open to reveal a gun. Led by the 4 notorious ex-Congo mercenary Colonel “Mad Mike” Hoare, the 44 men shot their way out of the airport building and hijacked an Air India jet to South Africa, which is believed to be the source of their backing. The men were arrested on arrival, but most of them have already been released.

… (1954) The end of four years of anti-communist hysteria in the US was in sight today when a special session of the US Senate voted to condemn the chief instigator of the witchhunt, Senator Joseph McCarthy, for conduct unbecoming to a senator.

… (1928) Britain’s first 22 public telephone boxes appear on the streets of London.

… (1927) Ford’s Model ‘A’ car goes on show as successor to the Model T.

… (1911) Chinese republicans capture Nanking.

… (1908) Pu Yi succeeds to the thrones of China.

… (1907) Seven hundred and thirty people are rescued from a shipwrecked liner, Mount Temple, off the coast of Nova Scotia.

… (1901) In the US, King Camp Gillette markets a safety razor with a double-edged disposable blade.

… (1900) The US Supreme Court declares that Puerto Ricans do not qualify for American citizenship.

… (1859) ‘John Brown hanged for treason’: The radical abolitionist John Brown was hanged today in Charleston for treason against Virginia. Three years ago Brown and his sons murdered five pro-slavery settlers in a raid in Kansas. His latest project was to found a republic in the Appalachians as a base for abolitionists and runaways to fight slavery. On October 16, Brown and an armed force of 21 men attacked Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, seized the federal arsenal and occupied the town. Federal troops commanded by Robert E. Lee recaptured the town the following morning, wounding Brown and killing 10 of his men. Brown was charged with treason. His trial was a sensation: Brown played on abolitionist sympathies in the North, where he is being hailed as a martyr, but his extremism has horrified the South, where he is seen as a murderous traitor. The whole affair has served to widen the rift over abolition.

…As I write, they are leading old John Brown to execution … This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, which will soon come. [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, today, 1859.]

… (1823) ‘”Hand Off” Monroe Tells Europe’: US President James Monroe today warned Europe to keep its hands off both American continents. In his annual message to the US Congress, Monroe defended the newly-won independence of the Spanish colonies in Latin America and said the American continents were no longer subjects for European colonisation. The warning follows concerted moves by the US secretary of state john Quincy Adams and British foreign secretary George Canning to head off reported French plans to send troops to help Spain regain her New World colonies. Canning persuaded France to renounce its New World ambitions in October, and Monroe knows Britain will enforce the agreement if necessary. However, Monroe sent a similar “hands off” message to Russia in July, following the Tsar’s claims to part of the American Pacific coast.

… (1814) The Marquis de Sade dies in a lunatic asylum at Charenton.

… (1804) ‘Napoleon crowns himself emperor’: Monarchy returned to France today when Napoleon Bonaparte crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I at Notre dame, 11 years after King Louis XVI was guillotined. Pope Pius VII presided over the ceremony, but Napoleon placed the crown on his own head, and then crowned his wife Josephine as empress. Ironically, the train of events that has put the “little corporal” from Corsica on the throne was sparked off by an attempt to kill him. In February, disgraced police minister Joseph Fouche won his job back when he uncovered a British-financed plot by renegade French royalists to assassinate Napoleon. The plot was thwarted, but a wave of anti-royalist feeling followed, encouraging the Senate to ask Napoleon to found an hereditary dynasty and take the throne.

… (1697) Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral is opened in London.

… (1547) Death of Hernan Cortes, conqueror of Mexico for Spain.

December 1^st, (1990) Food rationing is imposed in Leningrad.

… (1990) ‘Europe and Britain joined’: Today the two halves of the Channel Tunnel were joined under the sea. A joint British-French effort, excavations for the high-speed rail tunnel was started from both the French and British sides of the English Channel. This morning the two construction teams broke through to meet in the middle.

… (1989) The East German Communist Party votes to end its monopoly of power.

… (1989) A historic meeting in Rome between Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev ends 70 years of mutual hostility between the USSR and the Vatican.

… (1987) Death of James Baldwin, black American writer whose works include The Fire Next Time, Go Tell It on the Mountain and Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone.

… (1973) Death of David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel.

… (1959) ‘Treaty Reserves Antarctica For Science’: Twelve countries today agreed to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research in the first international agreement of its kind. The Antarctic Treaty was signed by the US, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Belgium, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and Japan. It freezes all territorial claims on the last unexploited continent, throws the continent open to all scientists, and bans military bases, nuclear explosions and the dumping of nuclear wastes. Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. If it melted, the oceans would rise 200 ft (65 m).

… (1942) ‘Post-war Britain to abolish want’: The British government was today presented with a plan to turn post-war Britain into a “welfare state”. The plan is the work of a government committee headed by Sir William Beveridge, charged with finding solutions to the problems of poverty after the war. It revolves around a compulsory national insurance scheme to provide all adults with free medical treatment, unemployment benefits, old age pensions and death cover. Both employers and employees will contribute. Britain introduced limited unemployment and old-age insurance in 1911, and the scheme was broadened in 1925. Beveridge’s plan brings security for all “from cradle to grave”.

… (1939) The world premiere of the film Gone with the Wind is held in New York.

… (1918) The Danish parliament passes an act giving independence to Iceland.

… (1921) In France, Henri Landru is found guilty of the murders of ten women whom he had met by placing advertisements in lonely-hearts columns.

… (1908) Italy demands that Austria pay compensation for the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

… (1905) Twenty army officers and 230 guards are arrested in St Petersburg after a plot to kill the Tsar is discovered.

… (1834) ‘Boers outraged as slaves freed’: The slaves of the British Cape Colony were emancipated today. There freedom has caused a deep split in Cape society, with Dutch-speaking Boer farmers in outlying districts threatening to rebel. The issue has become the focus of Boer resentment of the harsh British rule. Labour shortages caused by Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807 have driven the Boers even further into the hinterland. Raising beef makes more profit and needs less labour than raising crops, and the Boers graze their cattle over large areas. Their expansion has brought them into constant conflict with the black tribes. To the Boers, blacks are savage heathens or slaves. British Governor Sir Benjamin D’urban is unsympathetic to their grievances. Some Boers are talking of leaving the Cape for the unexplored north.

… (1824) No clear winner has emerged in today’s US presidential election. None of the four candidates received an electoral majority, though Andrew Jackson had the most votes, with John Quincy Adams second. The vote will now go to the House of Representatives.

… (1640) Portugal expels the Spanish and regains its independence.

… (1581) English Jesuit Edmund Campion is hanged for treason after distributing copies of an anti-Anglican pamphlet in Oxford.

… (1135) ‘Fish feast kills King Henry’: England’s King Henry I has died at St Denis in Normandy. He fell ill seven days ago after eating too many lampreys, and never recovered. He was 66, and had ruled for 35 years. Henry seized the throne after his eldest brother, King William Rufus, was killed. Henry defeated the rightful heir, his second brother Robert, Duke of Normandy, and seized Normandy as well. Robert died several months ago in Cardiff Castle, where Henry had imprisoned him 29 years ago. Henry’s only son, William, drowned in 1120 (it is said that Henry never smiled again) and, left heirless, the king extracted an oath from his nobles to accept his stormy daughter Maud as his successor. But the barons see it as a disgrace for men to submit to a woman’s rule – especially Maud’s. They are backing the claim of Henry’s nephew Stephen, Earl of Bois, first prince of the blood royal and a popular favourite, who is now hastening to London. Meanwhile Maud is preparing to invade England to get her father’s throne.

…It is our determination to preserve proper relations between master and servant. [Piet Retief, Boer Voortrekker leader, in his Manifesto, 1837.]

NOVEMBER

30^th …St Andrews Day, Scotland.

… (1995) Bill Clinton became the first serving U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland.

… (1989) In the Philippines, rebels attack Cory Aquino’s presidential palace and seize parts of three military bases.

… (1989) Germany’s left-wing terrorist group the Red Army Faction blow up Alfred Herrhausen, the head of the Deutsche Bank, in Frankfurt.

… (1988) PLO leader Yasser Arafat is refused a visa to enter the US in order to address the UN General Assembly in New York.

… (1986) ‘Reagan’s men dismissed’: The rapidly developing Iran-Contra scandal has claimed two prominent heads: Admiral John Poindexter, President Reagan’s National Security Advisor, and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council staff, a much-decorated ex-Marine known as the President’s “swashbuckler-in-chief”. It has emerged that the $30 million (£16 million) profits from secret sales of embargoed arms to the Iranians were passed on to the US-backed Contras in Nicaragua to finance their struggle against the democratically elected Sandinista government. President Reagan has come under intense pressure over the extent of his involvement in the affair, but it is likely that the sacrifice of his two aides will defuse the crisis.

… (1983) Dutch brewery millionaire Alfred Heineken is kidnapped in Amsterdam.

… (1982) The film Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley, had its premiere in New Delhi.

… (1979) Death of Zeppo Marx, one of the four Marx Brothers.

… (1967) Aden gains its independence from the British.

… (1957) Death of Benjamino Gigli, Italian tenor who was regarded as the succession to Caruso.

… (1956) American boxer Floyd Patterson becomes the youngest boxer to win the world heavyweight title when he knocks out Archie Moore in Chicago.

… (1954) Sir Winston Churchill was 80 today, and at a party in the House of Commons Mr Atlee, leader of the Opposition, presented him with a specially commissioned portrait by Graham Sutherland. Sir Winston received the gift with a marked lack of enthusiasm, and described it as “a remarkable example of modern art” that “certainly combines force with candour”.

… (1936) ‘Crystal Palace destroyed by fire’: One of London’s best-loved landmarks, the Crystal Palace, burned down this evening. Designed by Joseph Paxton, the Duke of Devonshire’s head gardener, the huge glass building, 1848 ft (600 m) long by 408 ft (132 m) wide, was originally constructed in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Six million people passed through the building during the Exhibition; Queen Victoria herself visited it 29 times. When the Exhibition closed the building was dismantled and rebuilt on a hill in Sydenham, South London, where it was still a great draw – one-and-a-quarter million Londoners visited it in 1854. The flames were first noticed at 8 pm, and by 8.30 the entire centre trancept was ablaze, with flames shooting 300 ft (100 m) into the sky. Visible from all over the city and as far away as Brighton, the blaze attracted a huge crowd of sightseers and special trains were laid on from Central London. Five hundred firemen fought to save the building, but in vain.

… (1925) The US sends warships to Hankow, China, to prevent Communist attacks on foreigners.

… (1924) The last French and Belgian troops withdraw from the Ruhr.

… (1919) Women are allowed to vote for the first time in the French elections.

… (1909) ‘House of Lords throws out people’s budget’: After seven months of argument the House of Lords threw out Chancellor Lloyd George’s controversial tax package “until it has been submitted to the judgement of the country”. Prime Minister Herbert Asquith and the Liberals are bracing themselves for a constitutional crisis; a General Election is now inevitable, and a key issue will be whether their Lordships are too powerful. The Budget proposes taxing the 10,000 citizens with incomes more than £5000 ($9200) a year an extra 6d (2½ p/4½ cents) in the pound above the standard 1s (5p/9 cents) payable by all who earn over £2000 ($3700); unearned incomes are to be taxed 1s 2d (5½p/10 cents) in the pound. The money raised will finance rearmament and old-age pensions. The Tories describe the proposals as an attack on the propertied classes.

… (1900) ’Oscar Wilde is dead’: Oscar Wilde, the noted – and notorious – Irish wit and playwright, has died in a Paris rooming-house aged 46, in poverty and all but forgotten by his once large circle of admirers. He had lived in Paris since his release from imprisonment for sexual offences in 1897, broken by the scandal and the severity of his sentence. He was born in Dublin in 1854 and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin and Magdalene College, Oxford, where he first attracted attention by his flamboyance and his aestheticism. It is his four plays of the 1890s that will ensure his long-term reputation: Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. He is to be buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery.

…The legal profession is a kind of prostitution: lawyers are paid to find intellectual justifications for other people’s actions. [Lisa Forrell, lawyer and dramatist, 1991]

29^th, (2001) The death has been announced of former Beatle George Harrison. Known as the “quiet one” of the Fab Four, Harrison continued with his musical success after the break up of the Beatles, having his own hits such as “My Sweet Lord”, and playing with the Travelling Wilburys. He also had a film production company, Handmade Films. Harrison was 58 and had been suffering from cancer.

… (1999) The Northern Ireland power-sharing executive is set up.

… (1994) Russian aircraft launch a bombing raid on the Chechen capital, Grozny.

… (1990) Following intensive diplomacy from President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker, the UN Security Council today approved Resolution 678, authorising member governments to use “all necessary force” to ensure Iraq’s complete withdrawal from Kuwait by January 15 next year. This is the first authorisation of force by the UN since the Korean War, and marks a significant stepping-up of the pressure on Iraq.

… (1989) Russian gymnast and Olympic gold medal-winner Nadia Comaneci escapes to Hungary and asks for political asylum.

… (1986) Death of debonair British-born actor Cary Grant, star of many films including The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace and To Catch a Thief.

… (1978) ‘Corpses from mass suicide discovered’: Horrified rescue workers came across a bizarre mass suicide at the site of the Reverend Jim Jones’s People’s Temple in Guyana today. Alerted by the disappearance of Congressman Leo Ryan and his five colleagues on a mission to investigate Jones’s cult, they found more than 900 corpses scattered about the Temple grounds. Survivors found huddled in the bushes testified that the dead had drunk Kool-Aid laced with cyanide on the orders of their leader Jones; he apparently described it as “as an act of revolutionary suicide” before shooting himself in the head. Jones was formerly a Methodist minister.

… (1972) The first commercially successful video game, Pong (based on table tennis), was released. Creator Nolan Bushnell said it was a game “so simple that any drunk in any bar could play”.

… (1974) German terrorist leader Ulrike Meinhof is jailed for eight years.

… (1971) The British government announces a fund of £3 million ($5.5 million) for thalidomide victims.

… (1965) In Britain, housewife Mary Whitehouse announces the formation of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, a watchdog body to halt sex, violence and bad taste in the BBC.

… (1943) ‘Allied leaders meet in Tehran’: The first summit conference between Russian prime minister Joseph Stalin, US president Franklin D. Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill opens today in Tehran. The intention is to discuss the progress of the war and to plan for the future – in particular the coordination of the Normandy landings planned for June 1944 with a simultaneous Russian attack on Germany from the east. Also on the agenda are the possibilities of Russia entering the war against Japan and the post-war foundation of a United Nations organisation.

… (1924) Death of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, whose works included Tosca and La Boheme.

… (1909) Russian novelist Maxim Gorky is expelled from the Revolutionary Party for his bourgeois lifestyle.

… (1902) Carl Nielson’s opera Saul and David is premiered in New York.

… (1864) ‘Massacre at Sand Creek’: At least 150 Indian warriors, women and children were killed today at Sand Creek, Colorado Territory by 750 US cavalry under the command of Colonel John M. Chivington. Some 200 Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors along with 500 women and children had surrendered at Fort Lynn, 40 miles (64 km) away, after three years of war. Having been disarmed and sent to Sand Creek they were helpless in the face of the dawn massacre.

… (1780) ‘Death of Empress Maria Theresa’: The death has been announced in Vienna of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, widow of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I. She has been a key figure in the politics of 18^th-century Europe, and has been described as “the most human of the Hapsburgs”. Although deeply pious and intolerant to the point of bigotry, she has been an enlightened ruler, introducing compulsory primary education and a rudimentary penal code, and encouraging the eminence of Vienna as a centre for the arts. The most prominent of her 16 children are the emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, and Marie Antoinette of France, consort of Louis XVI. The death of her father, Charles VI, in 1740, precipitated the War of Austrian Succession, in which she lost Silesia to Frederick the Great of Prussia but secured the Imperial crown for her husband. Her rivalry with the latter for European power was a major cause of the Seven Years’ War (from 1756 to 1763).

… (1641) The first English newspaper is published.

28^th, (2002) Suicide bombers drive a vehicle full of explosives into an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, Kenya, killing 13.

… (1999) Cliff Richard’s Millennium Prayer – the Lord’s Prayer set to Auld Lang Syne – went to No. 1, despite most leading radio stations refusing to play it.

… (1990) ‘Thatcher Resigns’: Margaret Thatcher, Conservative prime minister since May 1979 (and the longest-serving this century) handed her resignation to the Queen early today. Later this morning John Major was formally appointed in her place. The leadership crisis was precipitated by the November 1 resignation of Sir Geoffrey Howe, deputy prime minister and the last serving member of Mrs. Thatcher’s original 1979 cabinet. Howe was openly critical of her hostile attitude to Europe, especially over monetary policy. Ex-minister Michael Heseltine, another Thatcher critic, challenged her for the leadership of the Conservative Party and in the ensuing ballot she failed by four votes to secure the 15 per cent margin needed to avoid a second ballot. Although she announced her intention to stand again, she finally stood down after protracted consultations with senior colleagues.

… (1988) ‘Spycatcher witness “economical with the truth”’: Cabinet Secretary Sir Robert Armstrong, the British government’s chief witness in its attempt to prevent publication of retired MI5 agent Peter Wright’s memoirs, admitted to the Sydney court today that he had unintentionally given “misleading evidence”. In his book Spycatcher, Wright alleges that the late Sir Roger Hollis, former MI5 chief, was a Soviet double agent. Wright’s attorney, Malcolm Turnball, previously questioned Sir Robert about the government’s apparent selectivity in going after Wright but not prosecuting two previous authors who had made similar accusations. Armstrong’s contention was that Wright was a government employee, and therefore subject to different criteria, and that the decision not to prosecute was made by the Attorney General, Sir Michael Havers. Today he admitted that the decision had in fact been taken by “a group of advisors”, not by Havers; inadvertently, he said, he had been “economical with the truth”.

… (1978) The Iranian government bans religious marches.

… (1971) In Rome, 100,000 demonstrators march against fascism.

… (1967) All horseracing is banned in Britain owing to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

… (1950) ‘Chinese enter Korean conflict’: the Korean War took a devastating new turn today when an estimated 200,000 Chinese troops poured over the River Yalu. Chou En-Lai, the Chinese foreign minister, had repeatedly warned that his country would resist if US forces crossed the 38^th Parallel into North Korea, but his warnings were ignored by the West. Now the US Eighth Army, along with large forces of Marines and South Koreans, is in humiliating retreat in appalling weather.

… (1948) The first Polaroid cameras go on sale in Boston.

… (1945) Death of Dwight F. Davis, founder of the Davis tennis tournament.

… (1919) Nancy Astor is elected Member of Parliament for Plymouth, becoming Britain’s first woman MP.

… (1909) In Paris, a law is passed to allow pregnant women eight weeks’ maternity leave.

… (1907) King Leopold II of Belgium hands over control of the Congo to the Belgian government, ending 20 years of absolute rule by the monarch.

… (1905) Austrians gain universal suffrage.

… (1859) ‘Rip Van Winkle’s creator is dead’: Washington Irving, the first successful American-born writer, died at his Tarrytown, New York, home today, aged 76. In 1820 he published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, a collection of amusing stories that included “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. The book launched him as a writer, which was all he had ever wanted to be, although he never quite reproduced its success; latterly he concentrated on non-fiction, producing biographies of Christopher Columbus, Oliver Goldsmith and George Washington – after whom his father had named him and by whom he was blessed at his inauguration in 1789. A modest and kindly man of great charm, Irving never married, although there is a persistent legend that Mary Shelley was in love with him in the 1820s.

…A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die out, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. [Max Planck, German physicist, 1934.]

27^th, (2003) ‘Bush in Iraq Thanksgiving’: US President George Bush helped serve a Thanksgiving meal to American troops in Baghdad in a surprise visit to Iraq to mark America’s Thanksgiving holiday. The event was kept secret until Mr. Bush left the Iraqi capital because of security concerns. Mr. Bush spent two hours having dinner with about 600 stunned US troops. Even they had not been told that Mr. Bush was coming to Iraq, the first visit ever by a US President. “I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere,” Mr. Bush told the troops. “Thanks for inviting me to dinner. I can’t think of a finer group of folks to have Thanksgiving dinner with than you all.” The visit will have given the troops a much-needed morale boost, after a month of heavy American losses.

… (2000) Ten-year-old schoolboy Damilola Taylor was stabbed to death in Peckham, South London.

… (1991) A 15^th-century Bible is sold at Christie’s in London to a New York antiquarian bookseller for £1.1 million ($2 million).

… (1970) In Manila, capital of the Philippines, a knife-wielding man is seized as he attempts to attack Pope John Paul.

… (1967) President de Gaulle turns down British entry into the Common Market.

… (1944) The explosion is heard as far away as Geneva when 4000 tons of explosives stored in a cavern in Staffordshire, England, blow up, destroying a farm and killing 68.

… (1942) The French fleet is scuttled by its crews six hours after German tanks arrive in the naval base of Toulon.

… (1919) A massive meteor lands in Lake Michigan.

… (1914) ‘First women on the beat’: The first policewomen in Britain to complete their official training and assume active duty, Misses Mary Allen and E. F. Harburn, were patrolling the streets of Grantham, Lincolnshire, today. Reporting to the Provost Marshal of the county, the women are at present unpaid. They are in Grantham in response to a request from the military authorities – there is a military camp containing 18,000 soldiers just outside town (only 2,000 fewer than the population of Grantham), and it is felt that the women’s presence on the streets could help to reduce tension. Wartime demands on manpower are expected to lead to the recruitment of more women to the force.

… (1895) Death of Alexandre Dumas fils, French novelist and dramatist who wrote the novel La Dame aux Camellias and adapted it for the stage as Camille.

… (1893) New Zealand went to the polls today, and for the first time in a national election anywhere in the world women voted too, a female suffrage bill having been passed in parliament by just two votes. The women of New Zealand owe this advance to the flamboyant Liberal leader Richard John Seddon, known as “King Dick”, whose unwillingness to alienate a powerful feminist-temperance alliance helped force the measure through parliament, albeit with so narrow a margin.  The women returned the favour by electing Seddon and the Liberals to power.

… (1875) Britain buys shares worth £4 million ($7.4 million) in the Suez Canal Company.

… (1868) ‘Custer kills Chief Black Kettle’: Blood flowed on the Washita river in western Oklahoma today when Lieutenant Colonel George Custer and his 7^th Cavalry attacked and burned the village of Cheyenne chief Black Kettle. The Cheyenne have been bitterly resisting the building of the railroad in their territory, but it seems that Black Kettle had been negotiating for peace at the time of his death. The 29-year-old Custer is a controversial figure – his daring, reckless style attracted attention at the Battle of Gettysburg and he has only recently been restored to active duty following a court-martial for unauthorised absence from his command and for mistreating deserters. Within an hour after the dawn attack, 103 warriors were dead, according to Custer’s unverified estimate. The 23 US dead, among them Major Joel Elliot, were slaughtered while in hot pursuit of a group of fleeing Indians.

… (1852) English mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace died, aged 36.

… (1811) Death of Andrew Meikle, Scottish inventor of the threshing machine.

26^th, (1990) President Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore resigns after 26 years in office.

… (1983) ‘UK’s biggest gold robbery’: A daring and efficient gang of thieves pulled off Britain’s biggest-ever robbery today: £25 millions’ ($46 million) worth of gold bullion. They coolly broke into the Brinks-Mat security warehouse at Heathrow Airport, neutralised the alarm system and tied up six guards. They then spent an hour loading the gold, which weighed 25 tons, into a truck before making their getaway.

… (1966) The world’s first tidal power station was opened by General de Gaulle today on the Rance Estuary near St Malo in Brittany. Its developer, Albert Caquot, first drew up plans to harness the power of the tides in 1855, but his scheme was rejected as too ambitious. The present station cost FF420 million (£42 million/$77 million). The 2640 ft (850 m) barrage contains 24 turbo alternators that produce 544 million KW.

… (1956) American bandleader Tommy Dorsey chokes to death in his sleep at the age of 51.

… (1942) Soviet troops encircle a quarter of a million German troops at Stalingrad, relieving the siege and routing General von Paulus’s Sixth Army.

… (1928) The first twins to be born in Britain by Caesarean section are delivered in Manchester.

… (1924) Charlie Chaplin, 35, married 16-year-old Lita Grey (who had starred in his film, The Kid) in Mexico.

… (1922) Archaeologist Howard Carter and his sponsor the Earl of Caernavon make a hole in the door of Tutankhamun’s tomb and are able to distinguish the contents by candlelight.

… (1906) ‘Roosevelt comes home’: President Theodore Roosevelt has returned to Washington from Central America, having made history by being the first US President to travel abroad while in office. His 17-day trip aboard the battleship Louisiana took him to Puerto Rico and then on to Panama to see for himself the building work on the canal he did so much to promote – or “to see how the ditch is getting on”, as he put it. The cab of a 95-ton steam shovel made an excellent vantage point for the President as he viewed the awe-inspiring work of engineering, which will reduce the voyage between the Atlantic and Pacific by around 7000 miles (11,200 km). It’s a good time for Mr. Roosevelt – next month he is to go to Stockholm to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for his mediation between Russia and Japan to end their armed conflict.

… (1902) New Zealand’s Progressive Party wins the general election for the fifth consecutive time.

… (1901) Britain and Italy agree a frontier between Eritrea and the Sudan.

… (1836) ‘Tar McAdam’: John McAdam, Scottish inventor of the macadam road surface which has done so much to improve the comfort of travel on Britain’s roads, has died at the age of 80. McAdam was prompted to find a way of improving the appalling standard of road surfaces in Britain after a trip to America opened his eyes as to how good these could be. He started work on the problem in 1783, and by the time he came up with his system he had expended a considerable amount of his own fortune on experiments. The McAdam system makes use of crushed rock and gravel on a raised surface for good drainage. McAdam was appointed Surveyor General of Metropolitan Roads in 1827. He loved Scotland and in retirement would frequently revisit the scenes of his boyhood. It was while returning from one of these expeditions that he died.

… (1832) ‘New York Gets Streetcars’: New York’s public transport system was inaugurated today when Mr. John Mason’s horse-drawn streetcars, the city’s first, went into operation between Spring and 14^th streets.

… (1688) King Louis XIV declares war on the Netherlands.

…I think Prohibition a piece of low, provincial persecution of the dirtiest and most dismal sort. I defy anybody to say what the rights of a citizen are if they do not include the control of his own diet in relation to his health. [G.K. Chesterton, writing in the Illustrated London News, 1921.]

25^th, (1995) ‘Ceasefire in former Yugoslavia’: A ceasefire has been declared in the former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia following a peace agreement signed by the republics’ leaders in Dayton, Ohio. The Dayton Peace Agreement comes after a summer of military operations which have left the Bosnian Serbs politically and militarily weakened. The United States and NATO have been threatening direct military action if the fighting does not stop. The deal provides for Bosnia to become a single state comprising the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic. Sarajevo will once again become a unified city, and the central Bosnian government will have jurisdiction over trade, monetary policy and foreign affairs. In addition, individuals charged with war crimes will be banned from holding public office.

… (1993) Death of novelist Anthony Burgess, best known for his books, A Clockwork Orange and Earthly Powers.

… (1989) Vietnamese boat people riot in Hong Kong’s detention camps at the news of enforced repatriation.

… (1989) The New Zealand All-Blacks’ victory over the Barbarians at Twickenham gives them an unbroken run of 46 victorious matches.

… (1984) ‘Band Aid record for Ethiopia’: When Boomtown Rat Bob Geldolf watched a BBC TV report on the famine in Ethiopia he was so appalled at what he saw that he resolved to do something about it. The results of that something were seen today when an extraordinary gathering of British rock stars gathered at Sarm Studios in London to record “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” Those who turned up free of charge to sing the song, written by Geldolf and Ultravox member Midge Ure, included Phil Collins, Sting, George Michael, Bono and Boy George. The single will be released on December 7, and all of the proceeds will go directly to Ethiopian famine relief.

… (1974) Death of U Thant, Burmese diplomat and secretary general of the UN 1962-72.

… (1970) ‘Mishima dies a Samurai death’: Japan’s most widely read writer, Yukio Mishima, committed ritual suicide today. Increasingly angry at Japan’s rejection of the austere, militaristic Samurai heritage, Mishima and four members of his parliamentary organisation, the “Shield Group”, seized control of a military barracks in Tokyo by taking its Commandant, General Mashita, hostage. Mishima then harangued a watching crowd of soldiers on the dangers of not allowing Japan to return. By this time the alarm had been sounded, and the noise of police helicopters made Mishima nearly inaudible. Returning to Mashita’s office, Mishima disembowelled himself with some ceremony, being beheaded – at the third attempt – by his second-in-command Masakatsu Morita. Another of Mishima’s acolytes beheaded Morita in his turn before the three survivors gave themselves up.

… (1963) Assassinated president John F. Kennedy receives a state funeral.

… (1952) Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London with Richard Attenborough and Sheila Sim in the leading roles.

… (1949) Death of Bojangles (Bill Robinson), American tap dancer and entertainer.

… (1935) The monarchy is restored in Greece.

… (1913) In Natal, police open fire on demonstrators protesting against the imprisonment of Mahatma Gandhi, killing two and wounding another 20.

… (1884) John Mayenberg of St Louis, Missouri, patents evaporated milk.

24^th, (1990) White extremists attack 300 black children in a park in Louis Trichardt.

… (1979) Saudi Arabian troops storm the Great Mosque in Mecca to oust Iranian religious fanatics.

… (1934) Swedish tenor Jussi Bjorling makes his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York singing the role of Rudolfo in La Bohème.

… (1924) Egyptian prime minister Zaghlol Pasha resigns after refusing to apologise to Britain for the assassination in Cairo of Major-General Lee Stack, Governor-General of the Sudan.

… (1902) The world’s first conference for professional photographers opens in Paris.

… (1899) ‘US troops take Luzon’: The US Expeditionary Force made a major advance in its long-running struggle against insurrectionist leader Emilio Aguinaldo today when it gained control of the Philippines’ largest island, Luzon. The roots of the struggle go back to the Spanish-American War, when Aguinaldo and his forces threw in their lot with the Americans against their hated Spanish oppressors. Bitterly disappointed by the transfer of control of the country to the US as part of Spain’s war reparations, Aguinaldo declared the Malolos Republic last year and took to the mountains, from where he has been waging an effective guerrilla campaign. Though today’s defeat is a considerable setback for him, he has vowed to continue the struggle.

… (1859) Charles Darwin publishes his book Origin of Species.

… (1642) Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovers a new land and names it Van Diemen’s Land after his captain.

… (1572) Death of John Knox, Scottish Protestant reformer whose Confession of Faith was adopted by the Scottish Church in 1560.

23^rd, (2003) Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after a decade as president of Georgia amid allegations of corruption in his party.

… (1988) Sumo champion Chionofuji becomes the fifth sumo wrestler ever to win 50 consecutive matches.

… (1979) Death of Merle Oberon, Anglo-Indian actress who se films included The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Song to Remember and Wuthering Heights.

… (1963) The BBC premiered a new sci-fi TV show today. Called Doctor Who, it tells of the adventures of the eponymous Doctor, one of the Time Lords, and his struggle against his implacable enemies, gravel-voiced robots called Daleks. The Doctor, played by William Hartnell, travels about the universe in a time-machine called the Tardis, which from the outside bears a remarkable resemblance to a police telephone box.

… (1956) Petrol is rationed in Britain and driving tests are suspended as a response to the Suez crisis which threatens oil supplies.

… (1956) ‘UK cash squeeze forces UK out of Suez’: Under intense pressure from the US, the British government has agreed to begin a military withdrawal from the Suez war zone, following the ceasefire on November 8. Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd said that troops would leave as “an act of faith” in UN undertakings to ensure the reopening of the Canal. The hostility of President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles to the Anglo-French invasion has caused a run on the pound, and the US Treasury has made it clear to British Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan that financial help in preventing a collapse of sterling depends on a UK withdrawal. Many senior Tories are critical of the government’s handling of the crisis, while Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden is to fly to Jamaica for three weeks, suffering from what is described as “overstrain”. It is no secret that his relations with Dulles have almost completely broken down. Leader of the House R.A. Butler is acting Prime Minister in his absence.

… (1921) In the US, President Harding bans doctors from prescribing beer.

… (1910) ‘Crippen is hanged’: Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison today, only a few hundred yards from the house in Hilldrop Crescent where he poisoned his wife Belle and dismembered her body. American-born Crippen was the manager of a London patent medicine company when he met and fell in love with a pretty typist named Ethel le Neve in 1907. By 1910 he had decided to murder his wife, a formidable ex-music-hall entertainer. He bought supplies of a narcotic called hyoscine, and on January 31 Belle vanished. Crippen told the police that she had died in the USA. Suspicions were aroused when le Neve moved into Hilldrop Crescent, but Scotland Yard’s enquiries were frustrated by lack of evidence. The pair’s sudden disappearance in July led to the discovery of Belle’s remains in the coal cellar. Crippen and le Neve had set sail on the SS Montrose for Montreal, she disguised as his son, but the Captain was suspicious of their affectionate behaviour and radioed London. Chief Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard gave chase in a faster ship and arrested the pair in Canada on July 31. At the trial Ethel le Neve was acquitted of any involvement in Belle’s death.

… (1889) ‘Put another nickel in…’ The world’s first jukebox was unveiled today in the Palais Royal Saloon, San Francisco, by Mr. Louis Glass, General Manager of the Pacific Phonograph Company. It was Mr. Glass’s idea to fit coin slots on an electrically-operated Edison phonograph. For a nickel, four customers at once can listen to two minutes’ worth of music through listening tubes, but it has to be the same music, since the wax cylinders must be changed manually.

… (1852) Britain’s first pillarboxes were introduced today at four points in St Helier, Jersey. The six-sided boxes are of cast iron, 4 foot (1.3 m) high and painted red. They are the brainchild of Anthony Trollope, a surveyor for the post office and part-time novelist, who noticed while on a trip to the Channel Islands to inspect the postal services that there were many places where the islanders could buy stamps but only one place to post letters.

… (1670) Moliére’s satirical play Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme is premiered in Paris.

… (1499) Perkin Warbeck, a Flemish-born impostor who claimed to be the Duke of York, presumed killed with his brother Edward V in 1483, is hanged after two unsuccessful attempts to escape from the Tower of London.

22^nd, (2003) ‘Victory For England’: In a moment of sheer unadulterated glory, the England team have achieved victory by winning the Rugby World Cup 2003. Sports fans have described the win as England’s greatest sporting triumph since 1966. England fly half Johnny Wilkinson has achieved massive public popularity following his last-minute drop kick, which won England the game. The team was led by England rugby captain Martin Johnson who was euphoric at the 20-17 win over Australia. Millions have celebrated the historic win and plans are under way to honour the squad with a victory parade in London and a Downing Street reception on their return to Britain. There are even rumours of knighthoods for the team.

… (1990) Twenty thousand protesters march in Bulgaria to demand the resignation of the communist government.

… (1989) A 550-pound (250 kg) remote-control bomb kills Lebanon’s president Rene Moawad and 23 others.

… (1986) The awesome punching power of Mike Tyson made him the youngest-ever heavyweight-boxing champion in Las Vegas today at the age of 20. He took the World Boxing Council heavyweight crown of Trevor Berbick in under two rounds.

… (1980) Mae West, American film star who was the archetypal sex symbol of the 1930s, dies aged 88.

… (1977) ‘New York greets Concorde’: The Anglo-French Concorde, the world’s first supersonic airliner, finally entered service on the New York run today, eight years after her first flight, and more than a year after the inaugural Washington service. The British Airways Concorde, piloted by captains Walpole and Oudal, arrived in New York at the same time as the Air France Concorde flight from Paris. There has been an acrimonious campaign against the plane by anti-noise protesters, who had pressured the New York Port Authority into taking the issue all the way to the Supreme Court. Among the charges levelled at Concorde was that it had been responsible for the severe winter of 1976-77! Planned demonstrations turned out to be a non-event, with TV crews reduced to pressing a passing cab driver into service as a protestor.

… (1963) ‘Kennedy Assassinated’: The world is in mourning today at the news that President John F. Kennedy has been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. The 46-year-old President and Mrs. Kennedy were in Texas, on the latest leg of a tour of the southern states to gather support for the Democratic Party. The fatal shooting occurred this morning as the presidential motorcade swept through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas. The president died in his wife’s arms during the dash to the nearest hospital. Accounts of the event are confused, with witnesses claiming to have heard one or more shots from several directions, but a high-powered rifle was found in an upstairs room of the Texas School Book Depository, the window of which overlooked Dealey Plaza. Later today Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the murder. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President on the flight back to Washington.

… (1946) ‘Try a biro!’ A revolutionary new pen, which will write 200,000 words without refilling, blotting or smudging goes on sale in Britain today at £2.75 ($5). It is the invention of Hungarian journalist Ladislaw Biro, inspired by the quick-drying printer’s ink he saw in Budapest before the Second World War. The business end is a rotating ballpoint, connected to a capillary tube that holds the ink. In the last year of the war 30,000 biros were produced for RAF flyers, who found them invaluable in the air.

… (1918) One hundred women police officers go on patrol in the streets of London.

… (1916) Death of American novelist Jack London, author of Call of the Wild and White Fang.

… (1907) The Cunard liner Mauretania arrives in New York, completing her maiden voyage.

… (1902) Death of Germany’s wealthiest man, steel magnate Friedrich Krupp.

… (1902) Fire destroys the Williamsburg Bridge over the East River in New York.

… (1901) Richard Strauss’s opera Feuersnot receives its premier in Dresden.

… (1900) Death of Sir Arthur Sullivan, composer of the Savoy Operas with librettist W.S. Gilbert.

… (1774) Baron Clive of Plassey, the English soldier and colonial administrator known as Clive of India, dies of an overdose of opium shortly after being vindicated of improper behaviour in the affairs of the East India Company.

… (1718) ‘Blackbeard meets his match’: The notorious English pirate Edward “Blackbeard” Teach met his death today in hand-to-hand combat with Lieutenant Robert Maynard of HMS Pearl. For the past five years Teach has been the scourge of shipping in the Caribbean and off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas. Recently North Carolina planters, despairing of help from their corrupt governor Charles Eden (who was in fact in league with “Blackbeard”), turned to Virginia governor Alexander Spotswood. He in turn sent two British frigates, the Pearl and the Lyme, to bring to an end Teach’s long reign of terror.

21^st, (2017) Robert Mugabe resigned as president of Zimbabwe after 37 years.

… (1990) ‘Junk bond king gets 10 years’: Michael Milken, the so-called “Junk Bond King” was sentenced to 10 years in jail today after pleading guilty to violating federal tax and securities laws. Charges against him included manipulating stock prices, bribery and insider trading. In a plea bargain with the federal authorities back in April Milken also agreed to pay $200 million (£109 million) in fines and $400 million (£217 million) in restitution. The severity of the sentence shocked some observers, but the judge firmly rejected defence pleas that it be replaced by community service. She did, however, leave the door open for a sentence reduction in return for further cooperation. Milken’s huge success as head of the “Junk Bond” department at Wall Street finance house Drexel Burnham Lambert – in 1987 he earned $500 million (£272 million) – made him the personification of the predatory financial ethics of the 1980s.

… (1985) ‘Super powers reach agreement’: The so-called “Fireside Summit” between presidents Reagan and Gorbachev, their first, ended today with a broad measure of agreement to work for a 50 per cent cut in their respective strategic nuclear arsenals. A range of other issues was also discussed, such as the emigration of Soviet Jews and the need to avoid a repetition of the Korean Airlines tragedy. The two men spent six hours together, alone except for interpreters. Gorbachev was optimistic for the future, saying, “The world has become a safer place.” President Reagan was more guarded in his enthusiasm, but did agree that he and his opposite number now “understand each other better”.

… (1983) Michael Jackson’s Thriller video was first shown to the public. Almost ten million videos and DVDs have been sold of the ‘making of’ the film, and it has been watched 558 million times on YouTube.

… (1964) The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge across New York harbour is opened – the longest single-span bridge in the world.

… (1934) Cole Porter’s musical Anything Goes opens in New York.

… (1916) Death of Emperor Franz Josef, ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire since 1848.

… (1913) Death of Tokugawa Keiki, last of the Japanese shoguns who controlled the country from 1603 to 1867.

… (1910) ‘Leo Tolstoy dies’: Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, died today in a railway carriage at Astopovo. He had been there since his flight from his estate at Yasnaya Polyana, after quarrelling with his wife, the Countess Sophie. He had previously made over his fortune to her and had been living as a peasant on the estate. “There are millions of people suffering in the world. Why are so many of you looking after me?” were his last words to his daughter Tatiana as doctors, priests and well-wishers milled around him. His wife had followed him, but was not admitted until he had slipped into his final coma.

… (1906) In Glasgow, a man dies when 200,000 gallons of hot whisky bursts out of vats.

… (1904) A typhoon off Mindanao, the Philippines, renders 30,000 people destitute and homeless.

… (1818) The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, held to determine European affairs, reaches its close.

… (1791) French navigator Etienne Marchand arrives in China after a record Pacific crossing of 60 days.

… (1783) A balloon built by the Mongolfier brothers and piloted by Francois Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes made the first untethered flight in history today. Ascending from the gardens of the Chateau de la Muette, in the Bois de Boulogne, the balloon travelled some 5 miles (9 km) over Paris, reaching a height of 500 ft (162 m), before making a safe landing near the Luxembourg wood.

… (1695) Death of Henry Purcell, English composer and organist who wrote sonatas, songs, anthems, cantatas and music for the stage; his best-known work is the opera Dido and Aeneas.

… (1551) ‘Francis Xavier Returns’: Papal legate Francis Xavier and his fellow Jesuits returned from their epoch-making two-year journey to Japan today, the first missionaries to attempt baptism in this eastern country. The trip has been a moderate success – Francis has left behind 2000 Christians who, it is hoped, will form a thriving community. The latest mission found favour with the Mikado who at first, unimpressed with Francis’s humble dress and bearing, refused to see him; but when Francis returned suitably dressed and bearing gifts, he gave his support, even offering a disused Buddhist monastery for the mission’s work. “Among all unbelievers no finer people will be found than the Japanese,” said Francis on his return.

…When one has been threatened with a great injustice, one accepts a smaller one as a favour. [Jane Welsh Carlyle, wife of Thomas Carlyle, 1855.]

20^th, (2003) Controversial pop star Michael Jackson is arrested on charges of child molestation but pleads his innocence.

… (1992) Fire has swept through Windsor Castle, causing extensive damage to rooms and ruining furniture, paintings and other treasures belonging to the Royal Family. This disaster comes in a long line of set backs for the Royals this year, including the separation of the Duke and Duchess of York, the divorce of Princess Anne, and widespread press coverage over the marital difficulties of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The Queen is said to be devastated.

… (1979) Sir Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, is stripped of his knighthood, after admitting spying for Russia in collusion with Burgess, Maclean and Philby.

… (1975) ‘Death of Spain’s strong man’: Spain’s Fascist era came to an end today with the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, victor of the Civil War and head of state since 1939. Having declared himself President for Life in 1947, Franco ensured the Royalist succession by nominating Don Juan Carlos y Borbon in 1969 as his “heir”. Juan Carlos will be the first occupant of the Spanish throne since his grandfather Alfonso XIII was exiled by the Republican government in 1931. Franco will be buried in the mountainside mausoleum built in the “Valley of the Fallen” to house the men who died under his command during the Civil War. Juan Carlos will be crowned in Madrid.

… (1972) ‘Nuclear scientist joins peace campaign’: One of Soviet Russia’s most prominent nuclear physicists, Andrei Sakharov, who was involved in the development of the Russian H-bomb, today put himself on a collision course with the authorities in Moscow. He joined 50 other civil rights campaigners and liberal intellectuals, including world-famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, in urging the Kremlin to abolish the death penalty and to free all political prisoners. Sakharov, 51, co-founded the Moscow Human Rights Committee in 1970, but as early as 1963 his concern about the threat of nuclear war led him to use his influence on Khrushchev to persuade him to negotiate a partial ban on nuclear testing.

… (1947) ‘Pomp and splendour in the rain’: Princess Elizabeth, heir presumptive to the British throne, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten today amid scenes of pomp and splendour not seen since before the war. Undeterred by the rain, the crowds slept overnight in the streets to secure the best view, and were standing 50 deep in the Mall and Whitehall to cheer the King and his daughter on their way to Westminster Abbey. Norman Hartnell designed the Princess’s ivory dress, covered with flowers of beads and pearls, and her tulle veil with a circlet of diamonds. Her new husband, who is also her cousin, was created Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, by the King at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace this morning.

… (1945) ‘Nazis in the dock’: The trial of 24 Nazis accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity opened in Nuremberg today. The defendants are representatives of 35,000 on whom the Allies have opened dossiers. The most notable are Hermann Goering, Luftwaffe leader and founder of the Gestapo; Julius Streicher, one of the earliest proponents of the Nazi’s anti-Semitic philosophy; Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy until his flight to Scotland in 1941; and foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. Martin Bormann, Hitler’s deputy since Hess’s defection, has escaped and is being tried in his absence. Also conspicuous by their absence are Goebbels, Himmler and Hitler himself, all of whom committed suicide rather than face trial.

… (1944) In London, Piccadilly Circus and the Strand are ablaze with light after five years of wartime blackout.

… (1929) Salvador Dali holds his first one-man show in Paris.

… (1926) At the Imperial Conference in London today the oldest colonies of the British Empire – Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland – were granted the status of self-governing dominions, masters of their own destiny and of equal status with Great Britain. The Irish Free State is also to become a dominion outside the United Kingdom, and the King is no longer its sovereign; the status of India is unchanged.

… (1925) In Italy, a law is passed banning the Freemasons and other secret societies.

… (1925) In Britain, Queen Alexandra dies at Sandringham after a heart attack.

… (1924) The premier of Darius Milhaud’s ballet The Creation of the World is held in Paris.

… (1902) Lord Tennyson, grandson of the poet, is appointed governor-general of Australia.

… (1818) Simon Bolivar declares Venezuela independent from Spain.

… (1805) The first performance of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio is staged in Vienna.

…Something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. [Mark Twain defines a classic of literature, 1900.]

19^th, (1988) Death of Christina Onassis, Greek shipowner and daughter of Aristotle Onassis.

… (1984) A huge explosion rocked Mexico City today as ten tanks of liquid gas blew up at a chemical factory. Flames shot 300 ft (100 m) into the air, and surrounding slum areas were showered with burning debris and a cloud of poisonous gas. More than 500 people lost their lives and some 10,000 homes were destroyed in the teeming barrio: around a quarter of a million citizens had to be evacuated. Firemen fought for 18 hours to bring the fire under control.

… (1969) Apollo 12 was the second manned flight to land on the Moon, overcoming a leaking hydrogen tank and a lightning strike.

… (1925) The British parliament votes for a four-month prison sentence for drunken driving.

… (1920) On hundred thousand White Russian refugees from the Crimea arrive in Constantinople.

… (1919) In Italy, Benito Mussolini and 37 Fascists are arrested after rioting over the election of the Socialists.

… (1917) A Revolutionary Diplomatic Committee is established in Petrograd with Leon Trotsky as its head.

… (1914) In Britain, Austrian and German internees riot at a detention camp on the Isle of Wight.

… (1908) A court in St Petersburg is adjourned when the prosecuting council refuses to deal with Russia’s first female barrister.

… (1905) British steamer Hilda is wrecked off St Malo, France, drowning 128.

… (1863) ‘Lincoln makes masterful speech as Gettysburg dedication’: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…” So began a two-minute speech by President Lincoln at the dedication of the cemetery where the dead of the Battle of Gettysburg are buried. His 15,000 listeners were exhausted by a two-hour oration full of learned detail from noted orator Edward Everett. The President was disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm, but Everett said admiringly, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”

… (1828) ‘Death of Franz Schubert’: One of the greatest musical geniuses the world has ever seen, Franz Schubert, died today aged 31. Worn out by overwork, delirious from the syphilis he contracted in 1822, he expired at 3pm in a damp room in the Neue Wieden suburb of Vienna, attended by his devoted brother Ferdinand and stepsister Josefa. In a furious burst of activity over the past few months he had completed three piano sonatas, a string quartet, and a number of songs. Schubert had been confined to his room for over a week, to ill to eat or drink, his only occupation the correction of the proofs of his recent song cycle, Winterreise.

… (1620) ‘Pilgrim Fathers land at Cape Cod’: The 180-ton wine ship Mayflower made landfall at Cape Cod today, just over two months after setting sail from Plymouth. The passengers, 87 members of a separatist Protestant sect founded in Northamptonshire by William Brewster, intend to start a new life in America. Having received from the Virginia Company a charter to found a trading post in that territory, to land outside the northern limits seemed at first disastrous, but after the discussion the group have decided to settle without rights in Massachusetts Bay. Forty-one men, including Elder Brewster and William Bradford, are crewing up the “Mayflower Compact”, a preliminary plan of government.

18^th, (2000) Young Welsh actress Catherine Zeta Jones marries Hollywood actor Michael Douglas.

… (1991) Gustav Husak, former president and Communist Party leader of Czechoslovakia who crushed the Prague Spring in 1968, dies in Prague aged 78.

… (1991) ‘Waite and Sutherland released’: The Briton Terry Waite and the American Thomas Sutherland were released today by the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, as part of a UN-brokered three-way exchange of Western hostages, Arabs held by Israel and Israelis missing in Lebanon. Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy, was kidnapped on January 21, 1987, while on a mission to secure the release of other hostages. His release immediately revived speculation about his links, involuntary or otherwise, with Colonel Oliver North and the Iran-Contra affair. It has been claimed that he had nearly 20 meetings with North between 1985 and 1987, and that three US hostages, in whose release he had been involved, had in fact been traded for arms. Thomas Sutherland, Dean of Agriculture at the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped on June 9, 1985.

… (1988) A million Serbs demonstrate in Belgrade to demand independence.

… (1987) ‘King’s Cross Underground Inferno’: Up to 34 people died today as fire swept through King’s Cross underground station, one of London’s busiest interchanges. It is thought the fire started under the wooden treads of an escalator, used by an estimated 200,000 passengers a day, where an accumulation of rubbish and oily fluff was ignited by a cigarette. A combination of administrative confusion and understaffing meant that the station remained open; passengers arriving on the Piccadilly Line were trapped in an inferno of flame and smoke while a fireball roared up the escalator and incinerated those in the booking hall. There were no sprinklers, London Regional Transport having ignored recommendations made in 1984 that they should be installed.

… (1977) President Sadat becomes the first Egyptian leader to visit Israel.

… (1940) The prospect of alliance with the USA in the struggle against the Axis Powers inched closer to reality today when Winston Churchill confirmed a land-lease deal to allow the US to establish military bases in St Lucia, Guyana, Trinidad, Antigua, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Bermuda. In return, Britain gets 50 destroyers.

… (1938) Twenty people are trampled to death at the lying-in-state of Kemal Ataturk, founder and president of modern Turkey.

… (1936) ‘Axis recognises Franco’: Germany and Italy both issued proclamations today recognising the Falangist administration of General Franco (who proclaimed himself Caudillo, equivalent to Führer, on October 1) as the legitimate government of Spain. The move follows the formation of the Rome-Berlin axis on November 1. The rightist revolt against the Republican Popular Front government has led to the Civil War that has been raging since July; the Germans are providing equipment and technical assistance, while the Italians have promised 75,000 troops. The Russians meanwhile are providing similar assistance to the Republicans. The British and French, fearing a Europe-wide war, are pressing for a non-intervention pact, to which all parties, even Germany, Italy and Russia, have committed themselves; at the same time thousands of private individuals of all political persuasions, fired by idealism, are flooding to Spain to join in the bitter struggle. To complete a worldwide alliance of Axis powers, Germany is due to sign the Anti-Comintern pact with Japan next week.

… (1922) Death of Marcel Proust, author of the seven-volume Remembrance of Things Past.

… (1910) Suffragettes attack the House of Commons; 119 people are arrested.

… (1904) In Rhodesia, a major source of gold is discovered 200 miles (322 km) to the south of Salisbury.

… (1901) Britain and the US agree terms for a canal to be built through Central America.

… (1874) ‘Women’s Christian Temperance Union is formed’: Cleveland, Ohio, today saw the foundation of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union under the secretaryship of the charismatic Miss Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, president of the Evanston College for Ladies. The aims of the WCTU are to protect the home and develop Christian citizenship through individual commitment to abstinence and the abolition of the liquor trade. Its formation is a consequence of the Women’s Temperance Crusade of 1873-4, in which militant women frequently invaded saloons to sing hymns and kneel in prayer; indeed there is a political element to the Union’s aims, since insobriety and the ill-treatment of women so often go hand in hand.

… (1852) A massive state funeral for the Duke of Wellington is held in London.

… (1626) St Peter’s in Rome is consecrated.

…Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. [William Pitt the Younger, British Statesman, in a speech in the House of Commons, 1783.]

17^th, (1990) The Soviet government agrees to change the country’s constitution.

… (1990) A mass grave, believed to be that of World Ware Two Prisoners of War, is discovered by the infamous bridge over the River Kwai in Thailand.

… (1988) ‘Benazir Bhutto wins’: Benazir Bhutto became the first woman leader of an Islamic country today in the first democratic elections in Pakistan for 11 years. Her Pakistan People’s Party, while falling short of an absolute majority, requires the backing of only 12 out of 40 independent MPs to form a government. Benazir’s father, Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, was the country’s leader from 1971 until he was deposed by a military coup headed by General Zia in 1977; two years later he was hanged. His daughter inherited the People’s Party leadership, and was a thorn in the side of the military regime until Zia’s death in an air crash last August. She has promised democratic reform.

… (1970) The unmanned Soviet spaceship Luna 17 lands on the Moon.

… (1922) Siberia votes for union with the USSR.

… (1917) The French sculptor Auguste Rodin has died at the age of 77. Rodin’s artistic life was attended by controversy. The realistic – and increasingly erotic – nature of his work offended an aesthetic that revered the idealisation of the human form as presented by classicism. Those with eyes to appreciate the radicalism of his art hailed Rodin as a master and by 1900 many were calling him the greatest sculptor of the age. Through his works, the most famous of which are perhaps The Kiss and The Thinker, Rodin has opened an innovative new chapter in the history of sculpture.

… (1913) In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm bans the armed forces from dancing the Tango.

… (1913) The steamship Louise becomes the first ship to travel through the Panama Canal.

… (1904) The first underwater submarine journey is undertaken, from Southampton across the Solent to the Isle of Wight.

… (1903) In London, Russia’s Social Democrats officially split into two groups – Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.

… (1880) The first three British female graduates receive their Bachelor of Arts degrees from London University.

… (1869) ‘Suez Canal opens’: From the days of Haroun al-Raschid onwards it has been the dream of many men to cut a canal across the Isthmus of Suez. Thanks to a French diplomat and engineer, Ferdinand de Lesseps, that dream finally came true today, cutting the London-Bombay journey from 11,220 miles (17,950 km) to 6332 miles (10,130 km). Construction began on April 25, 1859, and the workforce initially consisted of 8213 men and 368 camels before they were replaced by steam shovels. Said Pasha, after whom the city of Port Said has been named, granted the Canal concession to de Lesseps. The journey from Port Said to Suez takes about 16 hours, an hour for each million pounds the canal cost ($29 million). A French-Egyptian joint stock company, whose rights will expire in 1968, will manage the canal.

… (1798) Irish nationalist leader Wolfe Tone commits suicide while in jail awaiting execution.

… (1796) ‘Catherine The Great Dies’: Russia’s great ruler died of a stroke today at the age of 67. Like Elizabeth I, she was a woman who will forever be identified with a decisive epoch in her country; during her long reign she made Russia a force to be reckoned with in European politics, and by her expansionist policies added more than 200,000 square miles (320,000 sq km) to her territory, bringing millions of Russian-speakers into the fold. Her brilliant court attracted the greatest minds of Europe, such as Voltaire and Diderot, who heavily influenced her thinking. But she could also be ruthless: in 1762 she overthrew he husband, Peter III, with the help of her lover Orlov (one of a long string of lovers), and quite possibly connived at his subsequent assassination. The lot of the serfs deteriorated during her reign, particularly after the bloody suppression of Pugachev’s rebellion in 1774, although some of her reforms increased the efficiency with which her vast country was run. She has been aptly described as “an enlightened despot”.

… (1603) Sir Walter Raleigh goes on trial for treason.

… (1558) ‘Death of England’s first queen’: Britain’s first ruling queen, Mary Tudor, has died a broken and disappointed woman, hated by her subjects, after five years on the throne. Born in 1516 to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, she was at first her father’s favourite, but her loyalty to her mother and to the Catholic Church led to harsh treatment. On the death of her half-brother Edward VI she outmanoeuvred Lord Dudley’s attempt to put Lady Jane Grey on the throne, and there was widespread rejoicing. However, her marriage to Philip II of Spain dragged England into the war between France and Spain, and in the struggle she lost Calais, which had been an English outpost since the time of Edward III. There was further resentment at the restoration of the Catholic Church in England, when many Protestants, notably Latimer, Cranmer and Ridley, were burned at the stake. Her final torment was the knowledge that her husband favoured as heir her Protestant half-sister Elizabeth over the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots.

…The so-called new morality is too often the old immorality condoned. [Lord Shawcross, British Labour politician and lawyer, 1963.]

16^th, (1995) Aged 95, the Queen Mother became one of the oldest people ever to undergo a hip replacement operation.

… (1989) ‘Blacks allowed on South Africa’s beaches’: An important pillar of apartheid collapsed today when all restrictions on access to South Africa’s beaches were removed. President F.W. de Klerk, announcing the move, said that “all members of the public” were henceforth allowed on all beaches, and promised that the Separate Amenities Act, the instrument that permits whites to monopolise public places, will be repealed next February.

… (1988) ‘Estonia calls for self-determination’: In an astonishing display of defiance the Estonian Supreme Soviet today rejected President Gorbachev’s plans for reform of the Soviet constitution and adopted their own, although they stopped short of demanding outright independence from Moscow. Key provisions included the establishment of “the sovereignty of Estonia”, a human rights guarantee, the right to own private property for all, and the bringing of all land and national resources under Estonian control. Gorbachev’s reforms envisage retaining such matters under the central control of Moscow. Estonia’s initiative makes it likely that the other Baltic states, Lithuania and Latvia, will follow suit. It remains to be seen whether Moscow will react with force.

… (1981) Death of William Holden, American actor whose many films included Sunset Boulevard, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing and The Wild Bunch.

… (1960) American actor Clark Gable died, aged 59, following a heart attack.

… (1940) Marshal Pétain takes over the French government and asks Hitler for an armistice.

… (1938) Lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, was first synthesised by Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann.

… (1937) ‘Britain to build air-raid shelters’: The House of Commons voted in favour of a national programme of air-raid shelter construction today. The Labour Party, concerned at the possible cost to the taxpayer, voted against the motion., but Sir Winston Churchill described the move as “indispensable”, and claimed that once the nation was thus protected an enemy would find it “not worthwhile” to mount air-raids.

… (1928) An obscenity trial begins in London over the publication of Radclyffe Hall’s lesbian novel The Well of Loneliness.

… (1922) Benito Mussolini threatens the Italian Chamber of Deputies with dissolution if his wishes are not obeyed.

… (1920) The Bolsheviks defeat the White Russians in the Crimea, ending Russia’s civil war.

… (1917) Bolshevik troops take Moscow.

… (1907) In Britain, militant suffragettes shout down Chancellor of the Exchequer Herbert Asquith in Nuneaton.

… (1900) In Germany, a woman throws an axe at Kaiser Wilhelm but fails to hit him.

… (1885) Louis Riel, leader of the Canadian metis rebellion, is hanged by the British.

… (1824) ‘Discovery of great Australian river’: The interior of Australia was further opened up today when the explorers Hamilton Hume and William H. Hovell became the first white men to see a great river, with many tributaries, which winds from high up in the Great Dividing Range to somewhere on the coast. The two men have been despatched from Sydney by Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane with authority to open up a route to the southern coast. After a hellish journey plagued by ticks, leeches and quarrels, Mr. Hovell’s first act on reaching the river, at a place called Albury, was to carve “W.H. Hovell, 1824” on a nearby tree. Nevertheless he insisted that the river be called the Hume in honour of his companion; it is thought, however, that the Murray River is a more likely name.

… (1813) ‘Britain blockades Long Island Sound’: Britain’s mastery of the sea in the so-called war of 1812 was further emphasised today when a mixed force of Royal Navy ships under the general command of Admiral Warren, including frigates, sloops and 74-gun ships of the line, took up positions in a blockade of Long Island Sound. All major American routes to the sea, including Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, the ports of New York, Charleston, Port Royal and Savannah, and the Mississippi, are now denied to US ships, and the blockade is beginning to cause severe economic losses to the young country, despite her successes in the land war.

… (1797) Death of the Prussian king Frederick William II.

… (1724) Highwayman Jack Sheppard, whose exploits inspired plays and ballads, is hanged at Tyburn in front of an audience of 200,000.

…Force is not a remedy. [John Bright, British politician, in a speech, 1880.]

15^th, (2003) Twenty-five people die in an explosion in a synagogue in Istanbul; Muslim fundamentalists claim responsibility.

… (1985) ‘Anglo-Irish agreement signed’: Mrs Thatcher and Irish leader Garrett Fitzgerald met at Hillsborough Castle in Belfast on what both parties claimed was a momentous day in Irish history. They signed into being the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which for the first time gives the Republic a consultative role in the running of Northern Ireland. Mrs Thatcher was quick to insist that the interests of both Ulster communities are being catered for. In Dublin, Charles Haughey, leader of the opposition Fianna Fail party, described it as “a sad day for Irish nationalism”.

… (1969) 500,000 protesters marched in Washington DC against the Vietnam War, then the largest political rally in American history. President Richard Nixon was said to have spent the day watching football inside the White House.

… (1968) ‘Queen Elizabeth docks for the last time’: The largest passenger liner in the world, Cunard’s flagship Queen Elizabeth, docked in Southampton today at the end of her last transatlantic voyage. She was launched in September 1938 as a sister ship to the Queen Mary, but the war broke out before she went into service. She spent the war as a troopship, based in Sydney, and did not leave Southampton for her first commercial voyage until October 1946. Since then she has crossed the Atlantic hundreds of times, carrying thousands of passengers, including royalty, movie stars and politicians, in unparalleled luxury. Sadly the jet age has made her into an anachronism, and she can no longer compete economically. Her future is uncertain, although a group of Florida businessmen have expressed interest in her as a tourist attraction. Cunard’s new liner, Queen Elizabeth II, will carry twice as many passengers and will be used mainly for cruising.

… (1965) Craig Breedlove of the USA sets a world land speed record of over 613 mph (986 kph) in his jet engine car Spirit of America at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

… (1956) Elvis Presley’s first film, Love Me Tender, is premiered in New York.

… (1954) Death of Lionel Barrymore, American actor who made many films and continued to act after being confined to a wheelchair.

… (1923) In order to end rampant inflation – a loaf of bread now costs over 200,000,000 marks – the German government introduces a new unit of currency worth 1,000,000,000 marks.

… (1922) The first scheduled broadcast is made from Marconi House in London’s Strand.

… (1918) ‘The bells ring out’: Today was Victory Day as a war-weary nation celebrated the peace. At 11 am, to the accompaniment of church bells and fireworks, the all-clear was sounded for the last time with bugles and sirens. Factories closed, and there were scenes of unprecedented public revelry and rejoicing as what seemed to be the entire population took to the streets, waving flags and raising servicemen shoulder-high. Big Ben struck one for the first time in four years. Huge crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace to sing “God save the King” and “Rule Britannia”, and later the King and Queen drive to Hyde Park. Hundreds thronged to Downing Street to hail the Prime Minister, Lloyd George. The police turned a blind eye to the licensing laws and pubs stayed open until they had been drunk dry.

… (1913) In Mexico, rebel leader Pancho Villa takes Ciudad Juarez.

… (1912) Viscount Astor turns 21 and gains a £15 million ($27.7 million) inheritance from his father.

… (1902) Anarchist Gennaro Rubin fails in his attempt to murder Leopold II of Belgium.

… (1901) An electrical hearing aid is patented by Miller Reese of New York.

… (1864) ‘Sherman burns Atlanta’: General Sherman and his army set out for Savannah on their March to the Sea today, leaving Atlanta a smoking ruin behind them. Atlanta, an important strategic strongpoint for the Confederates, has been in Sherman’s hands since General Hood had given up his brave resistance on September 1. Sherman, determined that the Confederates should have no further use out of Atlanta, gave orders that all public buildings, machine-shops, depots and arsenals should be burnt to the ground, all civilians having been evacuated. To the accompaniment of military bands playing martial airs and operatic selections, and the din of exploding ammunition, spectacular destruction was achieved. “Behind us lay Atlanta smouldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in the air and hanging like a pall over the ruined city,” said General Sherman.

… (1837) Published today by Samuel Bagster at 4d is a curious and interesting little book entitled Stenographic Sound-Hand, by one Isaac Pitman, a 24-year-old schoolmaster from Trowbridge in Wiltshire. The book expounds Pitman’s theory of “stenographic phonography”, or the practice of shorthand by the phonetic method. He believes that the present methods, notably by Mr Taylor’s are inadequate.

… (1802) Death of George Romney, English portrait painter who did numerous studies of Lady Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

… (1492) The first recorded reference to tobacco was made in Christopher Columbus’s journal.

…I am MacWonder one moment and MacBlunder the next. [Harold Macmillan, British politician and prime minister, 1973.]

14^th, (1996) Michael Jackson married his second wife Debbie Rowe in Sydney. Rowe, a nurse to his plastic surgeon, gave birth to his two eldest children, Prince and Paris.

… (1990) In New Zealand, a gunman kills 11 of the 50 inhabitants of Aramoana, near Dunedin.

… (1989) After five days of voting in Namibia’s first elections, the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) is declared the largest party.

… (1989) During his visit to Poland, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl visits Auschwitz.

… (1988) In Algiers, the Palestine National Council declares a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.

… (1983) The world’s largest airport, King Khalid International, opened today near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The £2100 million ($3864) airport covers 86 sq miles (221 sq km) of desert, a greater area than Manhattan. It also boasts the world’s tallest control tower, at 243 ft (74 m) high.

… (1963) ‘Iceland gets new island’: Iceland is constructed of volcanic rock, and there is volcanic activity around her shores, too, As a result an entirely new island appeared about 5 miles (8 km) off her southern coast today. The island, which has been named Surtsey, is currently 30 ft (10 m) high and growing, throwing ash thousands of feet into the air. Sightseers are queuing up in Reykjavik for flights over the spectacular new island, which is not hard to find – a plume of smoke 24,000 ft (7800 m) high marks the spot. Vulcanologists are warning of the dangers of getting too close, however, since the rapid cooling effect of seawater on red-hot lava creates a much greater explosive force than that of land-based volcanoes. A Japanese research vessel, which was directly above an ocean-floor eruption in 1952, was blown to bits.

… (1952) ‘It’s the Top Ten’: Britain’s first pop chart was published in the New Musical Express today. It contains three discs by Vera Lynn, “Homing Waltz”, “Auf Wiedersehen” and “Forget Me Not”, while Jo Stafford’s “You Belong to My Heart” is No. 2, and Nat “King” Cole’s “Somewhere Along the Way” is at No. 3. And Britain’s first Number One? “Here in My Heart”, by Al Martino.

… (1948) ‘A new royal prince’: A son, their first child, was born to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh today. The boy, to be named Charles Philip Arthur George, will be the first in line to the throne when Her Royal Highness eventually succeeds her father, George VI.

… (1940) ‘Coventry blitzed’: The Luftwaffe visited Coventry last night in one of the most destructive raids of the Blitz so far. Making use of a “bomber’s moon”, 449 bombers dropped 503 tons of bombs and 881 incendiaries, turning the centre of the city into a raging inferno. Out of the 250,000 population, 554 were killed and 865 seriously injured. The medieval cathedral, one of the city’s glories, was almost completely destroyed.

… (1938) Jews are expelled from colleges in Germany.

… (1925) ‘Surrealist exhibition in Paris’: A controversial exhibition of art by the Surrealists has opened at the Galerie Pierre in Paris. Those featured include Joan Miro, Georgio de Chirico, Paul Klee, Hans Arp, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso and Max Ernst. Although surrealism is primarily a literary movement, developed out of Dadaism by Andre Breton (author of the Surrealist Manifesto) and Paul Eluard, the visual arts have not been far behind. Ernst’s Reunion of Friends, Andre Masson’s Trees and Miro’s Ploughed Land and Harlequin’s Carnival, all of which are in the exhibition, illustrate well the Surrealist theory that art should be “uncontrolled by reason and independent of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation”.

… (1918) Tomas Masaryk is elected first president of Czechoslovakia.

… (1915) Death of black leader Booker T. Washington, first principal of the Tuskegee Institute (Alabama) for Blacks.

… (1908) Foul play is suspected on the death of Tsu-His, Dowager Empress of China.

… (1900) Dr Karl Landsteiner of the Pathological and Anatomical Institute in Vienna announces the discovery of three different blood groups.

… (1896) A new Highway Act declares it is no longer necessary for a man with a red flag to walk ahead of motor vehicles and raises the speed limit from 4 mph to 14 mph.

… (1889) ‘Around the world in less than 80 days’: Nellie Bly, intrepid reporter for New York World, set sail from New York today in an attempt to beat Phileas Fogg’s round-the-world time of 80- days as described in Jules Verne’s 1873 novel. Twenty-two-year-old Miss Bly is planning to travel by sea, sampan, horse and rail, and will hold a competition for readers to guess her final time. Miss Bly, whose real name is Elizabeth Cochran (her pen-name was taken from a Stephen Foster song) is no stranger to difficult situations. She made her name writing on divorce and the plight of women and children in factories for the Pittsburgh Dispatch; and she had herself committed to Blackwell’s Island asylum for a story on conditions among the insane that made her famous overnight.

… (1689) Death of Nell Gwynn, English actress and favourite mistress of King Charles II of England, by whom she had two children.

… (1532) Henry VIII secretly married his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

13^th, (2001) Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, falls to the Northern Alliance, who are working alongside US and UK troops to rid the country of the Taliban regime and root out terrorists.

… (1998) U.S. President Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000 to drop a sexual harassment lawsuit against him.

… (1985) ‘Thousands feared dead in Columbia’: Nevado del Ruiz, the 17,717-foot (5400 m) Columbian volcano dormant since 1845, erupted in a ferocious explosion today. Melted snow swept down the mountain in huge torrents, creating a mud avalanche that completely buried the town of Armero huddled below. There are very few survivors from the town’s 25,000 population. A 28-inch (11 cm) layer of ash and rock has covered a 70-sq-mile (181 sq km) area around the volcano, 80 miles (128 km) west of Bogotá. Expert warnings of an imminent eruption were largely ignored and there was no attempt to evacuate the area, which has now become a sea of mud in which thousands of people are entombed forever.

… (1974) Death of Vittorio de Sica, Italian neo-realist film director most famous for Bicycle Thieves.

… (1973) Death of Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, inventor of “shocking pink”.

… (1968) Cotchford Farm, the Sussex home of author A.A. Milne and inspiration for The House At Pooh Corner, was sold to Rolling Stone Brian Jones, who died in its swimming pool a year later.

… (1945) ‘De Gaulle Elected’: By the unanimous vote of all 555 deputies, General Charles de Gaulle was elected President of the French Provisional Government today. After the fall of France in 1940 de Gaulle carried a torch of hope for his countrymen, providing a rallying point for Free French forces. On many occasions, however, his pride and prickly temperament made him a difficult ally for Roosevelt and Churchill. The Pétain regime condemned him to death in his absence, but de Gaulle, who had served under Pétain in World War I, spared his old commander’s life when he was in his turn sentenced to death for treason last year.

… (1940) Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia was released.

… (1941) An Italian submarine sinks HMS Ark Royal near Gibraltar.

… (1926) In Italy, Mario de Bernardi sets a world seaplane speed record of 246 mph (396 kph).

… (1925) The South African government calls for more segregation of blacks.

… (1923) In Italy, Benito Mussolini introduces a bill granting women the vote in national elections.

… (1920) The first full session of the League of Nations begins in Geneva, with 5,000 representatives from 41 nations.

… (1914) General Botha’s forces vanquish the rebel commandos of General Christiaan de Wet in the Orange Free State, leaving the way clear to march on the German colonists in South-West Africa.

… (1909) Two bombs are thrown at the Viceroy of India, the Earl of Minto.

… (1907) ‘Vertical flight’: The rapid development of aviation took another step forward today. M. Paul Cornu, a French bicycle-maker and engineer from Lisieux, Normandy, rose 4 ft (1.5 m) vertically into the air in his “Direct Lifter”, as he calls it, and hovered there for about 60 seconds. M. Cornu successfully tested his theories with a working scale model last year. The full-size machine, which was completed in August, uses a 24-hp water-cooled Antoinette engine to drive two 20-ft (6.5 m) rotors by means of belt and pulleys. In fact his achievement was even greater than he intended, for his brother, fearing the machine was getting out of control, jumped on to steady it and was also lifted into the air. M. Cornu anticipates that the machine will achieve a forward speed of about 7 mph (11 kph), making use of an ingenious system of movable vanes to deflect the downward wash of the rotors and thus provide propulsion.

…The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. [Thomas Jefferson, American statesman, in a letter, 1787.]

12^th, (2015)  Mohammed Emwazi, the British ISIS terrorist known as “Jihadi John”, was killed in a drone strike in Syria.

… (2001) Two hundred and sixty people die in a passenger plane crash in New York.

… (1990) A demonstration in Paris by over 200,000 French schoolchildren demanding better education turns into a riot.

… (1988) In Sydney, West Indies cricket captain Viv Richards scores his 100^th century.

… (1988) The first commercial bungee jump opened, in Queenstown, New Zealand.

… (1987) ‘Yeltsin Fired’: Moscow Communist Party boss Boris Yeltsin has been fired by President Gorbachev after Yeltsin had the temerity to criticise him for the slow pace of perestroika (reconstruction). Yeltsin, an enthusiastic supporter of reform, also attacked Yegor Ligachev, number two in the Kremlin, for opposing Gorbachev’s initiates. He accepted criticism of what was termed his “political errors” and “personal ambition”, and was replaced by Lev Zaikov.

… (1974) Karen Silkwood, who worked at the Kerr McGee nuclear fuel plant and was investigating irregularities there, dies in a mysterious car crash.

… (1944) ‘Tirpitz sinks’: Tirpitz, the last survivor of Hitler’s formidable fleet of “unsinkable” pocket battleships, is lying upside-down on the bottom of Tromso Fjord today. She had been lurking in Norwegian waters for several years, forcing the Allies to allocate warships that were badly needed elsewhere to convoy-protection duties. Lancaster bombers of 617 Squadron, the famous Dambusters, sank her at the third attempt with direct hits from three 12,000-lb (5500 kg) “Tallboy” bombs, dropped from 14,000 ft (4500 m) right on to the decks of the Tirpitz. Incredibly, a squadron of German fighters assigned to protect the ship did not even take off. Over 1000 of the ship’s crew were entombed below decks as she turned turtle.

… (1919) ‘Brothers set off for Australia’: Two Australian brothers, Captain Ross and Lieutenant Keith Smith, set off from Hounslow, Middlesex, today, in an attempt to make the first flight from the UK to Australia. Their converted Vickers Vimy bomber, with its two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines (the same type as that in which Alcock and Brown flew the Atlantic in June), must carry the Smiths and their two mechanics the 11,130 miles (17,192 km) to Darwin in less than 30 days. Their planned route will take them through Cairo, Karachi, Calcutta, Bangkok and Singapore. If they make it they will win the prize of £10,000 ($18,400) put up by the Australian government. It is said that the registration of their aircraft, G-EAOU stands for “God ‘elp All of Us”.

… (1918) The House of Commons votes for a war loan of £700 million ($1295 million), bringing British ware debts to £7100 million ($13,135 million).

… (1905) The Russian occupation imposes martial law on Poland.

… (1903) Death of French impressionist painter Camille Pissarro.

… (1901) Gales sweep Britain, killing 200 and capsizing many ships.

… (1865) Death of Mrs Elizabeth Gaskell, English writer whose works include the novel Cranford and a biography of her friend Charlotte Brontē.

… (1859) French trapeze artist Jules Leotard makes his debut at the Cirque d’Ete in Paris.

… (1847) ‘Demonstration of a new anaesthetic’: The eminent obstetrician Sir James Simpson, Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh, today gave the first public demonstration of a new anaesthetic. Its chemical name is trichloromethane, but it is more popularly known as chloroform; Sir James claims that it has three times the potency of ether and will quickly supersede it for long operations, and, in particular, for childbirth, where its practicality and ease of administration give it great advantages. The public trial immediately brought swift and vehement criticism from Scottish Calvinists, who oppose all use of anaesthetics in childbirth, but Sir James is not to be moved.

… (1660) ‘Lay preacher jailed’: John Bunyan of Elstow, Bedfordshire, was jailed today for preaching without a licence. The authorities have undertaken to release him on condition that he gives up preaching. Bunyan remains adamant on this score, however: “If you let me go today, I will preach again tomorrow,” he has declared. The son of a tinker and goldsmith, 32-year-old Bunyan served in the Parliamentary army under Sir Samuel Luke. After the war he became deeply interested in religion, studying the Bible at every opportunity. He joined the new Baptist sect in 1653 after a period of inner religious struggle. Preaching to the poor in the isolated rural villages around Bedford brought him into conflict with the Quakers. Bunyan aired his doctrinal struggle with them in two pamphlets, Some Gospel Truths Opened and A Vindication. He is now in conflict with a much more powerful adversary: the re-established Church of England.

… (1035) Death of Canute II, Danish King of England.

11^th, (2000)A fire on a funicular railway in the Austrian resort of Kaprun results in the deaths of 155 holidaymakers.

… (1995) Dissident writer Ken Saro-Wiwo and eight human rights activists are executed in Nigeria.

… (1992) In the UK, the General Synod votes in favour of the ordination of women.

… (1991) Martina Navratilova equals Chris Evert’s record of 157 career titles when she beats Monika Seles to win the Virginia Slims of California tournament in Oakland.

… (1987) An amateur pilot who has repeatedly buzzed the Champs Elysées in Paris is fined £5,000 ($9250) and banned from flying for three years.

… (1987) Van Gogh’s painting Irises is sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $53.9 million (£29.3 million).

… (1975) Angola gains its independence from Portugal.

… (1965) ‘Smith declares UDI’: Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front government today declared Rhodesia, Britain’s last African colony, an independent state, underling Smith’s party’s opposition to sharing power with the black majority in the country. There are just 220,000 whites in Rhodesia, as opposed to 4 million blacks. Smith’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence brought condemnation from Black African and Commonwealth leaders as well as from the United Nations. The British government under Harold Wilson immediately imposed trade sanctions and an oil embargo, although it is thought that the South Africans will probably aid the Rhodesians by sanctions-busting. The use of force has so far been ruled out, despite demands from neighbouring Black African countries. Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, leaders of Rhodesia’s most prominent black nationalist organisation, Zimbabwe African People’s Union, are both in jail.

… (1923) ‘Hitler arrested after beerhall putsch’: Adolf Hitler, leader of Bavaria’s Nationalist Socialist Party, was arrested today in the village of Essing, outside Munich. Three night’s ago the city’s largest beerhall, the Burgerbraukeller, was the scene of a meeting to be addressed by the State Commissioner of Bavaria, Gustav von Kahr, on the subject of “the moral justification for political leadership”. Hardly had he started when the hall was invaded by large numbers of Hitler’s Brownshirts waving guns. Hitler stood on a chair, fired a shot in the air, and shouted, “The National Revolution has begun.” He enlisted General von Lossow, local Army commander, and Colonel von Seisser of the State Police to his cause. His support evaporated over the next few days, however, and in a confrontation with police at the Royal Palace the man with whom he had linked arms was shot, whereupon he fled.

… (1921) The British legion holds its first Poppy Day to raise money for the wounded of World War I.

… (1920) The bodies of unknown British and French soldiers are buried at Westminster Abbey and the Arc de Triomphe respectively.

… (1918) ‘Great War ends’: After four years and 97 days the guns finally feel silent today. In a carriage of Marshal Foch’s train in the Forest of Compiègne, Foch, General Weygand and British Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss accepted the German surrender from a civilian, Reichstag Deputy Matthias Erzberger, and two junior generals. The German high command had no intention of getting involved in surrender negotiations and stayed away. The Armistice document requires Germany to hand over 5000 heavy guns, 30,000 machine guns, 2000 aircraft, all U-boats, 5000 locomotives, 150,000 wagons and 5000 lorries; the surface fleet will be interned; the Allies will occupy the Rhineland and the blockade of German seaports will remain in force. The Kaiser abdicated and fled to Holland yesterday. The numb er of lives lost in the War is thought to be around 9 million, with another 27 million injured. The war has cost the Allies some $126 billion (£68.5 billion), the Central Powers $60 billion (£32.6 billion). It has been the most destructive war the world has ever seen.

… (1880) Australian bank robber Ned Kelly goes to the gallows two years after becoming an outlaw.

… (1855) Death of Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher who greatly influenced 20^th-century existentialism.

… (1831) ‘Nat Turner hanged’: Nat Turner, the rebel slave, was hanged today in Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner, a 31-year-old of some education and a persuasive preacher, became convinced that he had been chosen by God to lead the slaves from bondage. With five others he rose up on August 21 and killed his master, Joseph Turner, and family. A growing band of rebels then marched on Jerusalem. By August 23, at least 57 white men, women and children had been slaughtered. A force of local men and militia hunted Turner’s band down in the next 24 hours, and the revolt was crushed. Turner was caught six weeks later. Sixteen other men were hanged with him.

… (1807) Britain extends her naval blockade to Russia after the Anglo-Russian alliance against France is broken.

…My life’s work has been accomplished. I did all that I could. [Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet statesman, 1991.]

10^th, (1989) ‘Berlin Wall breached’: A million East Germans poured into West Berlin early today, free at last to leave their country without special permission. Bulldozers made new holes in the 28-mile (45 km) Wall as the joyous crowd flooded the streets of West Berlin, drinking champagne and hooting car horns till dawn. East German leader Egon Krenz, appealed to his fellow citizens to stay, promising multi-party elections, freedom of speech and a new criminal code, but since the borders with Hungary and Czechoslovakia were opened 167,000 have already left. On November 4, one million East Berliners marched for reform, gathering in Alexanderplatz, half a mile from the hated wall, shouting: “Egon, here we come.” Two days later, half a million marched in Leipzig. It was the biggest show of opposition in East Germany since Soviet tanks crushed a workers’ revolt in 1953.

… (1987) The wreck of the US brig Somers, rumoured to be haunted after three of her crew were hanged and subsequently sunk in the US-Mexican war in 1846, is reported discovered off the coast of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

… (1982) ‘Brezhnev Is Dead’: Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, hard-faced old-guard Soviet leader for 18 years, has died of a heart attack at the age of 75. His years of power saw Russia achieve superpower status, and strategic parity with the USA, but also saw her exerting an ever-stronger grip on her satellites, most notably Czechoslovakia in 1968. He was born in Dneprodzerzhinsk in the Ukraine, and studied as an engineer. His political career was advanced by his relationship with his compatriot Nikita Khrushchev, whom ironically Brezhnev toppled in 1964 to reach the top. Statesmen and political leaders will attend his state funeral in Red Square, from 70- countries. The new leader of the Soviet Union, only the fifth since 1917, is Yuri Andropov, former head of the KGB and a man adept at crushing dissent.

… (1952) The 77-year-old doctor-philosopher Albert Schweitzer, who decided that he would devote the first 30 years of his life to himself and the rest to mankind, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his humanitarian work in Africa.

… (1928) Emperor Hirohito ascends the Japanese throne at the age of 27.

… (1918) The German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II appears at the Dutch frontier having abdicated, leaving behind a country gripped by revolutionary fervour.

… (1917) ‘Flanders carnage halted – for now’: British General Douglas Haig’s grandiose plan of smashing through the German lines and on to the Channel was finally abandoned today, after 156 days and anything up to 250,000 casualties – nobody will ever be quite sure of the exact number. Canadian troops took control of Passchendaele Ridge and found themselves in possession of a few square miles of worthless swamp and a village which has almost ceased to exist. The battle – the third on the Ypres Salient – started in June with the mining of the Messines Ridge (the tremors could be felt in Downing Street), but the wettest August in living memory turned the ground to quagmire. Allied troops were faced with the choice of paths under a constant barrage of fire from the Germans, or death by drowning in the mud. The verdict of British prime minister Lloyd George is succinct: “The most grim, futile and bloody fight in the history of war”, the result of “stubborn and narrow egotism, unsurpassed among the records of disaster”.

… (1914) The Australian cruiser Sydney sinks the German cruiser Emden off Sumatra.

… (1913) Battersea elects the first coloured mayor in Britain, John Archer.

… (1871) ‘Stanley finds Livingstone’: “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” were the first words spoken by Henry Morton Stanley to David Livingstone when Stanley tracked down the missing explorer and missionary to Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. “Yes,” said the Doctor, lifting his cap slightly. Livingstone, a 58-year-old Scot, is famous as the explorer of the Zambezi and discoverer of Victoria Falls, and as the first European to cross the continent from coast to coast. His search for the sources of the Nile and Congo rivers has occupied him to the point of obsession for several years. Stanley, also an explorer of some note, was commissioned to find Livingstone by James Gordon Bennett, proprietor of the New York Herald, although it is a moot point whether he was actually “missing” or merely out of reach. Since receiving his orders in 1869 Stanley has found time to attend the opening of the Suez Canal, sail up the Nile, visit Jerusalem, Constantinople, the Crimea and Caspian, and travel through Persia to India, before setting out on his quest. Whether it was a publicity stunt or not, Stanley’s arrival was timely indeed. Doctor Livingstone had arrived at Ujiji a “living skeleton”, to find that the supplies set aside for his arrival had been sold off by the shereef (headman) of the village.

… (1775) By resolution of the Continental Congress, the raising of two battalions of men, to be known as the “Continental Marines”, is authorised to create a seaborne military police.

…This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. [Winston Churchill, refers to the battle for Egypt, 1942.]

9^th, (1988) The Pentagon took the wraps off the Air Force’s new attack plane today. A sinister, all black aircraft, the Lockheed F-117A employs the latest stealth technology – radar-absorbent materials and a “faceted” surface that deflects radar signals at odd angles. The aircraft’s key feature is that it can supposedly arrive undetected over a target.

… (1986) ‘Israel admits Vanunu capture’: Israel admitted today that Atomic Energy Commission worker Mordechai Vanunu, 31, is in “lawful detention” in Haifa, but denies that he was kidnapped from the UK by Mossad. On October 5 the London Sunday Times printed his revelations about Israel’s nuclear arsenal at the plant at Dimona, backed up with his photographs. The Sunday Mirror had printed a photograph of Vanunu on September 28, and by September 30 he had disappeared; he never collected the money due to him from the Sunday Times. One theory has it that a “mystery blonde”, presumably a Mossad agent, lured him from London; another that he was shipped to Israel as diplomatic baggage in a crate. In any event, there is no record of anyone holding a passport in his name leaving the UK.

… (1985) 22-year-old Gary Kasparov became the youngest-yet world chess champion when he beat his fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov.

… (1970) Death of the French president Charles de Gaulle.

… (1966) Beatle John Lennon met artist and future wife Yoko Ono for the first time at her exhibition in a London gallery.

… (1960) John F. Kennedy becomes US president.

… (1940) Death of former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who advocated a policy of appeasement towards the fascist powers in Germany but was forced to abandon this policy after Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia; Chamberlain had resigned as war prime minister in May this year.

… (1938) ‘Night of Terror in Germany’: The Jewish community in Germany endured a night of terror when Nazi thugs went on the rampage, attacking Jewish businesses, synagogues and property. Thirty-six people were killed during the night, and 20,000 arrested; more than 7000 shops were looted and 267 synagogues burnt down. Dr Goebbels, Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, claimed that the violence was a “spontaneous reaction” to the assassination in Paris of Ernst von Rath, a German diplomat, by a young Polish Jew. There is no doubt, however, that the pogrom was carried out on the instructions of the Gestapo. A chilling development was the involvement of the “respectable” middle classes; fashionable women clapped as Jews were beaten by youths wielding lead piping. So that the insurance companies are not bankrupted by state hooliganism, the Nazis have declared their intention to confiscate insurance payouts and return them to the insurers. The huge amount of glass broken has led to the night being dubbed “Kristallnacht”; replacement glass will have to be imported and paid for in foreign currency. “They should have killed more Jews and broken less glass,” grumbled Hermann Goering.

… (1937) Ramsay MacDonald, formerly Britain’s first Labour prime minister but now despised by the party he nurtured and then betrayed, dies on a voyage to America.

… (1922) The SS is formed in Germany.

… (1813) Victorious allies offer Napoleon peace terms at Frankfurt.

… (1799) ‘Bonaparte takes reins of power’: Thirty-year-old Corsican General Napoleon Bonaparte became France’s new leader today. After a night of confusion – during which at one point he fainted in the crush – he emerged as First Consul and de facto head of government, supported by his brothers Joseph and Lucien and by Talleyrand. Bonaparte’s rise to the top has been rapid, aided in part by luck and in part by his skill in negotiating the rocks and shoals of Revolutionary politics. He made his name by his daring defeat of the British fleet at the Revolt of Toulon in 1793; he was jailed as a terrorist after the fall of Robespierre but soon released; his defence of the Tuileries against the mob in 1795 – administering the “whiff of grapeshot”, as he put it – made him the hero of Paris. His exploits in Italy and Egypt – despite the shattering of his fleet by Admiral Nelson at Aboukir Bay last year – made him world-famous and instinct told him that now was a good time to return to France from Egypt; with luck he got through the British blockade. Ironically, Corsica was only ceded to France by Genoa in 1768; had Bonaparte been born a year earlier he would not be French.

… (1794) The Russians enter Warsaw, ending Polish rebellion.

…Sire, you no longer have an army. [Wilhelm Groener, German general, to the Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, 1918.]

8^th, (2016) Donald Trump was elected 45th President of the United States.

… (1989) In Virginia, Douglas Wilder becomes the first black state governor in the US.

… (1988) Republican candidate George Bush wins the US presidential elections comfortably, carrying 40 states against only ten for his Democratic opponent, Michael Dukakis.

… (1987) A man serving 17 years for murder in a California prison decides to sue a juror for $24 million (£13 million) for sleeping through most of his trial and contributing to what he claims was an incorrect conviction.

… (1987) ‘Remembrance Day blast kills 11’: A huge bomb went off today in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, as marchers were gathering for a Remembrance Day parade. The bomb, which had been placed in a disused school, claimed the lives of 11 people, including 3 married couples, and injured 63, some critically. The IRA admitted responsibility for placing the device, but blamed the British Army for triggering the explosion with a high-frequency scanning device. Gordon Wilson, 60, was buried in the wreckage with his daughter Marie, a nurse, who died. The distraught father still had the generosity to say of her killers, “I shall pray for those people tonight and every night.”

… (1974) London’s Covent Garden ceases to be the location the city’s famous flower and vegetable market, leaving the site to be rejuvenated.

… (1974) ‘”Lucky” Lucan disappears after murder’: Scotland Yard have enlisted the aid of Interpol in their search for Lord Lucan, known to his friends in the gambling community as “Lucky” Lucan. They wish to interview him in connection with the murder of the family nanny, Sandra Rivett. At 9.45 yesterday evening his wife, the Countess of Lucan, staggered in her nightdress into the Plumber’s Arms near the family home in Belgravia, bleeding from head wounds. She shouted, “Help me! Help me! I’ve just escaped from a murderer … He’s murdered the nanny.”

… (1966) ‘First black senator elected’: Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke became the first black senator in US history today, elected to the Senate with a majority of more than 500,000. Born in Washington DC in 1919, Brooke took his BSc at Howard University in 1941, and his LlB at Boston in 1949, in between winning a Bronze Star with the Infantry in Italy in World War II. He served as Chairman of the Boston Finance Commission from 1960 to 1962. Elected as Attorney General in 1962, he was re-elected in 1964 by the largest majority in State history, and during his term of office indicted more than a hundred officials, private citizens and corporations on graft and bribery charges.

… (1942) ‘Allies land in North Africa’: Early this morning four divisions of Allied troops, under the overall command of Lieutenant-Colonel Eisenhower, landed on the coast of French North Africa in the largest combined operation of the West so far, codenamed Operation Torch. A convoy of more than 500 ships, protected by 350 ships of the Royal Navy and fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force, made landfall at several points. Resistance from Vichy French defenders faded after General Eisenhower secured the cooperation of Marshal Pétain’s deputy Francois Derlan, who was in Algiers. The First Army, under General Anderson, is now moving eastward to confront the Germans, and will join the Eighth Army under General Montgomery, now heading west after victory at El Alamein.

… (1939) Seven people are killed and more than 60 injured when a bomb explodes in Munich shortly after Hitler has left after his traditional speech on the anniversary of his abortive Beer Hall putsch – many suspect it was a propaganda ploy.

… (1932) ‘Roosevelt Landslide’: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was swept into the White House by a landslide today, carrying 42 out of 48 states against sitting Republican president Herbert Hoover. Although partially paralysed by polio, Roosevelt ran an energetic campaign, forcing Hoover to defend a record of bankruptcies, bank closures and unemployment. In his “New Deal”, Roosevelt promised to boost public spending on railways, roads, utilities and farming; to regulate banks and stock markets; and to provide unemployment insurance for all. “No American will starve,” is his claim.

… (1827) The Canton Register, the first English language newspaper in the Far East, starts publication in Guangzhou.

… (1793) In France the revolutionary government lets the public see the royal art collection in the Louvre for the first time.

… (1674) ‘John Milton dies’: The poet John Milton died of gout at his home in London today. He was 66. Born in 1608 in Cheapside, he was educated at St Paul’s School and Christ’s College, Cambridge. A painful period of separation from his first wife prompted him to publish a pamphlet advocating the desirability of divorce on grounds of incompatibility of mind and spirit; he consequently spent the 1640s and ‘50s mired in controversy. By 1651 he was almost blind, and was aided by Andrew Marvell in his work as translator to the Council of State. The restoration of Charles II in 1660 saw him no longer in government employ, giving him time to write his greatest work: Paradise Lost, completed in 1667. Milton is to be buried beside his father in St Giles’s, Cripplegate.

… (1602) The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library opened. It is now the second largest in Britain (behind the British Library), with more than 12 million printed items.

7^th, (2016) Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died, aged 82.

… (1990) ‘Gunmen Draws A Bead On Gorbachev’: In Red Square today a man fired two shots from a hunting rifle during the parade to mark the 73^rd anniversary of the October Revolution. Police spotted the man taking aim at the reviewing stand on top of the Lenin Mausoleum, only 142 ft (46 m) away, where President Gorbachev was taking the salute, and wrestled him to the ground. The shots went wide and no one was injured. The gunman, Alexandr Shimonov from Leningrad, was charged with “attempting a terrorist act”.

… (1980) Death of American actor Steve McQueen, whose films include The Great Escape.

… (1978) Death of American heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney.

… (1974) Nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered in London and her boss, Lord Lucan, vanished. His death certificate was issued in 2016.

… (1961) Konrad Adenauer is elected German Chancellor for the fourth time.

… (1960) In Moscow missiles appear for the first time at the annual parade in Red Square.

… (1921) ‘Mussolini is “II Duce”’: Benito Mussolini, the 38-year-old blacksmith’s son from the Romagna, today became official leader of the 35 parliamentary members of the National Fascist Party. Before World War One he was a socialist, editing the Milan Socialist Party newspaper Avanti, but moved to the right during and after the War, eventually involving himself in the foundation of the Fascists. He is a fanatical supporter of the nationalist poet Gabriele d’ Annunzio in his struggle to annex the port of Fiume and pre-empt the Paris Peace Conference; his “squadristi”, or black-shirts, have been active in anti-Bolshevik riots in Bologna, Florence and Milan, and are relentless in hunting down and breaking up Communist meetings. Mussolini’s proud boast is that Fascism is both “aristocratic and democratic, reactionary and revolutionary.”

… (1917) ‘Bolshevik revolution in Russia’: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known as Lenin, and his Bolsheviks successfully made a bid for power in Petrograd (St Petersburg) today. Since the abdication of the Tsar in March and Lenin’s return from exile in Switzerland in April, political turmoil has presented Aleksandr Kerensky’s provisional government with many problems, not least a German counter-attack which threatens Petrograd itself. Armed workers, soldiers and sailors began to take over various points throughout the city this morning. The cruiser Aurora, anchored in the River Neva, fired a single blank shell, and by evening the Red Guards had seized the Winter Palace, seat of the government. The Council of Commissars has confirmed Lenin as its head, with Leon Trotsky as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Kerensky has fled to Paris, vowing to return, though his failure to get to grips with the war or the country’s economic crisis make this unlikely. The Bolsheviks’ most immediate task is to make good their promise of “Peace, Land and Bread”, and to this end it is their declared intention to conclude a peace treaty with Germany as soon as possible.

… (1916) Jeanette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman member of the US Congress.

… (1865) The Repeating Light Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, manufactures the first pocket lighter.

… (1862) The “Gatling” Gun, which is transported on wheels and has six barrels which fire in rotation mounted round a central axis, is patented by 44-year-old inventor Richard J. Gatling.

6^th, (2003) Michael Howard becomes the new Conservative party leader.

… (1991) Boris Yeltsin, President of the Russian Federation, today issued a decree banning the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and the Russian  CP, and nationalising their property. He said that the party’s role in the failed coup of last August proved that the CPSU was not a legitimate political party but a “special mechanism for exercising political power”.

… (1984) A Dublin High Court judge freezes striking British mineworkers’ money after a High Court decision that the strike, now in its 35^th week, is illegal and that the union must pay a fine in 14 days or have its assets seized.

… (1975) The Sex Pistols play their first-ever gig amid scenes of mayhem at London’s St Martin’s College of Art: after ten minutes the college’s social secretary pulls the plug on them.

… (1956) The construction of the Kariba High Dam on the Zambezi river begins.

… (1935) ‘RAF’s new fighter’: The Hawker Hurricane, the RAF’s first monoplane fighter, flew for the first time today and inaugurated a new era in military aviation. Heavily armed, with 4-machine-guns in each wing, it is claimed to be the fastest interceptor in the world, with a top speed of 325 mph (520 kph) at 20,000 ft (6500 m).

… (1924) Tory party leader Stanley Baldwin is elected prime minister of Britain.

… (1923) ‘German inflation soars’: The German mark reached the incredible figure of 4.2 trillion to the US dollar today, as against 4.2 to the dollar ten years ago. Workers can be seen taking their wages home in wheelbarrows and crates, worthless Monopoly money in a country where a loaf of bread costs 200 million marks.

… (1917) The Battle of Passchendaele came to an end after three months of fighting.

… (1893) ‘Tchaikovsky dies’: Tchaikovsky, the most famous Russian composer of his age, has died at the age of 53. There are rumours that he died of cholera from drinking a glass of unboiled water, but it seems more likely that he committed suicide by poison, having been ordered to do so by a hastily convened Court of Honour of old classmates from the School of Jurisprudence, who were fearful of a scandal because of Tchaikovsky’s homosexual relationship with a member of the Imperial family. His death came only six days after he conducted the first performance of his Pathétique symphony. “I am a Russian, Russian, Russian to the marrow of my bones,” he wrote to his patroness Nadezhda von Meck, and this was apparent in every note he ever wrote: his symphonies, his concertos, his operas (most notably Eugene Onegin, and The Queen of Spades, both after Pushkin), and of course his three great ballet suites, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker.  Although he had more than fulfilled the promise of his brilliant early years at the St Petersburg Conservatory, he died as he had lived, a tortured and frustrated man.

… (1860) ‘Abraham Lincoln triumphs in elections’: Abraham Lincoln and his Republican running-mate Hannibal Hamlin triumphed over a split Democratic vote in today’s’ Presidential elections, with official Democrat candidate Stephen A. Douglas receiving only 12 electoral votes to Lincoln’s 180. The remainder were split between John C. Breckinridge, Southern Democrat (72) and John Bell, Constitutional Union Party (39). The popular vote was another matter, however, Lincoln receiving nearly 200,000 votes less than the combined Democratic vote. The key issue of the campaign was slavery, and Lincoln’s strong anti-slavery speech at the Cooper Union in New York in February made him frontrunner for the Republican candidacy. Lincoln challenged Douglas to debate the issue publicly, and the seven great Lincoln-Douglas debates the candidates conducted as they crisscrossed the country during the campaign enthralled the electorate. Now that Lincoln is in the White House it is certain that the pro-slavery states will secede from the Union.

… (1813) Mexico is proclaimed independent from Spain.

… (1656) Death of King John V of Portugal.

…Every Communist must grasp the truth, ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.’ [Mao Tse-tung, Chinese Communist leader, 1938.]

5^th, (2003) Voyager I becomes the first man-made object to leave the solar system.

… (1991) ‘Maxwell Dead’: Colourful and controversial press baron Robert Maxwell drowned today after mysteriously falling from his luxury yacht off the Canary Islands. He was not missed for some hours, and it was only after an intensive air and sea search that his naked body was found floating in the sea. Maxwell was taking a short break amid rumours about his own health, the financial health of his business and his possible involvement with Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service. Born Ludwig Hoch in Czechoslovakia in 1923, Maxwell served with distinction in the British Army in World War Two, winning the Military Cross. After the war he parlayed his publishing company, Pergamon Press, into a huge media empire that includes the London Mirror Group and the New York Daily News. His ability to recover from apparently terminal setbacks (he was once stigmatised as an “unfit person to run a publicly quoted company”) earned him the nickname of “the Bouncing Czech”. Speculation about whether his death was an accident, murder or suicide is intense.

… (1979) Death of American cartoonist Al Capp, who created Li’l Abner.

… (1956) Soviet tanks crush the Hungarian revolt.

… (1940) Franklin D. Roosevelt became the only U.S. president to win a third term.

… (1924) ‘Boy Emperor Expelled From Forbidden City’: The last Manchu emperor, 18-year-old Pu-yi, was forced to leave his palace in Peking today by Christian warlord Feng Yu-hsiang, who has taken control of the city. He was compelled to abdicate in 1912 by the revolutionary government in Nanking after the Wuchang uprising, ending 268 years of Manchu rule and over 2000 years of imperial tradition. The abdication agreement allowed him to live in the Forbidden City and retain all privileges. He was returned to the throne by General Hsun’s coup in 1917, but was dethroned again after only 12 days. The Emperor has sought the protection of the Japanese in their concession at Tien-tsin. He now calls himself Henry Pu-yi.

… (1919) The great American screen lover Rudolph Valentino marries actress Jean Acker and is locked out on his wedding night.

… (1914) Cyprus is annexed to Britain.

… (1912) The British Board of Film Censors is appointed.

… (1854) The combined British and French forces defeat the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman during the Crimean War.

… (1605) ‘Plot to blow up Parliament foiled’: There was great rejoicing today at the narrow escape of His Majesty James I and Their Lordships, after a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was discovered late last night. Lord Monteagle, a Catholic peer, received a letter warning him to stay away from today’s State Opening, and hinting at an explosion. On investigating the cellars beneath the House of Lords he and the Lord Chamberlain discovered a man piling wood who gave his name as Guy Fawkes, and claimed that the wood belonged to his master, Lord Percy. They let him go on his way, but on further investigating the pile of wood discovered 36 barrels of gunpowder at the bottom. Fawkes, a 35-year-old Yorkshireman, was arrested when he returned at midnight to make the final preparations.  It appears that this was a plot hatched by Catholics, headed by Robert Catesby, in protest at increasingly oppressive treatment by the King and his ministers. The plotters had tunnelled into the cellars from a house adjoining the Parliament buildings, and had recruited Fawkes, who is noted for his coolness and bravery, in the Netherlands, where he was serving in the Spanish Army.

… (1586) Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, Sir Philip Sidney, dies after a reckless cavalry charge during a campaign in the Netherlands.

… (1556) ‘Akbar victorious’: The 13-year-old Mogul leader Akbar defeated his only rival, Afghan general Hemu, at the second Battle of Panipat in 1526 that Akbar’s grandfather Babar defeated Sultan Ibrahim II to establish the Mogul dynasty. Akbar’s army faced Hemu’s 30,000-strong army, which very swiftly overcame the Mogul flanks. Hemu then attacked the centre with a force of 1500 elephants, and was on the point of victory when he was hit in the eye by an arrow and fell to the ground unconscious. Akbar mutilated the body and finally hacked off the head, whereupon Hemu’s hordes fled. This victory gives Akbar unchallenged sovereignty over Delhi and Agra, and ensures the survival of the Mogul empire.

4^th, (1995) ‘Rabin Assassinated’: Israel is in shock after the assassination today of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Mr. Rabin was addressing a peace rally in the Square of the Kings in Tel Aviv when a 27-year-old law student, a right-wing Jewish extremist, emerged from the crowd and killed him. The Prime Minister has been deeply unpopular with some Israelis since he shook hands with Yasser Arafat, the PLO leader, at the White House. His death brings grave doubts about the future of the Middle East peace process.

… (1987) Millionaire Peter de Savary buys Land’s End, Cornwall, the southernmost tip of the British mainland.

… (1980) Ronald Reagan is elected 40^th US President.

… (1979) ‘Militants seize US embassy’: A major international crisis blew up for President Carter today when up to 500 militant Iranians, mostly students, seized the US embassy in Tehran. Approximately 90 people have been taken hostage, blindfolded and handcuffed, including 65 diplomatic staff. The demonstrators burned two US flags and built a mock gallows intended for the Shah, chanting, “USA, we want the Shah soon.” The Shah is in America at the invitation of President Carter for cancer treatment, having fled his country last January. The Iranians want him returned to face charges of alleged torture, murder and robbery. The Revolutionary Guards occupied the US embassy earlier this year, but were ordered out by the Ayatollah Khomeini; this time they claim they are acting on his authority.

… (1946) A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is established.

… (1939) ‘Roosevelt ends arms embargo’: President Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Neutrality Act into law today, repealing the US embargo on arms sales to foreign powers. Arms can now be shipped to belligerent powers provided they pay cash and use non-US ships for transport. Roosevelt urged the repeal in his annual message to Congress in January, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee blocked the proposal. The Russo/German non-aggression pact announced on August 21, followed by the outbreak of the War itself, ended resistance. Although the amendment in theory applies to all nations, in practice the beneficiaries will be Britain and France, thus effectively ending US neutrality. It is hoped this will mean that the Allies will now be able to win the war without active US involvement.

… (1931) Indian campaigner Mahatma Gandhi, in London for the Round Table Conference on the question of dominion status for India, goes to Buckingham Palace for tea with King George V.

… (1921) Japanese prime minister Takashi Hara Kei is assassinated by a Korean.

… (1914) The first fashion show is held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, organised by Edna Woodman Chase of Vogue magazine.

… (1890) The Prince of Wales travels on the underground from King William Street to the Oval to mark the opening of the first electrified underground railway station.

… (1852) The House of Commons Press Gallery is opened.

… (1847) German composer and pianist Felix Mendelssohn dies of a stroke aged only 38; his work includes the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the oratorios St Paul and Elijah.

… (1843) ‘Nelson Climbs His Column’: In Trafalgar Square today the monument in honour of Lord Nelson, to commemorate his last and greatest victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, was finally completed after four years’ work. The 17-ft (5.5 m), 16-ton statue, the work of E.H. Bailey, was hauled up the column in two pieces and placed on a capital cast in bronze from guns taken from the Royal George. The 184-ft (60 m) column cost £50,000 ($92,000), nearly half of which was contributed by Parliament, the balance by public subscription. 100,000 people, not all of them admirers, viewed the statue last weekend. One critic compared it to a ship’s figurehead, and claimed that it displayed “a daring disregard of personal resemblance”.

… (1797) US Congress agrees to pay an annual “anti-piracy” tribute to Tripoli.

…We are not at war with Egypt. We are in an armed conflict. [Anthony Eden, British prime minister, refers to the Suez crisis, 1956.]

3^rd, (1992) Bill Clinton, the 46-year-old Governor of Arkansas, is elected President of the United States of America, winning a decisive victory in the presidential election and defeating the existing President George Bush.

… (1988) Koo Stark is awarded £300,000 ($550,000) libel damages following the publication of articles in the Sunday People that implied she had had an adulterous affair with Prince Andrew.

… (1985) Two French agents in New Zealand plead guilty to sinking the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior and to the manslaughter of the photographer on board.

… (1984) The Indian prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi is cremated.

… (1975) ‘North Sea oil starts to flow’: The Queen today officially opened the world’s first underwater pipeline, which will bring 400,000 barrels of North Sea oil ashore each day at Grangemouth Refinery on the Firth of Forth in Scotland. Oil was first discovered in the North Sea in the mid-1960s, although the first major oilfield, Ekofisk, was not discovered until 1969. The task of extracting the oil and bringing it ashore has been extremely demanding, with unpredictable weather and currents, and depths of water up to 495 ft (160 m). The global oil crisis of 1974-5 has increased the urgency of the project, and the UK is aiming to be self-sufficient in oil by 1980.

… (1957) ‘Russian dog in space’: the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 was fired into orbit today with a dog called Laika on board. The satellite, which is much more visible from Earth than its predecessor Sputnik I, will carry out a variety of scientific tasks, including the study of ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays. Laika is sealed in a cylindrical cabin containing a food store, air conditioner, and various devices for measuring her vital signs. Her cardiac and respiratory rates normalised satisfactorily after the stress of acceleration into space, although the process took three times as long as it would have done on Earth. Sadly, in spite of her importance to science, it will not be possible to bring Laika home.

… (1954) Death of the French painter and sculptor Henri Matisse.

… (1942) British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery’s troops break through commander of the Afrika Corps Erwin Rommel’s front line in Africa and capture 9000 prisoners.

… (1942) ‘Japanese will attack’: US ambassador to Tokyo Joseph Grew today cabled the State Department in Washington warning yet again that a Japanese attack on a United States position is imminent. He believes that the decision to go to war will be taken in the next few days. He says that the Japanese “might resort with dangerous and dramatic suddenness to measures which might make inevitable war with the United States.” He continued, “It would be short-sighted for US policy to be based on the belief that Japanese preparations are no more than sabre-rattling.”

… (1903) Panama proclaims its independence from Columbia.

… (1870) The photographing of every prisoner in England and Wales was made compulsory today. A photograph was first used on a wanted poster in 1861 with some success, and it is anticipated that this so-called “Rogues’ Gallery” will help the police in the apprehension of criminals.

… (1868) ‘Grant is 18^th US President’: General Ulysses Simpson Grant, Commander-in-Chief of the Union armies in the Civil War, was elected President of the United States today on the Republican ticket. He received 214 Electoral College votes to the 80 of his Democratic opponent, Horatio Seymour. Grant’s aggressive tactics in the early battles of the Civil War earned him the nickname of “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. His inadequate preparations almost lost him the Battle of Shiloh, and he was criticised for his apparent indifference to heavy loss of life, but his victories at Chattanooga and Appomattox, and the subsequent Confederate surrender, proved the correctness of his strategic thinking. Before this year Grant had been unconcerned with politics (he has voted only once in his life – for a Democrat), but his unanimous nomination by the Republican convention persuaded him to stand. The impressive margin of his victory in the subsequent campaign came despite his refusal to make any speeches.

… (1839) An expeditionary force begins to be assembled after deteriorating relations between Britain and China over the opium trade have led to war.

… (1706) Fifteen thousand people die as an earthquake destroys the town of Abruzzi in Italy.

2^nd, (1996) U.S. singer Eva Cassidy died of skin cancer, aged 33. Her fame in the UK was boosted after her death, when Terry Wogan played her music on his Radio 2 breakfast show.

… (1990) Ivana Trump files for divorce from Donald Trump.

… (1984) Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva goes home to Moscow 17 years after she went into exile and was stripped of her Soviet citizenship.

… (1976) ‘Carter goes to Washington’: The Democratic outsider Jimmy Carter, former Governor of Georgia, defeated the incumbent Republican Gerald Ford to become the 39^th President of the United States today. Carter and his running mate, Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota, won by the narrow margin of 297 electoral votes to 241, capturing 51 per cent of the popular vote. The 52-year-old from Plains, Georgia, is a liberal and a populist, and a symbol of the “New South”: he has received support from prominent blacks such as Representative Andrew Young of Georgia. He intends to institute an energy conservation programme, to reduce the wastefulness of government bureaucracy, and to appoint women to his cabinet.

… (1963) Archaeologists in America discover evidence of the Vikings dated 500 years before Columbus.

… (1963) Death of Ngo Dinh Diem, first president of the Republic of South Vietnam.

… (1960) A British jury has decided that the controversial novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence, is indeed a book that they would wish their wives or servants to read. Despite the prosecuting counsel’s spirited, if puritanical, attempt to persuade them otherwise, the 12 jurors found that the book was not obscene, nor liable to deprave or corrupt those who read it.

… (1957) Elvis Presley sets an all-time record with eight simultaneous UK Top 30 entries.

… (1953) It is announced that Pakistan is to adopt Islamic law.

… (1947) In California the world’s largest aircraft, the Hughes Hercules flying boat, or “Spruce Goose”, flew for the first time today. It has a wingspan of 319 ft 11 inches (97.51 m), is 218 ft 8 inches (66.64 m) long, has eight 3000 hp engines and seats 700 passengers. The brainchild of millionaire Howard Hughes, it has been under construction in Culver City since 1942 and cost $40 (£22) million to build.

… (1936) ‘TV Age Begins’: The world’s first regular high-definition (405-line) TV service was inaugurated by the British Broadcasting Corporation today. An estimated 100 TV owners, all living within a radius of 25 miles (40 km) from the studios at Alexandra Palace, north London, saw the Postmaster General perform the opening ceremony. The BBC is using the system developed by Mr John Logie Baird, which at present involves a 40-second delay between the event being shown and the actual transmission; during this 40 seconds a film is developed, printed and projected. It is believed that a simultaneous system will shortly be introduced. For the time being there will be two one-hour transmissions a day. Although television sets costs up to £100 ($184) it is thought that the number of owners will increase rapidly now that programmes can be transmitted regularly.

… (1930) ‘Hail Selassie I crowned emperor’: Ras (“Duke) Tafari, King of Ethiopia, was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I in Addis Ababa today, amid immense pomp and splendour. Thousands of tribesmen in lionskin cloaks, waving spears and shields, lined the streets as the Emperor drove past in the ex-Kaiser’s coronation coach. His accession follows the death of Empress Zauditu, with whom he has shared power since 1928. He has been regent and heir apparent since 1917; his liberal, westernising influence acted as counterbalance to the conservatism of war minister Hapta Giorgis, and he secured Ethiopia’s admission into the League of Nations in 1923. Haile Selassie (his name means “Might of the Trinity”) intends to give Ethiopia her first written constitution. Ethiopia and Liberia are currently the only countries in Africa with black rulers.

… (1920) KDKA in Pittsburgh becomes the world’s first regular broadcasting station.

… (1917) The possibility of a permanent national homeland for the Jews in Palestine comes a step closer today with the issue by the British government of the so-called Balfour Declaration.

… (1903) The Daily Mirror is published in Britain, marketed as a newspaper for women.

… (1899) The Siege of Ladysmith in Natal begins as Boers encircle the town.

… (1898) Johnny Campbell of the University of Minnesota became the U.S.’s first cheerleader. For decades, the activity was the preserve of men.

… (1889) Suffragettes Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton are stopped while trying to vote in the national election.

… (1810) The US establishes freedom of trade with France.

November 1^st, (1993) ‘The European Union is born’: From today, the EC will now be known as the European Union (EU) and a tight timetable for economic and monetary union will bring member states closer together. The EU will take on new responsibilities for a common foreign and security policy on affairs such as asylum, immigration, terrorism and drugs. The new terms were laid down in the Maastricht Treaty which followed many years of negotiations between the foreign and finance ministers of the EC member states. Britain has opted out of the social chapter which concerns workers’ rights, but citizens in all 12 countries are now Europeans with rights to live and work in any other EU state. Many countries have held a referendum to determine their entry into the EU. The Danes rejected the treaty and will not be joining. The French referendum gained only a marginal victory, and in Germany the treaties were referred to the constitutional courts, but were eventually voted in. The treaties scrapped through the British Parliament and, despite the rough ride, will finally come into force today.

… (1988) Britain’s faithful sidekick Robin is no more, dynamited to death by the Joker in edition No. 428 of DC Comics’ Batman following a readers’ poll which voted that he should go.

… (1987) American actors Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis married in Las Vegas. They divorced three years later.

… (1984) Rajiv Gandhi is sworn in as India’s premier.

… (1972) American poet Ezra Pound dies in Venice aged 87.

… (1967) Rolling Stone magazine makes its debut – it is the first national rock’n’roll periodical in the US.

… (1961) The Soviet Communist Party Congress’s “de-Stalinisation” theme has had a dramatic result: during the night Stalin’s body was removed from the mausoleum in Red Square where it has lain next to Lenin’s since his death in 1953. Even Stalingrad, one of the most resonant names from Russia’s struggle against the Nazis, has been renamed Volgograd.

… (1954) Algerian nationalists begin a war of independence against the French.

… (1952) The U.S. tested the first ever hydrogen bomb, over the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

… (1950) US President Truman survives an assassination attempt as two Puerto Rican nationalists shoot their way into his private residence, killing one of his guards.

… (1922) The first radio licences go on sale in Britain – they cost 10s (50p/90 cents).

… (1895) The first motoring organisation, the American Motor League, is founded.

… (1858) ‘Victoria proclaimed India’s ruler’: The East India Company’s long reign over India came to an end today when the administration of the country passed to Queen Victoria. Her Majesty announced a policy of non-interference with religious expression and the opening of higher administrative office to qualified Indians. Lord Canning, already Governor General, will be her Viceroy. The East India Company, formed in 1600 to exploit trade with the East, has acted as an agent of British imperialism since the early 18^th century, though abuses of power by shareholders were curbed by the Regulating Act (1773) and Pitt’s India Act (1784). The Company’s influence has finally been broken by the violent and bloody events of the Indian Mutiny, which developed from a revolt of Indian sepoys in Bengal into a widespread uprising against British rule in India. Although British reconquest was competed with the relief of Lucknow in March of this year, reform was inevitable.

… (1814) Following Napoleon’s defeat, the European Congress opens in Vienna.

… (1793) The British anti-Catholic Lord George Gordon dies in Newgate Prison convicted of libelling Marie Antoinette – he stirred up the so-called Gordon Riots in 1790.

… (1755) ‘Earthquake destroys Lisbon’: Severe earth tremors devastated the Portuguese city of Lisbon today, the Feast of All Saints. Within 15 minutes two-thirds of the city was in ruins. Those unfortunates who fled towards the sea to escape the falling buildings were drowned by a huge tsunami, or tidal wave. Because it was a Sunday the cathedrals and churches were packed with worshippers, and many thousands lost their lives when the buildings collapsed. As if this were not enough, towards evening the remains were engulfed by fire. The estimated death toll stands somewhere between 30,000 and 60,000, but the true figure will probably never be known.

…A lie can be half-way round the world before the truth has got its boots on. [James Callaghan, British prime minister, 1976.]

OCTOBER

31^st, (1987) Two young people are said to have committed double suicide near Canberra, Australia, when they are found beheaded and strapped in the front seat of their car with their heads mysteriously placed in the back.

… (1984) ‘Bodyguard kills Gandhi’: The Indian Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi was shot dead today as she walked in the garden of her home in New Delhi. She was 67. Ironically her killers were the men detailed to protect her, constable Satwant Singh and sub-inspector Beant Singh. The two men, both Sikhs, had riddled Mrs Gandhi with bullets before police loyal to the prime minister intervened, shooting dead Beant Singh. Mrs Gandhi had ignored repeated warnings about the potential danger of keeping Sikh bodyguards. Three months ago Mrs Gandhi outraged Sikh feelings by ordering the Army to storm the Holy Golden Temple of Amritsar. Her assassination is almost certainly linked to that act. Rajv Gandhi is expected to be sworn in as his mother’s successor later today.

… (1971) An IRA bomb explodes at the top of London’s Post Office Tower.

… (1961) Death of Welsh portrait painter and graphic artist Augustus John, renowned for his outstanding draughtsmanship.

… (1958) The first internal heart pacemaker is implanted by Dr Ake Senning in Stockholm.

… (1958) Nobel prize-winning author Boris Pasternak is expelled from the Soviet Writers’ Union and is likely to be exiled for his Dr Zhivago.

… (1956) ‘Suez Canal Splits Atlantic Alliance’: A bitter row has erupted between Washington and London/Paris over the bombing of Egypt by Anglo-French aircraft. The attack follows an ultimatum by Britain and France that Israel and Egypt should withdraw their forces from the Canal Zone. Two days ago Israeli forces moved into the Sinai Peninsula, ostensibly in retaliation for Egyptian attacks on Israel. The alacrity with which the British and French produced the 12-hour ultimatum and then brought their military forces into play suggest that the timing of the Israeli action came as no surprise. It came as a great surprise to President Eisenhower, who finds himself in the Soviet camp on this issue. Anglo-French thinking is that the Suez Canal – nationalised by Nasser in July – must be kept open to international traffic, thereby securing Europe’s supply of oil. President Eisenhower regards the action as a threat to world peace and wants an immediate ceasefire.

… (1955) ‘Duty’s sad call’: In a broadcast to the British people last night, Princess Margaret said that she had decided not to marry divorced Group Captain Peter Townsend. There has been intense speculation in the press about the possibility of the marriage since Townsend’s (her late father’s equerry) recent return from an enforced two-year posting to Brussels. Had the princess married him she would have lost her income from the Civil List and her place in line to the throne.

… (1940) The Battle of Britain – described by the RAF as the most important event in its history – came to an end.

… (1926) ‘Houdini can’t escape death’: Escapologist and conjuror Harry Houdini died in a Detroit Hospital today aged 52. The man who delighted in cheating death in his daring stage act succumbed to peritonitis after suffering a seemingly minor injury. The Hungarian-born master magician began his career as a trapeze artist. He changed his name from Erik Weiss to Houdini, after the famous French conjuror Jean-Eugene Robert Houdini. By the early 1900s his stage act had earned him an international reputation. Time and again he would enthral audiences by escaping from all manner of straightjackets, handcuffs, prison cells and locked, weighted and submerged containers. He attributed his success to his immense strength (tongue in cheek) to his bowlegs.

… (1940) The Battle of Britain ends: the Royal Air Force has lost 915 aircraft, the Luftwaffe 1733.

… (1888) ‘Rate of Inflation’: A Scottish veterinary surgeon’s efforts to reduce the vibration emanating from the solid rubber wheels of his son’s tricycle has resulted in him being awarded a patent for a new type of tyre. John Boyd Dunlop’s pneumatic tyre consists of an all-rubber inner tube covered by canvas with a rubber tread. The flaps of the canvas jacket are affixed to the wheel of the vehicle by means of rubber cement. The idea is not new – some 40 years ago Robert William Thomson was given a British patent for his pneumatic tyre. However, such is Dunlop’s determination to find applications for his tyre that he intends to start commercial production in the near future.

… (1864) Nevada becomes the 36^th state of the Union.

… (1517) Martin Luther nails his 95 theses against the corruption of the papacy in Rome to the church door at Wittenberg.

…Gentlemen, it was necessary to abolish the fez, which sat on the heads of our nation as an emblem of ignorance, negligence, fanaticism and hatred of progress and civilisation, to accept in its place the hat, the headgear worn by the whole civilised world. [Kemal Ataturk, Founder of the Turkish Republic, 1927.]

30^th, (2012) English actor and Billy Elliott star Jamie Bell married U.S. actress Evan Rachel Wood. They divorced two years later.

… (2005) Civil rights activist Rosa Parks became the first woman ever to lie in honour in a casket in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.

… (1988) ‘Wed-in bells ring for 13,000 Moonies’: The head of the Unification Church, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, today presided over one of the biggest mass wedding ceremonies in history at Yongin in South Korea. In the appropriate setting of a production-line factory, the identically clothed brides and grooms paraded before their Moonie master. The 6516 couples had all been personally matched by the controversial cult leader. In some cases the two sides of Moon’s ready-matched equation were meeting for the first time. The newly-weds will spend the next 40 days getting to know each other – and, in a few instances, each other’s language – before being allowed to consummate their vows. The Moonies’ last wed-in was held six years ago, when 5837 couples tied the knot.

… (1984) ‘Communist critic killed’: The body of the kidnapped pro-Solidarity priest, Father Jerzy Popieluszko, was found by police frogmen in Wloclawek Reservoir in northern Poland today. Father Popieluszko, who was famed for his outspoken criticism of Communism, disappeared 12 days ago while driving between his parish in Warsaw and the city of Torun. Three secret police officers have already been charged with abducting the popular 37-year-old priest, but the Polish government has admitted that other, more important people must have ordered the killing. Hardline opponents of Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski are thought to be the most likely culprits.

… (1979) Death of British aircraft designer Sir Barnes Neville Wallis, whose invention of “bouncing bombs” played a key part in World War Two.

… (1974) Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in the eighth round in Kinshasa to regain his title as world heavyweight boxing champion.

… (1967) Rolling Stone Brian Jones is jailed for drug offences.

… (1925) Fifteen-year-old office boy William Taynton is the first person to be captured on television, by John Logie Baird at his workshop in London.

… (1918) Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) shocked King George V today by refusing to receive from him the Order of the Bath and the Distinguished Service Order. Lawrence, 28, is deeply disillusioned with the outcome of the recently ended hostilities in Palestine, where instead of realising his dream of an Arab nation, he witnessed the Arabs’ seemingly incurable factionalism and a carve-up of the region by the French and British.

… (1911) Advised by the regent Prince Chun, China’s boy emperor Pu Yi grants a constitution to combat growing support for the rebel republican army of Sun Yat-sen.

… (1905) Under pressure from striking workers and oppressed peasants and hoping to avoid a revolution, the Tsar of Russia agrees in his October manifesto to grant civil liberties and elections.

… (1838) ‘At last women can study’: Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Lorain County, Ohio, has become the first college in the United States to open its doors to women students. The Institute trains both ministers and teachers for work in the West. The Rev. John L. Shipherd, a Presbyterian minister, founded the town and college of Oberlin five years ago, along with Philo P. Steward, a former missionary to the Choctaw Indians. They chose the name Oberlin to honour the Lutheran pastor, educator and philanthropist Johann Friedrich Oberlin, who died 12 years ago after a life dedicated to improving the standards of living and education among his Alsatian parishioners.

… (1823) Death of Edmund Cartwright, whose invention of the power loom contributed to the Industrial Revolution.

… (1485) King Henry VII of England establishes the Yeoman of the Guard.

29^th, (1998) Death of Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate for 14 years, whose last collection, Birthday Letters, was written after he knew he was dying of cancer.

… (1998) The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to investigate the causes and results of Apartheid, reports after two years of hearings.

… (1987) Multi-adaptable boxer Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns wins the world middle-heavyweight title – he has now won a world title at four different weights.

… (1985) Nine-times Derby winner Lester Piggott ends his horseracing career at Nottingham.

… (1964) Tanganyika and Zanzibar unite; from now on they will be known as Tanzania.

… (1963) Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant founds the Red Cross.

… (1960) CASSIUS CLAY – who would later become Muhammad Ali – fought and won his first professional fight, after success at the Rome Olympics earlier that year.

… (1956) Israeli forces cross into the Sinai Peninsula, pushing towards the Suez Canal.

… (1951) The divorce of Frank Sinatra and his wife Nancy was finalised, after 12 years of marriage.

… (1929) ‘New York Banks try to Stem Wall Street Panic’: The crisis of confidence that has hit the New York stock market during the past few days reached epic proportions today. By the end of trading 16,410,030 sales had taken place, driving the Dow Jones index down rapidly a further 43 points and wiping out the unprecedented stock market gains of the past year. Investment trusts have suffered the most. Financial leaders had hoped that by pooling resources they could arrest the decline. Yesterday, however, four days after their collective effort, prices began to slide steeply again. Out-of-town banks are estimated to have withdrawn over $2 billion (£1 billion) from Wall Street. The nerves of the New York banks are strengthening – they have increased their lending by some $1 billion (£540 billion) to prevent a money panic.

… (1927) The tomb of Genghis Khan is discovered by Russian archaeologist peter Kozlov.

… (1914) ‘Battenberg Sliced’: Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg, Britain’s first sea lord, announced his resignation today. The 60-year-old Admiral has been forced to resign because of his German birth. Although naturalised as British subject in 1868 when he entered the Royal Navy, the Prince was born in Graz, Austria, of a German princely family. After giving more than 40 years of loyal service to his adoptive country the Prince could be forgiven for feeling aggrieved. One wonders whether the British royal family will be made to feel similarly uncomfortable about their origins.

… (1886) Champion English jockey Fred Archer rides the last of his races at Newmarket, retiring after 16 years and 2746 wins.

… (1618) ‘Tide of fortune turns for Raleigh’: Sir Walter Raleigh, the English adventurer and writer, was executed for treason in the Tower of London today. He was 54. Raleigh came to prominence during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, whose favourite he became. Lucrative monopolies, properties and influential posts ebbed and flowed with the tide of her affection. When the possessive Elizabeth discovered that Raleigh had secretly married she cast him and his wife into the Tower. He succeeded in buying their release and returned to adventuring overseas. His aggressive policies towards Spain led the newly crowned James I to believe that Raleigh was plotting to overthrow him. The death sentence was lifted at the eleventh hour and he was released without a pardon. It was revoked two years later after his return, empty-handed, from a gold-finding expedition to Guiana. While Raleigh had lain ill with the fever a Spanish settlement had been burnt on the orders of his lieutenant. Nothing could save him this time.

…It’s not the bullet with my name on it that worries me. It’s the one that says “to whom it may concern”. [Resident in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1991.]

28^th, (1988) ‘Wales wails’: The Prince of Wales renewed his attack on modern architectural thinking and planning in a BBC television programme broadcast today. The film took the form of a royal tour of Britain’s architectural black and white spots. Two example of the “terrible damage” that had been done to the inner-city landscape were Birmingham’s Bullring and Convention Centre and London’s Paternoster Square. A spokesman for Birmingham Council called the Prince’s criticism of his city as a “stab in the back from someone in an ivory tower”. Among the white spots were Kirkgate Old Market in Leeds and the Ministry of Health in Whitehall. The president-elect of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Max Hutchinson, said that the Prince’s thinking was “strangely nostalgic and … out of time with current architectural thought and criticism”.

… (1982) Forty-year-old Felipe Gonzalez becomes Spain’s first Socialist prime minister with a landslide victory.

… (1977) Yorkshire police announce that a multiple murderer is on the loose in Britain.

… (1975) Death of French boxer Georges Carpentier, world light heavyweight champion from 1920 to 1922.

… (1962) ‘Khrushchev forced to blink by JFK’: The world breathed a collective sigh of relief today when it was confirmed that the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, had informed President Kennedy that work on the missile sites under construction in Cuba would be halted and that the missiles already delivered would be shipped back to the USSR. Khrushchev has also offered to allow the UN to carry out on-the-spot inspections to check that the installations have been removed. The US will no-doubt rely on its own U-2 spy planes for such confirmation. The US has been on a war footing for the past week, underlining Kennedy’s determination not to allow alien missiles on America’s doorstep.

… (1958) The state opening of British parliament is televised for the first time.

… (1914) George Eastman announces a colour photographic process, following his invention of 1888 of the Kodak camera, containing wind-on celluloid film replacing the paper-based film he patented in 1884.

… (1899) Death of Otto Morgenthaler, German inventor of the Linotype machine.

… (1886) ‘Liberty Belle’: The largest present ever sent to the American people was inaugurated on Liberty Island in the Upper Bay of New York Harbour today by President Grover Cleveland. Weighing 225 tons and measuring over 151 ft (49 m) high without its pedestal, the gift – a statue called Liberty Enlightening the World – commemorates the friendship of the peoples of France and the US. French historian Edouard de Laboulaye suggested the idea at the end of the American Civil War. Funds were raised from public donations in France and work began under the sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi.  The bright beacon will also make a useful navigation aid.

… (1831) Physicist and chemist Michael Faraday has succeeded in inventing a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. After discovering that a current of electricity could be generated by plunging a magnet into a coil of wire, he set about trying to generate a steady current. Hr achieved this by spinning a copper disc between the poles of a magnet. The 40-year-old Englishman left school at 14 and was offered a job by Humphrey Davy, director of the Royal Institution’s laboratory.

… (1638) ‘Harvard grant to set up American Oxbridge’: The future of the college established in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Puritan emigrants from England two years ago has been assured by a generous bequest. The college is to receive some 400 volumes and £779 17s 2d (approximately $1440) from the estate of Mr John Harvard, assistant pastor of the First Church of Charleston, who died of tuberculosis last month at the age of 31. The donation will certainly help the college fathers towards achieving their aim of providing an education that is the equal of Oxford or Cambridge in England. On October 28, 1636 the General Court of Massachusetts founded the college on the comparatively modest sum of £400 ($740). Harvard’s generosity is worth a lasting gesture of thanks.

… (1746) An earthquake completely destroys Lima and Callao in Peru.

27^th, (1986) The deregulation of the money market brings about a “big bang” in the City of London.

… (1983) ‘Reagan defends Grenada invasion’: US President Ronald Reagan has defended his decision to send a 2000-strong force of Marines and Army Rangers into the Caribbean island of Grenada. The invasion, he said, had saved the country from becoming a “Soviet-Cuban colony”. The seven-nation expeditionary force is now in control. A spokesman for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States said that concern about the military build-up in Grenada prompted the member states to ask the US for help. The further destabilisation caused by the overthrow of Grenada’s PM Maurice Bishop earlier this month was the final straw. Beyond the Caribbean the invasion is seen as a violation of international law.

… (1971) The Republic of the Congo changes its name to the Republic of Zaire.

… (1971) ‘Commons votes for Euro-vision’: Ten years of campaigning to persuade his own Conservative Party and the country that Britain’s future prosperity lies within the European Economic Community are beginning to bear fruit for Prime Minister Edward Heath. IN an historic vote, the House of Commons backed the Heath’s cabinet’s decision to apply for membership of the Community by a margin of 132 votes. The EEC aims to promote the social and economic integration of Western Europe by working towards the gradual elimination of all trade and customs barriers and the establishment of common price levels and monetary union.

… (1953) British gunboats foil a leftist coup in British Guiana.

… (1936) Mrs Wallis Simpson is granted a divorce from her second husband.

… (1871) Britain annexes the diamond region of Griqualand West on South Africa.

… (1810) President Madison has taken a direct hand in deciding at least one of the boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase, sold to the US by France. Unbeknown to Congress, which is in recess, he has decided that West Florida is also part of the Purchase and has ordered troops to annex it forthwith. The Spanish will be keeping a weather eye open in Texas for similar moves there.

… (1792) French troops invade the Austrian Netherlands.

… (1764) ‘Hogarth’s Hanover cure’: The engraver and caricaturist William Hogarth has died at his house in Leicester Fields, London, aged 67. A Londoner born and bred, Hogarth was from an early age a keen observer of city life and human behaviour. He placed little value on formal training in art and instead trained his visual memory. For fun he produced a series of engravings about contemporary life, moral yet amusing tales about the follies and nastiness of Hanoverian society. These were an instant hit with the public. Aware that his work would become a target for “art pirates”, Hogarth pushed for legislation to protect artists’ copyright – the so-called Hogarth Act, passed by Parliament in 1735. Hogarth also supported worthwhile causes, such as St Bartholomew’s Hospital, of which he was a governor and the Foundling Hospital.

… (1662) Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to Louis XIV for 2 ½ million livres.

… (1659) ‘Quakers can’t shake off persecution’: If the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers as they are more commonly called, hoped to find respite from persecution in the New World, they must have been deeply disappointed. The latest arrivals have been flogged from settlement to settlement and refused admittance wherever they have tried to establish homes. Four Quakers, including a woman, Mary Dyer, were hanged in Boston today. So deep is the antipathy towards the sect’s non-conformist religious beliefs and social customs that the only answer would seem to be for them to live in their own separate part of the country.

… (1505) Death of Ivan the Great (Ivan III), the first Tsar of Russia.

…I want to take this occasion to say that the United States will never again seek one additional foot of territory by conquest. [Woodrow Wilson, US President, 1913.]

…Christ in this country would quite likely have been arrested under the Suppression of Communism Act. [Joost de Blank, South African churchman, 1963.]

26^th, (2017) Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand’s third female PM, aged 37. She became the first world leader to take maternity leave.

… (2002) ‘Moscow theatre siege ends in tragedy’: The Moscow theatre siege has come to an end with the deaths of most of the rebels and more than 100 of the hostages. Russian Special Forces pumped a paralysing gas into the auditorium. The authorities have declined to identify the gas which killed so many and hospitalised hundreds of others. Chechen separatist rebels stormed the building three days ago and have since held the 850-strong audience hostage, threatening to blow up the building unless the Russian authorities called an end to the war in Chechnya. Among the militants were a number of veiled women with explosives strapped to the their bodies. President Putin has made a televised statement asking the nation for forgiveness for the civilian deaths.

… (1988) Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promises to free all political prisoners by the end of the year.

… (1986) Jeffrey Archer resigns as deputy chairman of the British Conservative Party following allegations that he had paid a prostitute to make her leave the country in order to avoid a scandal.

… (1973) President Nixon prepares to launch World War III after hearing that the Russians are sending arms to the Middle East War.

… (1958) Pan American Boeing 707 jets and BOAC Comet airliners start flying regular jet services across the Atlantic.

… (1956) The Hungarian rebellion against Soviet rule is crushed.

… (1955) The underground American newspaper Village Voice is first published, backed by Norman Mailer.

… (1954) An assassination attempt on Egyptian prime minister Gamal Abdel Nasser fails.

… (1905) ‘Norway goes her own way’: As of today Norway is a truly independent nation, its sovereignty underlined by the accession to the throne of a new king chosen, in Scandinavian style, by election. He is Prince Charles of Denmark, second son of Frederick VIII, who will be known as Haaken VII. The link between Norway, Denmark and Sweden dates to 1397 when Margaret I succeeded in uniting the three countries. That union lasted some 120 years, until its dissolution by Gustav I in 1523. Danish governors then ruled Norway until 1814 when the country was ceded to Sweden under the terms of the treaty of Kiel. Isolated voices calling for complete Norwegian independence grew into a chorus after the adoption of universal suffrage in 1898.

… (1860) Guiseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier and hero of the Italian movement for unification, proclaims Victor Emmanuel King of Italy.

… (1440) ‘Doubt over serial killings’: After one of the most extraordinary trials in French history, nobleman and valiant soldier Gilles de Rais, 36, went to the gallows in Nantes today. He was charged with a catalogue of crimes by two courts: Satanism and heresy were levelled against him by a Church court; abduction, torture and murder by a civic court. His 140 or so alleged victims were children. The courts were told that despite inheriting great wealth and extensive lands, Rais’ extravagant lifestyle had landed him in financial difficulties. Rais turned to alchemy and Satanism in the hope that these would help him secure more riches. The accused changed his plea to guilty under the threat of torture. Some observers believe that the case against Rais was only slim and was brought because of pressure from the powerful Duke of Burgundy, who had a financial stake in his ruin.

…In free society art is not a weapon … Artists are not engineers of the soul. [John F. Kennedy, US President, 1963.]

25^th, (1986) The British satirical fortnightly magazine Private Eye celebrates its 25^th birthday today. Originally a magazine filled with jokes and parodies, it broadened its content two years after its launch in 1961. Editor Richard Ingrams decided to unearth and print the scandal and gossip that other papers would no doubt love to, but dare not. This decision has won the magazine mixed reactions from victims and critics.

… (1976) The Queen officially opens the National Theatre on London’s South Bank.

… (1971) Taiwan is expelled from the UN to allow the People’s Republic of China to join.

… (1971) The UN General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.

… (1952) The US blocks Communist China’s entry to the UN for the third year running.

… (1936) A radio station in Berlin broadcasts the first radio request programme called You Ask – We Play.

… (1906) American professor Lee de Forest patents the three-diode amplification valve.

… (1900) The British annexe the mineral-rich territory of the Transvaal, especially renowned for its gold.

… (1854) ‘Glorious, but totally pointless’: A misunderstanding has resulted in heavy British losses for no strategic gain in the Crimea. The incident occurred at Balaclava where the Russians were attempting to disrupt the siege on Sebastopol by attacking the British lines of communication. After the British had repulsed the move, their commander, Lord Raglan, noted that the Russians were trying to evacuate some British-made Turkish guns. He sent instructions for the Light Brigade to capture them. Visibility was very poor and the only guns that Lucan, the divisional cavalry commander, could see were in the main Russian battery at the end of the North Valley. Believing this to be the objective, he ordered his brother-in-law, Lord Cardigan, to lead the Light Brigade in the charge against it. Despite suffering high causalities – 247 men killed or wounded and 475 horses lost – the Brigade succeeded in reaching the battery and scattering the Russian gunners. General Bosquet summed up the cavalrymen’s gallant but futile action neatly: “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre”.

… (1839) The world’s first railway timetable is published in Manchester.

… (1760) Death of King George II of England.

… (1647) Death of the Italian inventor of the barometer, Evangelista Torricelli.

… (1556) Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, retires to a Spanish monastery, dividing his possessions between his son and his brother.

… (1415) The defeat of France’s finest at the hands of an invading English army under King Henry V has brought to a violent end the lull in hostilities between the two countries. Henry landed in France two months ago with the intention of reclaiming lost English lands. The English magnates accompanying him on this new adventure are indulging to the full their love of fighting. The English were close to exhaustion when the French caught up with them at Agincourt, but had the advantage of being lightly armoured and more mobile than the opposition. Knee-deep in mud and weighed down by heavy armour the French were cut to ribbons. By the end of the day they had lost a dozen high-ranking noblemen, some 1500 knights and about 4500 men-at-arms. English losses were by comparison negligible.

… (1400) ‘Chaucer tails off’: Geoffrey Chaucer, the courtier, diplomat, civil servant and poet, has died at his home in the gardens of Westminster Abbey. He found little time for writing until the 1380s when the pressures of the unsettled political situation in England seem to have encouraged him to seek relief in that direction. The much praised love poem Troylus and Cryseyde dates from this period. At the time of his death Chaucer was working on a poem about a group of pilgrims journeying to the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury who pass the time by telling stories.

24^th, (2003) ‘Concorde flies for the last time’:  Concorde is making its final flights today, after 27 years of supersonic travel. Celebrities will experience the last of three flights, as the plane completes the last leg of a return flight to New York carrying about 100 people, including actress Joan Collins and British broadcaster and frequent flyer Sir David Frost. Thousands of people are expected to gather at Heathrow airport to see the three planes touch down. British Airways chief executive officer Rod Eddington said the company was feeling a “mixture of sadness and celebration” about the retirement of Concorde. He said one of the reasons for retiring the plane was because economic conditions had meant the “vast majority” of Concorde’s regular customers had not been flying on the plane over the last two years.

… (1989) Fake American television preacher Jim Bakker is sentenced to 45 years in jail and fined $500,000 (£272,000) for swindling his followers to the tune of millions.

… (1987) Heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno knocks out Joe Bugner at White Hart Lane stadium in London and wins £750,000 ($1,380,000).

… (1979) Paul McCartney was declared the most successful composer of all time by the Guinness Book of Records.

… (1957) Death of French fashion designer Christian Dior, who was responsible for the “New Look” after World War Two.

… (1956) ‘Hungarian powder keg about to go off’: The new Hungarian hardliner leader, Erno Gero, seems to have succeeded in igniting the political powder keg in his hands for safekeeping by the Soviet Union. Yesterday thousands of Hungarians took to the streets to demonstrate against the reimposition of strict Communist control over their lives. Gero responded with a bruising speech that heightened tension still further. Taking their cue from Gero, the police fired into the crowds. What was a peaceful demonstration has turned into a revolution, with the army supporting the revolutionaries. The return to power of the recently deposed Imre Nagy, whose relatively liberal regime awakened the Hungarian desire for greater freedom, looks like it is on the cards.

… (1945) ‘Quisling swings’: Vidkun Quisling, the former head of the “puppet” government established in Norway by the |Germans in 1940, was executed at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, today. An ex-Army officer, he joined the fascist Nasjonal Samlung (National Union) Party in 1933. He encouraged Hitler to invade Norway. Once a pro-German government had been installed, he embarked on a campaign of converting the Church, schools and youth to National Socialism, a move that made him deeply unpopular with his fellow Norwegians. Quisling was arrested after the liberation of Norway in May and charged with treason. He was also held responsible for sending nearly 1000 Jews to die sin concentration camps.

… (1937) New Zealand aviator Jean batten breaks the record, flying from Australia to England in just five days, 18 hours and 18 minutes.

… (1931) ‘Capone cornered on tax charge’: The American legal system proved today that there is more than one-way of skinning a cat. The cat in question is notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. The 32-year-old New Yorker has dominated organised crime for the past six years. The famous St Valentine’s Day massacre two years ago was one of many intermob killings masterminded by Capone. The law has finally managed to make a charge against Capone stick. Today he received an 11-year sentence and an $80,000 (£43,000) fine for tax evasion.

… (1926) Magician Harry Houdini, real name Erik Weisz, gave his last performance, at a theatre in Detroit. He went on despite suffering from a ruptured appendix after being punched in the stomach. He died a week later aged 52.

… (1925) On the eve of the British parliamentary elections, a letter urging socialists in all countries to revolt is leaked to the British press; it is thought to be from Soviet politician Grigori Zinoviev.

… (1901) Mrs Ann Edison Taylor remains unhurt after going over Niagara Falls in a padded barrel to help ay the mortgage.

… (1861) The successful completion of the first transcontinental electric telegraph has forced the closure of the Pony Express service between St Josephs and Sacramento. The telegraph will be a boon to all citizens and business people east and west. The military are also said to be interested in its uses at a tactical level in the battlefield.

… (1648) The Treaty of Westphalia is signed, ending the Thirty Years’ War.

… (1537) The third wife of Henry VIII, Lady Jane Seymour, dies shortly after giving birth to a son.

…A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business. [Henry Ford. Today the New York stock exchange crashed, 1929.]

23^rd, (1991) ‘Sexual slavery no longer legal’: A husband’s immunity from a charge of rape under British law was consigned to the dustbin of history today. Five Law Lords have ruled that the statement by 18^th-century Chief Justice Sir Matthew Hale that “by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given herself in this kind unto her husband which she cannot retract”, forms no part of English law. The decision upholds a Court of Appeal ruling in March that the marital exemption from prosecution was an “anachronistic and offensive fiction”. Women Against Rape, the pressure group that has campaigned for reform since 1977, said the decision overturned “250 years of legal sexual slavery”.

… (1989) Sixty-two members of the Lebanese parliament sign an agreement to distribute power equally between the Muslims and Christians.

… (1970) American dare-devil Gary Gavelich breaks the world land speed record in his rocket-propelled car “Blue Flame”, driving at 631.367 mph (approximately 1010 kph) on Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.

… (1954) Britain, the US, France and the USSR agree to end the occupation of Germany and allow West Germany to enter NATO.

… (1952) ‘TB pioneer wins Nobel Prize’: The Ukrainian-born microbiologist Selman A. Waksman has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for discovering the antibiotic streptomycin, an agent effective in the treatment of tuberculosis. A naturalised US citizen, Waksman, 64, has spent most of his career at Rutgers University. He and his team succeeded in extracting streptomycin from soil cultures in 1944. Subsequent clinical trials confirmed their belief that it would be effective against the micro-organism that causes tuberculosis.

… (1950) Death of American singer and entertainer Al Jolson.

… (1942) The British Eighth Army today opened a massive offensive against Field Marshall Rommel’s Afrika Korps at El Alamein. British field commander General Bernard Montgomery has targeted Rommel’s gun emplacements, which have been pounded with air and artillery fire. Since the inconclusive first battle of Alamein in July, the British have been resupplied and brought up to strength (230,000). The axis forces number just 80,000.

… (1941) Walt Disney’s animated film Dumbo was released.

… (1926) Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Communist Party.

… (1921) Death of John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish veterinary surgeon who invented the pneumatic bicycle tyre.

… (1915) Death of legendary English cricketer W.G. Grace.

… (1906) The Brazilian aviator and inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Prize today for making the first officially observed powered flight in Europe. Santos-Dumont performed the feat in an aircraft of his own design, a biplane called the 14-bis. The next project on his agenda is a design for a new monoplane. He first won the Deutsch Prize five years ago, flying his airship from St Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back again in 30 minutes to collect a handsome prize and an award from the Brazilian government.

… (1812) An anti-Napoleonic faction in Paris tries to mount a coup d’état, believing Napoleon to be dead in Russia.

… (1707) The first parliament of Great Britain met in Westminster.

… (1642) Charles I’s Cavaliers clash with Oliver Cromwell’s Parliamentary Roundheads in fierce fighting at the Battle of Edgehill in the Cotswolds.

22^nd, (2005) Waterloo by ABBA was voted the best song in the history of the Eurovision.

… (1987) A deer hunter discovers an unmanned aircraft in the branches of a tree in Star Lake, New York – its pilot had crank-started its propeller 65 miles (104 km) away and it had taken off without him, eventually running out of fuel.

… (1987) The first volume of the Gutenberg Bible fetches $5.39 million (£3.26 million) in New York auction rooms.

… (1983) The announcement by Washington that Pershing II and Cruise missiles are to be deployed in Europe has met with the largest anti-nuclear demonstration ever seen, with rallies in Germany, Britain and Italy so far.

… (1975) Death of Arnold Toynbee, historian and philosopher whose Study of History explores patterns of growth and decay of civilisations.

… (1966) ‘Superspy scrambles OUT OF Scrubs to freedom’: KGB master spy George Blake has escaped from the maximum security wing of Wormwood Scrubs prison in West London. Blake, a former MI6officer, had spied for the Russians for 12 years, revealing Britain’s spy ring in East Berlin to the KGB and also the location of the tunnel from where US and British intelligence agents tapped Warsaw Pact communications. The sentence meted out to him in 1962 was the longest ever: 42 years, one year for each of the lives that Blake’s treachery is estimated to have cost. Blake used a home-made rope ladder to scale the Scrubs’ high perimeter wall. The media are pointing the finger at the KGB as his likely rescuers, although they can put forward no sound reason for Russian involvement in such a high-risk enterprise since the man is of no further use to them.

… (1962) ANC leader Nelson Mandela goes on trial for treason in South Africa, pleading not guilty.

… (1962) ‘Kennedy eyeballs Khrushchev over Cuba’: US president John F. Kennedy has made his first major move in the showdown with the USSR over the building of ballistic missile sites in Cuba. In a speech broadcast live to the American people the president said that he would take whatever steps were necessary to force the removal of offensive weapons and installations from Cuban soil. Cuba will be placed under a naval “quarantine” – a blockade – until the Soviets remove them. Kennedy also said that the launch of one of the missiles against any nation in the western hemisphere would be viewed by his administration as a declaration of war on America. Flights by U-2 spy planes recently confirmed the presence of a ballistic missile at a launch site in Cuba, one of many shipped from the USSR during the past three months as part of Khrushchev’s promise to defend the fledgling Communist state against further Bay of Pigs-type attacks by the US.

… (1937) The Duke of Windsor, former heir to the British throne, and his wife, Wallis, rounded off their tour of Germany today with a visit to Adolf Hitler’s mountain eyrie at Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. The Fuhrer and all the top Nazi officials were there to meet the Windsors, who are said to be enthusiastic supporters of the Nazi regime. The Nazi achievements which have particularly impressed the Duke are full employment and workers’ housing. The unofficial tour has caused some consternation in British government circles. The Duke had been advised to avoid such visits because of the adverse criticism they would attract. He seems keen, however, to show that, his abdication notwithstanding, he is still a man of consequence.

… (1934) The American gangster Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd is killed by FBI agents.

… (1917) The Trans-Australian Railway is opened, running from Kalogeria to Port Augusta.

… (1910) Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen is found guilty of murdering his wife.

… (1909) Elise Deroche becomes the first woman to fly solo.

… (1906) Death of the great French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.

… (1884) The Royal Observatory at Greenwich was adopted as the site of the Universal Time meridian of longitude.

… (1835) Sam Houston is sworn in as president of the Texas republic.

… (1797) ‘Eiffel high fall’: Parisians were treated to a demonstration of parachute-jumping today by 28-year-old Frenchman, Andre-Jacques Garnerin, a former Army officer. Garnerin jumped from a height of about 3200 ft (1000 m) after ascending in a hot-air balloon. He was assisted in the demonstration by his brother, Jean-Baptiste-Oliver. Although he is not its inventor, Garnerin has perfected the device to enable him to jump from greater heights than had been possible before. His parachute is of white canvas and is approximately 23 ft (7 m) in diameter.

…I dedicate this prize to all those who suffer in public and in private and who never give up dreaming. [Ben Okri, Nigerian author of The Famished Road, on winning the Booker Prize, 1991.]

21^st, (1982) Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness made history as they become the first members of Sinn Fein to be elected to the Ulster Assembly.

… (1981) Adam And The Ants went to No. 1 with Prince Charming.

… (1979) In Britain unions agree to suspend the Times newspaper strike.

… (1969) Willy Brandt is elected Chancellor of West Germany.

… (1966) Disaster struck Welsh mining village Aberfan when a slag heap slid down  a hill and engulfed houses, a farm and a school. Of the 144 people who died, 116 were children.

… (1967) Norman Mailer is arrested in an anti-Vietnam peace demo.

… (1952) President of the Kenya African movement Jomo Kenyatta is arrested as Britain crushes the Mau Mau rebels.

… (1950) Chinese forces occupied Tibet.

… (1940) Geoffrey Boycott, Yorkshire and England cricketer, was born in West Yorkshire.

… (1931) Death of Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian-Jewish dramatist, novelist and physician, whose works include the dramatic cycles Anatol and Reigan and his prose masterpiece Leutnant Gustt.

… (1918) The “Spanish flu” epidemic started in Britain, eventually killing approximately twice as many as died in the First World War.

… (1858) The Can-Can was first performed in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld in Paris.

… (1833) Alfred Nobel, industrialist, inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel Prizes, was born in Stockholm.

… (1805) ‘Admiral Nelson was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar’: Since January the British and Allied fleets have been engaged in a game of cat and mouse as Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson has pursued the French admiral Villeneuve backwards and forwards across the Atlantic. Threatened with losing his command, Villeneuve was forced earlier this month to break out of Cadiz with his combined Franco-Spanish fleet. Nelson was again in hot pursuit and this time Villeneuve had no alternative but to fight. After four hours of fierce exchanges and superlative manoeuvring by the British commanders, the Allied Fleet was beaten, losing 18 ships – more than half its strength. The worst blow of all, however, was the loss of Admiral Nelson, who was mortally wounded by a French sniper as he stood on the deck of his flagship Victory. The Battle of Trafalgar will be remembered as his finest victory.

… (1792) The French Legislative Assembly voted to abolish the monarchy.

… (1789) Martial law is imposed in France.

… (1652) The exiled boy-king, Louis XIV, returns to Paris.

20^th, (2001) A fishing boat sinks off the coast of Australia, drowning 350 refugees.

… (1994) Death of Burt Lancaster, Hollywood actor whose long film career included Elmer Gantry.

… (1983) ‘Grenada explodes’: Maurice Bishop, prime minister of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada since 1979, was shot dead yesterday in St George’s, the capital. He was 39. Last week the conflict between Bishop and his even more hard-line Marxist colleague, Bernard Coard, the deputy prime minister, came to a head. When an attempt to remove Bishop from head office failed, he was put under house arrest. Bishop was released by supporters and then gunned down by the army in a bloody confrontation on the streets. The education minister, Jacqueline Creft, the mother of Bishop’s five-year-old son, Vladimir, was also killed. The United States had no love for the Bishop regime. The more ideologically inclined Bernard Coard will be even less to their liking.

… (1973) Attorney General, Elliot L Richardson, resigns in connection with the Watergate Scandal.

… (1960) ‘Lawrence’s “Lover” gets Britain buzzing’: Writer D.H. Lawrence’s last novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, the unexpurgated version of which has been banned in England for the past 30 years, is the subject of a court case which opened in London today. Penguin Books have been prosecuted for publishing Lawrence’s original full text, deemed by the Crown to be obscene. To equip them for the case, the jury has been told to read the book. The nation awaits their verdict.

… (1949) Britain recognises the People’s Republic of China under Chairman Mao.

… (1944) General MacArthur returns to the Philippines with 250,000 troops to fulfil the promise he made when his forces retreated from the Japanese.

… (1944) The US First Army, commanded by General Hodges, has announced that the German city of Aachen is now firmly in its control after a battle lasting over a week. More than 10,000 prisoners have been taken. The city is the first major German centre to fall to the Allies in its attempted push through the Siegfreid Line. Much of the ancient city has been destroyed.

… (1943) The UN War Crimes commission is formed.

… (1935) ‘Mao’s march of destiny’: Three hundred and sixty-four days ago military pressure by the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-Shek forced the evacuation of Kiangsi Province, where the Communists, under Mao Tse-tung had established their Chinese Soviet Republic. An estimated 90,000 people began the migration to the relative safety of Shensi Province on the Yellow River. Today the survivors of that long and arduous march through difficult mountain terrain reached their destination. More than half the marches perished during the 6000-mile (9600 km) journey. The first task for Communist leader Mao Tse-tung will be to organise a strong defensive position. Shensi has the potential to provide a more secure power base for the Communists, but only if its defences can thwart future Nationalist attacks.

… (1915) ‘A chance to serve’: Less than three months after 30,000 women marched down Whitehall shouting the slogan “We demand the right to serve”, Prime Minister David Lloyd George has granted them their wish. The war now raging in Europe has left Britain with a labour shortfall and given women the opportunity to step into the breach. Most areas of employment will now receive a large influx of women. Government departments have vacancies for 200,000 private offices for about half a million, and agriculture and engineering a million between them. Trams and buses up and down the country are to team a male driver with a female conductor. Trade unionists are concerned lest the move depresses wages.

… (1911) Roald Amundsen of Norway and four companions leave the Bay of Whales on the east side of Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf for the South Pole; they are on skis and have dog sleds carrying necessities.

… (1890) ‘The Perfumed Gardener’: Sir Richard Burton, the explorer, soldier, diplomat and scholar, has died of a heart attack in Trieste. He was 69. England was the only country where Burton never felt at home and he spent much of his life abroad. He discovered Lake Tanganyika and was one of the first non-Muslims to enter the secret cities of Mecca and Medina. A gifted linguist, Burton was a writer-translator of the first rank. A posting to Trieste as British Consul in 1872 bore unexpected intellectual fruits, including the 16-volume Arabian Nights, an unexpurgated translation of the sexual wisdom of the East. This frank work ruffled many feathers in England. The abuse heaped on Burton’s head caused great pain to his devoutly Catholic wife, Isabel, and it is feared that she may prevent publication of the new edition of The Perfumed Garden, which Burton was working on at the time of his death.

… (1827) In Greece the Battle of Navarino comes to an end as British, French and Russian fleets annihilate the Turkish and Egyptian fleets.

… (1822) The first edition of the Sunday Times is published in Britain.

… (1818) Britain and the US establish a border across the 49^th Parallel.

…One starts to get young at the age of sixty and then it’s too late. [Pablo Picasso, 1963.]

19^th, (2009) A lock of hair believed to have been cut from Elvis Presley’s head on entering the U.S. Army sols at an auction for £9,000.

… (2003) Mother Teresa is beatified.

… (2000) The oldest ever cave painting is discovered near Verona.

… (1987) One of Britain’s finest cellists, Jacqueline du Pré, dies from multiple sclerosis, aged 42.

… (1987) ‘Nightmare on Wall Street’: Wall Street has experienced the worst day in its history, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeting a record 508.32 points, wiping $500 billion (£270 billion) off the value of shares. The percentage decline was 22.6, almost 10 per cent higher than the big crash of 1929. Last Friday a record 338.5 million shares changed hands as wave after wave of sell orders hit traders. The dramatic sell-off has hit stock markets around the world. In London the FT index fell 250 points, responding to the overnight collapse in Tokyo and other Far Eastern markets and slashing more than £50 billion ($92 billion) off share values. There was no sign, however, of the panic selling that has turned Wall Street from a bull to a bear market almost overnight. The change in mood has been caused by fears about America’s persistent trade deficit, now $15.7 billion (£8.4 billion), a 40 per cent depreciation in the value of the dollar over the past year and the spectre of further increases in interest rates.

… (1982) ‘De Lorean shutdown hits Belfast hard’: The announcement by the Northern Ireland Office that the De Lorean sports car plant at Dunmurry is to close has brought further despondency to Belfast, which has the highest unemployment rate in the UK (21 per cent). Some £70 million ($129.5 million) of taxpayers’ money was injected into the project, the brainchild of American entrepreneur John de Lorean. The car built at the factory was a revolutionary stainless steel gull-winged design for the American market. The receivers were called in eight months ago. The company’s demise has been blamed on under-capitalisation and a deep recession in the US market. The high salaries paid to De Lorean executives and the costs of running a suite of offices in New York were also contributory factors. Some 1500 jobs will be lost as a result of the closure.

… (1963) Sir Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as British prime minister.

… (1950) The North Korean Capital of Pyongyang falls during the Korean War.

… (1933) Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations.

… (1901) Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont circumnavigates the Eiffel Tower in his airship to win the first aviation prize.

… (1897) George Mortimer Pullman, the US industrialist and inventor of the Pullman sleeping car, has died in Chicago. He was 66. The first and most famous of the sleeping cars that would become synonymous with his name was Pioneer, built in 1863 with the help of his friend Ben Field. In 1867 Pullman set up the Pullman Palace Car Company to lease his cars to the railroad companies; he built the town of Pullman to house his employees.

… (1864) The American Civil War battle of Cedar Creek ends with the victory of General Sheridan over the Confederates.

… (1860) The first company to manufacture internal combustion engines, designed by Barsanti and Matteuci, is formed in Florence.

… (1812) ‘French start long cold walk home’: Napoleon’s 12-week campaign in Russia seems to have reaped a meagre reward. The Russians abandoned Moscow after the indecisive battle of Borodino six weeks ago. The French entered the city to find it in flames, three-quarters destroyed. Tsar Alexander’s refusal to negotiate and renewed Russian military activity to the south of Moscow left Napoleon with no alternative but to withdraw to winter quarters. The retreat began today, the 50-mile (80 km) column heading in the direction of Smolensk. The road ahead is fraught with danger for the Grand Army – danger from the enemy force and the weather, which is fine at present but could turn very quickly.

… (1781) ‘No way out for British’: British commander General Charles Cornwallis, 46, delivered his 8000 troops into the hands of the besieging American forces at Yorktown today. Tow days ago Cornwallis had signalled his willingness to come to terms. He had been hemmed in by superior forces on land and at sea for the past three weeks with no relief in sight. He could only surrender, allowing General Washington to win the War of Independence for the colonists.

… (1741) The actor David Garrick gives his debut performance as Richard III at London’s Goodman’s Field’s Theatre, and receives an ovation.

…You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist. [Indira Gandhi, on this day 1971, at a press conference in New Delhi.]

18^th, (2020) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, aged 87.

… (2000) U.S. actors Demi Moore and Bruce Willis filed for divorce after 13 years of marriage.

… (1995) Celebrity race horse Red Rum dies and is buried at Aintree racecourse.

… (1989) ‘Bay devastation as quake rocks Cisco’: An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale yesterday claimed 67 lives and caused billions of dollars in damage in the Bay area of San Francisco. A section of the two-tier Interstate 880 in Oakland collapsed, crushing motorists driving on the lower deck. The 15-second quake also caused damage in the Marina and to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

… (1989) ‘Hardliner sidelined’: Erich Honecker, East Germany’s hardliner ruler, has been ousted from the job he has held for the past 18 years. His economic chief, Gunter Mittag, and minister for propaganda and agitation, Joachim Hermann, have also been forced to quit. The unsmiling, bureaucratic Honecker, 77, had failed to respond to the desire among East Germans for change. The new ruler the 21-man Politburo are pinning their hopes on the youthful Egon Krenz, 52. Reform groups are not convinced that Egon Krenz, formerly head of internal and external security, will set the wheels of reform moving. In their eyes he is closely associated with the policies that have created the discontent.

… (1977) ‘Ordeal over as hostages freed’: The five-day ordeal of passengers aboard a German Lufthansa jet hijacked by Palestinian terrorists ended today when a crack squad of troops stormed the aircraft at Mogadishu airport when it became likely that passengers would be killed. Three of the four Palestinians were killed in the shoot-out. The terrorists had already killed the pilot, Jurgen Schumann. The hijack was in support of the left-wing Baader-Meinhof urban terrorist group.

… (1976) Over a million people gathered in Beijing for he funeral of Mao Zedong, chairman of the People’s Republic of China.

… (1970) ‘Quebec freedom fighters kill again’: The Canadian separatist group, Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ), has responded to Canadian premier Pierre Trudeau’s get-tough policy by murdering Pierre Laporte, the Quebec minister of Labour and Immigration who was kidnapped with British diplomat James Cross eight days ago. Laporte’s body was found in a car boot. Negotiations had opened with the kidnappers, but two days ago Trudeau declared a state of “insurrection” in Quebec, introducing emergency powers to deal with the crisis. The FLQ were outlawed and 250 of its members arrested.

… (1968) John Lennon and Yoko Ono are remanded on bail for possession of cannabis following a police raid at their flat in Montague Square, London.

… (1966) The Queen grants a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, who was convicted of the murder of his wife and child in West London and hanged in 1950.

… (1954) The first transistor radio went on the market.

… (1931) America’s most prolific inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, has died at the age of 84. Edison’s lack of formal education proved no handicap: his inventions include the phonograph, microphone and the kinetoscope, and he designed a complete electrical distribution system for lighting and power.

… (1922) Marconi and the General Electric Company are among the major wireless manufacturers who have formed a new company to be responsible for the broadcasting of radio programmes throughout Great Britain. Pressure has been mounting for a central service of this kind. The new British Broadcasting Company will operate from Marconi House in London, under the management of John Reith, and will begin a daily service of programmes from November 14.

… (1910) The trial of Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen begins at the Old Bailey – he is accused of the murder of his wife Belle, who was poisoned, cut up into small pieces and buried in the cellar.

… (1907) The first plans are announced for an International Court of Justice (ICJ) to be set up in The Hague.

… (1898) The US takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

… (1873) At a meeting in New York, delegates from Columbia, Princeton, Rutgers and Yale universities formulate the rules of American football.

… (1865) Lord Palmerston, twice British prime minister, dies with the witty words, “Die my dear doctor? That’s the last thing I shall do!”

… (1685) ‘French suffer braindrain’: The French king Louis XIV has turned the screw still further on the Protestants among his people by revoking the Edict of Nantes. In 1598 Henry IV issued this edict to safeguard the civic and religious rights of French Protestants – Huguenots – and to usher in a new age of toleration. Thousands of Protestants are expected to respond to today’s action by fleeing the country. Some commentators are warning of dire consequences to the French economy as a result of such a skills drain.

17^th, (1988) Beethoven’s tenth symphony is performed for the first time in London – researcher Barry Cooper has pieced together fragments of the manuscript and sketches discovered in Berlin.

… (1985) The House of Lords votes to allow doctors to prescribe contraceptives to girls under the age of 16 without parental consent, ending a campaign by Catholic mother Mrs. Victoria Gillick against such action.

… (1985) ‘Italy’s Achilles’ heel’: The Italian government under Socialist Bettino Craxi fell from power today as a consequence of its inept handling of the Achille Lauro affair. The cruise ship Achille Lauro, carrying 454 passengers, was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists 10 days ago. They threatened to blow it up if 50 Arab prisoners held in Israeli prisons were not released. After torturous negotiations the release of the ship and its passengers, minus one elderly man, Leon Klinghoffer, whom the terrorists had murdered, was secured and the Palestinians promised its safe passage to Tunis. On the orders of President Reagan, US jet fighters intercepted the terrorists’ plane, forcing it to land in Sicily. The US was keen to apprehend Mohammad Abbas, the mastermind of this hijack, suspected of many other terrorist attacks. US forces and Italian carabinieri then clashed over who had the right to arrest the hijackers. The US bowed to Italian sensitivities. Abbas was arrested and then allowed into neighbouring Yugoslavia by the Italian authorities.

… (1973) ‘Oil countries blackmail West’: The ten Arab members of OPEC announced an enormous 70 per cent hike in oil process and a cutback in production in response to America’s support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. President Nixon had proposed a $2200 million aid package to the beleaguered nation. Western Europe will be particularly hard hit by the decision because it relies on the Arab producers for 80 per cent of its oil. Inflation and petrol rationing are expected. The Arabs’ policy is likely to drive a wedge between the US, on whom an oil embargo has also been imposed, and Europe, which is fearful of further retaliatory measures for America’s support for Israel.

… (1968) Black U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved hands as a protest against racism as they received a gold and bronze medal in the 200m at the Mexico Olympics.

… (1956) Britain’s first nuclear power station, Calder Hall, is opened by the Queen.

… (1945) ‘Peron woos Argentina’: Tonight Argentina found the saviour it has been searching for. Juan Domingo Peron addressed a 300,000-strong crowd from the balcony of the presidential palace in Buenos Aires, and them of his desire for a just and strong nation. In his speech, which was also transmitted to millions more listening on the radio, ex-military man Peron promised that he would lead the people to victory in the forthcoming presidential election. Two weeks ago Peron’s ambition to become undisputed leader of the Argentinean people received a severe setback when he was ousted from his positions of vice-president and minister of war. His re-emergence is due largely to his forceful and politically astute mistress, Eva Duarte, who helped rally support. With her by his side and with the backing of the labour unions, 55-year-old Peron looks set to put into practice his plans for reshaping the nation.

… (1914) German U-boats raid Scapa Flow, the main base of the British Grand Fleet, off the north coast of Scotland in the Orkney Islands.

… (1860) Th first Open golf tournament was played at Prestwick.

… (1849) ‘Chopin Spree Comes to an End’: Frederic Chopin, the composer and virtuoso pianist, has died of tuberculosis in Paris. He was 39. The half-French, half-Polish Chopin was an infant prodigy, at seven writing a march that the Grand Duke Constantine had scored for his military band to play on parade, and a year later making his first public appearance as a soloist. In 1831 he moved to Paris where he quickly established himself as a fashionable recitalist and teacher able to command high fees. The nervous strain of performing, however, did not help his already weak constitution. Chopin was calm at the end, and asked only that his unfinished manuscripts be destroyed and that Mozart’s Requiem be sung at his funeral. This will be held at the Church of the Madeleine on October 30.

… (1806) The tyrannical Emperor Jacques I, first ruler of independent Haiti, is assassinated.

… (1651) Defeated by Oliver Cromwell at Worcester, Charles II of England flees to France.

…Politicians are the same everywhere. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers. [Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet statesman, 1960.]

16^th, (1998) ‘Pinochet arrested’: The former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet has been arrested in London in the first step of extradition proceedings. Spain has applied to have Pinochet brought to justice on human rights charges relating to the war which followed his overthrow of President Allende in 1973. His arrest has caused much controversy around the world, with some believing the former dictator should have sovereign immunity from prosecution.

… (1998) Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP leader John Hume have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace prize for their parts in forging the Northern Ireland agreement which was signed in April this year.

… (1989) A committee of the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, votes 76-11 in favour of a ban on the international trade in ivory.

… (1987) ‘Worst storm, but no warning’: The London Weather Centre is battening down its hatches to meet a deluge of criticism after failing to alert southern England to the imminent arrival of the worst storm to hit Britain in 300 years. The violence of the Force-11 storm brought down roofs, chimneys, trees and power lines, claimed the lives of 18 people and caused an estimated £100 million ($184 million) of damage. Life was brought to a halt on land and sea as police advised people to stay at home rather than add to the chaos. Sevenoaks in Kent has lost six of the giant oak trees which gave the town its name, while experts at Kew Gardens said that it would take about 200 years to replace some of the trees lost from their arboretum. The Met Office is blaming a computer error for its miscalculation.

… (1978) Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected Pope, the first non-Italian pope since 1542 and the youngest this century. He became John Paul II.

… (1975) GOES I (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) is launched.

… (1964) The first Chinese-made atom bomb is tested in an explosion at Lop Nor.

… (1958) The BBC broadcast the first episode of Blue Peter. The children’s series was intended to be a seven-week experiment.

… (1946) Ten leading Nazis found guilty of crimes against humanity by the International War Crimes Tribunal a fortnight ago were hanged in the gymnasium of Nuremburg prison today. Hermann Goering chose to exit via a different door, taking poison less than two hours before he was due to be executed.

… (1906) British New Guinea becomes part of Australia.

… (1901) ‘White House invite lands Booker T. in trouble’: President Roosevelt’s invitation to black American educator Booker T. Washington to visit the White House has unleashed a fury of opposition. The consensus among the protestors is that the invitation constitutes a “breach of etiquette”. Mr. Washington spends most of his time encouraging his fellow blacks to absorb American values. Last year he formed the National Negro Business League, which emphasises vocational skills, thrift and enterprise. One suspects that the protestors are really objecting to a breach of the colour bar, for there is no hint of radicalism in his aims. The controversy will not have helped Washington’s cause among his own people.

… (1846) At Massachusetts General Hospital, dentist William T.G. Morton successfully uses an anaesthetic (diethyl ether) for the first time and removes a tumour from a young man’s jaw.

…The greatest disorder of the mind is to let will direct belief. [Louis Pasteur, French biologist, 1890.]

15^th, (1997) Thrust sets the first supersonic land speed record, breaking the sound barrier at 766 mph (1226 kph).

… (1993) ANC leader Nelson Mandela and President F.W. de Klerk of South Africa have today been awarded the Nobel Peace prize, an acknowledgement of their commitment to build a peaceful, multi-racial South Africa. The prize comes after years of negotiations between the two.

… (1990) Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize.

… (1991) ‘Judge just scrapes in’: The US Senate today elected Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court by 52 votes to 48, the highest ever number of “no” votes ever cast against a nominee. Ten days ago it seemed likely that the Democrat-dominated Senate would back Thomas by a handsome margin. Then it was revealed that a 35-year-old law professor, Anita Hill, had accused Thomas of sexual harassment while he was chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the early 1980s. The Administration had been aware of her allegations but dismissed them out of hand. The Senate hearings to determine Thomas’ suitability for the Supreme Court were broadcast live, but became a trial of character rather than his stance on legal matters.

… (1969) ‘Millions march to end Vietnam War’: The biggest anti-war demonstration in America’s history was staged today. Millions of Americans took part in organised rallies and marches to register disapproval of their country’s continuing involvement in the Vietnam War. The protestors want a moratorium, and end to the war that has, after eight years of US involvement, cost the lives of 40,000 US servicemen.

… (1964) Harold Wilson wins the British elections for the Labour Party with a majority of just four to become the youngest British prime minister of the 20^th century.

… (1946) Nazi Hermann Goering ended his life with poison hours before he was due to be executed.

… (1945) French politician Pierre Laval, who led the Vichy government which collaborated with the Germans in World War Two, is executed.

… (1928) The airship Graf Zeppelin lands in New Jersey after making its first transatlantic crossing from Germany.

… (1927) Britain’s Public Morals Committee attacks the use of contraceptives, which allegedly cause “poor hereditary stock”.

… (1880) Victorio, military genius and leader of the Warm Springs Apache, is finally trapped by Mexican troops and fights until his ammunition gives out, then kills himself.

… (1852) ‘He put the gym in Germany’: Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the founder of the Turnverein (gymnastic club) movement in Germany, has died at Freyburg an der Unstrut aged 74. Jahn, a nationalist, sought to improve the moral and physical powers of his fellow Germans through gymnastics. At Jahn’s first gymnasium in Berlin his pupils dressed in a kind of medieval costume. Jahn suffered in the reaction of 1819 along with other German democrats and individualists. His gymnasium was closed down and he was imprisoned for six years. In 1840 he was awarded the Iron Cross, and eight years later was elected to the German parliament.

… (1821) The Central American Federation wins independence from Spain.

… (1582) Pope Gregory XIII has decreed that 10 days be dropped from the calendar. The Julian calendar calculated a year as 365 ¼ days, overestimating it by 11 minutes 14 seconds. The equinox this year fell on March 11, 14 days earlier than in Caesar’s time. By losing 10 days this month and counting years ending in hundreds as leap years only if they are divisible by 400, the new calendar should now work.

… (1534) ‘Genius gets away with murder’: The artist and goldsmith Benevento Cellini looks set to get away with cold-blooded murder on account of his arch-rival and fellow artist Pompeo outside a chemist’s shop on the corner of the Chiavica in Rome. Fortunately for Cellini the new Pope, Paul III (formerly Alessandro Farnese), is a great admirer of his work. So keen is Pope Paul said to be for Cellini to make his coinage that he is prepared to award him a safe conduct until the next Feast of the Assumption (August), when he will grant the goldsmith a full pardon.

… (1522) Spanish emperor Charles V promotes Hernán Cortés to the status of governor general in the New Mexican colony founded by the expedition leader in 1521.

…I’m not interested in the bloody system! Why has he no food? Why is he staving to death? [Bob Geldof, Irish rock musician, in Ethiopia during the famine, 1985.]

14^th, (1976) Death of Dame Edith Evans, leading British stage actress who made occasional films and is perhaps best known for her performances in The Queen of Spades and The Importance of Being Earnest.

… (1973) Egypt and Syria invade Israel as the nation celebrates the Holy Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

… (1969) The British ten shilling note is replaced with a 50 pence coin.

… (1944) ‘Tragic End for Brave “Desert Fox”’: Mystery surrounds the death today of one of Germany’s finest military leaders, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, who commanded the Afrika Korps with distinction during the North African campaign (1941-43). He was 53. Three months ago the Field Marshall suffered serious head injuries when his car somersaulted off the road after being strafed by British fighter-bombers. He was thought to be recovering well from these injuries, however. Today heart failure has been given as the cause of death, but other sources say that Rommel poisoned himself because Hitler had made it known that he was aware of the Field Marshall’s involvement in the recent July plot to assassinate him. Rommel was left to choose between trial before the People’s Court, under the notorious Nazi judge, Roland Freisler (who has already had the other plotters put to death by slow hanging from a noose of piano wire suspended from a meat-hook), or suicide.

… (1939) Eight hundred and ten die as the Royal Navy battleship Royal Oak is torpedoed and sinks in Scapa Flow.

… (1913) An explosion at Universal Colliery in South Wales kills 439 miners – Britain’s worst mining disaster.

… (1912) President Theodore Roosevelt is shot in an attempted assassination.

… (1893) The first musical comedy, The Gaiety Girl, is performed in London.

… (1791) The Society of United Irishmen is set up in Belfast to demand rights for Catholics.

… (1066) ‘William conquers as Harold falls at Hastings’: The dispute over who should succeed the late Edward the Confessor as king of England was settled in a hard-fought battle near Hastings today. On his deathbed Edward is thought to have named the warlike Earl Godwin’s son, Harold, his successor in order to prevent bloodshed between two other claimants, William, Duke of Normandy and Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. But he had already made William his heir in the 1050s when the Godwin family was in exile. When they heard that Harold had been crowned, William and Hardrada joined forces and set sail for England. Harold threw back the challenge from the north, killing his Norwegian namesake. But today English slings and spears were no match for Norman cavalry. The English peasant army lost heart soon after their leader fell, mortally wounded. The Normans are now heading for London, to secure the capital and William’s position.

…I do not dislike the French from the vulgar antipathy between neighbouring nations, but for their insolent and unfounded airs of superiority. [Horace Walpole, a British writer, in a letter, 1787.]

13^th, (1988) The Law Lords lift an injunction and allow British newspapers to print extracts from Peter Wright’s book Spycatcher.

… (1988) ‘Turin Shroud A Forgery’: The Turin Shroud, for centuries regarded as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, is believed to be a fake. The results of exhaustive carbon dating tests, carried out on the shroud at laboratories in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona, were revealed today. Speaking at a press conference in London, Professor Edward Hall, the head of the Oxford team, said that the data showed with 95 per cent certainty that the 14-ft (4.5 m) linen cloth dated from between 1260 and 1390, a period when forgery was rife. The Catholic Church, which has consistently expressed caution over the shroud’s origins, accepts the findings, but one regular visitor to the Turin Cathedral chapel, Signora Angela Bosso, 72, remarked: “I don’t believe in those scientists.”

… (1939) Hitler tries without success to persuade US president Roosevelt to intermediate a peace between Germany, France and Britain.

… (1930) Hitler’s 107 Nazi deputies turn up in uniform to take their new seats at the Reichstag.

… (1904) The Interpretation of Dreams by Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is published.

… (1884) Greenwich is adopted as the universal meridian.

… (1857) Prioress wins at Newmarket, becoming the first American horse to win a major British race.

… (1843) ‘Twelve good men unite Jewry’: Twelve men met in a café on New York’s Lower East Side today to establish a new fraternal order of Jews in the USA. Their aim is to bring a sense of community to the 15,000 Jewish people living in the United States. They plan to concentrate initially on arranging private rituals and providing assistance to the elderly, widows and orphans and victims of tragedy and persecution. The name of the new organisation is B’nai B’rith, meaning “Sons of the Covenant”.

… (1792) US President George Washington lays the foundation stone of the White House.

… (1399) Coronation of Henry IV, the first King of the House of Lancaster.

… (AD 54) ‘Die Claudius’: The Roman emperor and historian Claudius I (Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus) has died, allegedly after consuming poisoned mushrooms dished up by his fourth wife, his niece Agrippina. He was 64. Shortly before his death, Claudius had agreed to acknowledge Nero, Agrippina’s son by a former marriage, as his heir instead of his natural son, Britannicus. Claudius was made emperor 13 years ago by the Praetorian Guards, the imperial household army, after the murder of his nephew, Caligula. Until then, Claudius had been encouraged by the imperial family to keep a low profile and concentrate on studying. Ill health, ugliness and an absence of social grace did not recommend him to the public eye. But as emperor he invited popularity and glory – shown in his decision to extend the Roman Empire in Africa and Britain – but won neither. He was, however, an able and enlightened administrator.

…My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. [Aladi Stevenson, US politician, 1952.]

12^th, (2002) Terrorists have struck again, this time in the Indonesian tourist resort of Bali. Nearly 200 people were killed and 300 injured, many of them Australian holidaymakers, when a bomb exploded outside a nightclub. The blast is thought to be the work of Muslim groups linked to al-Qaeda.

… (1984) ‘IRA strikes at the very heart of British Cabinet’: The IRA has launched its most daring attack yet on the British government. At 3 am this morning a 20 lb (99 kg) bomb exploded at the Grand Hotel, Brighton, where most of the Cabinet are staying during this year’s Conservative Party Conference. Several floors of the hotel collapsed, killing four people and leaving 30 injured. Among the dead are former deputy whip Sir Anthony Berry and the wife of the Tory government’s chief whip John Wakeham. The bomb is thought to have been planted on the sixth floor, above the suite occupied by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, whose bathroom was devastated by the blast. Despite the turmoil, the party conference started punctually at 9.30 am. Mrs. Thatcher told a nonetheless packed assembly that “all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail”.

… (1978) British punk Sid Vicious is arrested in New York and charged with the murder of his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen.

… (1964) Death of Ian Fleming, the English creator of the fictional character James Bond.

… (1935) Hitler bans American Jazz from German radio, calling it decadent.

… (1928) The first “iron lung” is used at the Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts.

… (1924) Death of Anatole France, French writer and Nobel Prizewinner whose novels reflect his deeply pessimistic view of life.

… (1915) ‘Cavell pays high price for humanity’: The German authorities in Belgium have executed British nurse Edith Cavell, 50, for her role in an underground operation to help Allied soldiers escape from Belgium to the Netherlands, a neutral country. Cavell had confessed to providing shelter for escapees at the Berkendael Institute in Brussels, a Red Cross Hospital of which she was matron. There the men received money and guides from Philippe Baucq, who was arrested and subsequently shot with Nurse Cavell. Reports suggest that responsibility for her death lies solely with the occupation administration in Belgium, which committed the deed before telling the Berlin authorities.

…Patriotism is not enough. I musty have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. [Nurse Edith Cavell, English nurse in World War One, before her execution, 1915.]

… (1901) President Theodore Roosevelt renames the Executive Mansion “The White House” – more than 100 years after it was built.

… (1899) ‘Boers get first strike’: The Boer states have responded to Britain’s dispatch of troops to South Africa by issuing a declaration of war, and they have drawn first blood. The British military garrison at Mafeking, under Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, is under siege by Boer forces. If the siege drags on, as seems likely, it may become a symbol of the wider struggle between a colonial power intent on defending its commercial rights and Dutch Boers who resent British inroads in South Africa.

… (1870) ‘Rebel with many a cause’: Robert E. Lee, the man who by example encouraged the people of the defeated Confederate states of America to believe in a new and better tomorrow, has died in Lexington at the age of 63. The years of hardship endured by Lee as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil War took their toll, and he never regained his health. He fought a defensive war, believing that the Confederates could not win against the superior Union army. After the war, Lee accepted the post of president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. He proved to be a progressive educator, inspiring in his students the desire to rebuild their state and become good citizens of a united republic.

… (1845) Death of Elizabeth Fry, English social and prison reformer.

… (1694) Death of Basho, the Japanese haiku poet.

… (1609) “Three Blind Mice” is the first known secular song to be published.

… (1492) ‘Terra firma is not a mirage’: After months of experiencing mirages of land, explorer Christopher Columbus and his three ships sighted terra firma at dawn today. Columbus went ashore and took possession of the island in the name of his patrons, Isabella and Ferdinand, but is already keen to set sail to find the Island of Cipango.

11^th, (2016) Rock star Rod Stewart became Sir Roderick and said of his knighthood that he would “wear it well”.

… (1987) The latest in sonic wizardry has been brought in to settle the long dispute over the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Known affectionately as Nessie, it was first sighted by an unimpeachable source – St Columba – back in 565. Since then there have been numerous claims of sightings, including photographic evidence. Today’s trawl of the loch by some 24 boats fitted with sophisticated sonic detectors revealed a large moving object at a depth of around 180 ft (58 m). A positive identification of the object has yet to be made, and the world’s press is eagerly awaiting the outcome.

… (1982) Henry VIII’s flagship, the Mary Rose, was raised from the Solent, 437 years after it sank on its way to fight the French.

… (1980) Soviet cosmonauts return to earth after a record 185 days in space in the craft Salyut 6.

… (1980) ‘Algeria stricken’: The Algerian city of El Asnam was hit by an earthquake of catastrophic proportions yesterday. Algerian radio said that 80 per cent of the city was destroyed. Twenty thousand are feared dead. The first shock wave registered 7.5 on the Richter Scale, and its ferocity broke monitoring equipment at the Swedish Seismological Institute in Uppsala. The effects of the quake were felt in Valencia, Spain, causing cracks to open in a number of houses. El Asnam (formerly Orleansville) had to be almost totally rebuilt after the last earthquake, in 1954, which damaged an area of 30 square miles (78 sq km). The city stands on a section of an unstable fault zone stretching from Gabes, Tunisia to Agadir, Morocco. President Bendjedid Chadli has proclaimed a week’s national mourning.

… (1976) The third wife and widow of Mao Tse-tung, Qiang Qing, is arrested in Berlin with three associates: the “Gang of Four” have attempted to seize power on Mao’s death.

… (1968) Apollo 7 is launched, carrying US astronauts Walter Schirra, Don Eiselle and Walter Cunningham.

… (1963) ‘Edith and Jean – The Cocteau Twins’: France is today mourning the loss of Jean Cocteau and Edith Piaf. Cocteau died in Paris, aged 74, Piaf in the south where she was convalescing after treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. The two had been firm friends since 1940 when Piaf’s newly acquired star status gave her the entrée to move in the same artistic circles as Cocteau. By this time he was almost a French institution, lionised for his artistic experiments in poetry, drama, fiction, drawing, design and film. Such was his admiration for Edith that he wrote a play for her, Le Bel Indifferent. He described her as “a star who burns in the nocturnal solitude of the sky over Paris.”

… (1961) Death of Leonard “Chico” Marx, piano-playing member of the Marx Brothers comedy team.

… (1957) ‘Jodrell Reaches For The Stars’: The world’s largest steerable radio-telescope went into operation at the Jodrell Observatory of the University of Manchester today. The instrument, which has a 250-ft (81-m) diameter parabolic bowl, is mounted on a trunnion 180 ft (58 m) above ground level. The telescope’s designer, Bernard Lovell, has completed his project in time for tracking the first Sputnik, which was launched a week ago. Indeed, had it not been for the Russian “first”, Lovell’s project might have been halted because of spiralling costs.

… (1919) The first in-flight meals are served on board a Handley-Page flight from London to Paris at a cost of 3 shillings (15p/28 cents) each.

… (1871) The Great Fire of Chicago is finally extinguished.

… (1834) ‘Rough Trade’: Sir William Napier, Britain’s Chief Superintendant of Trade in China, has died in Macao at the age of 48. He had recently returned from Canton after a disastrous attempt to persuade the imperial government of China to trade directly with Britain rather than through the Hong merchants. Angered Chinese viceroy Loo had no wish to alter established custom. He ordered Napier to return to Macao, and when he refused kept him in confinement. He also called a halt to trade with Britain. Within weeks Napier was dangerously ill, weakened by the heat, and by sheer anxiety, anger and frustration. e He

… (1809) Death of Meriwether Lewis, American explorer who with William Clark found the overland route to the Pacific.

… (1727) George II is crowned in London.

…Politicians can forgive almost anything in the way of abuse; they can forgive subversion, revolution, being contradicted, exposed as liars, even ridiculed, but they can never forgive being ignored. [Auberon Waugh, British novelist and critic, 1981.]

…Tact consists in knowing how far we may go too far. [Jean Cocteau, who died today, 1963.]

10^th, (1985) Death of Yul Brynner, bald-headed American actor who’s most famous films includes The King and I and the Magnificent Seven.

… (1979) ‘Diamonds aren’t his best friend’: The political fall-out generated by the overthrow of the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Central African Empire, Marshal Jean Bedel Bokassa, last month has now alighted on the shoulders of French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. If he wished for relief from France’s domestic problems – which include rising unemployment and inflation – he would not have found it in the satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchainé, which claims he accepted gifts of diamonds from Bokassa. The opposition Socialist party are playing the Bokassa affair for all its worth, demanding an enquiry into relations between the deposed emperor’s corrupt and nasty regime and France.

… (1975) After a tumultuous past during which time they have already married and divorced, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor remarry in a remote village in Botswana.

… (1973) ‘Agnew damned by lies’: The man twice chosen by US President Richard Nixon to be his deputy resigned this afternoon before appearing in a federal district court in Baltimore to face charges of income tax evasion. Spiro Agnew, 54, pleaded “no contest” (“guilty”) and was fined $10,000 (£5400) and placed on probation for three years. Until today, Agnew had described the charges against him as “lies, damned lies”. His last-minute reversal means that the Federal prosecutor will not bring more serious charges against him. These relate to the source of the income which Agnew concealed from the Revenue. From the time of his election as Governor of Maryland in 1967, Agnew had accepted cash bribes from engineering firms in return for lucrative state contracts. Agnew’s fall from grace is the heaviest of the many miscreants who have so far inhabited the corridors of power in the Nixon administration.

… (1957) A major radiation leak is detected at the Windscale atomic power station in Cumbria following a nuclear accident on October 7.

… (1954) Ho Chi Minh returns to Hanoi as the French evacuate.

… (1940) A German bomb destroys the high alter of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

… (1939) Eleanor Rigby died, aged 44. Her grave in Liverpool was just yards from where Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met in 1957, but McCartney insists the Eleanor Rigby in his hit song was fictitious.

… (1935) George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess opens in New York, the “first American opera”.

… (1913) ‘Blast from afar’: The last obstacle to the completion of the Panama Canal was overcome in spectacular fashion today by President Woodrow Wilson. From the safety and comfort of the Oval Office, he pressed a red button to detonate the explosives laid over 4000 miles (6400 km) away to clear the final stretch of the Canal. American military engineers, headed by Colonel Goethals, have spent the past nine years on the US-financed waterway. This link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is 51 miles (82 km) long, has six locks and traverses two natural lakes, one of which – Lake Gatun – is the largest in the world. The Canal is due to open to shipping next August.

… (1911) The Chinese revolution breaks out at Wuchang in Central China.

… (1903) British suffragette Mrs. Emilie Pankhurst forms the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester to fight for female emancipation.

… (1881) Charles Darwin publishes what he considers his major work, the result of a 45-year ecological study – The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms with Notes on their Habits.

… (1794) The Russians crush the rebel Polish army, taking its leader prisoner.

…Music creates order out of chaos; for rhythm imposes unanimity upon the divergent, melody imposes continuity upon the disjointed, and harmony imposes compatibility upon the incongruous. [Yehudi Menuhin, violinist, 1976.]

9^th, (1984) ‘Jordan hands olive branch to Egypt’: A five-year severance of relations between Amman and Cairo was formally ended today with the visit by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt to Jordon. Egypt has been in the Arab dog-house since 1979 when the late Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel. King Hussein’s decision to resume diplomatic relations with Egypt and bring her back into the Arab fold has met with hostility, especially among radical Arab states such as Libya and Syria. One reason for King Hussein’s decision to extend the hand of friendship to Egypt is Jordan’s economy, which is badly in need of a large export market to offset the general downturn in trade caused by the Iran-Iraq war.

… (1987) Death of multi-talented Clare Booth Luce, former US congresswoman, ambassador, novelist, editor and playwright who wrote The Women.

… (1986) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom Of The Opera, starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman opened in London’s West End.

… (1973) Elvis Presley divorces Priscilla after six years of marriage.

… (1970) ‘Nobel problems for Solzhenitsyn’: The winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, dissident Soviet writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, has excused himself from attending the award ceremony in Stockholm in December, for “personal reasons”. It is unclear whether the Soviet authorities refused to permit him to leave the USSR or whether Solzhenitsyn declined to go for fear that he would not be re-admitted. The championing of Solzhenitsyn in the West – where he is now a best selling author – has made life difficult for him with the Soviet authorities, who view the award as provocation. Last year he was expelled from the Soviet Writers’ Union.

… (1967) Death of Andre Maurois, French author and biographer.

… (1963) Three thousand lives are lost when the Vaiont Dam in the Italian Alps is wrecked by a land slide.

… (1962) Uganda receives formal independence.

… (1897) Henry Sturmey sets off in his 4.5 hp Daimler from Land’s End in Cornwall, aiming to be the first person to drive from Land’s End to John O’Groats in Scotland – a distance of 929 miles (1486 km).

… (1760) Russians and Austrians pillage Berlin.

… (1651) The Navigation Act is passed, allowing only English ships to import goods from Africa, America and Asia to England.

… (1470) ‘The Kingmaker tries again’: In the ongoing struggle for the English throne the sands of fortune have shifted in favour of the House of Lancaster. Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, who abandoned the Yorkist cause after his protégé Edward secretly married the beautiful young widow Elizabeth Woodville, has restored the pious and mentally unstable Henry VI to the throne. The strong-willed Edward wanted the woman of his choice and not an arranged marriage to a French princess. Henry VI is used to abdicating responsibility in political matters so the alliance between himself and the power-hungry Warwick should suit them both. However, observers point to Henry’s inability to govern as the major cause of the war that has riven the country for the past 15 years and for the loss of English-held lands in France. The days of the Lancastrian dynasty as represented by Henry seem to be numbered.

… (1192) King Richard the Lion Heart abandons the Holy Land after an unsuccessful Crusade, leaving Jerusalem in Muslim hands.

8^th, (1981) ‘Multi-million bullion rescued’: Treasure worth £45 million ($83 million) which has lain in the Barents Sea for almost 40-years was retrieved last night. For the past three weeks a team of 10 divers has been working round the clock to recover 431 gold bars, weighing 23 lb (10.5 kg) apiece, from the hull of the British cruiser, Edinburgh. In May 1942 the ship was transporting the bullion from Russia to Britain when she became involved in a running battle with German destroyers and a U-boat and was eventually sunk. The companies involved in the salvage operation, Wharton Williams and Jessop Marine Recoveries, will receive 45 per cent of the value of the gold. The British and Soviet governments will receive the rest.

… (1973) The first legal commercial radio station in Britain opens as LBC (London Broadcasting) goes on the air.

… (1971) John Lennon released his album Imagine in the UK.

… (1967) The first British speeding motorist is breathalysed to test alcohol consumption in Somerset.

… (1965) Britain’s tallest building to date, the Post Office Tower in London, opens, offering a revolving restaurant and viewing galleries.

… (1957) Jerry Lee Lewis records “Great Balls of Fire” at the Sun Studios in Memphis.

… (1952) A rail crash in Harrow, Britain, involving three trains, kills 112 and injures more than 200 people.

… (1897) ‘Dow Jones Traces Ups and Downs’: A New York News Agency has come up with the novel idea of charting the general trends in the trading of stocks and bonds on Wall Street. The company, Dow Jones & Co, Inc, computes a daily industrials average by using a list of 12 stocks and dividing their total price by 12. The creator of this unique statistical measure is the highly respected financial journalist Charles Henry Dow, 46, the founder and editor of the Wall Street Journal.

… (1871) A great fire starts in Chicago – believed to have begun in one Mrs O’Leary’s barn in Dekoven Street, when a cow upset a lantern – and people have to free their homes.

… (1820) ‘Haitian despot takes own life’: Henri Christophe, the Haitian leader who believed that despotism was the only form of government for his people, has shot himself. He was 53. A former slave, Christophe rose to prominence as a military commander during the war against the French in 1791. After 1806, when his efforts to become overlord of the entire country had been thwarted, Christophe established his own fiefdom in northern Haiti. He built a fortress, Citadelle Laferrière, south of his capital, Cap-Haitian. His people have been revolt for the past two months – since hearing that their despotic ruler, now calling himself King Henri I, had suffered a stroke. Christophe could expect no mercy.

… (1818) The first mention of a boxing match featuring the use of padded gloves appeared in a Paris newspaper.

… (1813) Wellington invades southern France.

… (1813) Bavaria joins the allies against Napoleon.

… (1809) Metternich is appointed Austrian foreign minister.

… (1805) The outnumbered French troops defeat the invading Austrians at Ulm.

7^th, (2003) ‘Arnie Elected Governor’: Hollywood film star Arnold Schwarzenegger has won the race for governor of California, ousting the Democrat incumbent Gray Davis. It is the first time that Californians have voted to sack their governor mid-term. With almost all the votes counted, Schwarzenegger – running as a Republican – has secured almost 48%. In a victory speech, Mr. Schwarzenegger thanked the people of California for giving him their trust: “I know that together we can make this the greatest state in the greatest country in the world.”

… (2001) ‘US to root out terrorists in Afghanistan’: Today President George Bush announced the start of Operation Enduring Freedom whose aim is to root out al-Qaeda members, particularly Osama bin Laden, from Afghanistan. US and UK troops will join with those of the Northern Alliance, a federation of groups opposed to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The terrorists, who were behind the September 11 attacks, are thought to be hiding out in caves in the Afghan White Mountains.

… (1988) After an Alaskan hunter spots grey whales trapped in the ice an international rescue operation is planned.

… (1986) A new national newspaper, the Independent, is launched in Britain.

… (1985) Italian cruise liner the Achille Lauro is seized by Palestinians terrorists, endangering the lives of more than 400 passengers on board.

… (1959) Pictures of the far side of the moon are relayed back to Earth for the first time by the Russian spacecraft Lunik III.

… (1922) The Prince of Wales makes the first royal broadcast on British radio.

… (1919) The first airline, KLM of Holland, is established – scheduled flights are forecast to take place in 1920.

… (1908) Crete revolts against Turkish domination, seeking unity with Greece.

… (1904) ‘Journey’s end for Bishop’: Isabella Bird Bishop, the first woman to be made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London, died today. She was 73. She was a sickly child so the family doctor advised her to travel, and in 1854 she made the first of many journeys overseas, to the western United States. Thereafter she travelled all over the world. After each journey she would write a detailed account of her adventures. Her first book, The Englishwoman in America, became widely known. She went on her last journey, to Morocco, aged 70. Towards the end of her life she became increasingly involved in the missionary cause and established several small hospitals in China and India.

… (1858) A non-stop mail coach reaches Los Angeles 20 days after leaving St Louis – having travelled 2600 miles (4160 km).

… (1849) ‘Poe Pourri’: The poet, short-story writer and critic Edgar Allan Poe has died in Baltimore after a heavy drinking bout. He was 40. In 1845 Poe won fame throughout the United States for his poem “The Raven”. His gift for writing in many different styles found expression in, at one extreme, horror and detective stories and, at the other, pseudo-learned discourses. Controversial though he could be – with a libel suit brought by the subject of one of his gossipy sketches on the “Literati of New York” – Poe could also be humorous, kind and gentle as well as acerbic and self-centred.

… (1571) ‘Turks invincibility blown at Lepanto’: A Holy League of naval forces from Spain, Venice and the Vatican has exploded the myth of Turkish military invincibility by annihilating their fleet at the battle of Lepanto in the eastern Mediterranean. The Turkish commander, Ali Pasha, was killed in the bloody fray along with 25,000 of his men. The fleets were evenly matched with about 200 galleys and 80,000 men on either side. Christian galley slaves accounted for half of the Turkish fleet’s manpower; 12,000 of them were freed at the end of the battle. Turkish galley losses are estimated at about 150 to the allies’ 15. The architect of the Holy League’s victory is the dashing Don John of Austria, 24, who has managed to wield disparate fleets into an effective force. It remains to be seen whether the same high degree of cooperation can be maintained.

…Decades of pain and humiliation – that is precisely what differentiates Central European countries from their Western counterparts. [Czeslaw Milosz, Polish novelist and 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature winner, 1991.]

6^th, (1981) ‘Camp David avenged’: The president of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, was assassinated today while attending the military parade marking the anniversary of Egyptian successes in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Sadat, 62, was rushed to the Maadi Armed Forces Hospital, south of Cairo, but died soon after arrival. Sadat and other ministers were watching a fly-past when men dressed as soldiers opened fire with grenades and automatic weapons from a truck that had stalled in front of the reviewing stand. Seven other senior Egyptian officials and guests were also killed. Sadat’s signing of the Camp David treaty with Israel in 1979 won him a host of enemies in the Arab world. Chief among these was the exiled opposition leader Lieutenant General Saad El-Shazli, who is thought to have masterminded the killing.

… (1973) ‘Arabs attack as Israel prays’: One of the holiest days in the Jewish Calendar, Yom Kippur (“Day of Atonement”), has turned into one of the bloodiest. As Israelis were beginning Yom Kippur (when past sins are atoned for through fasting and prayer), a joint Egyptian-Syrian invasion force was attacking their country on two fronts. After initial confusion, the Israeli defence force has been mobilised. The Arabs are unlikely to win this latest round of hostilities on the battlefield, such is Israel’s military superiority. The wily Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat believes that a bloody nose might persuade Israel to negotiate seriously over the Arab territory lost during the 1967 Six-Day War.

… (1968) British drivers Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees come first, second and third in the US Grand Prix.

… (1941) Two men with the unfortunate names of Willburn and Frizzel go the electric chair in Florida.

… (1928) Chang Kai-shek is China’s new president.

… (1902) A 2000-mile (3200 km) railway line running from Cape Town in South Africa to Beira, Mozambique, is completed.

… (1895) Promenade concerts, initiated by Sir Henry Wood, begin at the Queen’s Hall in London.

… (1892) Death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, great English poet who won the Chancellor’s medal for English as a young man with the poem “Timbuctoo”, and later wrote the famous “The Charge of the Light Brigade”.

… (1891) Death of Irish nationalist politician Charles Stewart Parnell, described as the “uncrowned king” of Ireland.

… (1860) The Franco-British force captures Peking.

… (1807) Sir Humphrey Davy discovers a new metal, and names it potassium.

… (1536) English reformer and Bible translator William Tyndale is strangled and burnt at the stake at Vivarde near Brussels on the orders of Henry VIII.

… (1014) ‘Byzantine Basil Blinds Bulgarians’: The Byzantine emperor Basil II has brought his country’s 28-year-war with Bulgaria to an end with an act of unprecedented savagery. Tsar Samuel’s defeated army of 15,000 men has been blinded. One eye has been left to each 100^th man to ensure that the army finds its way back to the Tsar. Meanwhile, the whisker-twirling Basil will be looking for further lands to incorporate into his already vast empire. Sicily, now in the hands of the Arabs, is next on his list of military conquests.

5^th, (2000) Slobodan Milosevic has finally been swept from power as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia amid gathering protest nearly two weeks after he failed to acknowledge defeat in the general elections of September 24. Crowds stormed the parliament building and state-owned television station in Belgrade in protest. Finally Vojislav Kostunica has been able to claim the presidency.

… (1999) A train crash near London’s Paddington Station kills 31 people.

… (1998) The US Congressional committee is debating whether to begin impeachment proceedings against President Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. It follows a report by Kenneth Starr which said there was evidence the President was guilty of abuse of power and witness-tampering.

… (1994) Fifty members of the Solar Temple cult are found dead in Switzerland.

… (1991) Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced sweeping cuts in nuclear weapons in response to U.S. President H.W. Bush’s arms reduction initiative.

… (1968) Police use water cannons and batons to break up a civil rights march in Londonderry.

… (1962) The first James Bond film, Dr No, starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, had its premier in London.

… (1952) ‘Tea-time’: Her Majesty’s government has taken a significant step towards reviving the nation’s addiction to tea by removing it from the list of rationed commodities.  The British people’s burden remains great, however – meat, bacon (excluding cooked gammon), sugar, butter, margarine, cooking fats, cheese, eggs, sweets and chocolates are all still subject to strict rationing.

… (1936) ‘Jarrow’s unemployed march without food’: A British workers’ movement has hit on the idea of hunger marches as a way of bringing public attention to the plight of the unemployed in depressed areas of the country. In the formerly prosperous Tyneside shipbuilding town of Jarrow, which now has a permanent jobless rate of two-thirds of its population, 200 unemployed were given a rousing send-off. They are taking with them on a long march to London a petition with more than 11,000 signatures. The government’s attempt to revive the four areas of the country officially recognised in November 1934 as depressed – including Tyneside – has failed. The marchers believe the capitalist system has broken down.

… (1930) The R-101 rigid airship crashes on the edge of a wood near Beauvais, France, killing 48 passengers including Air Minister Lord Thompson, who may well have contributed to the disaster by bringing luggage on board equivalent to the weight of about 24 people.

… (1917) Sir Arthur Lee donates the country residence Chequers to the nation as a retreat for British prime ministers.

… (1908) Bulgaria declares its independence from Turkey.

… (1880) Death of Jacques Offenbach, French composer who wrote the Tales of Hoffman.

… (1796) ‘Spain tries French dressing’: Spain signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso today, this throwing in her lot with Revolutionary France. Many Spaniards are hostile to the alliance. The man most in favour of it is Manuel de Godoy, Spain’s Prime Minister and the lover of Charles IV’s lascivious wife, Maria Luisa. He is convinced that Britain is an enemy of Spain. By backing France, however, he is further weakening Spain’s dwindling imperial clout. Spain will now be on the opposite side of the fence from her natural allies, the anti-Revolutionary coalitions engineered by Britain. She will also lose her markets in America.

…My opinion is, that power should always be distrusted, in whatever hands it is placed. [Sir William Jones, British jurist, in a letter, 1782.]

4^th, (2006) The WikiLeaks website was set up when its domain name was registered.

… (1993) ‘Russian Rebels Surrender in White House Siege’: Troops and tanks loyal to President Yeltsin have opened fire on the White House in Moscow and finally put an end to the pro-Communist rebellion. The rebels were occupying the building together with Moscow’s mayoral offices, and had attempted a partial take-over of the national television centre. The siege followed escalating running battles between the pro-Communists and the security forces loyal to President Boris Yeltsin in Moscow. Riot squads had been moved in to clear the streets after protesters erected barriers and set car tyres alight across the Garden Ring Road, Moscow’s main thoroughfare. The riot police drafted in reinforcements and used water cannons to disperse the crowds but were driven back with home-made missiles.. The protests have been sparked by President Yeltsin dissolving parliament and calling for fresh elections on 21 September. The rebels have demanded Yeltsin reverse his earlier decision to dissolve the conservative parliament. Vice President Alexander Rutskoi, a key-player among the hard-line communists and nationalist parliament rebels, was claiming the presidency. He called on people to take to the streets and urged police officers to switch their allegiance. Several people were injured in the clashes between riot police and the 600 demonstrators who were armed with steel bars, petrol bombs and rocks. Police fired warning shots in the air, but they were beaten back by a powerful and determined crowd of rioters. An estimated 146 people have died in the struggle. President Yeltsin has pardoned the ringleaders.

… (1981) ‘IRA calls off death strike’: The IRA has called off the seven-month iold hunger strike that has cost the lives of ten republicans held in H-block of the Maze prison in Belfast. The Maze became the focus of interest for the world’s media after the first batch of hunger strikers died, including the MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Bobby Sands. The men in the Maze wanted the British government to give them the status of political prisoners.

… (1961) Death of the painter Max Weber.

… (1957) ‘Russia wins first heat of space race’: Two years ago both Russia and America announced that satellite programmes would form part of their respective contribution s to International Geophysical Year 1957-58. Artificial satellites are believed to have potential as monitors of scientific and meteorological phenomena and also as communications relay stations. The Russians have taken a step closer to discovering the possible uses of satellites by successfully launching the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. The 22-inch (53 cm), 185-lb (84 kg) disc of Sputnik 1 is at this moment circling the earth at an estimated 18,000 mph (29,000 kph). On each 96-minute orbit, Sputnik comes to within 143 miles (231 km) of the Earth at one extreme of its trajectory and to within 584 miles (942 km) at the other. It is expected to continue sending signals from its two radio transmitters until early next year.

… (1952) An external device called a pacemaker developed by Dr Paul Zoll of the Harvard Medical School is fitted to David Schwartz to control his heart beat.

… (1947) ‘Quantum sleep’: The German physicist Max Planck has died at his home in Gottingen, aged 89. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918 in recognition of his contribution to the advancement of physics through the discovery of energy quanta. This quantum theory had been established by Planck at the end of 1900 to explain how energy is distributed according to wavelength in the so-called black-body radiation of a cavity. Ironically, the theory went against the tenets of classical physics to which Planck himself adhered. It only became accepted by the majority of physicists after the Dane Niels Bohr demonstrated beyond all doubt that it was not an ad hoc hypothesis invented purely to prove the correct radiation formula for Planck’s experiment.

… (1910) Portugal is proclaimed a republic – King Manuel II flees to Britain.

… (1905) Orville Wright is the first person to fly an aircraft for more than 33 minutes.

… (1904) Death of French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty.

… (1895) American Horace Rawlins wins the first US Open Gold tournament, played at Newport, Rhode Island.

… (1895) The first European edition of the New York Herald is published in Paris.

… (1895) The first U.S. Open Championship golf tournament was launched.

… (1883) In Glasgow, Sir William Alexander Smith founds the Boys’ Brigade.

… (1859) Death of German publisher Karl Baedeker, whose series of travel guides became internationally famous.

… (1824) Mexico becomes a republic.

… (1669) The Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn has died in Amsterdam at 63. In his 30s Rembrandt earned large sums from painting portraits of Amsterdam’s upper crust. After his wealthy wife died in 1642 he gradually went bankrupt. However, he continued to paint and to receive commissions and he leaves a vast legacy of about 600 paintings, 1500 drawings and 350 etchings.

… (1535) Miles Coverdale’s English translation of the Bible is published.

3^rd, (1995) ‘OJ Simpson Acquitted of Murder’: OJ Simpson has been found not guilty of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and her companion Ronald Goldman. The jury took just a few hours to reach a unanimous decision in the trial that has gripped America. Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death outside her Brentwood house on June 12. Former American football star Simpson was arrested soon after the killings but insisted from the start he was innocent. Orenthal James Simpson’s fate has become essential television viewing ever since 95 million Americans watched police give chase to his car on the day of his arrest.

… (1991) ‘DPP’s career sadly curbed’: Sir Allan Green, QC, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, resigned today after being stopped by police for alleged kerb crawling. He had been seen talking to prostitutes in the red light district around King’s Cross station on more than one occasion, it was claimed. Sir Allan, 56, was an able and popular DPP and his fall from grace has been greeted with disbelief tinged with sadness by those who worked with him. During his four years as DPP head, Sir Allan reorganised the service with the aim of making it “fair, competent and nationwide”. Prostitute Lindi St Clair, the leader of the Corrective Party, has urged Sir Allan to back her calls for the legalisation of prostitution.

… (1987) Death of French dramatist Jean Anouilh, whose works include Antigone and L’Alouette.

… (1967) Woody Guthrie, American singer and songwriter of “This Land is Your Land” dies from Huntington’s chorea.

… (1967) Death of Sir Malcolm Sergeant, hugely popular British conductor perhaps best-loved for his Promenade concerts.

… (1959) Post codes are introduced in Britain.

… (1957) ‘Berlin backs Willy Brandt’: The Berlin city assembly made history today by voting in its youngest ever Oberburgermeister, or Mayor. The man entrusted with this difficult office is 44-year-old Willy Brandt. He was elected unopposed by 86 out of the 118 members who voted. Herr Brandt’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the only party to put up a candidate. Speculation that he would face a challenge by fellow SPD politician Willi Kressmann proved groundless. The composition of the Berlin senate remains unchanged, with the SPD maintaining its one-seat advantage over the Christian Democratic Unionist Party.

… (1952) ‘British nuke own warship’: The first British atomic weapon was exploded today off the Monte Bello Islands, west of Australia. The test was designed to assess the effect of an atomic bomb exploding in a harbour. The ship in which the weapon was exploded, the 1370-ton frigate HMS Plym, vapourised except for a few fragments which landed on a nearby islands and started fires in the vegetation. Watching newsmen felt the force from 65 miles (104 km) or so away about four minutes after the flash.

… (1906) SOS is established as the international distress call, replacing the call sign CDQ (sometimes interpreted as “Come Damn Quick!”).

… (1896) ‘No More Morris’: William Morris, the author and designer, has died at his Hammersmith home, Kelmscott House, aged 62.  He had recently returned from a sea voyage to Norway intended to revive his failing health. In 1861 Morris founded the firm of Morris & Co. to produce wallpapers, furniture, tapestries, carpets, furnishing materials and stained glass windows (many of them by Burne-Jones). This association of “fine art workmen” held to the principle that the artist-designer should “honour” his material. Morris put much of his considerable energy into promoting Socialist ideals through his writings and, latterly, the formation of the Socialist League.

…I don’t want art for a few, any more than education for a few, or freedom for a few. [William Morris, British designer, who died today, 1896.]

… (1867) Death of Elias Howe, who patented the sewing machine and made $2 million (£1.1 million) from it.

… (1226) Death of St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order who received the wounds of Christ (the stigmata) and endured great pain during the first two years of his life.

2^nd, (2003) J.M. Coetzee wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

… (2002) Robbie Williams signed an eighty million pound record deal with EMI – the biggest in British history.

… (1987) Death of Sir Peter Medawar, biologist and Nobel prize-winner.

… (1968) Sheila Thorns became the first woman to give birth to sextuplets in Britain – four boys and two girls.

… (1950) A new cartoon strip by Charles M. Schulz called Peanuts appears, featuring Charlie Brown.

… (1940) Child evacuees sailing to Canada in the Empress of Britain come under attack from a German submarine – most of the 634 crew and passengers are rescued.

… (1935) Italian forces invade Abyssinia – Mussolini’s bombers have already pounded border towns.

… (1931) Tea tycoon and yachtsman Sir Thomas Lipton has died in London at 81. Glasgow-born Sir Thomas was a grocer, expanded and sought a cost-effective way of supplying his shops: he bought tea, coffee and cocoa plantations in Ceylon and farms, bakeries and bacon-curing establishments in England. The one success which eluded him was victory in the America’s Cup yacht race.

… (1925) London’s first almost entirely enclosed red double-decker buses begin service.

… (1871) Mormon leader Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy.

… (1870) ‘Tatters of papal power’: The meeting of the Vatican Council in Rome, the first general assembly of the Church of Rome for 300 years, is drawing to a close amid mounting criticism at home and abroad. Of the decrees issued by the Council during its 10-month sitting, the one relating to papal infallibility on matters of faith and morals has raised most hackles. Secular governments fear that this will lead to clerical interference in politics. The papacy has lost all territorial power since Italian forces invaded Rome. The Papal States no longer exist and Rome is set to become the capital of a United Italy. The pope, Pius IX, regards himself as a virtual prisoner in his own palace, but will continue to wield what little power he has left.

… (1835) ‘Texans up in arms against Mexico’: Texan-Americans today struck the first blow for an independent Texas by staging an armed uprising against the centralist government of Antonio de Santa Anna in the town of Gonzales, 67 miles (108 km) east of San Antonio. American immigrants, with their slaves, first settled here in 1825 when Texas was largely undeveloped and there was little interference from the Mexican government. Santa Anna’s bid to change Mexico from a federation of states into a centralised system with himself as undisputed head is popular with the army but has little support among the general population, especially the Texan-Americans who have a great deal to lose from Santa Anna’s policy. The situation may prove to be a heaven-sent opportunity for America to expand westwards.

… (1803) Death of Samuel Adams, American statesman and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence.

… (1780) British officer John Andre, who negotiated with the treacherous American revolutionary General Benedict Arnold for the surrender of West Point, is executed as a spy.

… (1700) ‘French Strengthen Hand at Spanish Court’: The death was announced today of the Spanish king, Charles II. He was 39. Alarm bells will have rung in England, Austria and Holland with the announcement that before his death, Charles, who leaves no heir, named Philip, Duke of Anjou, as his successor. Two years ago the nations with an interest in the succession agreed that Joseph Ferdinand, the electoral prince of Bavaria, should get the crown. Spanish territory would be ceded to pay off the rival French and Austrian claimants – Philip, the second grandson of Louis XIV, and the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Hapsburg emperor Leopold I. This ingenious plan went awry when Joseph Ferdinand inconveniently predeceased Charles, leaving the physically and mentally handicapped Spanish monarch susceptible to the blandishments of the French party at his court. War looks inevitable.

… (322 BC) The great Greek philosopher Aristotle dies of a stomach illness.

…There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common – a need to create an alternative world. [John Fowles, British novelist, 1977.]

Oct 1^st, (1987) Forty-eight-year-old surrogate grandmother Mrs. Pat Anthony gives birth to triplets for her daughter Karen Ferreira-Jorge in Johannesburg, South Africa.

… (1987) ‘City of the Angels shaken and stirred’: An earthquake rocked Los Angeles for 20 seconds this morning, killing seven people and injuring at least 100, 12 seriously. The quake struck at 7.40, the height of the morning rush hour. Traffic snarled up as freeways were closed due to structural damage. Frightened office workers poured out of their skyscrapers and on to even more hazardous streets. The area of the city worst hit was downtown Whittier, where some 50 businesses and 100 homes suffered extensive damage. The earthquake registered 6.1 on the Richter scale and was felt 200 miles (321 km) away in Las Vegas. It was the strongest tremor to hit the area since February 1971, when a quake in the Sylmar community in the San Fernando Valley resulted in 64 deaths.

… (1982) The first commercial CD player, made by Sony, went on sale in Japan.

… (1974) The Watergate trial begins.

… (1972) ‘Controversial Leakey dies’: The controversial archaeologist and anthropologist Louis Leakey died in London today, aged 69. Leakey will be remembered for the discoveries of the 1,750,000-year-old Zinjanthropus fossil at Olduvai Gorge and the contemporaneous Homo habilis at Lake Natron in Tanzania between 1959 and 1964. Leakey believed that Homo habilis was a human ancestor of man but Zinjanthropus was not. This brought him into conflict with those scholars who classified Zinjanthropus as an Australopithecine, the fossil widely thought to be most closely related to man, and disputed the existence of a Homo habilis linkage. Leakey’s wife, Mary, and their son, Richard, will continue his work piecing together the jigsaw of human evolution.

… (1971) Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.

… (1969) The sound barrier is broken by Concorde 001 for the first time, during a test flight in France.

… (1949) ‘China to be Mao’s Republic’: China has been proclaimed a People’s Republic under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung, as Chairman, and Chou En-Lai, as Prime Minister. The defeat of the Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek leaves the Communists with a clear path for the implementation of their radical social and economic policies. A few months ago the new leaders warned that the struggle ahead would be as difficult as the revolutionary armed struggle that is just coming to an end. One of the primary objectives of Chairman Mao is the industrialisation of his Republic, which he hopes will raise China to the status of a great power. His ultimate goal of seeing the rise of Communism throughout the world will begin with the creation of a socialist society in China.

… (1938) German forces enter Sudetenland, once part of Czechoslovakia which, ironically, Hitler claimed he had liberated.

… (1936) The BBC begins regular television broadcasts from Alexander Palace in London.

… (1936) General Francisco Franco Bahamonde, 44, was today proclaimed “Chief of the Spanish State” by the nationalist military junta that is trying to seize power in Spain. His elevation comes a month after the death in a plane crash of the former leader, General Sanjurjo. The nationalists are looking for a speedy end to the chaos gripping the country – unlikely because the capital, Madrid, and the east of the country are firmly in control of government forces.

… (1918) British officer T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and the Arab forces of Emir Faisal capture Damascus from the Turks.

… (1903) European railways link with Russia.

… (1880) The Edison Lamp Works begin operations in New Jersey to manufacture the first electric light bulbs.

… (1868) ‘Siamese catharsis’: Mongkut, king of Siam, has died in Bangkok, aged 64. In only 17 years as ruler he implemented sweeping political, economic and social changes with western help. Mongkut’s decision to reverse centuries of isolation was formulated during the 27 years he spent as a Buddhist priest. During this time he travelled widely and saw that radical steps were needed to solve the country’s problems. Siam had one large and venerable commodity to offer the US in return for all their advice – elephants. These, Mongkut thought, could be used in the development of the USA. Siam’s experience of imperialism was soured last year when France forced him to relinquish his vassal state, Cambodia, and make it a Frech protectorate.

…It is my Royal and Imperial command that you … exterminate first the treacherous English, and … walk over General French’s contemptible little Army. [Wilhelm II, King of Prussia and Emperor of Germany, referring to the British Expeditionary Force, 1914.]

SEPTEMBER

30^th, (1993) An earthquake claims the lives of 10,000 villages in western and southern India.

… (1989) Death of Virgil Thomson, American composer, music critic and conductor.

… (1970) Britain swaps hijack hostages for Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.

… (1949) Victorious communist Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung was elected Chairman of the new People’s Republic of China in Peking today. Chou En-lai was elected foreign minister. After three years of civil war, Mao’s guerrillas have roundly defeated Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek’s US-backed Nationalist army and the communists are now in control of the huge country. Chiang is a spent force, the remnants of his regime bottled up in the south.

… (1938) ‘Chamberlain “peace with honour”’: British prime minister Neville Chamberlain returned from the crisis conference in Munich tonight and told cheering crowds at the airport “I believe it is peace for our time.” Chamberlain and French premier Edouard Daladier flew to Munich to meet Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italian premier Benito Mussolini to find a solution to the Czechoslovakian crisis. Hitler had demanded immediate German occupation of German-speaking Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia following a series of staged riots. France is treaty-bound to defend Czechoslovakia, but Daladier, under pressure from Chamberlain, agreed to the German occupation, and Chamberlain agreed to withdraw British support for the Czechs in return for Hitler’s promise that this would be his last bid for more territory. Tonight Chamberlain called the agreement “peace with honour”. The Czechs are calling it treachery.

… (1933) Franklin D. Roosevelt announces $700 million New Deal aid to the American poor.

… (1931) Pay cuts in the British Navy prompt mutinous protest by 12,000.

… (1882) Water power is first used to produce electricity at a plant on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, USA.

… (1792) French troops take Speyer in the Rhineland.

… (1791) Mozart’s opera Die Zaubeffolte receives its premier in Vienna.

… (1630) John Billington is executed in New Plymouth for murder – the first capital crime in America.

…Freedom of the press is for he who owns one. [H.L. Mencken, iconoclastic American journalist – Canadian press baron Lord Thomson bought the Times of London today, 1966.]

29^th, (2015) The contract signed by The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein sold at Sotherby’s for £365,000.

… (1987) John M. Poindexter officially resigns from the Navy over the Iran-Contra scandal.

… (1976) ‘UK goes cap-in-hand to the IMF’: A broke Britain asked the International Monetary Fund for a $3.9 billion (£2.1 billion) loan today – the limit of its entitlement. Britain needs the money to prop up the ailing pound, which collapsed this week following market jitters caused by loud left-wing noises at the ruling Labour Party’s annual conference. Meanwhile inflation is soaring, fuelled by poor productivity, high government spending and an energy crisis, while rising prices bring embarrassing wage demands by unions which support the Labour Party. Prime Minister James Callaghan has ruled out left-wing demands for lower taxes and a bigger welfare budget.

… (1976) On his 41st birthday, rock ‘n’ roll singer Jerry Lee Lewis accidentally shot his bass player Norman Owens twice in the chest while blasting holes in an office door [he survived and sued Lewis].

… (1952) John Cobb, British and world waterspeed record holder, is killed on Loch Ness in Scotland when his vessel Crusader disintegrates after hitting waves at a speed of 240 mph (384 kph).

… (1950) The first automatic telephone answering machine is tested by the US Bell Telephone Company.

… (1941) ‘Day of death as Nazis shoot 30,000 Jews’: A special Nazi death squad has murdered thousands of Russian Jews in Kiev, machine-gunning them systematically in Babi Yar ravine. The shooting continued all day, and more than 30,000 men, women and children are feared dead. Nazi Gestapo secret police chief Heinrich Himmler sent four Einsatzgruppen (strike squads) into Russia behind the advancing German war machine with the express mission of exterminating Soviet Jewish civilians and other “undesirables”. Kiev fell to the Nazis 10 days ago, and Leningrad is under siege. Meanwhile, some 700,000 Jews have died in the Polish ghettoes since the Nazi occupation two years ago. Himmler and his henchmen, Reinhardt Heydrich and Adolph Eichmann, are reported to be planning a “final solution” to the Jewish “problem”.

… (1938) The Munich Conference begins, attended by Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

… (1930) George Bernard Shaw turns down a peerage.

… (1913) ‘Ulster Protestants to fight home rule’: Ireland edged one step closer to civil war today as the Protestant majority in Ulster province vowed to fight rather than be ruled by Catholic Dublin. At a meeting in Belfast, the Ulster Unionist Council agreed to set up a provisional government if the British parliament approves Irish home rule, and council chairman Sir Edward Carson promised to make Ulster ungovernable by Dublin. Meanwhile the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force held a military parade near the city. Britain’s liberal prime minister Herbert Asquith needs the Irish nationalist votes to stay in power. Under pressure from nationalist leader John Redmond, he introduced the Irish Home Rule Bill in parliament last year. But Ulster’s Protestants are committed to British rule to avoid becoming a small minority in an Irish state.

… (1911) Alleging mistreatment of Italians in Libya, Italy declares war on the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.

… (1902) French writer Emile Zola dies, accidentally gassed by charcoal fumes.

… (1650) A border pact is signed which recognises the English claims to parts of the Long Island coastline.

… (480 BC) ‘Athens wreaks revenge on Persia’: Though outnumbered two to one, the Greeks today routed a huge Persian war fleet in the straits of Salamis. Themistocles of Athens led the Greek fleet and won as much by trickery as valour, with a strategy of feints and about-turns that left the Persian fleet divided and exposed. The lines of ram-prowed Greek ships, each propelled by 200 oarsmen, ploughed into King Xerxes’ Persians with devastating effect, sinking scores of galleys outright. After fierce fighting, the remnants of the invading Persian fleet fled, leaving more than 200 wrecked galleys and thousands of casualties. The Greeks lost 40 ships. Earlier this year Xerxes invaded and burnt the city of Athens. Today Athens had her revenge. Three years ago, with today’s battle in mind, Themistocles persuaded the city to use the profits of a new silver mine to build 200 war triremes, the biggest fleet in Greece. Without naval support, the Persian army’s chances of conquering the Greeks are slim.

…No one owes Britain a living. [James Callaghan, British Labour prime minister, 1976.]

28^th, (2002) State route 19 in Tina Turner’s hometown Nutbush (made famous in her song Nutbush City Limits) was named the ‘Tina Turner Highway’ in her honour.

… (2000) In the worst violence since the 1993 peace agreements, riots broke out in the Israeli-occupied territories today, sparked by a visit to Haram-al-Sharif by Ariel Sharon.

… (1994) The passenger ferry Estonia has sunk in the Baltics, with the loss of 910 of the crew and passengers on board.

… (1989) Ferdinand Marcos, ex-president of the Philippines, dies in exile.

… (1986) British welterweight boxer Lloyd Honeyghan becomes world champion in just six rounds with American boxer Donald Curry, who was forced to retire with a badly cut eye.

… (1982) ‘Marines enter Beirut after Lebanese massacre’: US president Ronald Reagan has sent marines into Beirut on a peace-keeping mission. They will be joined by Italian and French contingents, and Reagan said both Syrian and Israeli forces would leave the Lebanon. This follows the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians 10 days ago by Israeli-backed Lebanese Christians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in West Beirut. The massacre was the Christians’ revenge for the assassination four days earlier of Lebanese Christian president-elect Bashir Gemayel, now replaced by his brother, Amin.  On Saturday 300,000 Israelis demonstrated against Israeli involvement in the massacres.

… (1978) John Paul I is found dead after only 33 days as Pope.

… (1975) Dictator General Franco executes five Basque terrorists.

… (1964) Death of the mute harp-playing member of the comic team of Marx Brothers, Harpo Marx.

… (1937) ‘Axis Leaders Promise Peace’: A million people gathered at a floodlit rally in Berlin tonight to hear Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and Italy’s Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini deliver a message of peace. The Führer and the Duce were speaking at the Field of May, scene of last year’s Berlin Olympics. They announced that the Berlin-Rome Axis was not a threat to other peoples. Mussolini went on to denounce the League of Nations’ current sanctions against Italy as “criminal”. The sanctions follow Italy’s invasion and conquest of Abyssinia last year. Tonight’s message of peace is incompatible with Hitler’s prime objective of lebensraum – more living space for Nazi Germany.

… (1920) ‘Dirty tricks sully pristine White Sox’: Eight members of the Chicago White Sox were indicted today on charges of taking massive bribes to lose last year’s World Series to the Cincinnati Reds. Baseball fans are appalled – the national game is revered as something quite beyond corruption, and the World Series, first played in 1903, is the game’s main celebration and the biggest event in American sport. Sports writers are calling the eight players the “Black Sox”.

… (1895) Death of Louis Pasteur, French chemist and micro-biologist who developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies, father of pasteurisation, aged 72.

… (1891) Death of Herman Melville, American author of Moby Dick.

… (1868) Rebel generals oust Queen Isabella in Spain.

… (1864) ‘International debut for Marx’: A group of socialist radicals in London has formed an International Workingmen’s Association to help unite the world’s workers in revolution. They are known as the First International, led by German émigré Karl Marx, an economist and (with Friedrich Engels) the philosopher of modern revolution. Marx has branded religion a social evil – “the opium of the people” – and wants private property abolished. In 1848 he and Engels wrote their Communist Manifesto for a London workers’ organisation, stating that all history was the history of class conflict. The modern capitalist system of production would inevitably drive the proletariat to communist revolution, they said. Karl Marx has charted a path for today’s “alienated” society to cast off its yoke and achieve unity and abundance through the elimination of greed.

… (1745) God Save The King was first performed in London’s Drury Lane Theatre.

… (935) St Wenceslas (of carol fame) was killed by his brother, Boleslav the Cruel.

…The workers have nothing to lose in this revolution but their chains. They have a world to gain. Workers of the world unite! [Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the closing words in The Communist Manifesto, 1848.]

… (48 BC) ‘Ptolemy kills Pompey Caesar not impressed’: The Roman general Pompey the Great has been assassinated, stabbed to death as he landed in Egypt on the orders of Egyptian king Ptolemy XIII. Pompey had sided with the Roman senate against Julius Caesar, who was campaigning in Gaul, but Caesar marched on Rome, forcing Pompey to retreat to Greece with his army. Caesar followed him, and defeated Pompey at Pharsalus last month. Pompey fled to Egypt and Ptolemy granted him refuge – and then had him killed, seeking to curry favour with Caesar. Caesar, however, is furious at the ignoble end of his adversary and to Ptolemy’s dismay is leading an expedition to Egypt. The young King Ptolemy, who is only 15, is in the middle of a civil war with his 21-year-old sister, Cleopatra.

27^th, (2002) A Senegalese ferry sinks with 1,000 fatalities.

… (1994) BBC sketch show The Fast Show – starring Paul Whitehouse – first aired.

… (1979) Death of Dame Gracie Fields, singer and entertainer whose songs include “The Biggest Aspidistra in the World” and “Sally” (her theme song).

… (1964) ‘”No plot” behind Kennedy killing’: The Warren Commission has officially rejected conspiracy as a factor in the killing of US President John F. Kennedy last November. Neither has it found a motive. The Commission, appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the assassination, published its report in Washington today. Killer Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, the report said, and neither Oswald nor Jack Ruby, Oswald’s killer, was involved in a wider conspiracy. The report criticised the FBI, the secret service, which it said must be overhauled, and the Dallas police for poor security. The FBI knew Oswald had lived in Russia and had a job in a store overlooking Kennedy’s route – but the secret service didn’t know, yet its role to protect the president.

… (1960) Europe’s first “moving pavement”, the travelator, is opened at Bank Underground Station in London.

… (1940) ‘Tokyo joins Berlin-Rome Axis’: Imperial Japan signed a 10-year economic and military alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in Berlin today. The Tripartite Pact formalises the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis which begun in 1936 when Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany; Italy signed a year later. Today’s pact is a coup for Nazi leader Adolph Hitler, whose Blitzkrieg in Europe has gained him conquests, but no allies other than Italy and an increasingly reluctant Spain. Japan is also a useful buffer against the United States, Japan and Russia, however, have been bitter enemies since their war over Manchuria in 1905, and the peace treaty that was signed by Russia and Germany a year ago is looking ever more shaky.

… (1930) American golfer Bobby Jones completes the first-ever golfing Grand Slam when he wins the US National Amateur Championships.

… (1922) Constantine I, King of Greece, abdicated following the Greek defeat in Turkey.

… (1921) Death of Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer who wrote the well-loved Hansel and Gretel.

… (1917) Death of Edgar Degas, French painter and sculptor who initially painted portraits in the style of the old masters, but in the mid-1860s began painting contemporary scenes, particularly of ballet and racecourses.

… (1888) The Central News Agency in London receives a letter, signed “Jack the Ripper” about the current spate of horrific prostitute murders.

… (1825) ‘Commuters do the Locomotion’: A new era of travel began today when George Stephenson’s steam engine Locomotion pulled a full load of passengers from Shildon to Stockton via Darlington, inaugurating the world’s first passenger railway service. Stephenson operated the engine himself, and the 27-mile (43 km) journey took less than three hours. The passengers travelled in a long line of 32 carriages fitted with special wheels which glide smoothly along the steel rail track. Stephenson built the locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and also surveyed the route, avoiding steep gradients wherever possible. He and his talented engineer son Robert are designing a more powerful engine which they could have a top speed of as much as 30 mph (48 kph). It is understood that Stephenson has been approached by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

… (1791) Jews are granted French citizenship.

… (1672) ‘Slaves by the Shipload’: A new British company chartered today has been given a monopoly of the African slave trade. The Royal African Company is now arranging shipments of slaves from the African coast to the markets in the Americas, offering special terms for entire shiploads. A healthy slave costs less than £20 ($37) on delivery in America. The new company’s chief competition is the Dutch West India Company, which has had a monopoly of the West African slave trade for 50 years. Britain and France are at war with Holland, and last month a Dutch fleet attacked New York. Regardless of European hostilities, the number of slave ships plying the Atlantic is bound to grow. The New World plantations cannot operate without slaves and enormous profits are to be made from the trade in “black gold”.

… (1590) Pope Urban VII died of malaria just 13 days after being elected pontiff.

26^th, (2005) Weapons inspectors announced the IRA’s full disarmament.

… (2003) Addicted To Love singer Robert Palmer died aged 54.

… (1989) The last Vietnamese troops pull out of Cambodia.

… (1988) ‘Johnson runs into drugs shame’: Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson flew home in disgrace from the Seoul Olympics today, stripped of his gold medal after failing a drugs test. Two days ago Johnson was a hero after winning the 100 metres with a new world record. But tests proved that he’d taken anabolic steroids to boost his strength. The scandal hit the world’s front pages today, but Johnson isn’t the only one to have failed the drugs tests – so have nine other athletes. Following the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and the inevitable Eastern-bloc boycott of the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, this is the first Olympics since 1976 where east and west have met, and the west has not shone. Russia has swept up the most medals, and the heroes are the East German swimmers and African long-distance runners.

… (1984) Britain and China agree that Hong Kong will revert to Chinese rule when lease expires in 1997.

… (1983) ‘Australians win America’s Cup’: An Australian yacht has won the America’s cup, at last wrenching the famous trophy from the New York Yacht Club, its home for 132 years. Australia II, owned by Australian millionaire Alan Bond and skippered by John Bertrand, beat the US yacht Liberty, skippered by Dennis Conner, in the last of seven races off Newport, Rhode Island, today. The victory was greeted with a national celebration in Australia. Newport has been the scene of the America’s Cup for 53 years. Next time the race will be held in Australian waters.

… (1960) Cuban leader Fidel Castro made the longest speech ever delivered to the United Nations General Assembly. It lasted almost four and a half hours.

… (1957) The first performance of the Bernstein-Sondheim musical West Side Story is given in New York.

… (1945) Hungarian composer Bela Bartok dies in poverty in the USA; his stage works include the opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, and his most popular work is Concerto for Orchestra.

… (1926) BBC Radio first aired The Epilogue – Bible readings to mark the end of the broadcasting day.

… (1907) New Zealand becomes a dominion.

… (1903) Women get the vote in the Connecticut state elections.

… (1820) Death of US frontiersman Daniel Boone.

… (1815) The Holy Alliance is signed by Tsar Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria (formerly Holy Roman Emperor Francis II), and Frederick William III, King of Prussia.

… (1687) ‘Temple of war takes direct hit’: The masterpiece of ancient Greek architecture, the Parthenon, has become a casualty of war. Turkish forces that have besieged the Acropolis were using the old temple as a powder magazine, and today the attacking Venetian army scored a direct hit on it with a mortar bomb. The powder exploded, blowing off the roof, ruining the frieze-covered walls and damaging much of the marble sculpture. But still the battle continues. The Parthenon is the temple of Athena, Goddess of War. It was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates under the direction of the great sculptor Phidias and completed in 432 BC. Phidias’s huge image of Athena was destroyed by the Crusaders. Over the years the Parthenon has been used as a Catholic Church, a mosque and a harem.

25^th, (2012) U.S. crooner Andy Williams died, aged 84.

… (2000) Sportswoman Cathy Freeman races to victory in the 400-metre race in front of her home crowd.

… (1986) In Wales a British police constable is jailed for biting off part of a colleague’s ear during a rugby match.

… (1970) Death of Erich Maria Remarque, German author of All Quiet on the Western Front.

… (1968) Mary Hopkin – produced by Paul McCartney – was at the UK No 1 spot with Those Were The Days.

… (1960) Death of Emily Post, American columnist and writer on etiquette.

… (1959) ‘Bandaranaike cut short by Buddhist monk’: Sri Lankan prime minister Solomon Bandaranaike has been assassinated. Bandaranaike led the People’s United Front leftist alliance which won the 1956 election. His Sinhalese nationalism has angered the large Tamil Hindu minority – Sinhalese is now the sole national language. Yet he was shot by a Sinhalese Buddhist monk. He is to be succeeded by his wife, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, a radical socialist.

… (1954) “Papa” Doc (Dr Francois Duvalier) wins the presidential elections in Haiti.

… (1933) ‘Turin unveils “Shroud of Christ”’: More than 25,000 believers gazed in awe at a miraculous image of Jesus Christ today. Church custodians at the cathedral of Turin in Italy showed the famous Turin Shroud to the public for the first time in 400 years. The stained, 14-ft (4.2 m) long cloth is believed to have been the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. At the cathedral today it was impossible not to be moved by the cloth’s imprint of a body, front and back, and the clear picture of a man’s face, eyes closed. Scientific opinion is that the image is the actual imprint of the body of a man. Today’s crowd had no doubt about whose face it showed.

… (1932) Catalonia in Spain becomes autonomous: it has its own parliament, language and flag.

… (1906) Spanish civil engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo demonstrated the first remote control to crowds in the port of Bilbao by guiding a boat from the shore

… (1897) Britain’s first motor bus service starts in Bradford.

… (1851) ‘West says Hung is a Taiping error’: More than 20,000 Taiping rebels chose the Christian prophet Hung Hsiu Chuan as king at their mountain stronghold in China today. Invasions, droughts, floods, famines and lawlessness have left China ripe for rebellion. Some years ago Hung, 39, read a Christian pamphlet entitled Good Advice to the World. Later he fell into a 40-day coma and awakened to claim he had met God and Jesus and that he was “Jesus’ young brother”. God had ordered him to “kill the demon Manchus”, he said.  He plans to abolish property ownership, redistribute the land to everyone (including women, who are to have equal status), educate everybody, share everything, and end poverty, famine and injustice. Western missionaries, however, condemn Hung as a heretic.

… (1818) The first blood transfusion using human blood (as opposed to animal blood), takes place in London at Guy’s Hospital.

…Women and small people are the most difficult to deal with. [Confucius, (551-479 BC), Chinese sage and founder of Confucianism.]

24^th, (1983) Italy jails chemicals executives responsible for the Seveso dioxin disaster, when a poisonous gas cloud escaped from a factory in Seveso contaminating a wide radius of land.

… (1980) Iraq invaded Iran in force today and destroyed the huge oil refinery at Abadan as months of border incident flared into full-scale war. Iraq, taking advantage of the domestic chaos in fundamentalist Iran, is hoping for a quick victory over its bigger neighbour. The prize is dominance in the Persian Gulf.

… (1975) The first all-British team reaches the summit of Mount Everest, having also made the first ascent of the steep south-west face of the mountain.

… (1973) ‘Peron and on’ Former dictator Juan Peron was re-elected president of Argentina today after nearly 20 years’ exile. Peron’s second wife, Eva, an actress, was the mainstay of his first rule. “Evita”, idolised by the people, was virtually co-president, and Peron’s regime never recovered after she died in 1951. Peron returned from exile in Spain following a recent Peronist election victory. His third wife, Isabel, is his vice-president.

… (1960) Death of Melanie Klein, Austrian-born child psychoanalyst who spent the last 34 years of her life living in London and who wrote The Psychoanalysis of Children.

… (1960) The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, is launched at Newport, Virginia.

… (1947) ‘1200 refugees slaughtered on a train’: A trainload of Muslim refugees fleeing to Pakistan has been massacred by Sikhs at Amritsar in the Punjab, with at least 1200 defenceless people shot and hacked to death. This is the worst single incident so far in the communal violence that has swept the sub-continent since the partitioning of India on August 15. Millions of refugees caught on the wrong side of the Hindu-Muslim divide are fleeing to safety – some estimates put the number as high as 15 million. Nobody knows how many have died as sectarian hatred spilled over, creating a vicious cycle of retaliation. Sikhs in the western Punjab, now in Pakistan, have been slaughtered by rioting Muslims, and more than two million are fleeing east to India. Hindus caught in Pakistan are in the same desperate position, with killings in most towns.

… (1941) The Siege of Leningrad begins: the British RAF support the Red Army.

… (1916) A German Zeppelin crashed in Little Wigborough in Essex. The crew members were arrested when they asked a policeman for directions in Colchester.

… (1890) The Mormon Church officially renounced polygamy.

… (1877) ‘Old-style Samurai meet brutal reality’: Japan’s modern army today crushed a rebellion by 40,000 feudal samurai warriors fighting for their old way of life and their honour. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 broke the closed military rule of the Shoguns as Japan moved to transform itself into a modern world power. Thus ended 700 years of unchanging feudalism and warfare. The samurai armies and their bushido code of honour were an anachronism. The new Meiji government cut their pay, stopped them carrying swords – and six months ago refused to invade Korea. At this the incensed samurai rebelled. Today their leader committed ritual suicide amidst the fallen; many of the survivors followed suit.

… (1869) ‘Black Friday as golden bubble bursts’: Panic hit Wall Street today as the bottom fell out of the gold market – and the entire stock market followed it down. Thousands of gold speculators led the plunge towards bankruptcy. The blow fell when President Ulysses S. Grant told the US Treasury to release its gold. The sudden glut knocked the price down, killing a bid by financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market. They had said they’d succeeded in stopping the president selling government gold, and many believed them. But Grant had simply been slow to react. Fisk and Gould are not noted for integrity. Today they fled in a storm of acrimony.

… (1862) ‘Bismarck’s Creed of Iron and Blood’: The Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck has rescued his beleaguered king from a losing battle with the Liberal government. Vetoed because of his militarist budget proposals, King William appointed Bismarck chancellor. Bismarck defied the Chamber of Deputies, took control of taxes, completely ignored the budget, and forced through King William’s military reforms. It was Prussia’s power that won respect, he said, not Prussia’s Liberals. “The great question of the age is not settled by speeches and majority votes, but by iron and blood,” he told the deflated Democrat’s in the Chamber today.

… (1852) A hydrogen-filled airship, the first of its kind, makes its maiden flight at Versailles, powered by a 3 hp steam engine built by Henri Giffard.

… (1842) The brother of the Bronte sisters dies of drugs and drink: Bramwell Bronte was the model for the drunkard Hindley Earnshaw in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.

23^rd, (2000) Rower Steve Redgrave wins his fifth Olympic Gold medal in the coxless 4’s during the Sydney Olympics.

… (1991) ‘Third World pays to stay in debt’: The Third World Bank took more money from Third World countries than it gave them last year, according to the bank’s annual report, released today. Interest and capital repayments were $1.56 billion more than the bank paid in new loans and assistance. The African countries were net recipients, but the Caribbean and Latin America paid out $2 billion more than they received. The figures have brought bitter criticism from the poorer countries, which are anxious not to lose out as the bank shifts its focus to the needs of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

… (1987) Death of Bob Fosse, American dancer who became a director, and produced the autobiographical film All that Jazz, which he also choreographed.

… (1987) ‘British caught out by Spycatcher’: Spycatcher, the memoirs of former British intelligence officer Peter Wright, will be published in Australia in spite of top-level British efforts to have the book suppressed. MI5 man Wright retired to Australia 10 years ago. Last year a High Court judge banned British newspapers from publishing extracts from the book and the British government brought a court case against Wright in Australia – unsuccessfully. Britain appealed, and lost the appeal today. London’s Sunday Times is in court for contempt after publishing extracts from the book, many copies of which have been smuggled into Britain, and which is openly on sale in the US. Wright insists there is nothing new in his book.

… (1979) ‘Nuclear Testing denied by South Africans’: A special US satellite used for monitoring nuclear explosions today reported a brilliant double flash over the south Atlantic between South Africa and Antarctica. A South African Navy ship was seen in the area. US analysts said South Africa had exploded a clandestine nuclear bomb, but South Africa has denied the charge. The US Vela high-altitude satellites were built to detect nuclear detonations in the Earth’s atmosphere and in deep space: they can spot a nuclear blast 100 million miles away. Previously a US military satellite photographed installations hidden in the Kalahari Desert which the US associated with a nuclear test, and South Africa was forced to remove the structures. South Africa has operated a reactor near Pretoria since the mid-60s, and a nuclear power station is planned near Cape Town even though the country has huge coal reserves.

… (1974) The world’s first Ceefax teletext service begins on BBC television in Britain.

… (1942) Australian troops under US general Douglas MacArthur start an offensive in New Guinea to drive back the Japanese.

… (1940) The George Cross is instituted for civilian acts of courage.

… (1914) ‘Silent U-boats are new lethal weapon’: The German submarine U-9 has sunk three British cruisers off the Dutch coast, with 1500 lives lost. The war at sea started in earnest on August 28, when a British fleet raided the Helgoland Bight and sank four German ships. Today’s battle off Holland shows the new shape of sea warfare: powerful warships were helpless against the silent attack of one small submarine. The German fleet is outnumbered and blockaded in the North Sea, but the U-boats are not so easily stopped. German mines have claimed several British ships.

… (1870) The siege of Paris begins during the Franco-Prussian War.

… (1846) ‘Astronomers row over new planet’: Two German astronomers have discovered another planet, the eighth in distance from the Sun, about a billion miles beyond Uranus. Johann Galle and Heinrich d’Arrest of the Berlin Observatory were told just where to look by the young French astronomer Urbain Leverrier. He had concluded that the irregular orbit of Uranus could only be explained by the gravitational pull of another planet, and calculated its position to within one degree. The announcement has brought a protest from 24-year-old English astronomer John Adams, who claims he made the same prediction nine months ago, and the credit should be his. British scientists scoffed at his findings at the time. Further controversy surrounds a name for the new planet. Leverrier wants to call it “Leverrier”, but others favour Neptune.

… (1780) During the War of Independence, British agent John Andre, carrying information that Benedict Arnold is about to betray the revolution by surrendering West Point, is captured by the Americans.

…At bottom God is nothing more than an exalted father. [Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, who died today, 1939.]

22^nd, (1989) A powerful IRA bomb blasted the Royal Marines School of Music at Deal in Kent, England, this morning, killing 10 bandsmen and injuring 22. Twelve marines are in hospital. The IRA admitted responsibility. Britain is shocked by the attack: the men were musicians, not combatants.

… (1988) Two women crawl out of their grave in a village in South Sumatra, having been buried by robbers in the belief they were dead.

… (1986) The youngest heart and lung transplant patient. A two-and-a-half-month old baby, is given new organs at the Harefield Hospital, Middlesex.

… (1985) ‘Outrage in NZ as France admits to Rainbow bombs’: French prime minister Laurent Fabius today admitted that the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by French agents. A crew member was killed when the Greenpeace ship was rocked by two explosions in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, on July 10. She had been due to lead a flotilla of peace ships into the French nuclear test zone at Muroroa Atoll in French Polynesia in a protest action. The incident brought international condemnation. The French defence minister has resigned amid a storm of protest and demands for the head of the secret service to be sacked. In New Zealand, Labour PM David Lange’s anti-nuclear stance has gained wide support from the public indignation at the French action.

… (1983) The BBC sitcom Just Good Friends, starring Paul Nicholas and Jan Francis, first aired.

… (1980) The war between Iraq and Iran begins in the Gulf.

… (1980) ‘Poland’s workers found Solidarity union’: Polish workers today exercised the new freedom they have wrested from the Communist government and formed an independent labour union. The new Solidarity union’s leader, electrician Lech Walesa, led the Gdansk inter-factory committee which coordinated the massive shipyard strikes this summer. The wave of work stoppages forced the government to concede, allowing independent unions, freeing jailed dissenters and lifting press censorship. Party leader Edward Gierek has now been replaced by security chief Stanislaw Kania.

… (1972) Idi Amin gives the 80,000 Asians in Uganda 48 hours to leave the country.

… (1910) The Duke of York’s picture house in Brighton opened. It is the oldest cinema in continuous use in the UK.

… (1862) President Abraham Lincoln issues his Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in the South.

… (1860) China’s Emperor flees Peking as Anglo-French forces advance.

… (1828) ‘The Zulu Napoleon’: Shaka, King of the Zulus, was murdered today at Dukuza, his capital in Nepal, by his half-brothers Dingaan and Mhlangana. Dingaan has taken the throne. Shaka was a great and terrible king, a military genius who has been compared with Napoleon. The Zulu were a small clan when Shaka became their chief, but through bloody conquest he welded them into the mightiest nation in Southern Africa. Shaka abandoned the traditional light throwing spear and adopted a short, broad-bladed stabbing spear for his regiments, along with a tall shield of tough hide. Ardent disciplined warriors, his troops ran barefoot into battle, the flanks separating to attack from three sides. None could stand against them. Shaka’s revered mother, Nandi, died last year, and the grief-stricken king lost his mind. Thousands of Zulus have been executed for showing insufficient grief – Shaka ordered an entire regiment to march off a cliff to their deaths, and they did so to a man. Now the bloodbath has ended.

… (1792) The French Republic is proclaimed.

… (1735) Sir Robert Walpole occupies the new prime minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street, just five minutes’ walk from the Houses of Parliament.

…I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country. [Nathan Hale, hero of the American Revolution, in a speech before being hanged by the British as a spy, 1776.]

21^st, (2016) A study in journal Nature confirmed indigenous Australians are the oldest-known continuous civilisation on Earth.

… (1993) Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolves the Russian Parliament pending elections to a new legislative body.

… (1991) ‘Temperature rises as nations bicker’: The latest round in the negotiations to hammer out an international treaty on climate change and greenhouse gases ended in deadlock in Nairobi today, blocked by the US refusal to set targets for reducing carbon dioxide output. Europe pushed for targets, having agreed last December to stabilise its emissions output at 1990 levels by the year 2000 – but in Brussels that agreement is breaking down into further arguments about output levels. Japan wants promises without targets. Meanwhile a billion tons of carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere during the two weeks of talks, mostly from the industrial countries. Carbon dioxide levels are higher than ever before and are reliably predicted to force up global temperatures at unprecedented rates, with catastrophic effect.

… (1989) ‘Hurricane Hugo in a huff’: Hurricane Hugo, the worst storm this decade, his the US coast last night and left widespread destruction in South Carolina and Georgia. Charleston is badly damaged. Hugo’s 140 mph (225 kph) winds swept through the Caribbean, leaving death and chaos in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Virgin Islands – where riots and looting followed the storm. Whole towns are wrecked and many have been killed and injured.

… (1989) Divorcee Mary Sue Davis is awarded by a Tennessee judge temporary custody of seven frozen embryos which had been fertilised by her former husband, who had complained that he did not want to become a father against his will.

… (1981) Belize is granted independence.

… (1971) BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test began, hosted by “Whispering” Bob Harris.

… (1944) US general Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines, attacking the Japanese near Manila.

… (1915) Stonehenge was sold today for £6600 ($12, 210), bought with the surrounding fields by a local farmer. The finest and most elaborate of Europe’s prehistoric megaliths, the concentric circles of standing stones are a powerful mystery. The antiquarian William Stukeley said 150 years ago Stonehenge was a Druid temple, but it is now known that it was already ancient when the Druids arrived in England and dates back to before Christ. In 1136 Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote that the stones had magical healing powers. How they were transported also remains a mystery.

… (1903) The first recorded Western film opens in the US, titled Kit Carson – it is 21 minutes long.

… (1857) British forces retake Delhi from Indian mutineers.

… (1832) ‘Scott burns out as debts pile up’: Sir Walter Scott, the most popular writer in the world, has died in Edinburgh, his health ruined by overwork as he struggled to pay off his debts. He was 61. His novels had made Scott a wealthy man with a large home in the country, but six years ago a printing firm he had an interest in went bankrupt and Scott took on the debt. He worked ceaselessly, producing a large number of novels, and managed to clear his name. Last year, exhausted, he went on a Mediterranean cruise, but it tired him even more. He never recovered. Scott, a barrister and a poet, wrote his first novel in 1814, a historical romance called Waverley. Published anonymously, it was immensely popular. The Waverley series followed – ever popular with today’s fast-growing reading public.

… (1792) France abolishes the monarchy.

… (1745) The Battle of Prestonpans in Scotland is won by Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army, defeating the English.

…My God! This is a wonderful land and a faithless one; for she has exiled, slain, destroyed and ruined so many Kings, so many rulers, so many great men, and she is always diseased and suffering from differences, quarrels and hatred between her people. [Richard II, King of England, imprisoned in the Tower of London, 1399.]

20^th, (1997) Elton John’s Candle In The Wind, rewritten in memory of Princess Diana, started a five-week run at No. 1 in the UK.

… (1991) ‘Violence threatens South Africa’s peace accord’: South Africa’s hard-won peace accord has failed to stop the political violence that has caused hundreds of deaths this month. President F. W. de Klerk, ANC leader Nelson Mandela and the ANC’s archrival, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, head of the Zulu Inkatha movement, signed the “national peace accord” last Saturday after a week of violence that claimed 120 lives nationwide. It is hoped the agreement will be the basis of further negotiations on a new constitution. But the two most extreme black parties refused to sign, and the heavily armed far right-wing white groups refused even to attend. They have accused De Klerk of treachery and are threatening a new “Boer War”. The fighting in the black townships continues unabated.

… (1984) Forty die as a suicide bomber attacks the US Embassy in Beirut; the bomber drove into the compound with a lorry load of explosives.

… (1982) BBC began broadcasting Smiley’s People starring Sir Alec Guinness.

… (1975) David Bowie achieved his first U.S. No 1 with Fame.

… (1967) The Queen launched a new Cunard cruise liner named in her honour, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (or QE2).

… (1961) Rhodesian premier Ian Smith bans the black opposition party.

… (1961) Argentinean Antonio Albertondo begins the first non-stop swim across the Channel.

… (1959) America’s Disneyland turns down a visit by Soviet prime minister Nikita Khrushchev for security reasons.

… (1946) The first Cannes Film Festival opens.

… (1931) ‘Crisis-ridden Britain tries to stem gold rush’: Britain has abandoned the gold standard, devaluing the pound by almost a third. The government said the move was essential to halt foreign speculation in sterling and to prevent further gold withdrawals. Foreign banks lost confidence in the pound on Tuesday when 12,000 Royal Navy Sailors went on strike over a pay cut. The cut was part of an austere emergency package rushed through as Britain’s worst-ever economic crisis deepened. The Labour government collapsed last month, and was replaced by a national coalition. The crisis is causing great hardship, and both the government and a worried press are trying to soothe public discontent. Two weeks ago King George V took a voluntary pay cut – of £50,000 ($92,500) a year.

… (1928) In Rome the supreme legislative body, the Chamber of Deputies, is taken over by the Fascists.

… (1792) France’s untried army defeats the Duke of Brunswick’s, attacking Prussian troops at Walmy.

… (1580) ‘Drake bowls round world’: Francis Drake made landfall in Plymouth, England today, his ship laden with treasure and spices. Drake, the first captain to sail round the world, has captured tons of silver, gold, coins and jewels from Spanish galleons in the Americas. Spain has complained bitterly and wants Drake hanged for piracy, and Queen Elizabeth I has launched an inquiry. But Drake is a public hero – and Elizabeth herself backed his expedition. Drake set off three years ago with five small ships, but only his Golden Hind survived the treacherous Straits of Magellan to reach the Pacific.  His first prize was a Spanish treasure galleon and others followed. Drake landed at San Francisco Bay and claimed it for England, then crossed the Pacific to trade in the Spice Islands before setting course for home, via the Indian Ocean and the Cape of Good Hope.

… (1519) Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Seville in Spain with a fleet of five small ships in an attempt to circumnavigate the world.

19^th, (1994) US troops are sent to Haiti after months of negotiations and a mounting tide of refugees floods out of the Republic; the aim is to return the ousted President Aristide to power.

… (1985) ‘Earthquake wrecks Mexico City’: A massive earthquake devastated large parts of Mexico City and the surrounding area this morning and many thousands of people are feared killed. Thousands of buildings and homes have been destroyed. The earthquake, measuring 8.1 on the Richter scale, is the worst to hit Mexico this century. Amid fears of a second quake, a huge rescue operation is seeking out those trapped in the wreckage and providing relief for survivors.

… (1981) Simon and Garfunkel get back together after 11 years to play to an audience of 400,000 in New York’s Central Park.

… (1968) Death of Chester Carlson, American inventor of the Xerox photocopying system.

… (1957) The U.S. achieved the first fully contained underground detonation of a nuclear weapon, in a tunnel in Nevada.

… (1955) Juan Peron is ousted by a military junta in Argentina.

… (1952) Charlie Chaplin is dubbed “subversive” by right-wingers in the US.

… (1946) Winston Churchill called for the creation of a Council of Europe in a speech in Zurich, in which he said: “We must build a kind of United States of Europe.”

… (1945) Lord Haw-Haw is sentenced to hang for treason.

… (1905) Death of Thomas Barnardo, British doctor, philanthropist and founder of homes for destitute children.

… (1893) New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

… (1888) The world’s first beauty contest takes place in Belgium and is won by 18-year-old Bertha Soucaret from Guadeloupe, who collects the 5000-franc prize.

… (1881) Death of James Abram Garfield, 20^th US president, who was shot on July 2 having been in office just four months.

… (1876) American inventor Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.

… (1356) Led by the Black Prince, Edward, the English defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers.

18^th, (1988) The military seize power in Burma.

… (1981) Under President Mitterrand, France abolishes the guillotine.

… (1978) ‘Sadat peace agreement with Israel arouses Arab wrath’: President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Israel’s prime minister Menachem Begin reached a peace agreement today. Meeting at Camp David in the US under president Jimmy Carter’s sponsorship, they agreed that Israel will withdraw from the Sinai (but not yet from the other occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank), and Egypt will establish normal relations with Israel. The agreement is the culmination of Sadat’s peace mission to Jerusalem last year. But it has appalled Israeli hardliners, and Sadat’s Arab allies regard him as a traitor.

… (1977) Voyager I took the first photograph of the Earth and Moon in a single frame.

… (1967) Death of Sir John Cockcroft, English nuclear physicist who first split the atom.

… (1961) UN chief Dag Hammarskjold dies when a DC-6 plane carrying 130 other passengers crashes in the jungle in Northern Rhodesia – sabotage is suspected.

… (1955) Four years after they fled to Russia, the British government admits Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess really were Soviet spies.

… (1934) Britain hears Lord Haw-Haw (Irishman William Joyce) make a Nazi propaganda broadcast.

… (1914) The Irish Home Rule Bill is given Royal Assent.

… (1911) ‘Tsar’s PM gunned down’: Russian première Pyotr Stolypin died today after being shot down at the opera in Kiev last week by a police double agent. Emperor Nicholas II and his daughters saw the shooting from the royal box. It took a true statesman to hold down Stolypin’s job in the turmoil of today’s Russia, and he held it for six years. His predecessor only lasted a year. Stolypin even achieved something with his reforms, but his tactics were ruthless – he crushed dissent and simply ignored the constitution. Faced with a reluctant Tsar Nicholas, reactionary civil servants and the socialists in the Duma legislative assembly, nothing short of ruthlessness would have worked; but it won him few friends. Recently he fell out with the Tsar, his council of ministers and the Duma simultaneously. Now he has been removed.

… (1851) The first edition of the New York Times is published.

… (1759) French forces at Quebec surrender to the British.

… (96 AD) Roman Emperor Domitian is murdered by assassins in the pay of his wife, Domitilla.

17^th, (1991) ‘Hong Kong sees swings to liberals’: With six years left before China takes over Hong Kong, the British colony today held its first direct elections – and liberals swept the board. Seventeen of the 18 seats contested went to candidates who are strongly opposed to both the Hong Kong and Chinese governments. The outspoken United Democrats won 12 seats. Conservative business-backed candidates, who are pro-China, were left out in the cold. Less than a third of the seats in the legislature were elected: 21 seats were chosen by a small elite and the governor appointed the rest. But the liberal legislators are determined to have an impact.

… (1961) London’s biggest “Ban the Bomb” demonstration yet ended today with police battles and 830 demonstrators arrested – including actress Vanessa Redgrave, playwright John Osborne and the chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, Canon Collins. The trouble started when police tried to move thousands of demonstrators staging sit-down protests. Last week the philosopher Bertrand Russell, now 89, was jailed for incitement, during a CND demonstration.

… (1944) “Operation Market Garden” begins as British airborne forces land at Arnhem, Holland, aiming to secure a bridge over the Rhine to facilitate an invasion of Germany.

… (1941) Reza Pahlavi sacks his unpopular father and becomes Shah of Iran.

… (1931) Long-playing records are demonstrated in New York by RCA-Victor.

… (1908) ‘First air death as Orville Wright crashes’: A US army officer was killed today when Orville Wright’s flying machine broke a propeller in mid-air and plunged 150ft (46 m) to the ground. Wright was badly injured, but his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas W. Selfridge, was killed – the first passenger to die in an aircraft accident. Orville Wright made his first ever powered flight in 1903. The Signal Corps has asked him and his brother Wilbur to build a two-seater aircraft for the army, and Selfridge was on a test flight today.

… (1894) The first British musical on Broadway, A Gaiety Girl, opens at Daly’s Theatre, New York.

… (1877) William Henry Fox Talbot, British botanist and physicist who pioneered photographic techniques, dies aged 77.

… (1837) ‘Berlioz ups the decibel level’: The French composer Hector Berlioz has produced a tour-de-force at a premier performance in Paris. Most orchestras have about 60 players, but Berlioz’s mighty Requiem, commissioned by the government, used a 200-voice chorus, 110 violins, a swollen brass section and 16 timpani. With any other composer this would have been sheer excess, but Berlioz used the huge ensemble to the full. Once the audience had recovered from the overwhelming scale, they were captivated. Berlioz’s manipulation of each instrument capabilities is masterful, yet he cannot play a single instrument properly. He has been a central figure in French music since his innovative Symphonie Fantastique won acclaim in 1830.

… (1796) George Washington gives his farewell address as president of the USA.

… (1792) The Crown Jewels are stolen in Paris.

… (1787) ‘United States compose brand new Constitution’: George Washington, leader of the Philadelphia Convention, was today presented with a new Constitution for the United States of America. Thirty-nine delegates representing 12 of the 13 states (all but Rhode Island) signed the document after months of debate. The difficulty was to balance a strong central government with both democratic principles and adequate representation of the states. The result is mixed government: representatives in the lower house will be elected by popular vote, the states will have equal representation in the upper house and each state will decide how to choose its presidential electors. The public has its say in the ratification of the new Constitution by the states as the supreme law of the land. The constitution’s lack of a bill of rights is already being criticised. The Convention’s Federalists say no such bill is needed, but the Anti-Federalist faction strongly disagrees.

… (1701) Death of King James II of England.

16^th, (1992) Today Britain withdrew from the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), despite vigorous assertions by the Conservative government of the importance of membership to its anti-inflation strategy. The market’s doubts about the credibility of the ERM have at last overwhelmed the Treasury.

… (1989) Classic horse race, the St Leger at Doncaster, was abandoned when officials declared the course unsafe.

… (1987) ‘Treaty to save the ozone layer’: Seventy countries signed an agreement in Montreal today to curb the threat from industrial gases to the ozone layer. The upper atmosphere’s layer of ozone, a form of oxygen, absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun that would harm all life if it reached the Earth’s surface. Three years ago a seasonal “hole” in the layer was discovered over Antarctica, thought to be caused by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), gases used in aerosols and as refrigerants. CFC use will be frozen at current levels and reduced by half within 12 years.

… (1968) The ‘two-tier’ postal system was introduced in Britain: first and second class.

… (1963) Malaysia gained independence. A mob celebrated by burning down the British embassy.

… (1959) Charles de Gaulle, French President of the new Fifth Republic and former head of the committee of National Liberation in Algiers, offers Algeria a referendum on independence.

… (1953) The wife of former British Foreign Office official and Soviet spy Donald Maclean disappears, two years after her husband fled to Russia with Guy Burgess.

… (1946) ‘Have a Go’ began on the Light Programme, with Wilfred Pickles and his wife as Mabel at the Table. Pickles started each programme by saying: “How do, ‘Ow are yer?”

… (1945) John McCormack, lyrical Irish tenor, died in Dublin. “I have hung up my harp, all my songs are sung,” he wrote just before he died.

… (1908) The American car firms Buick and Oldsmobile merged to form General Motors.

… (1861) The Post Office Savings Bank was instituted.

… (1824) Death of King Louis XVIII of France, whose attempts to be a moderate constitutional monarch were thwarted by the ultra-royalists.

… (1620) The 101 Pilgrim Fathers set sail in the Mayflower, captained by Myles Standish. The group, mostly Puritan separatists and from uneducated farming backgrounds, set sail from Plymouth bound for the New World in pursuit of religious freedom. The same group had fled to Holland in 1608 to escape King Charles I’s religious oppression. They settled in Leyden, free to follow their beliefs, but they were poor, and could not adapt to Dutch society. Church elder William Brewster went to London and found a sponsor for the voyage to America in Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the Virginia Company. Sandys arranged a plantation grant and financing through London merchants hoping to profit from the venture. Another elder, John Carver, chartered the 180-ton Mayflower at Southampton. Brewster and William Bradford sailed from Leyden for Southampton with 35 other “Pilgrims” in the Speedwell, and the two ships set off twice before they abandoned the leaking Speedwell the third time and crowded onto the Mayflower, which sailed today with 101 passengers.

… (1498) Death of Tomas de Torquemada, principal architect of the Spanish Inquisition.

15^th, (1988) The Museum of the Moving Image, devoted entirely to the history of cinema and television, opened today on London’s South Bank. The world’s largest film museum, it is packed with exhibits such as cameras, costumes, props and relics from film sets, plus various gadgets including a self-recording video for visitors to use. It forms part of the South Bank complex of theatres and galleries.

… (1978) A Bulgarian defector has died in hospital in London four days after being stabbed with a poisoned umbrella tip. Georgi Markov was a broadcaster on the BBC’s Foreign Service. He was standing at a bus stop on Tuesday evening when he was jabbed in the leg from behind. He never saw his assailant. Later he collapsed in a coma and did not recover consciousness.

… (1975) Civil war begins in Beirut between the Christians and Muslims.

… (1972) ‘Watergate burglars are Nixon aides’: Seven men were indicted in Washington today in connection with the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington on June 17. They were charged with burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping. Five of the seven were arrested at the scene, attempting to install secret bugging devices. They were all members of the Republican committee to re-elect president Richard Nixon. The other two men were former White House aides Howard Hunt and Gordon Liddy, members of the same committee. A party spokesman said there was nothing to indicate any others were involved in the plot to bug the Democrat office.

… (1971) Activists set sail off Alaska to stop the U.S. testing a nuclear bomb – leading to the formation of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace.

… (1966) Britain’s first nuclear submarine, HMS Resolution, was launched by the Queen Mother.

… (1959) Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the U.S.

… (1935) ‘Hitler declares Jews “sub-human”’: Germany’s persecuted Jews have now lost virtually all their rights. At a huge Nazi rally in Nuremberg today, the German Führer, Adolf Hitler, announced new decrees which relegate Jews to untermensch sub-human) status. The Jews lose their German citizenship, they may not marry Aryans, are excluded from employment in the civil service, the media, entertainment and education and lose their pension rights. “Jews Not Wanted” signs are appearing in public places all over Germany. Jewish children are excluded from schools, Jewish businesses are boycotted and Jews are constantly in danger of abuse and open violence, with no recourse to justice.

… (1928) The first robot to be made in Britain is demonstrated at the Model Engineering Exhibition in London by inventors Captain Rickards and A.H. Renfell.

… (1917) Russia Socialist Revolutionary Party prime minister Aleksandr Kerenski proclaims Russia a republic.

… (1916) ‘Warships with wheels launched into war’: Thirty-two massive steel “landships” lumbered into action on the Somme today, rolling over the German trenches and apparently impervious to the German machinegun-fire. Two hours later the British and Canadian infantry had advanced 7 miles (11 km) and taken thousands of prisoners. The fearsome new weapon, codenamed the Tank, is the brainchild of Winston Churchill, Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty. Bristling with guns, the armour-plated monsters weigh nearly 30 tons and run at 4 mph (6.5 kph) on rolling steel tracks. It takes four men to steer them. Hundreds of tanks are being built in Britain.

… (1871) The Army and Navy cooperative begins the first mail order service to meet the needs of its members in Britain and abroad.

… (1859) Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, probably the greatest British engineer.

… (1830) ‘Rocket tragedy’: William Huskisson, British MP and former cabinet minister, today became the first person to be killed by a train. Huskisson, head of the Board of Trade, fell under the wheels of George Stevenson’s “Rocket” steam engine as it departed on the inaugural run of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. He was crossing the track to greet the prime minister, the Duke of Wellington, who opened the new passenger line.

… (1821) San Salvador declares its independence.

… (1588) Final humiliation of the Spanish Armada, whose remnants return to Spanish harbours after defeat by the English.

… (1321) ‘Dante joins his Beatrice’: The Italian poet Dante Alighieri died in Ravenna after 20 years exiled by papists from his native Florence. He was 56. Dante had only just finished his masterpiece, La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy), after 14 years’ work. It is a 14,000-line fable of a journey through hell, purgatory, and finally paradise where, led by his beloved Beatrice, the poet glimpses God’s heaven. A subtle allegory of religion, politics and life, the Commedia is being hailed as the greatest contemporary poem. In a sense it is dedicated to Beatrice Polinari, a Florentine Dante met twice and loved all his life.

14^th, (2022) The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II was taken from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster, where her lying in state began.

… (1988) On route to Sydney, a six-man expedition arrives in New Delhi in a London Taxi; its meter is running at London rates and shows a fare of £13,200 ($24,300).

… (1975) Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, canonised by Pope Paul VI, becomes the first American saint.

… (1964) The Kinks were enjoying their first number one – You Really Got Me.

… (1962) Distillers Company agrees to pay £14 million ($26 million) compensation to thalidomide victims.

… (1962) Actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis divorced after a decade of marriage.

… (1960) The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is created by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

… (1959) Man reached out and made contact with the moon today. Lunik II, a Soviet spacecraft, crash-landed on the moon after a two-day journey. It sent back a stream of scientific data during the trip. The Soviets are preparing a further space shot, Lunik III, set to fly round the moon and photograph the “dark side” which no man has yet seen.

… (1901) Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26^th and youngest president of the US at the age of 43.

… (1868) The first recorded hole-in-one is scored by Scottish golfer Tom Morris during the Open Championships at Prestwick.

… (1851) Death of the Duke of Wellington, the English commander who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and later became British prime minister.

… (1803) British General Lake captures Delhi in India.

… (1791) Louis XVI swears allegiance to the French constitution.

… (1759) The earliest dated board game. A Journey through Europe, or The Play of Geography, invented by John Jeffries, is sold by him at his London home.

… (1741) Composer Frideric Handel completed his Messiah oratorio, 23 days after he had started it.

13^th, (2001) Osama bin Laden was named as the prime suspect in the 9/11 terror attacks.

… (1996) U.S. rapper Tupac Shakur and ex-boyfriend of Madonna was shot dead.

… (1993) In an historic ceremony on the lawn of the White House, Israeli premier Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yassir Arafat have signed a peace accord after months of secret negotiations. President Clinton was there to host the ceremony, which was attended by 3,000 dignitaries. The agreement makes provision for a transition to complete Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The accord, however, has many dissenters.

… (1989) A Britsh banking computer error gives customers £2 billion ($3.7 billion) in just half an hour.

… (1989) South Africa’s biggest anti-apartheid demonstration in 30 years took place today in Cape Town. Twenty thousand people of all races marched to the City Hall in protest against the police killings of 23 protesters during the whites-only election last week.

…People think we do not understand our black and coloured countrymen. But there is a special relationship between us. [Elize Botha, wife of South African president P.W. Botha, 1988.]

… (1985) ‘AIDS is global’: The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced in Geneva today that AIDS is now a worldwide epidemic. While virtually every major drugs company has joined the race to find an effective treatment, the WHO is coordinating a global AIDS prevention and education effort. But many traditional societies that are now affected have strong taboos against the open discussion needed, and even Western societies resist the implications.

… (1971) ‘Mystery crash leaves Chinese puzzle unsolved’: Peking is buzzing with speculation today following an official announcement that the man Chairman Mao Tse-tung named as his successor, People’s Liberation Army chief Lin Piao, has been killed in a plane crash – while fleeing to the Soviet Union. The announcement said Lin had been plotting to assassinate Mao and take power. Lin was the master tactician whose victory over Chiang Kai-shek’s US-backed Nationalists in 1949 made way for communism in China. He was Mao’s closet ally, and it was only through Lin’s support that Mao was able to quell the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution which had removed Mao’s chief rivals: all except Lin Piao, perhaps. The truth may never be known.

… (1970) In Mexico for the World Cup, England football captain Bobby Moore is accused of stealing a diamond bracelet from a shop.

… (1963) The Beatles were enjoying their second number one with She Loves You.

… (1958) Cliff Richard made his TV debut on ‘Oh Boy!’, performing Move It (having already been ordered by the show’s producer to remove his sideburns).

… (1957) The 1998^th performance of The Mousetrap makes it Britain’s longest-running play.

… (1955) Little Richard records a sanitised version of “Tutti Frutti” in Los Angeles.

… (1907) The British liner Lusitania arrives in New York at the end of her maiden voyage, having made the journey in a record five days, averaging 23 knots.

… (1806) English statesman Charles James Fox is taken ill and dies at home in London, just as he was about to introduce a bill abolishing slavery.

… (1788) New York becomes the federal capital of the United States.

… (1759) ‘Wolfe scales new heights’: A British expedition today defeated the French forces at Quebec. James Wolfe, the young general who led the attack, was killed in the battle – but he lived long enough to hear that he had won. The French commander, the Marquis de Montcalm, was fatally wounded. Wolfe led 5000 men up the St Lawrence River, intending to meet up with General Amherst’s land forces, but Amherst did not arrive and Wolfe continued alone. He laid siege to Quebec in May, but was unable to break the French resistance until today, when he and his men scaled the cliffs behind Quebec and surprised the French on the Plains of Abraham. Wolfe has died a hero – Quebec is the key prize in the French and Indian war, now in its third year.

…I would rather have written those lines [Gray’s Elegy] than take Quebec. [James Wolfe, the night before storming Quebec, 1759.]

… (1598) ‘Philip’s Golden Reign Tarnished’: The world’s most powerful ruler, the Habsburg king Philip II of Spain, died today at 71. His 40-year-reign was a golden age for Spain, funded by the conquistadors’ plunder of Latin America – and squandered in a succession of wars in Europe. Following the crushing defeat of Spain’s “invincible Armada” by the English 10 years ago, beset by the Dutch revolt and the struggle with the Turks in the east, Philip’s vast empire is close to economic ruin. Philip was a devout Roman Catholic and an austere but just ruler, well loved by his people. His fourth wife’s fourth son, Philip III, is now Spain’s new king.

… (1592) Death of Michel de Montaigne, French essayist and diarist.

12^th, (2014) Former DUP leader and Northern Ireland first minister Ian Paisley died.

… (2003) Country music legend Johnny Cash died, aged 71.

… (1987) American jockey Steve Cauthen wins the St Leger on Reference Point, setting a new record for trainer Henry Cecil of 147 wins in a season.

… (1977) ‘Police brutalise Biko’: The South African Black Consciousness activist Steve Biko has died after six days in police detention. There is little doubt that he was beaten to death and the news has sparked international outrage. Biko, 30, is the latest in a long line of deaths in custody. He was detained under Emergency powers in Port Elizabeth and interrogated for five days. Guards found him unconscious in his cell yesterday, foaming at the mouth, and he was then driven 750 miles (1207 km) to Pretoria, naked and handcuffed, to die in a prison hospital.

… (1974) Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is deposed by a military coup.

… (1972) Death of American actor William Boyd, internationally famous from 1934 as cowboy hero Hopalong Cassidy.

… (1970) ‘Hijackers blow up three jets’: Palestinian hijackers holding three Western airliners and more than 300 passengers hostage at a desert airfield in Jordan blew up the three aircraft today. The terrorists freed 250 hostages before destroying the jets but are still holding another 56 passengers and reiterating their demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners. The drama began on Monday when the terrorists seized a Pan-American Jumbo, a Swissair DC8 and a TWA Boeing 707 in Europe, forcing the Jumbo to fly to Cairo and the other two to Jordan. The negotiations continue.

… (1970) Smokey Robinson and The Miracles were at UK No 1, with The Tears Of A Clown – co-written by Stevie Wonder.

… (1953) Nikita Khrushchev is elected first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.

… (1936) British tennis champion Fred Perry beats Donald Budge in the final of the US Tennis championships to become the first non-American winner.

… (1935) American millionaire Howard Hughes achieves an aviation record, flying an aeroplane of his own design at 352.46 mph (564 kph).

… (1910) The world’s first policewoman is appointed by the Los Angeles Police Department: Mrs Alice Stebbin Wells was a social worker in her previous career.

… (1908) Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier in Westminster.

… (1878) Cleopatra’s Needle, the obelisk of Thothimes III, is erected on London’s Thames Embankment.

… (1860) ‘Fortune runs out for American chancer’: William Walker, American filibuster and ex-president of Nicaragua, was shot today by a firing squad in the Honduras. Walker, 36, a failed lawyer turned soldier of fortune, landed in the Honduras last month on yet another military escapade, but he was captured by government forces, court-martialled and sentenced to death. Three years ago, backed by Cornelius Vanderbilt and other US businessmen, Walker took advantage of a civil war in Nicaragua to seize control with a force of only 250 men. He set himself up as dictator and won US recognition, but he argued with his business backers, who had him overthrown and expelled after only a year in power. Today Walker’s dreams of heading a united Central America ended.

… (1733) Death of French musician Francois Couperin, who taught and composed for the harpsichord.

… (1683) ‘Relief waltzes in to save Vienna’: The two-month siege of Vienna ended today when the Turkish Ottoman army surrounding the city was routed by a European relief force. Grand vizier Kara Mustafa had led his army on a feint into Hungary and then turned towards Vienna, long the main Christian bastion against Muslim Ottoman expansion. Vienna’s cannon kept the Turks at bay, but the city was weakening when Poland’s King John III and Charles, Duke of Normandy’s relief expedition arrived. Poor tactics cost Mustafa the battle, opening the way for a Christian attack on the Ottoman Empire. The Sultan has ordered Kara Mustafa to commit suicide.

…The most potent weapon in the hands of the aggressor is the mind of the oppressed. [Steve Biko, founder of South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement, 1971.]

11^th, (2003) Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh is murdered.

… (2001) ‘America Under Siege’: The United States has become the victim of the worst terrorist attack ever launched. A hijacked American Airlines Boeing 767 has crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre, killing all passengers on board, and causing an enormous explosion. Fifteen minutes later, a second hijacked plane crashed into the South Tower. A third plane was flown at the Pentagon in Washington and a forth crashed in Pennsylvania after the hijackers were overpowered. Both towers of the World Trade Centre later collapsed and the number of dead has been estimated at 3,000. No one has claimed responsibility, but many believe it is the work of al-Qaeda.

… (1991) ‘Saudi front man takes BCCI rap’: The US Federal Reserve has seized the US assets of a Saudi Arabian financier and fined him $37 million (£20 million). Ghaith Pharaon was the US front man for the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, which was seized by international regulators in July amid allegations of widespread fraud. Forty BCCI officials were arrested in Abu Dhabi at the weekend. The bank was 70 per cent owned by the Gulf state. Last week a US grand jury issued indictments against six BCCI officials following investigations into drug money laundering. A congressional report said the US government had information on BCCI corruption in the mid-1980s, and in London a judicial inquiry has been told that both the Bank of England and the Chancellor were warned about BCCI as early as 1986, but failed to act.

… (1987) Pete Tosh, Jamaican reggae star and former member of the Wailers, is shot dead by three robbers who burst into his home.

… (1987) Four men are arrested and charged with intending to steal a £25,000 ($46,000) dolphin from the Marineland Oceanarium in Morecambe, Lancashire.

… (1978) British medical photographer Janet Parker became the last recorded person to die from smallpox, aged 40. She had contracted the disease while working in a laboratory at Birmingham Medical School.

… (1971) Former Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev dies in obscurity.

… (1950) Death of Jan Smuts, the Boer guerrilla leader who became a British field marshal and a world statesman.

… (1948) Death of Mahammad Ali Jinnah, first governor of Pakistan.

… (1944) ‘Nazis flee as US enters Germany’: With the Nazis in retreat throughout Europe, the first Allied forces entered Germany today when the US First Army under General Omar Bradley crossed the German border at Eupen. Bradley’s forces were with the Free French soldiers who liberated Paris on August 25. Last week British and US troops freed Brussels and Liege in Belgium and advanced on the Siegfried Line, Germany’s main defence. The Line is under heavy US assault in the south near Nancy, the lynchpin in Adolf Hitler’s southern defences. German soldiers are fleeing en masse, with large numbers surrendering and reports of widespread desertions.

… (1942) Enid Blyton published Five On A Treasure Island, the first of her Famous Five novels, sparking one of the best-selling children’s series ever.

… (1915) The first British Women’s Institute is opened in Wales.

… (1841) The Brighton-London commuter express train begins a regular service, taking just 105 minutes.

… (1777) English forces under General Howe defeat George Washington’s troops at The Battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of Independence.

… (1773) U.S. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote: “There never was a good war or bad peace.”

… (1649) ‘Cromwell soaks Ireland in blood’: Oliver Cromwell today had 1500 Irish rebels put to the sword to prevent further bloodshed. When the city of Drogheda rejected his offer to surrender, Cromwell’s Roundhead troops sacked the city. The Puritan English Commonwealth’s military chief is leaving a welter of blood and destruction in his wake. Ireland has been in turmoil since the insurrection of 1641. The English Civil War left Parliament on a weak footing there, with the Royalist Marquis of Ormond controlling most Irish fortresses. He rebelled, claiming the exiled Charles II as king. Cromwell landed near Dublin with 16,000 troops, and his terror tactics have turned the tables. Today’s massacre has left the remaining Royalist strongholds anxious to surrender.

…People of the same trade seldom meet together but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some diversion to raise prices. [Adam Smith, Scottish economist, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776.]

10^th, (1989) ‘East Germans stream west’: East German refugees flooded through Austria to West Germany today as Hungary lifted restrictions on its border with the West. The Hungarians started to dismantle the barbed wire “Iron Curtain” on their Austrian border in May, and East Germans saw it as an avenue to freedom, sidestepping the hated Berlin Wall. Allowed to travel within the communist bloc, more than 50,000 went “on holiday” through Czechoslovakia to Hungary, where many have been waiting in refugee camps. Abandoning the deadlocked negotiations with East and West Germany, Hungary today opened its borders to all East German citizens. The East German government has condemned Hungary’s “treachery”.

… (1988) ‘Wham Slam Danke Mam’: Steffi Graf, the 19-year-old West German tennis star, was today the third woman in history to win the Grand Slam – the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US open singles titles in the same year. Graf beat Gabriela Sabatini 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to win the US Open. Last year she won 11 of her 13 tournaments, 75 of 77 matches and the French Open. This year she lost only one set in the entire Grand Slam – the second set against Sabatini today.

… (1983) Death of Balthazar Johannes Vorster, former prime minister of South Africa who was interned during World War Two as a pro-Nazi leader.

… (1981) Guernica, Pablo Picasso’s picture of pain, returned to Spain today after four decades in exile in New York. Guernica is Picasso’s vision of the appalling destruction of the Basque capital by German bombers in 1937 during the Spanish civil war. The Spanish artist painted it at once and, later that year, it defiantly exhibited in Paris to counter a Nazi exhibition in Germany of Expressionist painters, titled “Degenerate Art”. In 1940 Picasso sent the painting to New York for safekeeping during the war, and later refused to allow it to be shown in Spain until General Franco’s Fascist rule ended and democracy was restored. Picasso died before that happened, in 1973. Today his masterpiece took its rightful place in the Prado Museum in Madrid, a memorial to both artist and subject for free Spain to treasure. Guernica’s wailing mother with the dead child, the crawling woman, the screaming horse, all are shorn of all abilities but one, the ability to suffer pain. The most famous painting of the century, for millions Guernica condemns all war.

… (1979) The Lancaster House conference on the future of Rhodesia opens.

… (1965) Yale University publishes a map showing that the Vikings discovered America in the 11^th century.

… (1962) Australian Rod Laver completes the Grand Slam after winning the US Tennis Championships.

… (1956) Record shops are inundated with requests for “Love Me Tender” following Elvis Presley’s first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on American television on September 9.

… (1952) West Germany offers Israel £293 million ($540 million) in compensation for Nazi atrocities.

… (1945) Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling, premier of Norway during World War Two, is sentenced to death.

… (1920) ‘Congress backs Mahatma Gandhi’: The Indian National Congress voted today to adopt Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign of non-cooperation with the British colonial government. “Non-cooperation is our only weapon,” he said, and promised the campaign would lead to victory within a year. He has managed to unite the rival Hindu and Muslim parties in protest.

… (1919) The allies sign the Treaty of Saint Germaine with Austria at the Paris Peace conference.

… (1897) London taxi driver George Smith became the first person in Britain charged and convicted of drink-driving after smashing into 165 New Bond Street at about 8 mph. He was fined 20 shillings.

… (1894) London taxi driver George Smith is the first person to be convicted for drunken driving while in charge of an electric cab. He is fined 20s (£1/$1.80).

… (1855) ‘Bungle Warfare at Sevastopol’: The Russian Black Sea naval base at Sevastopol finally fell to the British and French armies today after an 11-month siege. The campaign was fraught with bungles on both sides. The Allies could not even decide where to fight the war. When their armies eventually arrived at Sevastopol the Russians had not built proper defences and the Allies could have captured the fortress without a siege. But the British and French commanders argued over tactics and the opportunity was lost. The long siege took a high toll. British troops suffered the winter without proper cover, and more soldiers died of disease than bullets.

…It would have been better if the experiment had been conducted in some small country to make it clear that it was a utopian idea, although a beautiful idea. [Boris Yeltsin, Russian president, on communism, 1991.]

9^th, (1991) ‘Israeli whizkid hacked Pentagon secrets’: While Israelis sheltered from attacks by Iraqi Scud missiles during the Gulf War, a teenage computer wizard hacked into the Pentagon computers to find out how the top secret Patriot anti-missiles protecting Israel worked. When he tired of browsing military secrets he turned to the Visa credit card computer, finding his way into the customer files. He provided details to an international network of teenage hackers, who promptly went on a spending spree at Visa’s expense. Six of them were arrested in the US and Canada, and named 18-year-old Deri Schriebman of Israel as the source. Today he showed awed detectives how he did it, as well as how to make free long-distance telephone calls. “He’s the most talented hacker we’ve ever seen,” the police experts said.

… (1978) Eighteen-year-old Czech tennis player Martina Navratilova defects to the West and asks the US for political asylum.

… (1976) ‘Chairman unseated’: Mao Tse-tung has died after a series of strokes. He was 82. Chairman Mao was revered by 800 million Chinese whose lives he changed forever. In 1949 Mao’s Communist guerrilla army overthrew Chiang Kai-shek’s US-backed Nationalists and established the People’s Republic of China. Mao, the “Great Helmsman”, charted the way forward, and today China’s “starving millions” are history: the Chinese are universally fed, housed, educated, employed and kept healthy; there is little crime, and not nearly as much oppression as westerners believe. Political ferment continues, but then Mao saw revolution as an ongoing process.

… (1971) British reporter Geoffrey Jackson is released after eight months by the Tupamaros, his kidnappers in Uruguay.

… (1963) Twenty-seven-year-old Jim Clark from Scotland is the world’s youngest motor racing champion, driving Colin Campbell’s Lotus.

… (1958) ‘Race stirs riots in London’: Notting Hill in north London has been torn by three nights of race riots, with serious injuries and more than 150 arrests. The fighting was provoked by whites – police say extreme right-wing activists were at work. It started when white youths beat up five blacks, leading to petrol bombings and street battles between gangs of up to 2000. Meanwhile in Nottingham a television director was accused of starting a race riot by reconstructing a previous clash between black and white youths. The mock fight exploded into battle. A magistrate today jailed five rioters – and condemned the media.

… (1948) North Korea proclaims its independence.

… (1911) The first airmail service in Britain begins, operating between Hendon and Windsor.

… (1901) ‘Stunted artist felled by low life he painted’: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Post-Imperialist artist and chronicler of Paris low-life, died today following a paralytic stroke brought on by syphilis and alcoholism. He was 36. Toulouse-Lautrec was a master draftsman and observer. Born an aristocrat, he smashed both thighs in a fall from a horse when he was 14, and bone disease left him horribly stunted. The young Toulouse-Lautrec haunted the Montmartre red-light district in Paris and produced stylish Art Nouveau posters for nightclubs and performers, and charming, if cynical, paintings of his friends the Montmartre prostitutes.

… (1835) The British Municipal Corporation Act reforms urban government, bringing about a system of local government.

… (1583) English explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert drowns on his return to England together with the entire crew of the frigate Squirrel, which sank off the Azores.

… (1513) King James IV, King of Scotland, dies at the Battle of Flodden Field, defeated by English troops.

…Mao always wanted to tour America. [Edgar Snow, US journalist and chronicler of communist China, 1979.]

8^th, (2022) Queen Elizabeth II died, aged 96, at Balmoral Castle, Aberdeenshire.

… (2002) Pete Sampras wins a record 14^th Grand Slam title at the US Open, Flushing Meadow.

… (1990) Northern and Southern Korean delegates meet on the border for the first talks in 45 years.

… (1979) American actress Jean Seberg commits suicide after being harassed and smeared by the FBI for supporting the Black Panthers.

… (1974) US President Gerald R. Ford pardons Richard Nixon for his part in the Watergate affair.

… (1968) Britain’s Virginia Wade beats Billie Jean King to win the first US Open Tennis Championships.

… (1960) ‘Penguin charged for Lady Chatterley’: A bid by Penguin Books to publish D. H. Lawrence’s notorious novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover has brought the publishers a charge of public obscenity. Penguin will stand trial at London’s Old Bailey next month. The book was first published privately in Italy in 1928. Lord Chatterley, an industrialised paralysed below the waist in the war, symbolises the impotence of the upper classes; his wife Constance seeks solace in the arms of Mellors, His Lordship’s gamekeeper. The prosecution says it contains 13 sexually explicit episodes with heavy use of certain Anglo-Saxon terms. Penguin, however, argue differently, saying the book is great art.

…The pictorial account of the day-to-day life of an English gamekeeper is full of considerable interest to outdoor-minded readers. Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous material. In this reviewer’s opinion the book cannot take the place of J. R. Miller’s Practical Gamekeeping. [Field and Stream, journal of British country life, reviewing D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 1961.]

… (1954) Death of Andre Derain, French Post-Impressionist painter.

… (1945) U.S. troops arrive in Korea to partition it into North and South.

… (1944) ‘V-2 hurls terror at London’: A new German terror weapon struck at London today, adding to the havoc caused by the swarms of V-1 flying bombs thrown at the city since June. The 400-mph (644 kph) V-1 falls after the engine stops – “If you can still hear it, you’re safe,” the saying goes. But the new V-2 weapon, a long-range rocket carrying a ton of high explosive, travels faster than sound and plunges out of the sky without warning. The first of them hit Chiswick today with a blast heard for miles, and killed three people. The rockets can be fired from anywhere. Up to 150 V-1s a day have hit London and thousands have been killed. For the second time in the war, London’s children have been evacuated. The Germans are thought to have fewer V-2s, but their sudden devastation vastly increases the unnerving effect of the terror campaign.

… (1943) ‘Italy’s White Flag’: Italy has surrendered to the Allies, according to an announcement today by US commander General D. Dwight Eisenhower. Marshall Pietro Badoglio, Italian prime minister since the Fascist dictator Mussolini’s fall in July, signed the surrender at a secret meeting four days ago. Mussolini’s power faltered when the Allies invaded Sicily, and King Victor Emmanuel deposed him. The Allies landed in Italy opposite Messina last week and further landings are underway. Eisenhower today appealed to Italians to oppose the German forces. Meanwhile Mussolini is believed to be in prison somewhere in Italy.

… (1916) US President Woodrow Wilson promises women the vote.

… (1900) More than 5,000 lives are lost when a hurricane strikes the city of Galveston in Texas, USA.

… (1888) The first English Football League matches are played.

… (1886) Thousands flock to Witwatersrand in South Africa as public gold digging is permitted.

… (1760) ‘Montreal Gives In’: The French forces at Montreal surrendered the city to British General Jeffrey Amherst today, completing the British conquest of Canada. The British victory ends 70 years of repeated conflict during which the American colonies were caught up in Europe’s wars. Britain declared war on France in 1756 as part of the Seven Years’ War in Europe, and suffered a series of defeats in America until General Amherst’s forces overwhelmed the French fortress at Louisburg in 1758. General Amherst went on to conquer Ticonderoga and Crown Point, opening the way to Montreal. General James Wolfe then defeated the French garrison at Quebec, with both General Wolfe and the French commander-in-chief the Marquis de Montcalm dying in the battle. Today General Amherst attacked Montreal from three directions, quickly forcing the French to surrender.

… (1504) ‘Michelangelo’s David faces modern Goliaths’: Florence unveiled a magnificent symbol of its independence from its powerful neighbours today. The 29-year-old Florentine sculptor Michelangelo Buonarotti allowed nobody to see his enormous 13-ft (4 m) marble statue, which has taken him three years to carve, until it was unveiled. It is a wonderful figure of David, standing relaxed, his sling over his shoulder, about to face Goliath in battle. The statue was to have adorned the façade of the Cathedral of Florence, which commissioned it, but Michelangelo and the grand council of the new Florentine republic have placed it instead at the main entrance to the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of the city’s government, where its message is clear.

7^th, (1986) ‘Tutu is Archbishop’: Bishop Desmond Tutu, the black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, was today enthroned as Archbishop of Cape Town, the leader of two million South African Anglicans. He is the church’s first black leader. Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his opposition to South Africa’s racist apartheid regime. He has condemned the state of emergency imposed in June to suppress the uprising in the black townships, and defies the emergency laws in calling for economic sanctions against South Africa and for foreign investors to leave. Last month the US Senate voted for sanctions; British PM Margaret Thatcher wants voluntary sanctions by Commonwealth states.

…The chances of peaceful change in South Africa are virtually nil. [Bishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, 1985.]

… (1981) Death of Christy Brown, severely handicapped Irish author of the autobiographical Down All our Days.

… (1978) While walking over Waterloo Bridge, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was stabbed with an umbrella that fired a ricin pellet into his skin. He died four days later.

… (1940) Romania returns southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.

… (1940) ‘The bombs rain down on London’: Hundreds of German bombers raided London today in waves that continued well into the night. Parts of the Docks and the East End are ablaze. However, the Air Ministry reported tonight that the Luftwaffe los nearly 100 planes in the raid and the RAF only 22, and the city weathered the blitz with commendable courage. Every day that the battle for Britain’s skies rages on means another day to strengthen the ill-equipped troops defending the coast against the expected Nazi invasion.

…This is the historic hour when our air force delivers its blows right into the enemy’s heart. [Hermann Goering, Nazi field marshal, unleashing the Luftwaffe bombers on British cities, 1940.]

… (1923) The International Criminal Police Commission, now Interpol, was formed.

… (1910) Polish chemist Marie Curie announces she has isolated pure radium.

… (1910) Death of William Holman Hunt, English Pre-Raphaelite painter.

… (1909) Eugene Lefebvre became the first person to die while piloting a powered airplane – at Juvisy, northern France.

… (1901) The Boxer Rising in China ends with the signing of the Peace of Peking.

… (1848) The Vienna assembly abolishes serfdom.

… (1838) During a storm at sea, Grace Darling, a lighthouse-keeper’s daughter, rows a mile in a small boat to rescue four men and a woman from the small steamship Forfarshire which had struck rocks near the Longstone Lighthouse, Northumberland.

… (1812) Marching to Moscow, Napoleon’s forces defeat the Russians at the Battle of Borodino, 70 miles (112 km) west of the city.

… (1571) ‘Christian Navies Pummel Ottomans’: The Turkish Ottoman fleet was routed today by the combined Christian navies at Lepanto off the coast of Greece, and Ottoman domination of the Mediterranean is weakening. The Muslim Turks lost 230 galleys, the Christians 17. Turkish commander Ali Pasha was killed and his head presented to Don John of Austria, commander of the navies of Spain, Venice and Rome. This is the first real Christian victory over the mighty Ottoman Empire.  The Christian princes combined forces when Sultan Selim II invaded Christian Cyprus, taking Famagusta. Today the opposing lines of galleys confronted one another. Fighting across the decks followed, and after two hours the mauled Turks withdrew. But they have not withdrawn from Cyprus.

6^th, (2018) India’s supreme court unanimously ruled to decriminalise homosexual sex.

… (1989) A computer error in Paris results in 41,000 residents, who should have received traffic fines, receiving letters charging them with murder, extortion and organised prostitution.

… (1988) Eleven-year-old Thomas Gregory from London is the youngest person to swim the English Channel, completing the trip in 12 hours.

… (1987) The historic Venice regatta is held without the city’s gondoliers, who are on strike to protest against the damage caused to the fabric of the city by powerboats.

… (1985) All employees of ATV Publishing throughout the world are made redundant following a takeover by Michael Jackson and CBS Songs.

… (1983) ‘Soviets admit their jets downed KAL 007’: Soviet military chiefs called a highly unusual press conference in Moscow today to explain why a Soviet jet fighter shot down a South Korean airliner last week, with the loss of 269 lives. The Soviets maintain that flight KAL 007 was on a spying mission for the US. The night flight was far off course – it was shot down near secret Soviet military installations on the island of Sakhalin off Siberia, north of Japan. The Soviets say it refused to answer signals and was flying without navigation lights. Tonight the Soviet leaders expressed sympathy for the bereaved.

… (1977) BBC Radio 4 game show The News Quiz was first broadcast.

… (1968) The kingdom of Swaziland in Southern Africa gains its independence.

… (1966) ‘Architect of apartheid’: Coloureds danced in the streets of Cape Town today after South African prime minister Dr Hendrik Verwoerd was assassinated in parliament. The grand architect of the white racist apartheid system was stabbed four times in the chest by a white parliamentary messenger wielding a stiletto – because the government “didn’t do enough for whites”. Since 1950, Verwoerd, 65, a socio-psychologist, has sub-divided the country’s 73 per cent black majority into ethno- linguistic minorities, each with its pseudo-independent “homeland” (totalling only 13 per cent of the country), effectively exporting them from South Africa and leaving the whites as the majority. Millions of blacks have been forcibly relocated to the poverty-stricken homelands, which serve as cheap labour pools. Untold numbers now live illegally in what used to be their own country, at the mercy of the police. The hard-line minister of justice and police, B. J. Vorster, will succeed Dr Verwoerd.

… (1963) Cilia Black was signed by The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein.

… (1952) 31 people were killed and dozens injured when a fighter jet crashed into crowds at the Farnborough Air Show.

… (1941) Yellow Star of David badges are compulsory for all Jewish citizens in Nazi Germany.

… (1940) King Carol II of Romania is forced to abdicate by pro-German Ion Antonescu.

… (1936) British aviator Beryl Markham flies solo across the Atlantic.

… (1914) The Battle of the Marne begins.

… (1879) The first British telephone exchange opens in Lombard Street, London.

… (1866) ‘Clippers race home for a nice cup of tea’: Three British tea clippers reached London today within two hours of each other after a 16,000 mile (25,750 km) race all the way from China. Crowds of Londoners lined the Thames to see the great ships arrive. There are big bonuses for the first ships home with the new season’s tea. Serica, Taiping and Ariel left Foochow at the end of May and raced neck-and-neck all the way. Taitsing and Fiery Cross are less than two days behind. The sleek 200-ft  (61 m) clippers carry more than 1 acre (0.4 hectares) of sail and are the fastest ships ever built – they can sail at speeds of more than 20 mph (32 kph).

… (1666) The Great Fire of London is finally extinguished.

… (1566) ‘Magnificence or megalomania?’:  Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan for 46 years, caliph of the Arabs and ruler of Islam, has died in Constantinople. Suleiman brought the Turkish Ottoman empire to the height of its power and grandeur, conquering the Arab world, Hungary and Mesopotamia, dominating the Mediterranean and the eastern seas, and bringing prosperity, justice and culture to his empire. Suleiman’s father, Selim the Grim, took the throne by killing his brothers, and secured Suleiman’s succession by killing all his other sons and grandsons. Suleiman, at the bidding of his scheming wife Roxelana, had his favourite son murdered. Roxelana died, and Suleiman withdrew from active rule, leaving his remaining two sons to fight over the succession. Selim, a drunken weakling, won, and murdered his brother Bayezid with all his sons. Selim took the throne today.

… (1522) ‘Sail round world takes its toll’: A battered Spanish ship with only 15 crewmen left alive reached Seville today after sailing round the world. The Vittorio, commanded by Sebastian del Cano, is the only survivor of the fleet of five ships that set sail three years ago seeking a westward passage to the Indies. Commander Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese navigator working for Spain, put down a mutiny and lost two ships in the narrow passage to the Pacific discovered at the tip of South America. In the Philippines Magellan was killed by natives, and a third ship was lost. The survivors sailed west, losing another ship in a skirmish with the Portuguese before rounding the Cape of Good Hope and heading north for home.

…Drugs have taught an entire generation of American kids the metric system. [P. J. O’Rourke, US journalist: today President Bush announced he would halve the US drug problem, 1989.]

5^th, (2022) Liz Truss beat Rushi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest – but he went on to replace her after she spent just 49 days in office.

… (1997) ‘Mother Teresa dies at 87’: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the Albanian nun who spent her life caring for the poor and dispossessed, has died at the age of 87. The Nobel Peace prize winner is best known for her work in India, especially Calcutta, where she founded her order, the Missionaries of Charity, in 1948. She was also active in East Pakistan, caring for refugees. Her worldwide profile was raised in 1971 when she visited the United States and set up a mission in the Bronx area of New York.

… (1991) ‘USSR kills itself off’: The Soviet state is no more. In the past two weeks Russian president Boris Yeltsin and his supporters have foiled a coup, watched by the demise of the Communist Party, seen independence in the Baltic and defeated the Soviet centrists. Today, under pressure from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union reluctantly wound up the Union and handed power to the Soviet republics. The new arrangement leaves Gorbachev a national figurehead – but without wealth.

… (1987) The longest running comedy in the world, No Sex Please – We’re British, closes at a London Theatre after 6671 performances over 16 years.

… (1982) Death of Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader, British fighter pilot who lost both his legs in a flying accident but talked his way back into the RAF to serve in World War Two and become a national hero.

… (1980) The world’s longest road tunnel is opened in Switzerland, stretching 10 miles (16 km) between Goshenen and Airolo.

… (1974) The first series of Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker, was broadcast on BBC1.

… (1972) ‘Blackest September at Munich Olympics’: Eleven Israeli athletes died when Palestinian terrorists struck at the Munich Olympics early today. Eight hooded Black September terrorists broke into the Olympic Village and attacked the sleeping Israelis in their dormitories. Two athletes died in a hail of bullets while 18 escaped, and the remaining nine were taken hostage. The Games were stopped and 12,000 police surrounded the village. The terrorists demanded the release of 200 Palestinians held in Israel and safe passage out of Germany. The German leaders agreed and the gang and their hostages were taken to Munich airport. In a tragic blunder police sharpshooters opened fire, and all nine athletes were killed in the ensuing battle, as well as four terrorists and one policeman. Three of the gang were captured and one escaped. The Games will continue, albeit under a cloud.

… (1969) Death of American blues singer and guitarist Josh White.

… (1963) Christine Keeler, call-girl at the centre of the Profumo scandal that has rocket the British Conservative government, is charged with perjury.

… (1922) American aviator James Doolittle makes the first American coast-to-coast flight, which takes 21 hours 19 minutes.

… (1800) French troops occupying Malta surrender to the British.

… (1666) ‘Death Fire hot on heels of Plague’: The massive, city wide fire that has raged in London for a number of days, started at Pudding Street bakery in London’s East End. The flames quickly spread next door to a tar store, which exploded, igniting the neighbourhood. London’s Lord Mayor refused to be disturbed by such a paltry matter as a fire and the next morning, as fire gripped the city, thousands of families fled their homes to seek safety in small boats on the River Thames and in the fields outside the city. Today the blaze was at last halted by Navy teams who blew up a swathe of buildings in the path of the flames. More than 13,000 homes and 90 churches have been destroyed, and 400 acres (162 hectares) of the city, from the Tower to the Temple, is reduced to smouldering rubble – yet only nine lives were lost. London was still reeling from last year’s great plague, which cost 75,000 lives. The fire has cauterised the old wooden buildings that were still rife with disease. Now the homeless must be fed and sheltered – and a better city built.

… (1569) Death of Peter Breughei the Elder, Netherlandish painter of peasants, landscapes and religious scenes.

4^th, (2002) 20-year-old cocktail waitress Kelly Clarkson won the first series of American Idol, a spin-off of UK series Pop Idol.

… (1998) Larry Page and Sergey Brin, both aged 25, founded Google.

… (1989) Death of Georges Simenon, Belgian novelist of world-wide acclaim who created the fictional detective Maigret.

… (1987) Mathias Rust, the West German teenager who flew his light plane from Poland straight through the Russian air defence system and landed in Moscow’s Red Square on May 28, will have plenty of time to think about his extraordinary prank. Today a Soviet court sentenced him to four years in a Labour camp.

… (1985) The first pictures of the wreck of the Titanic were released, 73 years after it sank. The American-French expedition used a submarine 2.5 miles beneath the surface.

… (1978) Rebel guerrillas shot down a Rhodesian airliner with a Russian SAM-7 missile today, then massacred survivors. The missile blew the starboard wing off, killing 38 of the 56 people aboard when the plane crashed in the bush. The survivors were nursing their wounds when the guerrillas appeared and opened fire, killing a further 10 people. The rebels – fighting Prime Minister Ian Smith’s illegal white regime – said the airliner was a “military target”.

… (1972) U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz became the first person to win seven gold medals at a single Olympics.

… (1965) Albert Schweitzer, French medical missionary, organist and Nobel Prize winner, dies in the Gabon.

… (1948) Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands abdicates in favour of her daughter Juliana.

… (1929) The BBC invites Baird Co. to carry out experimental TV transmissions.

… (1923) Shenandoah, the first rigid airship to be built in the United States, is launched.

… (1907) Death of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian composer famous for composing the incidental music for Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt.

… (1871) The New York municipal government at Tammany Hall is accused of widespread corruption.

… (1870) Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew, Emperor Napoleon III, is deposed and the Third Republic is declared in France.

… (1839) ‘Seeds sown in opium war’: British ships fired the first shots today as the illegal opium trade in China propels the two countries towards war. A British frigate hopelessly outmanoeuvred a fleet of lumbering Chinese junks and delivered two broadsides. The spectacular quantities of opium shipped to China from British Bengal earn vital revenues for Britain – and are ruining China. Earlier this year the Emperor’s commissioner, Lin Ze-xu, blockaded the British and American merchants’ warehouses in Canton, forcing them under siege to surrender 20,000 chests of the dream drug, which he then destroyed in quicklime pits, to great public acclaim. Lin has now blockaded Canton. In London, the belligerent foreign secretary Lord Palmerston is pushing parliament to send an expedition to force China to open its ports – in the name of free trade.

…How can you bear to go further, selling products injurious to others in order to fulfil your insatiable desire? [Lee Ze-xu, Chinese imperial commissioner, in a letter to Queen Victoria complaining about the opium trade, 1839.]

… (1821) Tsar Alexander closes Alaska to shipping.

… (1797) A French army coup disposes of British-backed royalists in Paris.

… (1791) During the French Revolution King Louis XVI is forced to approve France’s first constitution, which makes him a mere civil servant.

3^rd, (2010) Pop star Cheryl Cole and footballer Ashley Cole were granted a divorce after less than four years of marriage, on the grounds of his unreasonable behaviour.

… (1980) The opening night of the tragedy Macbeth at London’s Old Vic, starring Peter O’Toole, has the audience roaring with laughter.

… (1976) The American spacecraft Viking II lands on Mars and sends photographs back to Earth.

… (1969) Ho Chi Minh, president of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, dies after a heart attack.

… (1966) Captain John Ridgway and Chay Blyth complete their journey across the Atlantic in a rowing boat in 91 days, landing on the Isle of Arran off the west coast of Scotland.

… (1950) The first world driving championship is won by Nino Farina of Italy at the Monza Grand Prix.

… (1939) New Zealand, Australia, Britain and France declare war on Germany after Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1.

… (1930) The first non-stop flight from Paris to New York is made by Diedonne Caste and Maurice Bellonte.

… (1916) England was raided tonight by 13 German Zeppelin airships, and a British fighter pilot, Captain Leefe Robinson, shot one of them down near London – the first of the giant bombers destroyed by the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The airship crashed in flames in Hertfordshire. Two people were killed and 13 hurt in the raids.

… (1883) Death of Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev, who wrote A Month in the Country.

… (1849) ‘Colony rejects convict cargo’: Citizens of the Cape colony at Cape Town today took an oath to boycott the British colonial government and all civil servants with immediate effect. They are protesting against the arrival of the British Ship Neptune, carrying a cargo of convicts. This follows a London decision to form a penal settlement at the Cape like that started in Australia 60 years ago. The citizens’ strike appears to be total. The government will soon start to run out of supplies, and there is very little Governor Sir Harry Smith can do about it. He has given orders for the convicts to be kept on board the ship until he hears from London. The Cape Town journalists and lawyers who fought Lord Charles Somerset to establish press freedom organised today’s strikes and now want a new liberal constitution.

… (1783) ‘America united in state of freedom’: Britain finally recognised the independence of the United States of America today. The Treaty of Paris marks the end of the American Revolution following two years of secret negotiations between a beleaguered Britain and the colonial rebels. In an unprecedented war, Britain sent an army of 60,000 to fight a populous and well-armed people on their own ground. However France, Spain and Holland all sided with the rebels. The decisive blow came when rebel commander-in-chief George Washington trapped Lord Cornwallis’s army in Yorktown, forcing him to surrender with 7000 men. The war lingered on, but the colonies were already severed from the empire. The new nation has emerged from its revolution with a burgeoning sense of freedom and purpose.

… (1658) ‘Civil War Victor Dies’: Oliver Cromwell, Puritan Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, died today of ague at the age of 60. His son, Richard, succeeds him. Following his civil war victories, Cromwell was made Lord Protector five years ago with army support. His austere military rule made him unpopular in his own country, though he rebuilt the national prestige: he defeated Holland and Spain and made England a great power with overseas possessions, reformed the law, established religious freedom and allowed Jews to settle while protecting Protestants abroad. Cromwell dismissed his second parliament in February, and has ruled alone since then. These last months have been filled with plots and rumours of plots. Colonel Titus even published a book entitled Killing No Murder, openly advising Cromwell’s assassination. The strain told on his failing health, and the sudden death of his daughter was an added blow, from which he never recovered.

… (1651) The army of Charles II of England is beaten by Oliver Cromwell’s army in a battle at Worcester.

… (1650) The Scots are defeated by the English at Dunbar.

… (1189) ‘Lionheart grabs English throne’: Richard the Lionheart received his father’s crown at Westminster today and became King Richard I of England. Richard’s first royal act was to free his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, from the tower where King Henry II imprisoned her 16 years ago for supporting their warring sons in a rebellion against their father. Richard, Duke of Aquitaine in France, rebelled again, forcing the ailing Henry to conclude a humiliating peace earlier this year. Henry’s favourite son, John, was amongst the rebels, and in July Henry died, broken-hearted. The King’s last words to Richard were a prayer for revenge on his son and heir, who subsequently wept tears of remorse over his father’s coffin. Richard, a petty and quarrelsome man who loves a fight, is looking to his new kingdom to finance a third Christian crusade to the Holy Land.

…It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. [Dolores Ibarruri, Spanish politician, 1936.]

2^nd, (2001) Death of heart transplant pioneer Dr Christiaan Barnard.

… (1988) Chilean exiles led by Salvador Allende’s daughter return to Santiago.

… (1987) Philips launch the CD-video.

… (1980) Canadian Terry Fox, with an artificial leg, completes a 3000 mile (4800 km) run and raises $24 million (£13 million).

… (1979) Death of Felix Aylmer, British stage and screen actor.

… (1976) The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) says that the British torture Ulster detainees.

… (1973) ‘Tolkien Departs Middle Earth’: J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford scholar of medieval English, died today aged 81. He will be remembered for the story he wrote for his children about the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a furry-footed hobbit who lived in a burrow in the Shire, a bucolic idyll of Anglo-Saxon Britain. The tale grew into a saga of warriors and wizards, elves, demons, trolls and goblins locked in an awesome struggle of good and evil, with the fate of Middle Earth hanging on a lost ring – the ring of the chillingly evil dark lord Sauron.  Tolkien published his Lord of the Rings in 1955, but it was not until the 1960s that anybody really noticed the book. The other worldly Tolkien suddenly found himself the revered guru of a whole generation of flower children, their psychedelic idyll threatened by the evil lord Nixon and his military industrial complex. Tolkien cared little – he was scarcely aware of the modern world outside of his imagination. Other books include the Hobbit, and the rings saga continues in the Silmarillion, to be published posthumously.

…Though Tolkien lived in the 20^th century he can scarcely be called a modern writer. His roots were buried deep in early literature, and the major names in 20^th-century writing meant little or nothing to him. [Humphrey Carpenter, English writer, 1979.]

… (1958) South Africa’s new premier Hendrik Verwoerd promises to strengthen apartheid.

… (1945) ‘Viet Minh boss goes for broke’: Nationalist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independent Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi today, with himself as its first president. Ho’s Viet Minh guerrilla army marched into the capital last week when the Japanese withdrew from Vietnam after four years of occupation. Ho and other nationalists formed the Communist Viet Minh – the League for the Independence of Vietnam – in 1941, and have fought alone against the Japanese. Ho was trained in Moscow, was a founding member of the French Communist Party and founded the Indochinese Communist Party in 1930. The British arrested him in Shanghai, and he was a thorn in the side of the French colonial government in Vietnam before the war. Ho Chi Minh has wide public support, but France has no intention of giving up Indochina and is not likely to recognise the new republic.

… (1945) ‘World’s Worst War Ends’: Japan formally surrendered today to Supreme Allied Commander General Douglas MacArthur aboard the aircraft carrier USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, and World War Two ended. Flanked by military leaders, the frock-coated Japanese foreign minister signed the unconditional surrender announced by Emperor Hirohito last month after US atomic bombs obliterated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The capitulation is almost as humiliating for Japan as her defeat – according to the martial code of bushido, only cowards’ surrender; warriors choose death. US forces are now occupying Japan while final mopping-up operations continue in Southeast Asia. In a radio broadcast after today’s ceremony, MacArthur expressed the hope that a better world would emerge from the carnage – and warned: “We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”

… (1942) The German SS destroys the Warsaw Ghetto, killing 50,000 Jews.

… (1937) Death of Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games.

… (1910) Death of “Le Douanier” Henri Rousseau, French primitive painter and customs officer, best known for his jungle scenes.

… (1898) ‘Warring dervishes mown down at will’: General Sir Herbert Kitchener’s 25,000-man Anglo-Egyptian army slaughtered a huge Mahdist dervish army at Omdurman in Sudan today. At least 10,000 dervish warriors were killed. They fought bravely but were simply mown down by Kitchener’s lost 500 men. Thus ends 14 years of dervish rule after the Mahdi, Muhammad Ahmad, massacred General Charles Gordon and his entire garrison at Khartoum in 1885.

… (1870) Louis Napoleon hands his sword to Kaiser William of Prussia, defeated after 40 days of war that confirm Germany as the most powerful nation in Europe.

… (1865) Boundary disputes end between the British settlers and the Maori Kingitanga in New Zealand.

… (1858) The anonymous song “The Yellow Rose of Texas” is copyrighted in New York.

… (1834) Death of Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer and canal and bridge builder.

… (1792) ‘Prussian blues’: More than a thousand people died in Paris today as fear of the advancing Prussian army degenerated into a drunken orgy of killing. The mob set out to execute alleged traitors and royalists still held in prison but ended up killing anyone in their way. Prisons were sacked and the inmates hacked to death. Some were subjected to mock trials with only one verdict: death. Most of the victims have been ordinary criminals. The rioting continues tonight.

September 1^st, (1996) Footballer David Beckham earns his first senior cap in a game against Moldova.

… (1974) The Osmonds were enjoying their only UK No. 1, Love Me For A Reason.

… (1972) ‘Fischer reels in title’: Bobby Fischer became the first American world chess champion today. The temperamental 29-year-old boy wonder from Brooklyn finally triumphed over defending champion Boris Spassky of the USSR after a marathon two-month struggle, which also established Fischer as one of the world’s unreasonable people. Fischer, who was US champion at 14 and an international grandmaster at 15, sailed undefeated through the qualifying matches to face Spassky, and then argued with the champion over petty details for months before agreeing to play. The showdown in Reykjavik in Iceland drew avid media attention – Fischer’s constant tantrums made riveting viewing. The two men played in an atmosphere boiling with resentment, yet the chess was brilliant.

… (1969) Libyan Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi seizes power after the monarchy is overthrown.

… (1967) Death of English poet Siegfried Sassoon, famous for his brutally realistic war poems.

… (1951) Britain’s first supermarket, the Premier, opens in London.

… (1951) The Anzus Treaty, a mutual defence treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, is signed.

… (1948) Chairman Mao sets up a provisional government in China.

… (1939) ‘Germany invades Poland’: Adolf Hitler hurled more than a million German troops into Poland today, smashing the Polish defences in a move which has committed the Allies to war. The Poles met the massive armoured onslaught with gallantry but with little else – they even mounted a cavalry charge against the intimidating barrage of Nazi tanks. France and Britain – both treaty-bound to defend Poland – are fully mobilised. Hitler had tried to make a deal with Britain over Poland, but his offers were rejected.

… (1939) J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb”, published a paper on how black holes could be born, using Einstein’s general theory of relativity. It would be overshadowed by Germany’s invasion of Poland, triggering World War II.

… (1923) A massive earthquake in Japan kills more than 300,000, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama.

… (1920) The French create the state of Lebanon, naming Beirut as the capital.

… (1904) ‘Blind, deaf, and dumb but brilliant’: A young woman who has been both blind and deaf since the age of two graduated from college today, with honours. Helen Keller, 24, now holds a doctor’s degree from Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. When she was an infant a brain fever left her in a silent, dark world. She was confined to hysterics, screams and tantrums until an inspired teacher, Anne Mansfield Macy, helped her to read Braille and write using a special typewriter. Two years ago Helen published her autobiography, The Story of My Life – but her story is far from complete.

… (1833) A 23-year-old printer published the first edition of a new kind of newspaper in New York today. The New York Sun is a daily, half the size of the big news-sheets, and is a fraction of the price of all other New York papers. Written and typeset by proprietor Benjamin Day himself – the Sun’s four pages are packed with articles calculated for popular appeal rather than merely to inform. Day has hit on an innovative way of selling the newspaper, employing boys to hawk it on the streets.

… (1830) The poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is published by Sarah J. Hales in Boston.

… (1715) ‘Sun King Eclipsed’: France’s Sun King, Louis XIV, died today at 77. Louis succeeded to the throne at the age of four and ruled France for 73 years, longer than any other monarch. His reign was absolute, brilliant and bloody. He was only 23 when he seized full control. A cultural extravaganza blossomed for 20 years at Louis’ magnificent palace at Versailles, accompanied by an economic boom and French domination of the world stage. However, Louis’ brutal suppression of the Protestant Huguenots was a disaster, and a long succession of wars subsequently sapped France’s strength. In his final years his health was failing, and the last of his celebrated mistresses, Madame de Maintenon, had persuaded him that his sufferings were God’s punishment for the blood he had spilled all over Europe. On his deathbed he counselled his five-year-old heir Louis XV to avoid wars and extravagance.

… (1666) Death of Franz Hals, Dutch portrait painter.

… (1557) Death of Jacques Cartier, French explorer of North America.

…It is impossible to win gracefully at chess. No man has yet said “Mate!” in a voice which failed to sound to his opponent bitter, boastful and malicious. [A.A. Milne, English author, 1919.]

AUGUST

31^st, (2014) Kate Bush became the first female artist to have eight albums in the Top 40 at the same time.

… (1997) ‘Diana Dies in Paris Car Crash’: Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed in a car crash in Paris. She was taken to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning where surgeons tried to save her life. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said the Queen and the Prince of Wales were both “deeply shocked and distressed” by the news. The accident happened after the princess left the Ritz Hotel in Paris with her companion Dodi Al Fayed, son of Harrods owner, Mohammad Al Fayed. Dodi Al Fayed and the car’s chauffeur were also killed in the crash which happened in a tunnel under the Place de l’Alma in the centre of the city. The princess’ Mercedes was apparently being pursued at high speed by photographers on motorbikes when it hit a pillar and smashed into a wall. Tributes to the princess have been pouring in from around the world.

… (1994) IRA announces a “complete cessation of military activities”.

… (1986) Death of Henry Moore, major English sculptor.

… (1972) American swimmer Mark Spitz wins five gold medals in the Munich Olympics.

… (1965) India and Pakistan threaten war over Kashmir.

… (1963) Death of Georges Braque, French Cubist painter.

… (1962) Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become the first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger.

… (1962) The former British possessions of Trinidad and Tobago become independent.

… (1957) Malaya achieves independence from Britain.

… (1940) British actors Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh married in California.

… (1936) Elizabeth Cowell became Britain’s first female TV announcer.

… (1928) The taste of the critics and the Berlin public are poles apart if the reception given to Kurt Weil’s Threepenny Opera is any guide. The audience loved its jazz rhythms but Berlin’s most influential critics hated it, especially the libretto by Bertold Brecht. Any good words were reserved for the music.

… (1900) Coco-Cola goes on sale in Britain.

… (1867) ‘Spleen machine’: The French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire died in his mother’s arms today in Paris. He was 46. Born into a well-off middle-class family, Baudelaire determined from an early age to live as an artist and embraced eccentricity, affectation and immorality. By his early twenties he was an opium addict and had acquired the venereal disease that would eventually kill him. He won plaudits for translating the works of Edgar Allan Poe, but few for his own work. Les fleurs du mal was a failure and labelled obscene. Most readers were either baffled by the poet’s use of symbolism or deplored his themes. Declared bankrupt in 1862, Baudelaire died in poverty.

… (1688) Death of John Bunyan, English author famed for Pilgrim’s Progress.

… (1422) Henry V, King of England, dies of dysentery while in France: Henry VI accedes to the throne, aged nine months.

30^th, (2022) Mikhail Gorbachev, the reforming leader of the Soviet Union, died aged 91.

… (1988) ‘No one wants toxic waste’: A West German freighter, Karin B carrying 2000 tonnes of Italian hazardous waste is at anchor 18 miles (29 km) south-west of the British port of Plymouth awaiting news of its next destination. The ship has been denied entry to ports in Spain, West Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and now Britain. The toxic cargo was first shipped from Italy to Nigeria where it was illegally dumped before being packed off. Britain’s rapidly growing toxic waste industry would have obliged had it not been for the public outcry against it. Environmental groups say that the Karin B affair highlights the urgent need for an internationally agreed code of conduct for toxic waste shipments.

… (1981) ‘Ayatollah’s regime shaken by bomb’: A wave of anti-government violence has culminated in the murder in Tehran today of the president of Iran, Muhammad Ali Rajai, and his prime minister, Muhammad Javad Bahonar. The two were victims of a bomb planted in the premier’s office. Three other men were also killed in the blast. The government of Ayatollah Khomeini has been subjected to a series of violent attacks since the dismissal of president Bani Sadr tow months ago. The president’s dismissal was widely seen as a victory for religious forces over secular political forces in Iran. The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Hojatoleslam Rafsanjani, said today that it was up to the Iranian people to ensure that the revolution continued on its course.

… (1980) ‘Unions score victory strike’: A little over two weeks after seizing control of the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Polish workers have succeeded in wringing significant concessions from their masters. Among the terms agreed by the Polish deputy prime minister, Mieczyslaw Jagielski, are the right to strike and the establishment of trade unions independent of the Communist Party. The government’s initial refusal to negotiate gradually eroded as more Poles downed tools in support of the initiative taken by the Gdansk workers under Lech Walesa. He instigated a central committee to co-ordinate the country-wide strikes and draw up a list of demands. It remains to be seen whether the Polish government will honour the agreement.

… (1979) A comet hit the Sun for the first time in recorded history, releasing the same energy as a million hydrogen bombs.

… (1965) Bob Dylan released the acclaimed Highway 61 Revisited.

… (1963) A direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin became operational today. The agreement to have a “hot line” linking the US President with his opposite number in Moscow was struck in April. This may turn out to be a lifeline, preventing the delays in diplomatic communication which can lead to dangerous misunderstandings between the two superpowers – as occurred last year during the Cuban missiles crisis.

… (1941) The Germans surround Leningrad.

… (1939) Children start being evacuated from cities as war between Germany and Britain seems imminent.

… (1937) Joe Louis flattens Britain’s Tommy Farr to win the heavyweight boxing title at Madison Square Gardens in New York.

… (1901) The vacuum cleaner is patented by Scotsman Hubert Cecil Booth.

… (1881) Clement Ader of Germany patents the first stereo system.

… (1862) “Stonewall” Jackson leades the Confederates to victory against the Union army at the second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia during the American Civil War.

… (1860) The first trains in Britain begin running.

… (1667) Charles II dismisses Lord Chancellor Edward Hype over humiliating peace terms with Holland in the Treaty of Breda.

… (1483) Death of Louis XI, responsible for the unification of France after the Hundred Years War.

… (30 BC) ‘All for Love’: The ruler of the eastern part of the Roman Empire, Mark Antony, has committed suicide at the court of his Egyptian lover, Cleopatra. He was 52. Antony’s political demise was signalled last year with his defeat by Roman emperor Caesar Augustus, the ruler of the western part of the empire, at the Battle of Actium. The beautiful Queen Cleopatra was the cause of the break-up of the triumvirate Antony had formed with Augustus and Lepidus (the ruler of Africa) 10 years ago. Antony’s loyalty to Rome was called into question after he made gifts of land to the Egyptian queen. Cleopatra is understood to be attempting face-to-face negotiations with the resolute Augustus. If she fails to mollify him, as seems likely, she will doubtless share a similar fate to Mark Antony.

…During the last few weeks I have felt that the Suez Canal was flowing through my drawing room. [Clarissa Eden, wife of British prime minister Anthony Eden, as British and French troops sailed for Suez, 1956.]

29^th, (2012) The London Paralympics began. The opening ceremony was narrated by Professor Stephen Hawking.

… (1990) The blockade of a bridge over the St Lawrence river in Canada by Mohawk Indians ends.

… (1989) Death of Sir Peter Scott, English former chairman of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

… (1987) Lee Marvin, the American actor who won an Oscar for Cat Ballou, dies of a heart attack.

… (1982) ‘Candour that was tainted’: The Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman died on her 67^th birthday at her London home tonight. Freshness and candour were the qualities that made Bergman a star of stage and screen – and it was these qualities that she seemed to betray in the minds of Middle America when she abandoned her husband and child for Italian film director Roberto Rossellini in 1950. The star of the Oscar-winning Gaslight was no longer welcome. Denounced in the US Senate for having Rossellini’s illegitimate child, she left Hollywood for Europe. She returned 16 years later to collect an Oscar for Anastasia. After her third marriage ended in 1978, Bergman came to London. She wrote her memoirs and often appeared at the Chichester Festival.

… (1975) Death of Eamon de Valera, three times Irish prime minister and president from 1959 to 1973.

… (1958) Cliff Richard’s first single, Move It, was released.

… (1949) The Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, First Lightning. The site, in Kazakhstan, is still highly irradiated.

… (1931) ‘Gandhi comes to London’: The Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi arrived in London today to attend the second Round Table Conference at St James’s Palace. He is the sole representative of the Indian National Congress party. That Gandhi has agreed to call off the campaign of civil disobedience and attend the meeting is thanks largely to Lord Irwin, the former viceroy of India, who has publicly stated his commitment to India being accorded dominion status.

… (1929) The giant airship Graf Zeppelin returned to Lakehurst, New Jersey, today after completing a 21-day trip round the world. The hydrogen-filled craft, launched last September, made only three stops during its 21,500-mile (34,600 km) voyage. The flight has demonstrated the feasibility of using this type of craft as a commercial transatlantic airliner.

… (1918) More than 6000 British policemen go on strike, demanding better pay.

… (1904) ‘One-way traffic at St Louis Olympics’: Christmas came early this year for the US Olympic team. Out of a total of 23 track and field events, US athletes collected an incredible tally of 21 gold medals. The major reason for the supremacy of the home team is that few European athletes came to St Louis – fewer than a twelfth of the competitors attending the Games were non-Americans. Apart from the cost and effort of attendance, overseas competitors were put off by the decision to make the Games part of the postponed Louisiana World Fair. Few people are sure about the precise status of the many events staged in St Louis.

… (1885) The first motorcycle is patented by Gottlieb Daimler in Germany.

… (1877) Death of Brigham Young, Mormon leader and founder of Salt Lake City.

… (1842) The Treaty of Nanking is signed by the British and Chinese, ending the Opium War.

… (1835) John Batman and associates buy land from the Australian aborigines and officially establish Melbourne.

… (1831) In London, Michael Faraday successfully demonstrates the first electrical transformer.

… (1782) ‘Naval disaster at Spithead’: A first rate ship of the British fleet, Royal George, has sunk while undergoing repairs at Spithead. More than 900 people are feared lost, including most of the crew and many wives and children. Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt, 64, a distinguished veteran of the American War of Independence, was among those who perished. The survivors are said to be tried for negligence at a court martial to be held at Portsmouth on September 9. The court will decide whether rotten timbers were responsible for the ship capsizing as she was being heeled or whether she was heeled so far that water entered the lower tier of gunports. Launched in 1756, Royal George was one of only three 100-gun ships in the British Navy.

…I do not mind what language an opera is sung so long as it is a language I don’t understand. [Edward Appleton, British physicist, 1955.]

28^th, (2020) U.S. actor Chadwick Boseman – the star of Marvel film Black Panther – died aged 43. He was nominated for an Oscar posthumously.

… (2009) Noel Gallagher quit Oasis in the middle of a world tour, saying he could not work with his brother Liam “a day longer”.

… (1996) ‘Charles and Diana Divorce’: Today Britain’s most infamous marriage came to an end with the divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales. The marriage lasted for 15 years and bore the couple two sons, William and Harry, but finally broke down due to “irreconcilable differences”. Both the Prince and Princess have publicly admitted to adultery. The Princess is said to have received a settlement of around £17 million but she will no longer be able to use her HRH title. This is another blow to the Royal family and comes just four months after the divorce of Prince Charles’ brother Andrew. The Duke and Duchess of York parted on good terms for the sake of their two young daughters, but the same cannot be said for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

… (1988) Death of American film director John Huston whose films include The Maltese Falcon.

… (1988) Three jet planes belonging an Italian Air Force aerobatics display team collided today, killing 33 people. The aircraft were performing a complicated manoeuvre during their display to a crowd of 300,000 at the US Air Force base at Ramstein in Germany. The West German government is contemplating banning further air displays on its soil.

… (1981) ‘Coe’s Golden Age of the Mile’: Sebastian Coe proved last night that he is presiding over an age in middle-distance running. In the aptly named Golden Mile at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Coe regained the world record he had lost only two days ago to his great rival Steve Ovett. Seb slashed Ovett’s time by 1.07 seconds, completing the four-lap race in an incredible 3 minutes 47.33 seconds. This has been a breathtaking month for Coe, who has twice broken the world mile record within the last ten days. On August 19 in Zurich he pipped Ovett’s year-old mile record by 27 one-hundredths of a second.

… (1967) Death of Charles Darrow, American inventor of the board game Monopoly.

… (1963) ‘Dream sequence’: The eloquence for which civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jnr. Has become renowned reached new heights today. The occasion was the interracial march on Washington, a peaceful demonstration by 200,000 people committed to the civil rights cause. Standing by the Lincoln Memorial, King gave his vision for America. “I still have a dream. It is a dream chiefly rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”.

… (1862) Garibaldi’s army land at Calabria in their march to Rome.

… (1850) The Channel telegraph cable is finally laid between Dover and Cap Gris Nez.

… (1850) Franz Liszt conducts the first performance of Lohengrin by his friend Richard Wagner, who has fled Germany to escape arrest for his role in the Dresden uprising.

… (1837) Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins began manufacturing Worcestershire sauce in Worcester.

… (1830) ‘Thumbs down for the challenge of steam’: Inventor Peter Cooper’s latest creation, a steam-driven locomotive called Tom Thumb, was today outstripped by the oldest kind of traction in the world – horse power. Since its inception three years ago the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has relied on horse traction. Now it is looking to the future. On today’s showing, though, the horse looks to be the more reliable of the two. After racing neck-and-neck for much of the race, the belt slipped from the loco’s drum, the steam pressure dropped and the contraption slowed down. Cooper is sure that the technical hitch which handicapped Tom Thumb’s performance today can be overcome. Race watchers agree that Tom Thumb completed the race looking fresher than the horse.

27^th, (1989) ‘Coke war in Colombia’: The proposed clampdown by the Colombian government on the Medellin drug-trafficking cartel has received a blunt response from that organisation. “Total and bloody war” has been declared on the government of President Virgilio Barco. The cocaine-smugglers are particularly perturbed by the reinstatement of extradition to the United States, a process which bribery and threats of violence had forced the Columbian Supreme Court to abandon. Eduardo Martinez Romero, the cartel’s leading money launderer, has already been arrested as part of the clampdown. The traffickers have repeatedly said that they would “prefer a grave in Columbia to a prison cell in the US” – not surprisingly, as the last drugs baron to head reluctantly northwards, Carlos Lehder, received a life sentence on arrival. The traffickers have offered to give up the trade in return for immunity from prosecution. The Columbian government is fighting for its credibility. This month alone the cartel was responsible for the murders of the front-runner in the presidential election, Senator Luis Galan Sarmiento, a police chief and a judge.

… (1979) ‘IRA Murder Mountbatten’: Lord Louis Mountbatten was murdered today by an IRA bomb as he and members of his family enjoyed an outing on his 30-ft (9 m) fishing boat, Shadow V. The bomb exploded five minutes after the party had left the picturesque harbour of Mullaghmore in the Irish Republic. Killed with the 79-year-old former admiral and viceroy of India were his grandson, Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, local boy Paul Maxwell, 17, and Lady Brabourne, the mother-in-law of Lord Louis’s daughter, Pamela. Later in the morning the IRA murdered 18 British soldiers at Warrenpoint  in Northern Ireland.

… (1975) Death of Haile Salassie, deposed emperor of Ethiopia.

… (1955) The first edition of the Guinness Book Of Records was published.

… (1951) US jets arrive in Britain to set up a US air base at Greenham Common.

… (1939) German aircraft manufacturer Ernst Heinkel’s gamble to develop an aircraft propelled by a turbojet engine seems to be on the brink of paying off. It needs to, as Heinkel has sunk his own money into the project in the absence of interest by the German Air Ministry. Having completed a series of taxing trials, the He 178 aircraft powered by the revolutionary new engine, HeS 36, took off from the Marienehe airfield today. The designer of the engine is Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain, who Heinkel had to be persuaded to employ three years ago as a post-graduate student.

… (1928) The Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international agreement to condemn all war as a means of settling disputes, is signed by representatives of 15 nations.

… (1919) Death of Louis Botha, first prime minister of South Africa.

… (1910) Thomas Edison shows “talking pictures” for the first time at his New Jersey laboratory.

… (1896) The world’s shortest war ever recorded started and finished when Britain defeated Zanzibar after 38 minutes.

… (1883) ‘Krakatoa blows its top’: The most catastrophic volcanic eruption witnessed by man reached its climax today on the Indonesian island of Rakata. In May the 6000 ft (1800 m) high Krakatoa volcano, which has its base 1000 ft (300 m) below sea level, began to show signs of rousing from its 200-year slumber. Activity died down only to resume again in June and become more terrifying in its effects. At 10 am this morning Krakatoa erupted with a fury that was heard in Australia, more than 2200 miles (3540 km) away. Debris has been tossed 50 miles (80 km) into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun and plunging the region into darkness. Gigantic tidal waves up to 120 ft (36 m) high have devastated the coastal towns of Java and Sumatra, leaving an estimated 36,000 people dead.

… (1859) The world’s first oil well is drilled by Edwin Drake at Titusville, Pennsylvania.

… (1813) Napoleon defeats the allied army at Dresden.

… (1791) European monarchs back French King Louis XVI against the revolution.

… (1783) Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles launches the first hydrogen balloon to fly, helped by the Montgolfier brothers, Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel.

… (1576) Death of Venetian painter Titian (Tiziano Vecelli).

26^th, (1988) American swimmer Lynne Cox crosses the 11-mile (17.5 km) wide Lake Baikal in Siberia in 4 hours, 20 minutes – the first long swim in a cold water lake.

… (1987) A sex-crazed elephant “urgently in search of a mate” flattens a radio centre and kills two people in Bangkok.

… (1987) ‘Spandau loses last inmate’: A crowd of around 200 people, most of them young, attempted to force their way into the cemetery at Wunsiedel where Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s one-time deputy, was due to be buried in the family grave today. Police successfully repulsed them with batons and dogs. A total of 90 people were arrested, 23 of them neo-Nazis. Hess, 93, who died on August 17 in Spandau Prison, Berlin, after 46 years in captivity, is said to have been buried two days ago at an undisclosed location. The body will be reburied at Wunsiedel at a later date when there is less danger of neo-Nazi groups turning his internment into a political demonstration. The Hess family still disputes the Allies’ assertion that Hess committed suicide by hanging himself. Spandau Prison will now be demolished.

… (1972) Death of Sir Francis Chichester, English yachtsman who was the first old-age pensioner to sail round the world singlehanded.

… (1970) A national women’s strike causes chaos in New York.

… (1958) Death of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams whose works include Sea Symphony.

… (1952) The Soviets announce the first successful Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) tests have taken place.

… (1936) The first high-definition television programmes seen in Britain were transmitted today from the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace, London, to the Radio Show at Olympia (Radiolympia). A regular service is due to open next November. Six weeks ago in New York the RCA station W2XBS started transmitting experimental high-definition television programmes.

… (1930) Death of Lon Chaney, American actor and “man of a thousand faces” whose appearances include Phantom of the Opera.

… (1920) ‘US Women Vote’: The US legislature today ratified the Nineteenth Amendment given American women the right to vote. The Amendment was bitterly opposed by some members of the Senate before eventually being submitted to the legislature in June last year. That American women now have equality with their sisters in Britain, Germany and Russia is largely due to the efforts of the 2 million-strong National American Women Suffrage Association which, in different guises, has been campaigning for votes for women since 1869.

… (1850) Death of Louis Philippe, the “Citizen King” of France who abdicated rather than face a middle-class revolt.

… (1789) The French Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

… (1748) The first Lutheran synod is founded in the American colonies.

… (1664) Jansenist nuns in a convent at Port-Royal in France refuse to renounce their views.

… (1346) ‘French setback at Crecy’: An English army under Edward III has won an overwhelming, and unexpected, victory at Crecy today. This latest phase in hostilities between France and England – which the pessimists say looks set to last 100 years – opened when King Edward III, accompanied by his eldest son, Prince Edward, landed in Normandy last month. Their army sacked Caen and threatened Rouen before being pursued northwards by a large French force, estimated at around 50,000, under Philip VI. Battle was joined at Crecy-en-Ponthieu. Although numerically outnumbered by a ratio of 2:1, the English proved to have superior weaponry. Philip’s 6000 Genoese crossbowmen were simply no match for Edward’s 7000 well-trained longbowmen and the short-barrelled bombards aimed at the French ranks. For his battle performance, King Edward’s 16-year-old son was awarded spurs and ostrich plumes and with them the mottoes Homout (Courage) and Ich dene (I serve).

…Anyone who wants to carry on the war against the outsiders, come with me. I can’t offer you either honours or wages; I offer you hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Anyone who loves his country, follow me. [Giuseppe Garibaldi – he was defeated by the Austrians at Morrazone today, 1848.]

25^th, (1979) Death of Stan Kenton, American pianist, composer and Jazz experimentalist.

… (1944) ‘Vive la France!’: The four-year long ordeal that Paris and her citizens have suffered at the hands of the Nazis is almost over. With the forces of General Leclerc approaching the city and Resistance fighters continuing to attack from the centre, flushing out enemy nests, liberation is almost complete. Parisians owe thanks to the Commandant of Paris, General von Cholitz, who gave himself up today rather than carry out his Führer’s order to blow up the capital’s bridges and principle buildings to halt the advance. Tomorrow Free French leader General Charles de Gaulle will attend a liberation procession through the streets of Paris and a service of thanksgiving in Notre Dame Cathedral.

… (1939) The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, was released.

… (1919) The first scheduled international air service begins between Paris and London.

… (1905) ‘Tsar punishes Potemkin rebels’: Eight of the mutineers from the Russian battleship Potemkin who recently returned to Russia after fleeing to Romania at the end of June have been sentenced to death. The remainder have been imprisoned. The mutiny, in which several officers were killed, was part of the nationwide campaign against the government of Tsar Nicholas II. Heavy taxation, the Tsar’s refusal to introduce constitutional government and defeat in the Russo-Japanese War are the main issues fuelling the present wave of social unrest.

… (1875) Englishman Matthew Webb made history today by becoming the first person to swim the English Channel. The 27-year-old master mariner from Shropshire set off from Admiralty Pier, Dover, and yesterday. Swimming breaststroke, he covered the 21-mile (34 lm) stretch to Calais in 21 hours 45 minutes, emerging on the French side tired but triumphant. This feat would be sufficient to satisfy most people’s yen for a challenge – but not Captain Webb’s. His plans as a professional swimmer will, it seems, become progressively more ambitious.

… (1867) Death of Michael Faraday, English chemist and physicist who invented the first electrical cell (battery).

… (1841) Three women graduate from Oberlin Collegiate Institute, Ohio, and are the first women to be granted degrees.

… (1837) Henry William Crawford of London patents a process for producing galvanised iron.

… (1830) A revolution begins in Belgium.

… (1819) Death of James Watt, English engineer and inventor of the steam engine.

… (1804) Alicia Meynell completes a four-mile racecourse in York, Britain, to become the first known female jockey.

24^th, (2021) Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts died, aged 80.

… (1990) The Irish hostage Brian Keenan is released from Beirut.

… (1981) A Manhattan Supreme Court judge has jailed Mark David Chapman for 20 years to life for shooting dead John Lennon, last December. Against his lawyers’ wishes, Chapman had withdrawn his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, saying God had ordered him to confess. Judge Edwards refused pleas of clemency and he ordered that he should receive psychiatric treatment.

… (1975) Queen began three weeks of recording for hit song Bohemian Rhapsody.

… (1975) Annabel Hunt gives the first official nude opera performance in Britain in Ulysses – it’s also the first nude televised performance.

… (1954) Getulio Vargas, 71-year-old president of Brazil shoots himself to avoid scandal and demands that he should relinquish power.

… (1951) The Mau Mau rebellion begins, led by Kenyan nationalists.

… (1949) The North Atlantic Treaty, which forms the basis of NATO, came into effect.

… (1942) The Duke of Kent, youngest brother of George VI, dies in a flying boat accident while on active duty.

… (1940) The Lancet reports the first purification of penicillin by professors Howard Florey and Ernest Chain.

… (1906) Kidney transplants are carried out on dogs at a medical conference in Toronto, Canada.

… (1814) The small but very bitter war currently being fought by Britain and America is continuing in the punitive vein struck towards the end of last year. Wanton destruction has been countered with wanton destruction. The latest target is Washington, which has been burnt by a 4000-strong British force of Peninsular War veterans under General Ross. The army, which was brought to the Washington approaches by ships of Admiral Cochrane’s fleet, defeated local defence forces at Bladensburg before entering the capital and putting it to the torch. Among the casualties is the US president’s official residence, the White House. The architect, James Hoban, will doubtless be asked to redesign it.

… (1770) ‘Pressure pushes poet to poison’: Poet Thomas Chatterton, 22, fatally poisoned himself with arsenic today at his lodgings in Brooke Street, in the city of London. He had become increasingly depressed by lack of recognition and persistent charges of “forgery”. Born in Bristol, the son of an impoverished schoolmaster, Chatterton was first published before the age of 12. However, his enthusiasm for recreating the medieval world, in his Rowley Poems, came at the wrong time. Chatterton was denounced as a “forger” in the mould of the impudent James Macpherson, whose “rediscovery” of the works of the third-century Gaelic bard, Ossian, became the literary sensation of the 1760s.

… (1690) Job Charnock establishes a trading post on behalf of the English East India Company in Kalikata, West Bengal.

… (1572) ‘Royal wedding toasted in blood’: Six days ago the exchange of marriage vows between the Catholic Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Henri II of France and Catherine de Medici, and Protestant Henri de Bourbon, king of Navarre, seemed to auger well for future relations between Roman Catholics and Protestant Huguenots in France. Today, the feast of St Bartholomew, the streets of Paris are running with the blood of the Huguenot nobles who attended the wedding. Only the bridegroom and the Prince de Conde have escaped the slaughter. The bridegroom’s mother-in-law, Catherine, ordered the killing as part of her campaign against the Huguenot party and its influence over her son, Charles IX. The issuing of a royal order to stop the killing is expected shortly. The indications are, however, that the anti-Huguenot bloodlust is spreading to the provinces.

… (1542) ‘Spaniards find women warriors’: The Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana has reportedly discovered new lands east of Quito. Last April, Orellana and a group of around 50 men were sent ahead of the expedition, led by Gonzalo Pizarro to gather provisions. However, instead of returning, Orellana was persuaded to push on and explore the great river system that lay before them. The men’s’ brigantine drifted with the current and eventually reached the mouth of the river. The explorers are said to be full of fantastic tales of treasure and, most curiously of all, tribes of women warriors resembling Amazons. Orellana is keen to return to his “Amazon River” region in order to exploit its enormous wealth. This may prove problematical, however, because Spain and Portugal are in dispute over ownership of the territory.

… (79 AD) In Italy Mount Vesuvius erupts and destroys Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and a number of smaller settlements.

23^rd, (1990) The German state chooses October 3 as the date for reunification.

… (1987) French racing driver Didier Peroni is killed in a power boat race off the Isle of Wight.

… (1980) David Bowie was at the UK No 1 spot with Ashes To Ashes

… (1967) The Who drummer Keith Moon celebrated his 21st birthday by driving a Lincoln Continental while naked, into the swimming pool of a Holiday Inn in the U.S.

… (1960) A new type of show is the talk of this year’s Edinburgh fringe; Beyond the Fringe, the work of Alan Bennett, Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore, brings political satire to intimate revue. Critics are hailing it as the best thing to hit Edinburgh for many a year.

… (1944) The pro-Nazi dictator of Romania, General Ion Antonescu is overthrown.

… (1940) German bombers begin night raids on London.

… (1939) Germany and the USSR sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop nonaggression pact.

… (1939) British driver John Cobb reaches 368.85 mph (590 kph) at Bonneville Flats, Utah.

… (1933) Gandhi is released from Poona jail after his hunger strike (against the government’s attitude to untouchables) almost kills him.

… (1927) ‘Prejudice threatens true justice’: In one of the most controversial cases in American legal history, Nicola Sacco and Bartolommeo Vanzetti went to the electric chair today. In July 1921 a jury found the men guilty of the murders of a factory paymaster and a guard during a robbery in South Braintree, Massachusetts. The guilty verdict was challenged on the grounds that and jury had been prejudiced against the two political anarchists and immigrants. Calls for a retrial were denied, even when in 1925 condemned criminal Celestino Medeiros gave evidence that the murders had been committed by the Morelli gang. Governor A.T. Fuller refused clemency for the two Italians, supported by an independent committee inspecting the case. Questions concerning the administration of justice remain to be answered.

… (1926) ‘Death of a Dream Lover’: Screen actor Rudolph Valentino, the idol of millions, died today of peritonitis in New York’s Polyclinic Hospital. Valentino, 31, was in New York to publicise his latest film, The Son of the Sheikh. In five short years and a dozen films, including The Sheikh and Blood and Sand, Italian-born Valentino carved a unique image for himself as the epitome of virility. Recently, though, he had been the subject of unkind comments in the media. Last month the Chicago Tribune suggested that “pink powder puff” was a more apt label for the looks-conspicuous star than “the great lover”. The revelation that both of his ex-wives, Jean Acker and Natacha Rambova, are lesbian also caused much speculation about Valentino’s own sexual orientation. For many, though, he was the dream lover. News of his demise has reportedly provoked a rash of suicides worldwide.

… (1818) The first steam ship service opens on the Great Lakes in North America.

… (1680) Death of Captain Blood, who tried to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in May 1671.

… (1305) Sir William Wallace, Scottish patriot who demanded independence for his country, is hung, drawn and quartered in London.

… (410) ‘Goths gatecrash Rome’: The disintegration of the once-mighty Roman Empire is continuing apace with the full of Rome to the Visigoths. Alaric, King of the Visigoths, ordered his men to storm the city after the refusal by the Roman emperor of the West, Honorius, to agree to his terms. The citizens of Rome are paying the price for their emperor’s delusions of power. While he remains in the safety of his new and impregnable capital, Ravenna, they are being sacked. Two years ago, when Alaric first threatened the city, the Roman authorities contemplated offering sacrifices to the gods as a means of keeping the Visigoths at bay. On this occasion, the authorities needed only to offer land and subsidies. Fortunately for those who treasure Rome’s beauty, first reports of the sack suggest that booty rather than wholesale destruction is the main aim of the invaders. The biggest loss from the fall of the capital is to Roman prestige.

… (93 AD) Julian Gnaeus Agricola, Roman general renowned for his conquests in Britain, dies in Rome.

…My principal is: France before everything. [Napoleon I, French Emperor, in a letter to Eugène Beauharnais, 1810.]

22^nd, (1989) British Telecom launch the world’s first pocketphones which operate within 100 yards of a public base station.

… (1978) Death of Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya.

… (1968) ‘Prague dragged back to Moscow’: Tanks belonging to a five-nation Warsaw Pact force have entered the Czech capital, Prague, to crush with military might the first flowering of Alexander Dubcek’s reforms. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev had become increasingly alarmed by the consequences of Dubcek’s championship of the “human face of socialism”. Since January this year, first secretary Dubcek had introduced many economic, political and cultural reforms and promised further moves towards democratisation. The Soviet Tass news agency is portraying the invasion as a timely intervention to save the Czech nation. The new film shot by Western sources, however, tells of a people in despair at the prospect of the political clock being turned back to Communist orthodoxy.

… (1963) Charlie Wilson is jailed for the Great Train Robbery.

… (1953) Iran’s Shah returns to the Peacock Throne and Mossadegh is jailed after a military coup.

… (1940) Death of Sir Oliver Lodge, English physicist who pioneered wireless telegraphy.

… (1911) ‘Half-smile half-inched’: The world’s most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, was stolen during the night from the Louvre in Paris. Museum officials are embarrassed by the loss of their most prized exhibit, which is one of the few works that the great Leonardo actually completed. Police have no clues as to the identity of the thief, or thieves, and seem to be banking on the Mona Lisa recovering herself. Just a glimpse of her smile should give away the whereabouts of the painting, said to represent the mystery of existence.

… (1902) Theodore Roosevelt became the first US president to ride in a car in public on a parade in Connecticut.

… (1868) Ten thousand Chinese plunder the China Inland Mission.

… (1862) Belgium signs a commercial treaty with Britain.

… (1849) Amaral, the Portuguese governor of Macao, is assassinated for anti-Chinese politics.

… (1815) Ultra-royalist reactionaries win the majority in the first parliamentary elections in France.

… (1642) ‘Charles challenges the Commons’: The divide separating King Charles I from the English Parliament seems to be hardening into a battle line. The King has raised his military standard in Nottingham town. It is almost certain that he will be able to count on the support of many peers and gentry who fear the consequences of a parliament infiltrated by the “common people”. Three days ago both houses of parliament issued a joint statement denouncing as traitors any who join the King’s cause. A parliamentary army of 10,000 has been mobilised.

… (1485) ‘Red Rose Flowers Again’: The 30-year struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York for the throne of England ended today in victory for the Lancastrians. The decisive blow was dealt at Bosworth Field, 12 miles (19 km) west of Leicester, where key noblemen such as the Stanley brothers deserted Richard at his hour of greatest need to swing the battle Henry Tudor’s way. Richard III fought on bravely before being unhorsed and killed. The 1000 or so mercenaries supplied by King Louis XI of France were a major factor in Tudor’s success. Opposition to the 28-year-old usurper, who will be known as Henry VII, is likely to continue, however, until a way can be found of reconciling the white rose and the red, the well known emblems of the houses of York and Lancaster respectively.

…I have recently been all round the world and have formed a very poor opinion of it. [Thomas Beecham, British conductor, 1946.]

21^st, (2015) A message-in-a-bottle was found in Germany. It had been thrown into the sea by the UK Marine Biological Association 108 years earlier.

… (2013) The Assad regime in Syria released the nerve agent sarin on its own people in the Ghouta district of Damascus, killing more than 1,400, many of them children.

… (1991) ‘Anti-Gorby coup flops’: President Mikhail Gorbachev arrived back in Moscow today after the collapse of the attempt by hardliners to depose him. All but one of the eight ringleaders of the plot has been rounded up. Gorbachev seems deeply saddened by the fact that several of his closest and most trusted colleagues, including the Kremlin chief of staff and the head of the KGB, were involved in the plot. Gorbachev’s steadfast refusal to be coerced into resigning was echoed by mass demonstrations against the coup by the peoples of Moscow and Leningrad. There was also a disinclination on the part of many in authority – notably in the armed forces – to behave unconstitutionally. Russian Federation president Boris Yeltsin has identified the Communist Party as a stumbling block to further reform.

… (1989) The American fashion journalist Diana Vreeland dies.

… (1988) British licensing laws are amended to allow pubs to stay open 12 hours a day, except on Sundays.

… (1986) ‘Volcanic gas wreaks havoc’: A cloud of toxic gas released from the volcanic Lake Nyos, near Wum in north-west Cameroon, has killed more than 1200 people. The 300 or so survivors are receiving treatment for gas poisoning in hospital. The eruption which released the killer gas – probably carbon dioxide – occurred during the night and is thought to have startled the villagers out of their homes and into a night air heavy with toxic fumes. The governor of the stricken province, Mr Walson Ntuba, said that “the few survivors were those who had the good sense to remain indoors”.

… (1976) 25-year-old Mary Langdon joins the East Sussex fire brigade to become Britain’s first female “fireman”.

… (1969) The first Gap clothing store opened in San Francisco.

… (1961) Britain releases nationalist Jomo Kenyatta, former president of the Kenyan African Union who was imprisoned for his part in the Mau Mau rebellion; without him Kenyan politics cannot go forward.

… (1959) Death of Sir Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor who became a British citizen.

… (1959) Hawaii becomes the 50^th state of the USA.

… (1951) Death of Constant Lambert, English composer and conductor with Sadler’s Wells Ballet, London.

… (1929) Mexican artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera married (they would divorce in 1939 and wed again the next year).

… (1858) British army officer Sam Browne of the 2^nd Punjab Cavalry has come up with a novel new belt for sword or pistol. Browne, 34, lost an arm in action this year, so his design consists of a broad waist-belt supported at the left side by a narrow strap crossing the right shoulder. It is unlikely that the belt will become general issue in the foreseeable future.

…Now we are in a period which I can characterise as a period of cold peace. [Trygve Lie, first United Nations secretary general, 1940.]

20^th, (1989) 51 people died when a dredger, the Bowbelle, collided with a pleasure boat, the Marchioness, on the River Thames.

… (1988) A ceasefire between Iran and Iraq takes effect.

… (1970) Lieutenant Caley’s sentence for the My Lai massacre in Vietnam is reduced by 20 years after public claims that he is a scapegoat.

… (1956) The first nuclear power in Britain is generated at Calder Hall power station in Cumbria.

… (1940) Radar is used for the first time by the British during World War Two.

… (1940) ‘RAF invincible in battle for skies’: The offensive launched by Germany on August 13 in preparation for an invasion of the British Isles is being met with strong resistance and considerable victory by the RAF. Southeast England has borne the brunt of the attacks from fleets of bombers protected by fighter aircraft. So far 236 German aircraft have been downed for the loss of just 95 British, with the RAF’s efforts concentrated on destroying the Luftwaffe’s bombers. A switch of German tactics may well be on the cards as Luftwaffe supremo Hermann Goering searches for a way of cracking the British fighter command nut and winning air superiority.

… (1940) ‘Axe falls for Trotsky’: Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution in 1917, was stabbed to death with an alpine axe at his home in Coyoacan, near Mexico City today. He was 61. Ramon Mercader, a Spanish communist, has been charged with Trotsky’s murder. Trotsky has lived abroad since January 1929, when Stalin finally lost patience with the steady stream of criticism issuing from the Ukrainian’s place of exile at Alma-Ata in Central Asia and banished him from Soviet soil. His fall from grace in the Soviet hierarchy came swiftly after the death of Lenin in 1923. Outmanoeuvred by the wily Stalin, he found himself first ousted from the Politburo, then the Party, and finally the Soviet Union itself. Stalin then ordered the rewriting of the official history of the USSR to play down and denigrate Trotsky’s place in Soviet history.

…From being a patriotic myth, the Russian people have become an awful reality. [Leon Trotsky, who died today, 1940.]

… (1924) British sprinter Eric Liddell refuses to run in the 100 metres at the Paris Olympics on religious grounds because the event is held on a Sunday.

… (1913) Adolphe Pegond bales out of an airplane at 700 ft (213 m) and parachutes safely to the ground, becoming the first person to parachute from a plane.

.,.. (1912) Death of William Booth, the British founder of the Salvation Army.

… (1794) General Napoleon Bonaparte is freed from the jail where he was being held on suspicion of Robespierrism.

19^th, (1991) ‘Last-ditch Soviet coup’: Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader who gave a nervous world two words of hope – glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) – has been toppled. Early this morning the Tass news agency issued a statement to the effect that the 60-year-old Gorbachev had fallen ill at his dacha on the Black Sea and was no longer able to run the country. An “emergency committee” has been formed to perform this task. The timing of the coup is significant – just one day short of the scheduled signing of the Union treaty, a document hated by hardliners because it signals the beginning of the end of the old Soviet empire they know and love.

… (1990) Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein offers to release all Western hostages in exchange for a US withdrawal from the Gulf region and an end to the blockade.

… (1989) Poland becomes the first country in Eastern Europe to end one-party rule as Solidarity’s Tadeuz Mazowiecki takes office as prime minister.

… (1987) A lone gunman went on a six-hour rampage through the small British town of Hungerford, on the Wiltshire-Berkshire borders today, leaving 14 dead, including the gunman’s mother, and a further 14 maimed from gunshot wounds. The man, ex-paratrooper Michael Ryan, 27, eventually turned the gun on himself. Ryan was said to have been deeply depressed by the death of his father two years ago. He had a passion for guns and had collected a vast personal arsenal.

… (1979) Pol Pot, ex-dictator of Cambodia, is sentenced to death for genocide in his absence by the Vietnamese-backed Cambodian government.

… (1960) The Soviets sentence U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers to 10 years’ detention.

… (1936) Federico Garcia Lorca, the Spanish poet and playwright best known for the trilogy Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernardo Alba, is shot by Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War.

… (1934) ‘Hitler gets the “Ja” vote’: The German people went to the polls today to give their verdict on Adolf Hitler’s assumption of the titles Führer and Reich Chancellor. Of the 45.5 million eligible to vote, 38 million have voted “Yes”, 4.25 million “No” and 870,000 spoilt their ballot papers. This is an impressive majority for the new German head of state, who announced on August 2, the day that President von Hindenburg died, his intention of merging the office of president with that of Chancellor.

… (1929) Death of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, founder of the Russian ballet company Ballets Russes in Paris.

… (1662) ‘Pascal dies’: Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, died in Paris today, aged 39. Pascal pursued his intellectual enquiries with an all-consuming passion. In November 1654 he experienced the “night of fire” that changed his life, and he temporarily abandoned the world of science – and inventions such as a calculating device, the syringe and the hydraulic press – to go in search of religious truth among the austere moral precepts of Jansenism taught in the convent of Port-Royal. Thereafter, he wrote only at the convent’s request and never again under his own name. Les Provinciales, his most popular work, is a beautifully written defence of Jansenist Antoine Arnuad, who believed that no amount of Communion could wash away sins not truly repented. At the time of his death Pascal was working on a treatise of spirituality.

…If you want people to think well of you, do not speak well of yourself. [Blaise Pascal, French philosopher and mathematician, who died today.]

… (14 AD) Death of Augustus, the first Roman emperor.

18^th, (2002) Pope John Paul II draws crowds of two million at a Papal mass in Krakow, on his ninth visit to his native Poland.

… (1984) South Africa is banned from taking part in the Olympic Games because of its racial politics.

… (1984) British civil servant Clive Ponting, 37, has been charged under the Official Secrets Act after admitting to leaking two Ministry of Defence documents to opposition Labour MP Mr Tam Dalyell. Ponting’s defence is that his duty is to Parliament and not just to the government. The documents related to the rules of engagement used in the controversial sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in May 1982, during the Falklands War. The case is the latest in a series of breaches of confidence by senior officials out of sympathy with Thatcher’s administration.

… (1982) Liverpool named four streets after The Beatles: John Lennon Drive, Paul McCartney Way, George Harrison Close and Ringo Starr Drive.

… (1967) Boxer Muhammad Ali marries Belinda Boyd, daughter of a member of the “Fruit of Islam”, the karate-trained section of the Black Muslims.

… (1966) ‘Red Guards play Mao’s game’: The systematic campaign by Chairman Mao to halt the trend towards right-wing thinking in every area of Chinese life is gathering pace. The first of eight huge demonstrations by semi-military groups called Red Guards took place in Peking today. These young radicals have poured into the capital from all over China to answer Mao’s call for the denunciation and removal of senior officials held responsible by Mao for dampening down revolutionary ideals among his countrymen. The “great proletarian cultural revolution” launched by the 72-year-old Mao is committed to “purifying” the arts and education. In place of “the enemy within”, he is proposing his own administration.

… (1939) The film The Wizard of Oz is released in New York.

… (1930) ‘Span-tastic’: After seven years in the making the huge steel arch of the new Sydney Harbour Bridge has been completed. Some 38,390 tons of riveted, high-tension silicon British steel has gone into the 1650 ft (503 m) arch, one of the largest in the world. Sydney Harbour is so deep that the bridge’s British designers, Dorman Long of Middlesbrough, had to find a novel way of supporting the structure. The two halves were built out as cantilevers and supported by wire-rope anchorages situated on the north and south sides of the harbour. A target date of March 1932 has been set for its completion.

… (1850) Death of Andre Jacques Garnerin, the French balloonist and parachutist.

… (1612) The trial of Pendle Witches began at the Lancaster Assizes.

… (1503) ‘Power-mad Pope damaged Papacy’: Pope Alexander VI, Spanish-born pontiff, has died in Rome after succumbing to a fever. He was 74. A member of the powerful Borgia family, he made rapid headway in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, becoming a cardinal at the age of 25. His election as pope in 1492 brought about no change in his magnificent lifestyle. The murder of his favourite son, Juan, four years brought some curtailment of the decadence with which his court was associated, however. Pope Alexander’s political and personal ambitions were never similarly held in check, and to his dying breath he used his energies in the pursuit of power. Critics believe that he has irreparably damaged the prestige of the papacy.

17^th, (1999) A massive earthquake hits north-western Turkey, killing more than 14,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands without homes or essential services.

… (1998) President Bill Clinton was today giving evidence to the Grand Jury about his relationship with a young female intern. During the examination, President Clinton was questioned about the exact nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, and whether he had previously lied under oath. An uncomfortable President Clinton was forced to defend previous statements about his affair with Miss Lewinsky by quibbling over the precise definition of his words. After facing the Grand Jury, the president now awaits the verdict of the American people.

… (1989) An Australian airliner becomes the first commercial plane to fly non-stop from London to Sydney.

… (1988) ‘Pakistan president blown out of the skies’: General Zia ul-Haq, Pakistan’s iron-fisted ruler for the past 11 years, died today when the camouflaged C-130 Hercules plane in which he was travelling crashed shortly after take-off. Zia, 64, was on his way back to Islamabad after watching a demonstration of the capabilities of the US M1A1 Abrams tank at an army testing range near the airport of Bahawalpur. Among the 30 people on board were the US ambassador to Pakistan, Mr Arnold Raphael, and the US embassy’s military liaison officer, Brigadier General Herbert Wassom. Pakistani and US intelligence officers suspect that the aircraft may have been downed by a bomb or ground-to-air missile. Zia is to be succeeded by former senate chairman Ghulam Ishaq Khan.

… (1987) Death of Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s close friend and deputy leader of the Nazi party.

… (1987) Donald Harvey, a former nurse’s aide, is charged with the murder of 28 people in Ohio, having admitted to more than 50 murders.

… (1983) Death of Ira Gershwin, brother of George and composer of “Lady be Good”.

… (1973) Paul Williams, an original member of The Temptations, shoots himself dead in his car in Denver, Colorado.

… (1961) ‘Another brick in the wall of isolation’: There seems little doubt now that the East German authorities are intent on erecting a permanent barrier between the Eastern and Western sectors of the city. On August 13 the East German police began to string barbed wire and set up road blocks along the inner boundary of the eight districts of the Soviet sector of Berlin. This temporary barrier is now being replaced with a 9-ft (2.7 m) cement wall topped with barbed wire, complete with armed sentries in watchtowers. The decision to build the wall was taken by Communist leader Walter Ulbricht, with the backing of the Soviet Union, in the light of the continuing massive exodus of East Germans to the West, estimated to be running at around 2000 people a day.

… (1945) After Japanese occupation during World War II, Indonesia declares itself a republic under the leadership of Dr Sukarno.

… (1896) The first pedestrian to be killed by a car is knocked down in Croydon, England – the car is travelling at just 4 mph (6.4 kph).

… (1896) ‘Golden strike on the Klondike’: A massive influx of prospectors to the Yukon Territory of Canada is expected after the discovery yesterday of a major gold find at Bonanza Creek on the Klondike River. The three men who struck lucky, George W. Carmack and his two Indian brothers-in-law, made known their good fortune at the town of Forty Mile.

… (1590) John White, Governor of Roanoke Island, returns to find the British colony deserted and the first white child born in America vanished.

16^th, (2007) A Wham! fan became the first noise nuisance to be prosecuted by Newcastle city council after he blasted out Last Christmas from 1am until 4am.

… (2003) ‘Idi Amin dies’: The notorious former Ugandan president Idi Amin died today. Amin gained control of Uganda in 1971 after overthrowing the government in a military coup and soon after announced plans to expel 50,000 Asians from Uganda. By 1977 he was coming under increasing pressure from around the world amid accusations of mass murder, including that of the Anglican Archbishop of Uganda. He headed a bloody incursion into Tanzania the following year but fled from his country a few months later when 45,000 Tanzanian troops invaded Uganda in revenge, ending his regime of terror.

… (2001) Astronomers discover a new solar system.

… (1991) The credibility of the English Football League was dealt a severe blow today when the 22 clubs that make up the First Division resigned en masse. Their intention is to form a breakaway super-league under the auspices of the Football Association. The clubs believe that this would enable them to generate more revenue from television contracts and sponsorship deals. The FA is in favour of the new league.

… (1979) Death of John G. Diefenbaker, Canadian statesman and Progressive Conservative prime minister who opposed nuclear weapons in Canada.

… (1977) ‘The King is dead’: Elvis Presley, the king of rock ‘n’ roll, died today after collapsing at his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital but failed to respond to treatment. Speculation is rife that the 42-year-old singer may have committed suicide. Presley took the world of popular music by storm in the mid-50s with a potent combination of blues-style singing and a sexually up-front stage act; the 60s revolution in pop music owed a great deal to him. Presley is estimated to have grossed $1000 million (£540 million) from records, films and other merchandise in his lifetime.

… (1975) Peter Gabriel leaves the band Genesis: his position as lead singer is taken over by drummer Phil Collins.

… (1968) The first Poseidon missile is launched.

… (1962) ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder released his first single, I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues, aged 12.

… (1960) ‘Cyprus is a new republic’: The new republic of Cyprus came into being today. The road to independence has been a tortuous one for the eastern Mediterranean island, which lies between Turkey and the Levant. Led by Archbishop Makarios III, the Greek population (numbering some 80 per cent of the island’s total) had been agitating for enosis, or union with Greece, for almost 100 years, since Britain took over administration of the island from the Ottomans. In return for independence the Cypriots have given undertakings not to participate in political or economic union with any other state. Future partition into separate Greek and Turkish enclaves has also been prohibited.

… (1949) Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone with the Wind, dies after being hit by a car two days previously.

… (1930) The first British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games) got underway in Hamilton, Ontario, in Canada.

… (1886) Death of Ned Buntline, the American author who pioneered the dime novel.

… (1886) Death of Ramakrishna, the Indian Hindu saint and religious educator who taught the essential unity and truth of all religions.

… (1819) ‘Blood Spilt for Suffrage’: An orderly political reform meeting held in St Peter’s Field’s, Manchester, broke up in confusion and violence today, leaving 11 dead and some 400 injured. Magistrates, alarmed by the 60,000-strong crowd that had turned out for the event, ordered the Manchester Yeomanry to seize the speakers, including fiery orator Henry Hunt. When the Yeomanry also started setting about those carrying “revolutionary” banners, the chairman of the bench of magistrates ordered the 15^th Hussars and the Cheshire Volunteers to clear the crowd. The incident is sure to aggravate the ill-feeling that exists between radicals and the Tory establishment. The rally itself was intended as a high point in the political campaign for universal suffrage.

15^th, (1998) 31 people were killed by a Real IRAC car bomb in Omagh, County Tyrone.

… (1990) One hundred and fifty people are killed during violent clashes in the townships outside Johannesburg in South Africa.

… (1989) Giant mutant trees are found growing around the damaged Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl.

… (1987) Corporal punishment is banned in Britain except in independent schools.

… (1967) ‘Jolly Rogers strike their flags’: The Marine Broadcasting Offences Bill introduced by the British Labour government looks set to sink the offshore pirate radio stations that have revolutionised broadcasting over the past few years. The bill, which comes into force today, is designed to starve the pirates of the revenue that keeps them afloat by making it illegal for British firms to advertise with them. Working for, or supplying the vessels, is also an offence. The government hopes that the new nationwide pop network to be launched by the BBC will compensate the public for the loss of the pirates. However, the station that started the pirate phenomenon, Radio Caroline, promises to continue broadcasting from international waters off the Essex coast.

… (1965) A Beatles concert draws 65,000 fans to Shea Stadium, New York, and creates a new outdoor audience record.

… (1965) Twenty thousand National Guards are called in to control the race riots which are being fought in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

… (1962) John Lennon and Paul McCartney drove from Liverpool to Skegness to ask Ringo Starr to join the Beatles. With an offer of £25 a week, the drummer accepted.

… (1955) Twelve Indian protestors demanding the return of Goa are killed by Portuguese troop.

… (1948) The Republic of Korea – also known as South Korea – was established.

… (1947) India gains independence from Britain with Jawaharlal Nehru as her first prime minister.

… (1914) The 52 mile (82 km) Panama Canal is opened, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

… (1534) Former Spanish knight Ignatius Loyola today led his small band of followers to Montmartre in Paris, where they bound themselves by vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Loyola has already appeared before the religious authorities in Spain and France to explain his unusual lifestyle. Between 1522 and his arrival in the French capital in 1528, this routinely included begging, scourging himself and spending several hours a day in prayer. The 43-year-old student now aims to study for the priesthood “to be able to help souls”.

… (1057) The Scottish king Macbeth, who killed King Duncan I in 1040, is killed by Duncan’s son Malcolm.

…By yesterday morning British troops were patrolling the streets of Belfast. I fear that once Catholics and Protestants get used to our presence they will hate us more than they hate each other. [Richard Crossman, British politician, 1969.]

14^th, (2003) Blackouts cause chaos in north-east America and Canada as 50 million are without power.

… (1994) Venezuelan terrorist “Carlos the Jackal” is arrested in Sudan.

… (1986) Benazir Bhutto, daughter of executed politician and former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, is jailed by Pakistani dictator General Zia.

… (1984) British novelist and dramatist J.B. Priestley, author of The Good Companions, dies at the age of 89.

… (1980) Polish workers take over the shipyard at Gdansk in Poland.

… (1975) The Rocky Horror Picture Show opened in the UK.

… (1969) The first British troops enter Northern Ireland.

… (1956) Death of Bertolt Brecht, Marxist German playwright and poet whose works include the play Galileo and the libretto for Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera.

… (1956) ‘Close encounters for the RAF’: Between 11 pm last night and 3 am this morning Royal Air Force personnel were involved in an extraordinary game of cat-and-mouse with several unidentified flying objects. One of these was tracked by ground radar and also seen with the naked eye by operators in the radar tower at RAF Lakenheath as a bright light passing overhead. An RAF pilot reported seeing the object streak beneath his aircraft. A second radar station was then alerted. After detecting a stationary target that suddenly raced northwards at 600 mph (965 kph), the second station called in an RAF fighter to investigate. The pilot made airborne radar contact with the object, only to have it move behind his fighter. Despite the pilot’s best efforts, the object could not be shaken off. A second aircraft was called in, at which point the object moved off and all radar contacts were lost.

… (1952) Former PM Anthony Eden married Clarissa Spencer-Churchill, Winston’s niece.

… (1951) Death of Randolph Hearst, king of America’s yellow press and inspiration for Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane.

… (1949) Konrad Adenauer becomes chancellor of West Germany.

… (1947) Pakistan becomes independent from India to satisfy the Muslim League’s demand for a separate state for the Muslim minority.

… (1922) Death of Lord Northcliffe, founder of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror newspapers.

… (1619) ‘New colony goes legal’: The colony established in the New World in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London held its first legislative assembly in Jamestown today. The historic assembly was made possible by charters secured last year, which transformed the government of the colony from the Crown to the Company. The first of its kind in the New World, it may point the way forward to new colonies as and when they become established. Under the chairmanship of Governor Sir George Yeardley, the new assembly passed laws against drinking and gambling.

…All one’s intentions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry. [Gustave Flaubert, in a letter to Louise Colet, 1853.]

13^th, (1989) Twelve people are killed in Australia when two hot air balloons collide in the worst-ever hot air balloon disaster: one of them plunges 600 ft (182 m) to the ground.

… (1978) A building which served as the Beirut HQ of the Palestinian Liberation Front and contained the offices of their rivals, Al-Fatah, was ripped apart by a bomb today, leaving an estimated 150 people dead. Soon after the attack the pro-Iraqi PLF accused the pro-Syrian Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine of attempting to annihilate its leadership. Later, however the PLF blamed “American and Israeli intelligence agents” instead.

… (1971) The American saxophonist King Curtis is stabbed to death in a fight outside his New York City apartment building.

… (1962) On the first anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall, an East-German, Peter Fechter, is shot and bleeds to death while trying to escape from the East.

… (1946) Death of the British novelist H.G. Wells, whose books include The Time Machine and The Shape of Things to Come.

… (1910) Death of the nurse Florence Nightingale, the “Lady with the Lamp” during the Crimean War who transformed the appalling conditions in military hospitals and founded the nursing profession.

… (1814) The British take over the colony at the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch.

… (1704) ‘Churchill’s glory days’: The allied armies of the Grand Coalition won a resounding victory today over a numerically superior Franco-Bavarian force at Blenheim, north of the Danube. Led by John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and his “twin-captain”, Eugene, Prince of Savoy, the allied army of 52,000 men mounted a surprise attack on the 56,000-strong enemy force. By the end of the afternoon the French and Bavarians had been routed, many drowning in the Danube as they attempted to escape. To add insult to the 21,000 French battle casualties, their commander, Marshall Tallard, was also captured. The Elector of Bavaria is expected to be heading for Hochstadt, leaving the encircled garrison of Blenheim to fend for itself. The victory has saved Vienna from imminent capture by the French and breathed new life into the flagging coalition. Recognition of Churchill as a soldier of genius also seems assured.

12^th, (2000) Russian nuclear submarine Kursk sinks during training in the Barents Sea. After nine days of confusion and misinformation, an internal rescue attempt to save the 188 crew proves too late.

… (1990) ‘Truth will out’: The Communist Chinese government’s attempt to restore its tarnished image after the slaughter in Tiananmen Square has received a severe setback. The riots which broke out last March in the Tibetan capital Lhasa were brought under control relatively painlessly, according to Beijing. Official documentation of the disturbances now reveals that more than 450 were killed, the majority by bullets, 750 injured and 3000 detained. More embarrassing still for Beijing is the revelation that the riots were provoked by members of the People’s Armed Police. Dressed as Tibetans, these agents provocateurs attacked and burned shops, offices and food stores, providing the authorities with the excuse they needed for cracking down on a native population whose resentment against Chinese rule was reaching boiling point.

… (1983) In Santiago, Chile, 17 people are killed in a demonstration against military dictator General Pinochet.

… (1980) The first giant panda born in captivity is delivered safely at a zoo in Mexico.

… (1964) Great Trainer Robber Charlie Wilson escapes from jail.

… (1964) Ian Fleming, the man who created secret agent James Bond 007, dies of heart failure.

… (1960) Communications satellite Echo is launched at Cape Canaveral.

… (1959) Parents and children in Arkansas riot over racial segregation in schools.

… (1955) Death of German novelist Thomas Mann, whose books include Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain.

… (1907) Prince Borghese of Italy wins the Paris-Peking motor race, having travelled 8,000 miles (12,874 km) in 62 days.

… (1877) ‘At the cutting edge of hi-tech’: Thomas Edison, the 30-year-old wizard of new technology, is on the brink of developing his first wholly original invention. A small group of people at Edison’s “invention factory” gathered at Menlo Park, New Jersey, to witness a public demonstration of the new device – a phonograph – which records the human voice. They listened dumbfounded to a recording of Edison reciting “Mary had a little lamb”.  The phonograph has been ingeniously adapted from the telegraph repeater: a telephone diaphragm connects to an embossing needle which impresses on a suitable material the variations of the human voice.

… (1865) During an operation at Glasgow Royal Infirmary today British surgeon Joseph Lister, 38, demonstrated a method of preventing infection of an operation wound. It involves the use of carbolic acid as an antiseptic to protect the patient against microorganisms. Lister hopes that his method will lead to a drop in the current 50 per cent mortality rate among amputation cases.

… (1848) Death of George Stephenson, who invented the steam locomotive “Rocket”.

… (1827) ‘Blake’s heaven’: British artist and poet William Blake has died. He studied as a young man under Joshua Reynolds and became an illustrator, portraying Biblical scenes with prophetic vision. He did not receive recognition until his final years with works such as Milton and Jerusalem.

… (1822) ‘Mystery of Cabinet suicide’: The British foreign secretary, Lord Castlereagh, slit his throat tonight with a penknife. He was 53. Despite holding the portfolio for foreign affairs, Castlereagh received much of the blame for the repressive policy in home affairs presided over by the prime minister, the Earl of Liverpool. He had a hard time of foreign policy matters, too, with few Cabinet colleagues understanding his aim of maintaining a balance of power between the leading European nations. Severe in manner and a poor public speaker, Castlereagh was always unpopular. It is unclear, however, whether political problems caused him to take his life. Some sources suggest that he may have committed suicide rather than face exposure for sexual misconduct.

… (1791) African slaves in Santo Domingo, in the east of the island of Hispaniola, mount a violent revolt against plantation owners.

11^th, (1990) Forty Britons and five Irish people trapped in Kuwait by the Iraqi invasion celebrate their freedom after a dash across the desert in a convoy of four-wheel drive vehicles.

… (1971) ‘Heath takes the Helm’: British PM Edward Heath proved his abilities as a team captain at sea today by leading the British contingent to victory in the 605-mile (973-km) Fastnet race for the Admiral’s cup. Heath, 55, will need all his skills at the political rudder if he is to steer his government’s policy on Northern Ireland into calmer waters. So far the introduction of emergency powers enabling the army to round up 300 IRA suspects and intern them without trial has produced an escalation rather than a reduction in violence in the province.

… (1968) Britain’s last mainline steam passenger train, the ‘Fifteen Guinea Special’, ran from Liverpool to Carlisle.

… (1965) Violent race riots begin the Watts area of Los Angeles.

… (1962) Chad becomes independent from France.

… (1959) Cliff Richard and The Drifters (later known as The Shadows) were at No 1 with Living Doll.

… (1952) Crown Prince Hussein of Jordon is named successor to his schizophrenic father King Talal.

… (1942) Russian composer Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony is premiered in Leningrad by a half-starved orchestra, many of whose members had just returned from the Russian front-line.

… (1932) US president Herbert Hoover says it is time to scrap Prohibition.

… (1930) England goes broke – America and France each lend £25 million ($46 million), while US bankers extend another £60 million ($111 million).

… (1919) ‘Steel man’s gold heart’: Andrew Carnegie, the steel baron with a heart of gold, has died at his home in Lennox, Massachusetts. He was 84. The Carnegie family moved from Scotland to the US in 1848. Andrew joined the Penn Railway Co. and worked his way up to Superintendant. He first struck oil on his own land and in business invested in iron manufacturers. By the turn of the century 25 per cent of steel output in the USA was produced by Carnegie owned companies. In 1901 Carnegie retired. In his lifetime he set aside $350 million (£189 million) for philanthropic purposes. Foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation of New York will ensure he is not forgotten.

… (1893) ‘Diesel overheats’: The attempt by eminent German engineer Rudolf Diesel to devise a heat engine has once more almost cost him his life. In Augsburg yesterday, Diesel’s latest model generated 80 atmospheres, the highest mechanically created pressure ever recorded, before the indicator plate exploded, narrowly missing the 35-year-old engineer’s head. Despite this setback, Diesel plans to have a revised engine ready in six months. Diesel has spent 12 years developing his engine that can be adapted to suit all industrial requirements, including those of large-scale manufacturers. In 1888 Diesel was almost killed when the ammonia gas he was testing as a fuel for the engine exploded.

… (1853) A French protectorate is established in Cambodia, following years of attacks by the Thais and Vietnamese.

10^th, (2003) Britain recorded its hottest day to date, as the temperature hit 38.1c (100.5f) in Kent. (In July 2022, temperatures hit a new record of 40.3c or 104.5f).

… (1990) After a 15-month journey from Earth, NASA’s Magellan spacecraft began mapping Venus.

… (1984) ‘Mary’s Zola Eclipse’: Mary Decker, America’s golden girl of athletics who was double gold medallist at last year’s world championships in Helsinki, crashed out of today’s 3000 metre Olympics final in Los Angeles. The catastrophe came when she tripped over the leg of barefoot runner Zola Budd, the South African recently given UK citizenship in order to represent Britain in the Games. Budd was disqualified instantly by referee Andy Bakjian. His decision was later overturned by an eight-member jury who, after studying film of the race, ruled that 18-year-old Budd was not to blame – the accident had occurred because of Decker’s “aggressive tactics”.

… (1966) The first American moon satellite, Orbiter I, is launched.

… (1964) Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones is fined £32 ($59) for driving a car with no insurance in Liverpool.

… (1961) Britain applies to join the EEC.

… (1961) 14-year-old Helen Shapiro became the youngest female chart topper with the single You Don’t Know.

… (1948) Hidden camera TV show Candid Camera was first screened in the U.S. The show was launched in Britain in 1960.

… (1913) The Treaty of Bucharest is signed, ending the second Balkan War and partitioning Macedonia between Serbia, Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.

… (1889) The screw bottle top is patented at the Hope Glass Works near Barnsley, Yorkshire, England.

… (1896) Otto Lilienthal, the German aviation pioneer, dies after a glider crash which occurred yesterday.

… (1885) The first Promenade Concert, organised by Sir Henry Wood, is held at Queen’s Hall in London.

… (1846) The Smithsonian Institution for scientific research is established in Washington with a bequest from English scientist James Smithson.

… (1792) In a virtual re-run of the storming of the Bastille some three years ago, members of a new revolutionary Commune attacked the Tuileries this morning. In the forefront of the attack were the Bretons and Marseillais. The royal family has fled for protection to the Legislative Assembly, with no guarantee of safety.

… (1788) ‘HarmonIOUs’: August 10 seems a proposition day for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Last year on this day the prolific Salzburg-born composer completed Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, a tuneful little piece, and today he finished his “Jupiter” symphony. Despite his almost constant composing, however – three complete symphonies since June 26 this year – and his appointment as Kammermusicus to write music for court balls, the 32-year-old Mozart is deeply in debt with no relief in sight.

… (1675) The foundation stone of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, is laid by King Charles II.

… (843 A.D.) The Treaty of Verdun divides the Frankish empire.

9^th, (1975) Death of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who wrote his first symphony at the age of 18.

… (1974) Gerald R. Ford today became the first American president ever to take office without being chosen by the American people in a national election. The 38^th president turned down offers to become a professional footballer to go to Michigan University then Yale Law School. He served in the navy in World War Two and was elected in 1949 as a Republican to the House of Representatives, and began his political career.

… (1965) Singapore is separated from Malaysia and becomes an independent state within the Commonwealth of Nations.

… (1958) 17-year-old Cliff Richard, Britain’s answer to Elvis Presley, signed a record deal with EMI.

… (1945) An atomic bomb identical to the one released by the US Air Force over the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 has been exploded over Nagasaki. Fifty per cent of the city’s area has been destroyed. The original target, Kokura, had to be abandoned when bad weather prevented the location of the aim point.

… (1942) Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Britain for his “Quit India” campaign, which demands that the British should immediately withdraw from India.

… (1919) Death of Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer best known for the opera I Pagliacci.

… (1902) After a six week delay due to an emergency appendectomy, 64- year old Edward VII is crowned king of England.

… (1898) German inventor Rudolf Diesel patented the diesel internal combustion engine.

… (1867) John Harrison Surratt is arrested as an alleged conspirator in the assassination of American president Abraham Lincoln.

… (1814) ‘Creek Tragedy’: A settlement of the dispute between the US government and the Creek Indians was formally concluded today with the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Under the terms of the treaty the Indians are to lose 23 million acres (9.3 million hectares) of land, comprising over half of Alabama and part of southern Georgia, to the US. The war flared up last August with the Creeks’ fears about losing traditional hunting grounds to white settlers. Their first foray ended in the massacre of frontierspeople at Fort Mims, on the lower Alabama River. The response from the US authorities was swift. A 5000-strong militia under General Andrew Jackson wiped out two Indian villages and this spring, at the Battle of Horseshow Bend, killed more than 800 warriors and took 500 women and children prisoner. The Indians’ campaign was chaotic, for at no time were all 50 Creek towns united in aim, and some towns chose to fight with the US. Unfortunately, the punishment meted out to the Creeks is not selective and affects the many who supported Jackson.

… (1794) General Napoleon Bonaparte is arrested in France on suspicion of Robespierrism.

… (1653) Maarten Harpertzoon Tromp, the Dutch admiral who fought against Spain and England, is killed after a battle with the English fleet off the Dutch coast.

8^th, (2001) Hollywood’s golden couple, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, divorced. Cruise broke the news to reporters at a film premiere that night.

… (1991) British journalist John McCarthy is freed by the Lebanese terrorist group who have been holding him hostage.

… (1974) ‘Nixon quits’: Richard Nixon made history today as the first US president to resign in office. In an emotional television address to the nation, Mr. Nixon admitted to errors of judgement which he said demanded that he stand down. Only four days ago the beleaguered president was forced to own up to his complicity in the break-in by members of his re-election committee to the Democratic Party Committee’s HQ in the Watergate building, Washington, in June 1972. Evidence of political espionage and dirty tricks campaign against his opponents had been mounting. The resignation will take effect as of noon tomorrow, when Nixon’s deputy, Gerald Ford, will be sworn in as the 38^th president of the United States.

… (1973) American vice-president Spiro Agnew goes under investigation for tax evasion.

… (1969) Photographer Iain Macmillan took the iconic zebra crossing photo of the Beatles for their Abbey Road album cover.

… (1964) At a Rolling Stones concert in The Hague in Holland riots break out and two girls get their clothes torn off.

… (1963) The US, Britain and the USSR sign the nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the Kremlin.

… (1963) ‘Train robbers net millions’: In one of the most audacious hold-ups of all time, thieves have got away with an estimated £2.5 million ($4.6 million) in unused, and therefore untraceable, bank notes from a night mail train travelling between Glasgow and London. The hijack was executed at about 3 am this morning. The robbers, masked and wearing combat fatigues, brought the high-security train to a halt at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire, by tampering with the signalling system. The engine and first two coaches were uncoupled and taken further down the track where the contents of the so-called High Value Package coach were offloaded into waiting vehicles. Driver Jack Mills offered resistance and was beaten over the head with a length of lead piping. The Post Office has offered a £10,000 ($18,500) reward for information leading to an arrest.

… (1944) Hitler has four top men hung by piano wire for attempting to assassinate him.

… (1900) The first Davis Cup tennis tournament begins at Brookline, Massachusetts.

… (1844) The Mormon Church is slowly gathering itself in the aftermath of the death of founder Joseph Smith, at the hands of an Illinois mob on June 17. The man who has emerged to take Smith’s place is Brigham Young, named third of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1835. The major task on Young’s agenda is to find the sect a safe place to settle.

… (1834) Britain introduces workhouses for the poor.

… (1786) ‘Mont Blanc Conquered’: Mont Blanc, at 15, 771 ft (4807 m) the tallest peak in Europe outside the Caucasus, has been conquered at last. Twenty-five years ago a scientist from Geneva named Horace Benedict de Saussure offered prize money for the first ascent of this glory in the Alpine chain. The prize has been claimed by a local man, Doctor Michael Gabriel Paccard of Chamonix, who completed the climb with his porter, Jacques Balmat.

… (1588) The Spanish Armada is finally defeated by the British.

… (1576) Work begins in Denmark on the first purpose-built observatory.

…Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth, to see it like it is and to tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth and live with the truth. That’s what we’ll do. [Richard Milhous Nixon, nomination speech, 1968.]

7^th, (2001) The NHS renationalised a private specialist hospital for the first time – the Heart Hospital just off Harley Street.

… (1998) ‘US embassies in Africa bombed’: At least 200 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured in explosions at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which took place within minutes of each other. No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but US officials believe the attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden, an Islamic Muslim fundamentalist. The first blast occurred in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam and caused widespread devastation, destroying the reception area of the embassy. The second, five minutes later, was in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The explosion demolished a five-storey office block, which crashed down onto the embassy next door. The US embassy was badly damaged and its bomb-proof doors ripped off. Two passing buses were also wrecked. Volunteers have worked hard to pull survivors from the rubble and cranes are freeing those who are trapped.

… (1987) In an unexpected move, Dr David Owen announced his resignation yesterday as leader of Britain’s Social Democratic Party. The decision comes in the wake of his party’s vote for merger with the Liberal Party. Dr Owen, one of the original “Gang of Four” who abandoned the Labour Party to set up the SDP in 1981, is vehemently opposed to such a union. A breakaway Social Democratic Party with Dr Owen at the helm is on the cards, although the idea of a fourth political party is being ridiculed as pie in the sky.

… (1987) ‘Central Cooling’: The leaders of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica signed a 14-page peace plan in Guatemala City today which aims to settle a 10-year-old conflict in the region. The plan, the brainchild of Costa Rica’s dynamic young president Oscar Arias, calls for a ceasefire in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, an end to all foreign involvement in the region’s affairs, including US sponsorship of the Nicaraguan Contra guerrillas, and an amnesty for political prisoners.

… (1973) Ugandan dictator Idi Amin said all Asians who were not citizens must leave the country within 90 days. About 30,000 found sanctuary in the UK.

… (1944) IBM dedicated its five-ton Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) – the largest electromechanical calculator ever built to Harvard University – to be known as Harvard Mark I.

… (1938) Death of Konstantin Stanislavsky, the influential Russian theatre director, actor and teacher who founded the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898 and pioneered “method” acting.

… (1929) The Graf-Zeppelin airship takes off for a planned trip around the world.

… (1926) At the first British Grand Prix motor-race, held at Brooklands, the average speed of the winning car is 71.61 mph (115.24 kph).

… (1913) American aviator Samuel Cody becomes Britain’s first air fatality when his plane crashes at Farnborough.

… (1840) ‘Say bye bye to little sooty sweeps’: The British Parliament has passed a law forbidding the indenturing of child sweeps. Supporters of the bill have waged an emotive campaign against the practice, citing the appalling conditions in which climbing boys live and work. In addition to the risk of serious accident and misshapen limbs from climbing chimneys, the boys are also liable to suffer respiratory disease and cancer of the groin as a result of the fumes and soot. Some masters, it is claimed, deliberately starve their lads to keep them undersized, and reluctant climbing boys are driven up narrow flues by pricking or scorching the soles of their feet. Until an efficient sweeping machine is patented, however, there is every likelihood of the trade continuing unabated, especially if the new law is not strictly enforced.

… (1830) Louis Philippe is proclaimed King of France on the abdication of Charles X.

6^th, (2003) Gene Robinson becomes the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion.

… (1964) While studying to determine its age, Donald Rusk Currey felled a tree that turned out to be the oldest ever discovered at that time. The Great Basin bristlecone pine, in Nevada, was at least 4,862 years old.

… (1962) Ugandan dictator Idi Amin throws 50,000 Asians out of Uganda.

… (1962) Jamaica gained independence after being a British colony for more than 300 years.

… (1945) The first atomic bomb was dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan, from a B29 bomber Enola Gay. At around 8.15 this morning an atomic bomb, dubbed “Little Boy”, was released by the bomber of the US Air Force above the central Japanese city. Two-thirds of the city has been destroyed and at least 140,000 people have been killed. Few people in the immediate vicinity of the epicentre are thought to have survived the blast. US President Harry Truman was made aware of the bomb’s destructive capabilities three weeks ago. His decision to use it was made in the face of a terrible conundrum: how to end World War II. The Japanese military are committed to a fight-to-the-death policy and it would take a further half million American lives to force them into surrender by conventional means.

… (1932) The first film festival was held in the hotel Excelsior, Venice.

… (1931) Bix Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter, died aged 28 from a combination of pneumonia and alcoholism. He was the first white jazz musician to be admired by black performers.

… (1890) Murderer Walter Kemmler was the first man to die in the electric chair, in New York.

… (1881) Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, was born.

… (1859) “Worth a guinea a box” appeared on Beecham’s Powders packets – the first known advertising slogan.

… (1806) Holy Roman Emperor Francis II abdicates.

… (1497) Italian-born English explorer John Cabot returns to London after discovering what he thinks is Asia but what is in fact Cape Breton Island off the coast of Canada.

5^th, (2000) ‘Sir Alec Guinness dies at 86’: One of Britain’s most famous film actors, Sir Alec Guinness, has died at the age of 86. Sir Alec first made his name with classical roles in London theatre, but in a career which spanned nearly 70 years, he played comedy, tragedy and farce. His performances spanned a wide range of roles – from adaptations of the novels of Charles Dickens to blockbuster films such as Star Wars. He was always in demand during the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and built a close working relationship with British director, the late Sir David Lean, who directed him in Lawrence of Arabia. Sir Alec won an Oscar for his performance as the British colonel in another cinema classic, The Bridge on the River Kwai.

… (1990) Iraq claims that its troops have begun withdrawing from Kuwait.

… (1990) President Bush sends US marines into Liberia, capital of Monrovia, to evacuate American nationals and protect the US embassy.

… (1984) Welsh-born actor Richard Burton, twice husband of Elizabeth Taylor, dies of a stroke at his home in Switzerland.

… (1979) British prime minister Margaret Thatcher says that rebel leaders in Rhodesia must hold talks.

… (1958) The nuclear-powered submarine Nautilus, under Commander William R. Anderson, has completed an historic 2000-mile (3200-km) underwater journey from Point Barrow in Alaska to the Greenland Sea. The 319-ft (97 m) craft passed directly under the North Pole during its five-day voyage. The achievement makes an appropriate finale to the 1957-8 International Geo-physical year.

… (1936) ‘Brilliant Owens blows Aryan myth’: The German Chancellor Adolf Hitler today turned his back on a living refutation of his theory of Aryan superiority. As 23-year-old black American athlete Jesse Owens was acknowledging the cheers of the vast crowd after his gold-medal triumph in the 200 metres final of the 11^th Olympiad, the disgruntled Führer left the stadium. The multi-talented Owens has turned the Führer’s racist philosophy on its head by winning gold in the 100 metres, 200 metres and the long jump. A fourth gold medal, in the 4 x 100 metres relay, is almost a certainty, too. After the long jump, in which Owens smashed the world record, Hitler privately congratulated silver medallist German Lutz Long, ignoring the American. The Führer’s pique at having a “black mercenary” – the name given to Owens and his fellow black Americans by propaganda minister Josef Goebbels – threaten his party to glorify the Third Reich is not spoiling the genial American athlete’s fun, however. He is revelling in the warmth of the Berlin crowd and his own hard-earned achievements.

… (1914) The first electric traffic lights are installed in Cleveland, Ohio.

… (1895) Death of Friedrich Engels, German political theorist and co-author of The Communist Manifesto.

… (1861) National income tax is introduced in the US, initially to fund the Civil War.

… (1858) ‘US-UK Link-up’: The completion today of the world’s first transatlantic telegraph cable is a dream come true for American financier Cyrus West Field, 39, who has sunk his considerable financial resources and mental energies into this monumental project. The cable, which runs between Ireland and Newfoundland, was laid jointly by the naval vessels USS Niagara and HMS Agamemnon. Later this month Queen Victoria and US President Buchanan will inaugurate the line by exchanging messages.

… (1792) Death of Lord North, British prime minister 1770-82, during which time his vacillation led to the loss of the American colonies.

… (1729) Death of Thomas Newcomen, the Englishman who invented the first automatic steam engine.

4^th, (2002) One of the largest manhunts ever known in the UK is launched after two Soham schoolgirls disappear.

… (2000) ‘Queen Mother Celebrates Centenary’: Celebrations have been taking place all over the country to mark the 100^th birthday of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. She is the first member of the Royal Family to reach her centenary and is said to be “very pleased indeed”. Many presents and cards have been delivered to Clarence House, the Queen Mother’s home in London. Accompanied by Prince Charles, the Queen Mother made her way to Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn carriage adorned with flowers. More than 40,000 well-wishers gathered to watch the Queen Mother and her daughters step onto the balcony of the Palace. This evening, the Queen Mother will attend a performance by the Kirov Ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. And it was not just in London that the occasion was marked. A 21-gun salute was fired from the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, from Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland, and from Cardiff City Hall. And at Glorious Goodward, a race has been named in her honour.

… (1990) Naomi Christie, President of the British Women Pilot’s Association, celebrates her 79^th birthday with a flight standing up on top of a Tiger Moth.

… (1990) Iraq installs a nice-man puppet government in Kuwait and sets up a new People’s Army.

… (1990) A multi-million dollar counterfeiting ring is smashed after a man is arrested in London with printing plates for producing dollar notes and enough security paper to print $25 million.… (1987) Death of the “Vamp”, Polish-born silent movie star Pola Negri whose erotic performances in such films as Forbidden Paradise and Madame Bovary often had to be toned down.

… (1975) Robert Plant, the vocalist with Led Zeppelin, is involved with his wife and children in a serious car crash on the Isle of Wight.

… (1955) The latest avant-garde play from Paris, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, provoked a mixed response from its first-night audience in London last night. About half of those present gave up on the nonsensical dialogue and absence of plot and walked out before the end. Those who stayed until curtain down cheered their support for the play’s message – that the meaningless of life is reflected in our inability to communicate with others. The play, Beckett’s first, was well received at its world premier in Paris two years ago. London playgoers, however, are wondering what Beckett can possibly write next.

… (1954) Britain’s first supersonic fighter plane, the P-1 English Electric Lightning, makes its maiden flight.

… (1940) The Italians invade the country of British Somaliland in East Africa.

… (1914) ‘All over by Christmas?’: The system of alliances by which the nations of Europe hoped to protect themselves looks set to bring about their destruction. The latest recruit to the European conflict is Great Britain. HM government has given Germany until 11 pm GMT this evening to signal its willingness to withdraw from Belgium. Confidence is high that the war, if it comes, will be a short one and will possibly be over by Christmas.

… (1875) ‘Fairytale Ending’: The death was announced in Copenhagen today of Hans Christian Andersen, famed the world over for his fairy tales and stories. He was 70. Andersen was born into poverty in Odense, the son of a cobbler and a woman who was both superstitious and illiterate. At the age of only 14 he left his job as a tailor’s apprentice and went to Copenhagen to seek his fortune on the stage. The director of the Royal Theatre, Jonas Collin, took an interest in the boy, sending him to grammar school and eventually to university. His first book of fairy tales, published in 1835, soon became a bestseller throughout the world. His timeless tales do not pander to wish-fulfilment and leave the reader wiser rather than happier.

… (1578) The Portuguese King and his court are killed in a failed crusade to Morocco.

… (1060) Henri I, third Capetian king of France, dies after a 29-year reign and is succeeded by Philip I.

…We draw the sword with a clear conscience and with clean hands. [Kaiser Wilhelm II, in a speech in Berlin, 1914.]

3^rd, (2012) Team GB won three more gold medals at the London Olympics: cyclist Victoria Pendleton in the keirin, rowers Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkinson in the women’s double sculls, and the men’s cycling pursuit team. In total, Team GB won 65 medals – 29 gold, 17 silver and 19 bronze.

… (1989) A mysterious explosion in a London hotel blows a man to pieces and rips out two floors.

… (1971) In London, three men are sentenced to between 99 and 15 months in jail for publishing the obscene “Schoolkids Issue” of the underground magazine Oz.

… (1966) American comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead after having taken an overdose of morphine – police place his body next to a syringe for the benefit of newspaper photographers.

… (1926) The first traffic lights in England are set up at London’s Piccadilly Circus.

… (1924) Death of Joseph Conrad, Polish-born British novelist whose books included The Secret Agent and Lord Jim.

… (1916) ‘Sir Roger hangs for treason’: One of Britain’s most distinguished civil servants, Sir Roger Casement, was hanged in London today for his involvement in the Easter uprising in Dublin. The former consul in Portuguese East Africa was an Ulster Protestant whose sympathy with the predominately Catholic Irish nationalists led him to seek aid for their cause in Germany and the United States. His attempt to recruit Irish prisoners-of-war to a German brigade that would play a key role in the planned uprising was unsuccessful. Casement returned from the failed mission in a German submarine and was arrested by British forces soon after landing.

… (1914) British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey said: “The lamps are going out all over Europe – we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime,” as Germany declared war on France.

… (1792) Death of Sir Richard Arkwright, the Englishman who invented the water-powered spinning frame.

… (1492) ‘Next stop – India’: Shortly before sunrise today a flotilla of three ships set sail from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera in search of a land called India. The leader of the expedition, Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus), thought to be a Genoese of Spanish-Jewish extraction, has spent the last eight years trying to get the project off the ground. The latest hitch came just seven months ago when his patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, were told of Colon’s price for undertaking the trip: a knighthood, the ranks of Grand Admiral and Viceroy (these to become hereditary) and 10 per cent of the receipts from his admiralty. The stunned monarchs dismissed Colon, but later recalled him and met all his demands. Colon claims to have received divine guidance in his career to date. He will need every iota to see him safely through the perilous adventure ahead.

… (1460) Scottish king James II is killed by the English during the siege of Roxburgh Castle.

… (216) In the Battle of Cannae a huge Roman army is defeated and its supply depot seized by a smaller army led by Carthaginian general Hannibal. Fifty thousand Roman soldiers are killed.

…The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime. [Lord Grey, British statesman, on the eve of the First World War, 1914.]

2^nd, (1990) ‘Saddam snatches oil-rich Kuwait’: Saddam Hussein today made good Iraq’s claim to the oil-rich state of Kuwait by invading it. Thousands of heavily armed Iraqi troops quickly cut through the paper-thin defences of their tiny Gulf neighbour and are now firmly in control of its capital, Kuwait City. The Al-Sabah family, which has ruled Kuwait for more than two centuries, has fled to Saudi Arabia. Tensions between the two countries have been high for several weeks since Saddam accused Kuwait of deliberately over-producing oil, thus depressing prices and damaging Iraq’s fragile economy. Iraq’s action has been condemned by world leaders, most forcibly by British PM Margaret Thatcher and US president George Bush who have not ruled out a military response to the crisis.

… (1980) A right-wing Italian terror group bombs Bologna railway station in Northern Italy, killing 84.

… (1964) US involvement in Vietnam escalates after a torpedo attack on the navy ship Maddox in the Tonkin Gulf: President Lyndon B. Johnson orders a retaliatory strike.

… (1963) The Beatles performed their final Cavern Club gig in Liverpool.

… (1948) “Reds under the Bed” in the US – American politician Alger Hiss testifies to the McCarthy hearings.

… (1945) The Potsdam Conference, the final allied summit of World War II, ends. It consisted of the ‘Big Three’ – the Soviets, the U.S. and the UK.

… (1918) British, French and US troops try to smash Lenin’s communist revolution by supporting the White forces and seizing Archangel.

… (1880) The British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

… (1875) The first roller skating-rink in London opened.

… (1849) ‘Ali out for the count’: The Egyptian ruler Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha died in Alexandria today, aged 80, a year after retiring from office. The many economic and administrative reforms introduced during the former soldier’s 44-year reign changed the face of Egyptian society. The traditional classes paid dearly for their ruler’s primary objective of increasing his own wealth and power. His personal ambition eventually led him to challenge the dominance of the Ottoman Sultan. The European powers stepped in to restore the status quo when the Sultan’s fleet deserted to Muhammad ‘Ali, in the wake of the decisive battle of Nezib (1839). However, Muhammad ‘Ali did not entirely lose out; the right of hereditary succession to Egypt and Sudan was conferred on his family.

… (1834) The South Australian Association gains a charter to found a colony.

… (1830) Charles X of France is overthrown and abdicates.

… (1798) ‘Nelson catches French napping’: A 14-vessel naval squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Horatio Nelson has scored a brilliant tactical victory over a 17-strong French fleet in the Mediterranean. The wily Nelson caught the French with their ensigns down – at anchor in Aboukir Bay, north of the River Nile in Egypt. Most of the French ratings were ashore getting water, leaving their commander de Breuys with 120 guns but no one to fire them. As Nelson’s fleet sailed into the attack on both sides of the anchored French men-of-war, de Breuys could not launch the classic response, a broadside. The battle, which started yesterday afternoon at around 4:30, did not end until early this morning. The French are reported to have lost 11 ships of the line and 2 frigates, 1700 of their men are dead, 1500 wounded and 3000 captured. The victorious British, whose losses amounted to only 1000 dead and wounded, aim to take home 6 of the captured vessels as prizes.

… (1788) Thomas Gainsborough, English landscape and portrait painter, dies.

… (1718) The first quadruple alliance is formed between Britain, France, the Holy Roman Emperor and The Netherlands to maintain the Treaties of Utrecht, recently repudiated by Spain.

… (1589) Henry II, the last Valois king, is stabbed to death by a mad Dominican monk.

… (1100) English King William Rufus is slain by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest – possibly assassinated by his younger brother, who became Henry I.

August 1^st, (1989) John Ogden, English concert pianist who suffered from schizophrenia, dies from pneumonia.

… (1987) The Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart married Banarama’s Siobhan Fahey in Normandy, France. They divorced in 1996.

… (1985) America agrees to sanctions against South Africa in protest against apartheid and in response to violent race riots.

… (1976) Actress Elizabeth Taylor obtained her second divorce from actor Richard Burton – and her sixth in total.

… (1975) ‘The thaw continues’: After three years of intensive negotiations the heads of government of the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and all the states of East and West Europe – with the sole exception of Enver Hoxha’s Albania – have signed the so-called Helsinki Agreement on security and cooperation. The accord is landmark in the gradual process of détente in which East and West have been engaged since the 1960s. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev has been forced to agree to the future protection of a wide range of human rights in order to acquire the advantageous economic links his country so desperately needs. The performance of each state will be monitored by another co-signatory.

… (1969) The first pictures of the planet Mars are beamed back to earth by the US Mariner 6 unmanned spacecraft.

… (1950) Australian prime minister Sir Robert Gordon Menzies promises to send troops to South Korea to join US forces in repelling the invasion by North Korea.

… (1944) ‘Poles urged to overthrow Nazis’: General Tadeusz Komorowski, commander of Poland’s Home Army, has ordered his 40,000-strong Warsaw units to start fighting the German occupying forces in order to oust them from the city and, eventually, the country. Radio Moscow has been broadcasting to the population of Warsaw, urging them to rise up. The First Belorussian Army Group, under Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, has advanced to the Vistula River, outside Warsaw, so help for the Poles seems to be close at hand.

… (1914) Germany declares war on Russia.

… (1834) Death of Robert Morrison, the first English missionary to go to China and translator of the Bible into Chinese.

… (1833) ‘Britons Never Never Shall Have Slaves’: In a momentous move, Britain has finally ended its 400-year involvement in slavery. The act passed by parliament today frees all slaves in the nation’s territories after a five- to seven-year apprenticeship. A sum of £20 million ($37 million) has been earmarked to compensate slave-owners. Today’s news marks a victory for the Anti-Slavery Society (formed in 1823) and their parliamentary leader, Thomas Fowell Buxton, who have campaigned hard for this amendment. It also completes the work begun some 40 years ago by William Wilberforce. Wilberforce’s bill abolishing the slave trade was eventually passed in 1807, after a series of setbacks to its progress since its inception in 1789. The new bill is expected to put fresh heart into the abolition campaign in the United States.

… (1831) The new London Bridge is opened by William IV and Queen Adelaide.

… (1798) Nelson attacks and annihilates the French fleet at Aboukir Bay, cutting off Napoleon’s supply route to his army in Egypt.

… (1778) The first savings bank opens in Hamburg, Germany.

… (1774) British chemist Sir Joseph Priestly announces that he has discovered oxygen.

… (1714) George Louis, Elector of Hanover, accedes to the British throne as George I on the death of Queen Anne.

July

31^st, (2020) Sir Alan Parker, the London-born director of Bugsy Malone, Fame and The Commitments, died aged 76.

… (2006) For medical reasons, Cuban president Fidel Castro handed over power to his brother Raul.

… (1990) In Trinidad, Muslim rebels release prime minister A.R. Robinson but continue to hold their other hostages in Port of Spain’s television station.

… (1989) ‘Kidnapped US Marine hanged’: The Organisation for the Oppressed of the Earth, a group of Shi’ite Muslim extremists closely linked with the pro-Iranian Hezbollah (Party of God), announced today that they have executed Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins, the US Marine abducted in Lebanon in February 1988. The group also release a video showing a bound and gagged man revolving slowly at the end of a rope. Close examination of the grisly low-quality tape has led the CIA to believe that William Higgins may have been killed at a much earlier date.

… (1979) Nigeria ceases British oil installations in a bid to persuade Margaret Thatcher to take a tough line on apartheid.

… (1975) Irish pop group the Miami Showband is ambushed and murdered by Protestant gunmen near Newry, Northern Ireland.

… (1970) After more than two centuries, Royal Navy sailors were issued with their final tot of daily rum.

… (1965) Cigarette commercials are banned on British television.

… (1964) A Rolling Stones concert in Belfast is halted after only 12 minutes because of rioting fans.

… (1964) ‘First success for Ranger programme’: NASA scientists are on the brink of answering many questions about the composition of the moon. At the seventh attempt they have succeeded in landing a functioning camera-equipped spacecraft on the surface of the earth’s only satellite. The 806-lb (365 kg) Ranger 7 probe reached its target area, the Mare Nubium, some 68 hours after blast off. The craft is fitted with six cameras, one covering a wide field of view, the other five taking close-ups of smaller areas. The pictures sent back so far reveal that part of the Moon is not covered with a deep layer of dust, as had been supposed. The surface material seems to have a spongy texture and is very different in composition from the rock found on Earth. Solar radiation and bombardment by meteors and other inter-planetary materials are only two of the phenomena that have gone into shaping the Moon’s landscape.

… (1958) ‘Tibetans rebel against China’: Kham tribesmen in eastern Tibet are reported to be increasing their guerrilla activity against Chinese troops. The armed resistance to the Chinese presence in Tibet is not as yet on the same scale witnessed last year in Kham province when tribesmen breached part of the main China-Tibet highway. But if the unrest spreads it may give the Chinese authorities an excuse to crack down on the rebels. Under the terms of the 1951 agreement Tibet supposedly enjoys full autonomy. In reality Peking makes all the decisions relating to domestic and foreign affairs.

… (1932) The Nazi party doubles its representation in the Reichstag.

… (1919) The Weimar Republic is established in Germany, named after the town in which the new German constitution was formulated.

… (1914) Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany rejects a British offer of mediation in the Austro-Serbian crisis as “insolence”.

… (1910) Wife-murderer Dr Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve are arrested on board the SS Montrose.

… (1875) Death of Andrew Johnson, Democratic president after the assassination of President Lincoln.

… (1703) Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe was put in the pillory for committing “seditious libel” with a satirical pamphlet. The public showed its support by throwing flowers at him, instead of rotten fruit.

… (1667) The Anglo-Dutch War ends with the Peace of Breda.

… (1556) Death of Ignatius Loyola, Spanish cleric who founded the Jesuit order to propagate the Roman Catholic faith.

…All politicians have vanity. Some wear it more gently than others. [David Steele, British politician, 1985.]

30^th, (2003) The last ‘classic’ VW Beetle rolled off the production line in Mexico. More than 21 million had been produced.

… (1987) Saudi Arabian police open fire on Iranian zealots during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

… (1980) The New Hebrides, in the South-West Pacific, gain independence from Britain and France and take the name Vanuatu Republic.

… (1973) The families of victims of the drug Thalidomide have been awarded £20 million ($11 million) in compensation after an 11-year legal battle fought on their behalf by the Sunday Times newspaper. The case began after it was discovered that the pill was associated with a high incidence of babies born with malformed limbs. The case has highlighted the need for greater stringency in the testing of new drugs.

… (1966) ‘England on top of the world’: England won the coveted Jules Rimet trophy, the World Cup of football, at Wembley Stadium this afternoon after an epic tussle with West Germany. It looked as if England were home and dry with a 2-1 victory, but then West Germany snatched a last-minute equaliser. Before the start of extra time, manager Alf Ramsay coolly told his exhausted players: “Well you’ve won it once. Now you’ll just have to do it all over again, and you will. The Germans are all knackered”. They did do it again, thanks to two goals by striker Geoff Hurst. At the final whistle the stadium erupted in celebration of England’s 4-2 triumph.

… (1963) British double agent Kim Philby turns up in Moscow, seven months after his disappearance in Beirut.

… (1958) A left-wing coup that overthrows the monarchy in Iraq arouses Western fears of a Middle Eastern domino effect.

… (1942) Canada approves conscription.

… (1930) In the first ever World Cup final, Uruguay beats Argentina 4-2 in Montevideo.

… (1898) Death of Prince Otto von Bismarck, first chancellor of the German empire.

… (1718) Death of William Penn, Quaker founder of Pennsylvania.

…I have come to regard the law courts not as a cathedral but rather as a casino. [Richard Ingrams, British editor, 1977.]

29^th, (1983) Actor David Niven, the quintessential English gentleman, dies of motor neurone disease.

… (1981) ‘750 million watch royal wedding’: The heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, married Lady Diana Frances Spencer in front of 750 million people today. The ceremony in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral was televised live throughout the world. In Britain the official public holiday was celebrated in street parties by hundreds of thousands of people. Of the few people working, one – staunch trade unionist Harry Crapper of Sheffield – said he did not agree with “all this junketing”. Another note of discord was sounded by the King and Queen of Spain who declined their invitation to the wedding because the royal couple’s honeymoon plans include picking up the royal yacht Britannia in Gibraltar, a long standing bone of contention between Britain and Spain.

… (1974) Cass Elliot, singer with the pop group the Mamas and the Papas, dies in London of a heart attack after choking on a sandwich.

… (1968) The Pope condemns all birth control.

… (1966) Death of Gordon Craig, British actor, theatre designer and producer and son of actress Ellen Terry.

… (1948) The first Olympic Games since World War Two opens at Wembley in London.

… (1914) Following the murder of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Tsar Nicholas II mobilises 1.2 million troops.

… (1900) King Umberto I of Italy is shot dead by an anarchist.

… (1890) Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh dies two days after shooting himself in the chest.

… (1858) ‘Japan grants US trade privileges’: US diplomat Townsend Harris has pulled off a spectacular trade coup for the US. He has persuaded the Japanese to agree to trade and diplomatic privileges with the United States. Harris has spent the past two years preparing the ground for this commercial treaty which opens five ports to US trade (in addition to those already opened under the terms of the Treaty of Kanagawa), exempts US citizens living in these areas from the jurisdiction of Japanese law, guarantees those same citizens religious freedoms and arranges for diplomatic representation and a tariff agreement between the two countries. Japan’s sudden willingness to negotiate may be explained by two factors: a change among the ruling elite; and the need to counter the mounting threat from Britain and France, whose joint naval force is currently on its way to Japan to obtain new treaties by force.

… (1833) Death of William Wilberforce, British philanthropist who was a prime mover in the anti-slavery campaign.

… (1830) French liberals opposed to Charles X’s restrictive new laws seize Paris.

… (1588) ‘Spanish invasion receives calm British reception’: The armada of 130 ships sent by King Philip of Spain to attempt an invasion of England was sighted today off Cornwall. The English fleet under Charles Howard, Baron Howard of Effingham, is confident of success, however. Howard has 197 ships with about 16,000 men, most of them seasoned sailors, at his disposal. His commanders seem equally nonchalant. Sir Francis Drake was playing a game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe when he received news of the armada’s approach. He finished the game before making for the fleet assembly point at Portsmouth. Factors that may tell against the Spanish in battle include the lack of experience of their new commander, the Duke de Medina Sidonia, and the lack of pace and manoeuvrability of their ships.

… (1565) Mary Queen of Scots marries her cousin Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley.

28^th, (1989) In the Lebanon Israelis abduct leading Shia Muslim Sheikh Abduk Obeid.

… (1965) President Lyndon Johnson sends another 50,000 US ground troops to Vietnam.

… (1960) UN secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld arrives in the Congo on a peace mission to end the civil war.

… (1945) A B-52 bomber crashes into the 78^th floor of the Empire State building, killing the three crew and 11 passengers.

… (1935) The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber makes its first flight at Seattle.

… (1914) Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

… (1868) A treaty is signed allowing unrestricted Chinese immigration to the USA.

… (1868) The Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution was formally ratified today. The main purpose of this latest addition to the US statute book is to extend to the 4.5 million or so black Americans the same personal and property rights enjoyed by other citizens of the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment builds on the provisions of the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery by defining, for the first time, national citizenship and unequivocally including black Americans within that definition.

… (1835) Eighteen bystanders are killed as French king Louis Philippe escapes assassination.

… (1794) In Paris, Maximillien Robespierre goes to the guillotine himself, having presided over the Reign of Terror in which at least 25,000 were beheaded.

… (1741) Death of Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer, violinist and priest who taught music at the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice.

… (1655) Death of Cyrano de Bergerac, French soldier, writer and dramatist renowned for the size of his nose.

… (1586) ‘New “potato” plant may provide animal fodder’: A new type of plant has been introduced into Ireland by some explorers associated with Sir Walter Raleigh. Called Solanum tuberosum, or the potato, it is a perennial herb thought to originate from the Andes region of South America. The tubers of the plant are eaten by the South American Indians. Sir Walter plans to plant some tubers on his estate at Youghall, near Cork, with a view to feeding the crop to his livestock.

…Henry VIII perhaps approached as nearly to the ideal standard of perfect wickedness as the infirmities of human nature will allow. [Sir James Mackintosh, British historian, on King Henry VIII. Today, Henry beheaded Thomas Cromwell and then married Catherine Howard, 1540.]

27^th, (2012) The Queen appeared to parachute into the Olympic stadium in London before declaring the Games open.

… (1996) A nail bomb explodes at the Olympics in Atlanta, killing two people and injuring over 100.

… (1986) American cyclist Gregory James LeMond becomes the first non-European to win the Tour de France.

… (1985) Ugandan president Milton Obote, who had regained power in 1980 after being deposed by General Idi Amin in 1971, is overthrown by a military coup.

… (1981) More than 24 million viewers watched Coronation Street’s Ken Barlow and Deidre Langton marry, two days before Charles and Diana’s nuptials.

… (1980) ‘Shah of Iran dies in Cairo’: The deposed Shah of Iran dies in Cairo’s Maadi Military Hospital today at the age of 60. The cause of death was internal bleeding and heart failure as a result of infection and lymphatic cancer. On his deathbed the Shah had requested to be buried ultimately in Tehran, named his eldest son, Prince Reza, as rightful heir to the Peacock Throne and prayed for the overthrow of Ayatollah Khomeini. The Shah lived in the Mexican mountain resort of Cuernavaca after leaving Iran in January 1979 but in recent months had been forced to seek medical treatment elsewhere for his deteriorating condition. Shortly before he died the Shah said that he was “fed up with living artificially”. His wish for a very simple funeral is unlikely to be realised. President Sadat is expected to have his old ally buried with full military honours.

… (1953) The Korean War formally ended today with the signing of a peace pact at Panmunjom. Lieutenant General William H. Harrison signed for the UN forces and General Nam Il for the Chinese people’s volunteers and North Korean forces. The armistice negotiations have taken just over two years, in which time the two sides have met 575 times. The three-year conflict has cost an estimated five million lives.

… (1946) American novelist and poet Gertrude Stein dies in Paris, where she was a leading figure in the American expatriate community.

… (1942) Death of Sir Fiders Petrie, British archaeologist who was the first professor of Egyptology at University College, London.

… (1941) Japan invades Indo-China.

… (1921) Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolate insulin at the University of Toronto.

… (1793) In France, Jacobin leader Maximillen Robespierre becomes a member of the Committee of Public Safety, established to guard against a coalition of European powers attacking France as a result of the execution of King Louis XVI.

… (1789) Thomas Jefferson is made head of the new US department of Foreign Affairs.

… (1656) ‘Spinoza challenges Scripture’: The Jewish religious authorities in Amsterdam have decided to excommunicate 24-year-old student Benedict Spinoza for failing to modify his unorthodox interpretations of Scripture. The civil authorities have also taken action by banishing him from Amsterdam for a short period. Neither bribes nor threats have persuaded Spinoza to change his contention that there is nothing in the Bible to support some orthodox views – for example, that God has no body, that angels exist or that the soul is immortal. The budding philosopher is said to be dismayed by the reaction to his ponderings. The Jewish fathers are in a difficult position, however, and fearful that Spinoza’s “heresies” may reflect badly on the vulnerable Jewish community, whose members have still to win the right of citizenship in Holland.

26^th, (1977) Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin defies a plea from US president Jimmy Carter and orders more settlements to be built on he occupied West Bank.

… (1956) President Nasser of Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal just a month after coming to power.

… (1953) Rebel leader Fidel Castro leads an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada barracks and is imprisoned by Dictator Fulgencio Batista.

… (1952) King Farouk I of Egypt abdicates after a military coup by General Neguib on July 22.

… (1939) Death of Ford Madox Ford, British novelist who wrote more than 80 books and founded the English Review and the Transatlantic Review, in which he published the early works of Ezra Pound, James Joyce and Earnest Hemingway, among others.

… (1908) The increase in the regulatory powers of the US government promoted by President Theodore Roosevelt was taken a stage further today with the establishment of a new investigative agency. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been set up by Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte within the existing Justice Department. The small group of FBI investigators who look into the nefarious dealings of land grabbers in the West and big business “trusts” in the East.

… (1895) Marie Sklodowska and Pierre Curie married in France. In 1903, they became the first husband and wife to win the Nobel Prize in physics (for work on radiation).

… (1877) ‘Twenty-six die in railroad strike mayhem’: An American-wide railroad strike has brought in its wake violence and mayhem. Worst hit has been Pittsburgh, where three days of rioting have caused 26 deaths and an estimated $5 million (£2.7 million) worth of damage to property. Buffalo, St Louis and Chicago have also experienced rioting. The strike is in support of better pay and conditions for railroad workers, many of whom are immigrants. Some bosses regard the unrest as politically inspired by revolutionaries bent on the destruction of capitalism. Unionisation is one of their chief bogeymen. Train crews are increasingly becoming unionised. Now other members of the railroad work force, which has grown rapidly since 1870, are similarly seeking to protect their interests.

… (1863) Death of Sam Houston, American soldier, president and Texan leader after who the city of Houston is named.

… (1830) King Charles X of France issues ordinances limiting political and civil rights.

… (1788) New York becomes the 11^th state of the Union.

… (1529) ‘Charles V sanctions new Pizarro expedition’: Francisco Pizarro’s decision to go over the head of the governor of Panama and ask the Spanish Emperor Charles V to sanction another expedition to the wealthy kingdom south of Panama has paid off. The Council of the Indies has granted the 54-year-old soldier and explorer of South America the right of conquest, the governorship of the new lands and the title of Captain General for life. Last year Francisco Pizarro returned to Panama with gold, Llamas and a few Indians as evidence of the riches that he believes are there for the taking. However, no funds appear to have been provided for the new expedition, nor have the contributions of Pizarro’s partners, most notably Diego de Almagro, received recognition.

…It is uncertain whether the development and spread of electronic and computer technology will increase the speed of literacy or diminish the need for it and result in an oral culture overwhelming the present written one. [Eugene Radwin, US educationist, 1990.]

25^th, (2009) Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier to have served in the trenches of World War I, died aged 111.

… (2000) ‘Concorde Crash Kills 113’: Concorde has crashed minutes after take-off, killing all 109 passengers on board and four people on the ground. The Air France plane, bound for New York, crashed into a hotel in Gonesse, 10 miles from Paris. It is understood the aircraft, which had taken off from Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport just two minutes earlier, fell out of the sky after one of the engines caught fire on take-off. A spokesperson for Air France said all the passengers were German tourists travelling to New York to join a cruise ship bound for Ecuador. Eye-witnesses reported a “huge fireball” followed by a cloud of black smoke after the jet hit the ground. Within minutes of the crash, emergency services were on the scene searching through the rubble for survivors. Flight AF4590 is the first Concorde in the aircraft’s 31-year history to crash.

… (1985) Film star Rock Hudson is admitted to hospital suffering from the killer disease AIDS.

… (1959) The monarchy is abolished in Tunisia and the country becomes a republic with Habib Bourguiba as its first president.

… (1956) Fifty lives are lost when an Italian ocean liner sinks off the Massachusetts coast after colliding in fog with a Swedish liner.

… (1943) Italian dictator Benito Mussolini is forced by the Fascist Grand Council to resign following the Allied invasion of Sicily.

… (1934) ‘Coup attempt in Austria’: A group of armed men broke into the office of the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss today and fatally wounded him. Meanwhile, a second group took over the radio station in Vienna and announced the appointment of the Nazi Rintelen as Chancellor. The recent upsurge in Nazi activity in Austria had given rise to speculation of a German-backed putsch. The reaction to the crisis by the Austrian authorities has been swift, as befits a government which has already succeeded in crushing opposition from the other end of the political spectrum, the Socialists. Mussolini, on whom the fascist government of the Catholic Dollfuss relied so much, has pledged his full support to help maintain Austria’s independence.

… (1909) French aviator Louis Blériot becomes the first man to fly the Channel, travelling from Calais to Dover in a Blériot XI.

… (1843) Death of Scottish chemist Charles Macintosh, inventor of waterproof clothing.

… (1814) ‘Coal is transported by locomotion’: Killingworth is the latest colliery to experiment with locomotives for transporting coal out of mines. Their chief machine, George Stephenson, has built an engine that can draw eight loaded carriages bearing 30 tons of coal at four miles per hour (6.4 kph). Stephenson got the idea for “Blucher” after seeing the “steam boiler on wheels” built by Matthew Murray for John Blenkinsopp in operation at a neighbouring mine. Blucher is an adhesion machine with vertical cylinders. A chain drive leads to the front tender wheels to increase grip. Stephenson is convinced that Blucher’s power can be further increased, and is to continue experimenting with the engine.

… (1835) Death of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet and critic renowned for Kubla Khan and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – and for his opium addiction.

… (1587) Christianity is banned in Japan and Jesuits accused of selling the Japanese as slaves are expelled from the country.

… (1544) The Catholic Queen Mary of England, known as “Bloody Mary” on account of her persecution of Protestants, marries Philip II of Spain.

…You cannot control a free society by force. [Robert Mark, British police commissioner, 1976.]

24^th, (1980) English comic actor Peter Sellers died of a heart attack, aged 54.

… (1974) Death of Sir James Chadwick, British physicist who discovered the neutron in 1932 and won the Nobel Prize in 1935.

… (1974) President Nixon was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to surrender tape recordings of White House conversations about the Watergate affair.

… (1973) Jigme Singye Wangchuk becomes king of Bhutan.

…This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the creation. [Richard Nixon, US president, on the landing of men on the men, three days before, 169.]

… (1967) The Times carries a full-page advertisement advocating the legislation of marijuana signed by, among others, all four Beatles.

…. (1965) British champion boxer and former nightclub owner Freddie Mills is found shot dead in his car in London’s Soho.

… (1936) In Spain, General Mola sets up a Falangist government at Burgos.

… (1925) The first successful insulin treatment is carried out on a six-year-old girl at Guy’s Hospital in London.

… (1923) ‘Turkey and Greece end territorial dispute’: The Treaty of Lausanne signed by Greece and Turkey today concludes the peace settlement begun at the end of the Great War but aborted by Kemal Ataturk’s nationalist overthrow of the Ottoman dynasty. Acceptance of the original Treaty of Sevres would have reduced Turkey to a small area around Constantinople extending 25 miles (40 km) into Europe, and Anatolia (excluding Smyrna). Ataturk has surrendered all claims to territories of the Ottoman Empire occupied by non-Turks and confirmed Greece in possession of all Adriatic islands (except Imbros and Tenedos, which are to be returned to Turkey). These concessions have been made so that the ancient commercial port and religious centre of Smyrna, and Eastern Thrace, may be restored to Turkey.

… (1883) Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel, is drowned while trying to swim above the rapids at Niagara Falls.

… (1824) The world’s first public opinion poll is carried out in Delaware.

… (1704) Britain captures Gibraltar from Spain.

… (1567) Mary Queen of Scots abdicates after defeat by the Protestants at Carberry Hill.

…The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part … The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. [Pierre de Coubertin, French educator and sportsman, in a speech to Officials of Olympic Games, 1908.]

23^rd, (2011) Amy Winehouse died at her London home from accidental alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.

… (2000) 24-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer to complete a career Grand Slam after winning the Open.

… (1967) British cyclist Bobby Simpson collapses and dies during the Tour de France.

… (1951) Philippe Pétain, French general and statesman who headed the collaborationist Vichy government in World War Two, dies in prison at 95, having been reprieved from a death sentence imposed in August 1945.

… (1948) Death of D. W. Griffith, American film director most noted for Birth of a Nation.

… (1940) ‘Who do you think you’re kidding, Mr Churchill?’: The auxiliary force raised in Britain at the beginning of the French campaign last month has been given a new name. The Local Defence Volunteers are from now on to be known as the Home Guard. The one million-strong force, which has many World War One veterans in its ranks, is intended to protect Britain against the expected German invasion. The men who form Britain’s last line of defence may have been bemused as much as encouraged by prime minister Churchill’s proposed slogan “You can always take one with you” – wags may feel tempted to suggest the insertion of the word “home”. Weapons are scarce and it is doubtful whether enthusiasm alone could offer effective resistance to Adolf Hitler’s hordes of well trained Aryan supermen.

… (1916) Death of Sir William Ramsay, Scottish chemist who isolated neon, xenon and krypton and discovered helium.

… (1914) ‘Tension mounts in Europe’: The Austro-Hungarian government has issued an ultimatum to Serbia in the aftermath of the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. It is demanding that all anti-Austrian activities on Serbian territory be forbidden, that one of the main Serbian nationalist parties, Narodna Odbrana, be outlawed and that Austrian officials be allowed to participate in the inquiry into the Archduke’s assassination. If Serbia does not agree to the conditions, Austria-Hungary will mobilise her forces. Serbia is in a cleft stick: agreement would signify willingness to relinquish sovereignty; refusal would lead to a Europe-wide conflict.

… (1903) The Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a Model A, to a dentist in Chicago.

… (1858) In Britain, the Oath of Allegiance is modified to allow Jews to sit in Parliament.

… (1803) ‘Uprising ends on a downer’: The confused rebellion that was mounted in Dublin today does not auger well for the future of the cause of Irish nationalism. A combination of bad planning and misunderstanding prevented the various contingents of rebels from launching a coordinated attack. The architect of the uprising, 25-year-old Robert Emmet, and his small band found themselves marching on Dublin Castle alone. All they could achieve was the murder of Lord Kilwarden, the Lord Chief Justice, and his nephew. An operation is underway to round up the insurgent. Emmet, who spent from 1800 to 1802 with the exiled leaders of the United Irishmen in France, is believed to be hiding in the Wicklow Mountains.

… (1757) Death of Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer, organist and harpsichordist who wrote more than 400 innovative harpsichord sonatas.

… (1637) King Charles I of England loses a court battle over the control of Massachusetts and power is handed over to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, a member of New England’s governing council.

22^nd, (2003) Saddam Hussein’s two sons Qusai and Udai are killed as American soldiers, backed by helicopters, storm a house in the northern city of Mosul following a tip-off from an Iraqi source.

… (1976) Death of Sir Mortimer Wheeler, British archaeologist known for his skill in interpreting archaeological strata.

… (1969) Apollo II leaves the moon.

… (1969) Spanish dictator General Franco names Juan Carlos, grandson of King Alfonso XII, as his heir apparent.

… (1957) BP and Shell decide to quit Israel under pressure from oil producers.

… (1950) Death of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian statesman and Liberal prime minister three times, his chief political aim being national unity.

… (1932) Death of American impresario Florence Ziegfeld, founder of the Ziegfeld Follies.

… (1790) The French clergy are removed from the control of Rome and property is nationalised.

… (1789) A mob murder the Bailiff of Paris.

21^st, (1994) Tony Blair is elected leader of the Labour Party in Britain.

… (1990) At a huge open-air rock concert in Berlin, Roger Waters of the group Pink Floyd performs “The Wall” while a symbolic Berlin Wall is built and knocked down.

… (1988) ‘Khomeini ends war – reluctantly’: The eight-year Iran-Iraq war has been ended by Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. A statement read on Iran radio yesterday declared that Khomeini was prepared to accept UN Security Council Resolution 598, which called for a ceasefire. Khomeini had sworn to fight on until Iran had won total victory over Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein, including his overthrow. In a statement Khomeini said the decision was “more deadly than taking poison”. The cost of the war has been high for both sides: an estimated 1 million killed, 1.7 million wounded, 1.5 million made homeless and major cities reduced to rubble. A staggering $400 billion of the two nations’ resources has also been expended in the struggle.

… (1969) ‘The Eagle Lands’: US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin completed the most breathtaking and perhaps the most hazardous part of the historic Apollo 11 space mission today. Michael Collins remained in the command-service part of the spacecraft, known as Columbia, while his two colleagues manoeuvred the lunar module, called Eagle, onto the surface of the Moon. Six-and-a-half hours after landing, Armstrong began what the hundreds of millions of television viewers round the world had been waiting for: the first Moon walk in human history. He stepped out onto the fine and powdery surface with the words, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant step for mankind.” During a two-hour moon walkabout the astronauts set up various scientific devices, and took rock samples and many photographs.

… (1960) Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike, widow of the murdered prime minister of Sri Lanka Solomon Bandaranaike, replaces him and becomes the first woman prime minister in the world.

… (1960) Sir Francis Chichester arrives in New York on his solo round-world journey, having crossed the Atlantic in a record-breaking 40 days.

… (1954) Britain, the US and the World Bank turn down President Nasser’s plea for aid to build the Aswan Dam on the river Nile.

… (1906) Eleven years after his conviction on grounds of treason Captain Alfred Dreuyfus is pardoned and made a member of the Legion d’Honneur.

… (1904) The Trans-Siberian railway is completed after 13 years’ work.

… (1897) The Tate Gallery opens in London.

… (1798) Napoleon defeats the Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids.

… (1796) ‘Robert Burns dies in hardship’: Scotland’s Poet Laureate and National Bard, Robert Burns, has died in Dumfries at the age of 37. His premature death from rheumatic heart disease is being attributed to the privations and hardship of his years as a struggling tenant farmer. Burns’ success as a poet began on publication of his first volume, entitled Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. Country people and Edinburgh sophisticates found much to admire in the book’s blend of social satire, verse letters, nature poems and high-minded idealisation of family life. Burns’ low social status, however, prevented him from truly finding his niche, despite his undoubted intellectual abilities. He spent the last seven years of his life collecting and providing words for traditional Scottish tunes as well as working for the Customs and Excise service.

… (1403) Sir Henry Percy, known as Harry Hotspur, is killed in battle near Shrewsbury while trying to overthrow King Henry IV.

20^th, (2015) Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba resumed after 50 years.

… (1999) Death of King Hassan II of Morocco, prompting wide-spread mourning in the Arab world.

… (1999) An IRA bomb explodes outside the Horse Guards barracks in London’s Knightsbridge, killing two guardsmen and seven horses.

… (1979) The Sandinista National Liberation Front takes power in Nicaragua after ousting General Anastasio Somoza, whose family had ruled the country since 1933.

… (1976) The American spacecraft Viking lands on Mars and starts sending back television pictures.

… (1973) Actor and martial arts star Bruce Lee died, aged 32, after an allergic reaction to headache medication.

… (1954) The Geneva Agreement brings about a cessation of hostilities between North and South Vietnam.

… (1951) King Abdullah of Jordon is shot dead outside a mosque.

… (1944) ‘Bomb plot fails’: Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped death today when a bomb exploded at his headquarters in Rustenburg. The bomb was left in a briefcase under the table of the conference room in which the Fuhrer was meeting with his top military brass. The German leader was shielded from the full blast of the bomb partly by the heavy oak table top over which he was leaning and partly by the thick table leg against which the brief case had been leant. The bomb had been planted by a German officer with liberal sympathies, Colonel Klaus Schenk, Count von Stauffenberg. An attempt to capture Berlin has been foiled and several of the ringleaders have been rounded up and shot. A manhunt is now underway for the rest of the conspirators, who are thought to include several high-ranking officers. Hitler has taken his miraculous deliverance from what is estimated to be the seventh attempt on his life as a sign of God’s favour.

… (1937) Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio telegraphy, dies aged 63.

… (1808) Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, enters Madrid as Spanish patriots conquer the French army at Bailen.

… (1629) English adventurer Sir David Kirke seizes Quebec from the French.

… (1605) French cartographer Samuel de Champlain reaches Cape Cod in search of an ideal spot for French settlement in the New World.

… (1588) The Spanish armada sets sail for England from Corunna, a day later than planned because of a storm.

…Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds. [The Earl of Chesterfield, statesman, diplomat, writer and patron of many authors in a letter to his son, 1749.]

19^th, (2001) Novelist and former Conservative deputy Chairman Lord Archer is sentenced to four years in prison for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

… (1989) ‘Two-way reluctance in Poland’: General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the man who imposed martial law eight years ago, was voted in as Poland’s first president today. The general won the required 50 per cent majority of valid votes cast by a mere one vote: 270 parliamentary deputies voted for him, 233 against and 34 abstained. Four Solidarity representatives declined to participate in the election, declaring it unlawful because Jaruzelski was the only candidate. The problems facing the new president are daunting: a bankrupt economy, no effective government and a resentful and cynical population. Jaruzelski was reluctant to offer himself for election, but to have turned his back would, in his words, “contradict the duties of a politician and soldier and also the logic of my public service in recent years”.

… (1970) The first all-metal liner, Brunel’s Great Britain, is brought back to Britain from the Falklands.

… (1937) ‘Nazi style rulers’: Those wishing to discover what constitutes art in Hitler’s Third Reich should make their way to the Bavarian capital, Munich, where two strikingly different exhibitions have been mounted for this purpose. What the Führer describes as “true German art” is of lofty subjects such as patriotism and family life and rendered in a stiff, academic style. “Degenerate, Bolshevik and Jewish art”, on the other hand, is all modern art. Artists whose works are classified as “degenerate” include Beckmann, Chagall, Dix, Grosz, Kandinsky, Klee, Kokoschka and Modersohn-Becker. In 1933 Goebbels ordered that “all artistic productions with cosmopolitan or bolshevist tendencies” should be removed from German museums and galleries. The examples of “degenerate” art currently on show have been taken from a stockpile of about 20,000 modern works seized at that time. According to one SS officer, the steel helmet is the most perfect object ever created.

… (1877) Wimbledon-born Spencer Gore – the inventor of the volley – won the first-ever Wimbledon tennis final.

… (1870) Napoleon III declares war on Prussia.

… (1849) Sayid Ali Mohammed, founder of the Bathai religious sect, is executed in Persia by order of the Shah.

… (1848) The first women’s rights assembly begins at Seneca Falls, New York State.

… (1843) ‘Prince Albert launches world’s largest ship, the Great Britain’: The Prince Consort of the United Kingdom, Albert, was at Wapping Dock today to launch the world’s largest ship, the 3270-ton, 322-ft (98 m) long Atlantic liner Great Britain. The all-metal vessel was originally designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a paddle steamer. She has since been fitted with screw machinery, supplemented by sails on six masts.

… (1837) Islambard Kingdom Brunei’s steamship Great Western is launched at Bristol

… (1821) George IV is crowned King of England, but his estranged wife Caroline of Brunswick is barred from the ceremony.

… (1799) A stone slab inscribed with hieroglyphics is found at Rosetta, near Alexandria, Egypt.

… (1545) King Henry VIII’s battleship the Mary Rose sinks in the Solent, off the south coast of England.

…The great masses of the people … will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one. [Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, written from prison following an unsuccessful rising in 1923.]

18^th, (2017) The £10 note featuring Jane Austen was unveiled by the Bank of England on the 200th anniversary of the author’s death.

… (2003) Iraqi weapons expert and British government scientist, Dr David Kelly, is found dead.

… (1996) TWA flight 800 explodes over Long Island, New York, killing all 228 passengers on board.

… (1992) The first photograph appeared on the World Wide Web – of girl band, Les Horribles Cernettes, made up of workers at CERN, where the internet was developed.

… (1990) Talks begin in Washington between the US and Vietnam over the future of Cambodia.

… (1936) Under the command of General France, the Spanish army rises up against the Republican government.

… (1925) Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which he wrote during a period of imprisonment for the Munich Putsch, the Nazi Party’s abortive coup against the Bavarian government.

… (1920) ‘750,000 war dead commemorated’: A new national monument dedicated to the “Glorious Dead” of the Great War was unveiled in Whitehall today. Designed in Portland stone by the distinguished architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, it replaces the temporary plaster monument erected for the Allied Victory Parade last year. The only adornments on the new Cenotaph – from the Greek words kenos and taphos, meaning empty tomb – are the flags of the three armed services and the Merchant Navy. The new monument will be the focal point at the Armistice Day commemoration in November. Londoners are already treating it with suitable reverence, by doffing their hats on passing.

… (1913) Turkish forces recapture Adrianople from the Bulgarians who seized it four months ago.

… (1877) Thomas Edison records the human voice for the first time.

… (1817) Death of English author Jane Austen, whose major novels include Emma, Pride and Prejudice and Sense of Sensibility.

… (1762) ‘Tsar assassinated after abdicating’: The former Tsar of Russia, Peter III, has been assassinated at the village of Ropsha eight days after abdicating. He was being held in custody by Grigori Orlov, one of the ringleaders of the recent coup to oust the unpopular Tsar in favour of his wife, Catherine. Formerly Karl Ulrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, Peter was an inept and insensitive ruler. He made no secret of his loathing for Russia, and for the Prussian ruler Frederick the Great. One of Peter’s first moves on ascending the throne was to withdraw from the Seven Years’ War, breaking the alliance with Austria and France, and form a pact with Prussia, their former enemy. There were also indications that he was about to divorce Catherine, his wife of 17 years. She struck first, however, by rallying the army to her side and, with the support of the senate and Church, having herself proclaimed empress. Although also German-born (Sophie Fredericke Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst), the 33-year-old Catherine is perceived as being wholeheartedly dedicated to Russia.

… (1721) French rococo painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, best-known for his fĕtes galantes, dies of tuberculosis aged only 36.

17^th, (1981) More than 100 people die when suspended walkways in the lobby of the new Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas collapse.

… (1975) Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr and Maureen Cox were divorced after a decade of marriage.

… (1969) Oh! Calcutta, the show devised by influential critic Kenneth Tynan and condemned by many in Britain as obscene on account of its profanity and nudity, opens in New York.

… (1968) The Beatles’ cartoon film Yellow Submarine is premiered at the London Pavilion.

… (1951) The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, founded in 1907 by poets Lady Augusta Gregory and W. B. Yeats, burns down.

… (1918) The RMS Carpathia, which had rescued more than 700 survivors from the Titanic six years earlier, was sunk off Ireland by a German U-boat.

… (1841) ‘New weekly paper for London’: The first issue of a weekly newspaper called Punch was published in London today. The idea for the paper came from engraver Ebenezer Landells, who suggested to journalist Henry Mayhew that a publication along the lines of Philippon’s audacious Paris Charivari would go down well in London. Mayhew and his fellow joint-editors Mark Lemon and Joseph Stirling Coyne hope to provide an entertaining mix of satiric humour, cartoons and caricatures.

… (1815) Napoleon surrenders to the British at Rochefort.

… (1801) ‘US holds pirates at bay’: The United States is learning grimly that its former colonial status had at least one benefit – its shipping enjoyed immunity from attack by North African pirates. After making a series of humiliating financial concessions to the increasingly confident and voracious rulers of Algeria, Tunis and Tripoli, who control the pirates, two months ago the US dug in its heels and said “no” when the Pasha of Tripoli demanded that he be paid $225,000 (£122,000) now plus $25,000 (£13,500) annually. A US squadron under Commodore Richard Dale was dispatched to the Mediterranean and is currently blockading Tripoli. This show of force seems to have persuaded Algiers and Tunis that it would not be a good idea for them to join a war alliance with Tripoli. Morocco, however, is still willing to throw in its lot with the beleaguered pasha. Although Congress is taking pride in this display of US military muscle, some believe action is necessary.

… (1794) The Commune of Paris, set up in May 1791, is suppressed.

… (1793) Charlotte Corday, a member of the Girondist right-wing republican party, is guillotined four days after she murdered French revolutionary leader Jean-Paul Marat by stabbing him through the heart with a breadknife as he sat in his bath.

… (1790) Thomas Saint of London patents the first sewing machine.

… (1790) ‘Invisible hand beckons Smith’: Adam Smith, author of the influential treatise on political economy, The Wealth of Nations, has died in Edinburgh after a painful illness. He was 67. Economics work best, Smith believed, by leaving them alone. The natural forces of competition and self-interest provide all the regulation necessary to ensure a healthy system that benefits all. The division of labour demanded by mechanisation was regarded by Smith as the most efficient method of producing goods. Trade barriers, he thought, should only be applied in exceptional circumstances. Smith devoted a large part of the income he received as Commissioner of Customs and Salt Duties for Scotland to various secret acts of charity.

… (1453) The defeat of the English at Castillon ends the Hundred Years’ War with France, leaving only Calais in British hands.

… (1212) In Spain, the Christians win a military victory over the Muslims, defeating Caliph Mohammed al-Nasr near Toledo.

16^th, (1990) At least 100 people die in an earthquake in the Philippines.

… (1990) British explorer Ranulph Fiennes begins an expedition in Oman to find the lost city of Ubar, which has been buried for 2000 years.

… (1979) Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. He remained in office for 24 years.

… (1970) The honeymoon period that new British governments traditionally enjoy has proved short-lived for Edward Heath’s Conservative administration. Less than one month after being elected PM, Heath has declared a state of emergency in response to the national dock strike called by the dockers’ union. Troops are on stand by, ready to act should their labour be required to keep Britain’s ports open. Industrialists have used dire warnings about the consequences to Britain’s overseas trade should the strike drag on.

… (1969) Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins took off in Apollo 11 for the first attempt to land a man on the Moon. They fulfilled their mission five days later.

… (1967) The Biafran War begins as Nigerian troops march into the oil-rich secessionist region of Biafra.

… (1953) Death of Hilaire Belloc, British poet and essayist.

… (1953) A new world air-speed record is set at 716 mph (1152 kph) by an F86 Sabre fighter.

… (1951) King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates.

… (1945) The first atomic bomb is exploded on the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, USA.

… (1885) ‘Cure for killer disease found’: French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, 63, has confounded his critics by proving beyond doubt that his ideas on the best way to tackle the killer disease rabies are correct. Nine-year-old rabies victim Joseph Meister is now making a rapid recovery thanks to receiving a weakened strain of the virus administered by Pasteur ten days ago. This latest success for Pasteur was only made possible by his previous research into disease-inducing micro-organisms such as anthrax and cholera. Sheep and chicken farmers – and indeed the animals themselves – have reason to be grateful to Pasteur for producing an effective vaccine against the diseases. The vaccine for rabies is obtained from the dried tissues of animals infected with the virus.

… (1827) Death of English potter Josiah Spode I.

… (1791) Louis XVI of France is suspended from office until he agrees to ratify the French constitution.

… (1557) Death of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of Henry VIII of England.

…It is true that liberty is precious – so precious that it must be rationed. [V.I Lenin flees to Finland after an unsuccessful revolt, 1917.]

15^th, (1990) In Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka, Tamil Tigers massacre 168 Muslims.

… (1989) Eleven people are killed and 127 injured in clashes between Georgians and Abkhazians in the Abkhazia enclave of Soviet Georgia.

… (1976) Death of American novelist Paul Gallico.

… (1930) The British government orders 1000 Spitfire fighter planes.

… (1916) Edward Boeing sets up the Pacific Aero Products Company in Seattle.

… (1904) Death of Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer whose major plays are The Cherry Orchard, Uncle Vanya and The Three Sisters.

… (1857) As the Indian Mutiny continues, 200 British men, women and children are chopped up and thrown down a well at Cawnpore.

… (1795) The Marseillaise, written by Claude Rouget de Lisle as “Le Chant du l’armée du Rhin” is officially adopted as the French national anthem.

… (1685) James Scott, Duke of Monmouth and illegitimate son of Charles II, is beheaded in London for raising a rebellion against King James II.

… (1099) ‘Crusaders take Jerusalem’: Jerusalem, long under Muslim rule, has been seized by Christian Crusaders led by Godfrey of Bouillon. The capture of this ancient city and the massacre of its Jewish and Muslim citizens is the culmination of the first armed pilgrimage organised by Pope Urban II to recapture places sacred to Christians. The army of French and Norman knights assembled in Constantinople, and proceeded to march through Anatolia, capturing Antioch on June 3 last year before moving on to Jerusalem. The massacre of the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants will further harden Muslim feeling against the Christians, Jerusalem is an important city to all these religious groups: for Jews, it is the focus of religious reverence and nationhood; for Christians, it is significant as the scene of Christ’s final agony and triumph; and for Muslims, Jerusalem was the goal of their prophet’s mystic night journey and is the site of the third most sacred shrine in Islam. The city has been under Muslim rule since the 7^th century, with access to religious sites freely open to other groups until the recent takeover of Jerusalem by Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks have forbidden pilgrimages – hence Pope Urban’s armed crusade.

…We intend to remain alive. Our neighbours want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise. [Golda Meir, Israeli stateswoman, 1971.]

14^th, (1967) The British parliament votes to legalise abortion.

… (1959) The first nuclear warship, the 14,000-ton USS Long Beach, is launched.

… (1958) King Faisal of Iraq was assassinated in a military coup led by General Kassem, and a republic was established.

… (1940) The Soviet Union annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

… (1930) BBC television transmits its first play – The Man with a Flower in His Mouth by Italian dramatist and novelist Luigi Pirandello.

… (1904) Death of Paul Kruger, head of the Boer Republic of the Transvaal during the Boer War.

… (1902) The campanile of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice collapses during a safety inspection.

… (1900) The first governor-general of Australia is appointed.

… (1867) Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel first demonstrated the use of dynamite.

… (1823) King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and his queen die of measles during a visit to Britain.

… (1789) The Bastille prison in Paris, was stormed by the citizens and burned to the ground at the start of the French Revolution.

…It is far easier to make war than to make peace. [George Clemenceau, French statesman, 1919.]

13^th, (1990) The Italian port of Brindisi witnesses the arrival of 4500 Albanian refugees.

… (1990) ‘Yeltsin resigns from Communist Party’: President of the Russian republic Boris Yeltsin resigned from the Communist Party today. He has been increasingly critical of President Gorbachev and of the slow pace of reform. This final severance with the party concludes a process which has been going on since he was sacked by Gorbachev in 1987 for his impatience with economic reforms. Gorbachev, then as now, continues to walk a tightrope between hardliners and reformers. Yeltsin was a strong Gorbachev supporter for some time but has now emerged clearly in opposition to him, a, position which was highlighted after demonstrations in Moscow by his supporters in March 1989. This support helped Yeltsin win a seat in the first election of a multi-candidate system later that month. In May of the same year he was elected to the Supreme Soviet. Continuing economic problems and trouble in the republics dog Gorbachev’s administration, although his international stature is high. Gorbachev’s ability to take the Soviet Union into a free market economy and his own political survival are, however, questionable.

… (1980) Death of Sir Seretse Khama, president of Botswana, who trained as a barrister in London and married an Englishwoman Ruth Williams, as a result of which he had to renounce his chieftaincy of the Bamamgwato tribe.

… (1957) Elvis Presley gets his first UK No. 1 with “All shook up”.

… (1951) Death of Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian-born composer best-known for his atonal works.

… (1947) Europe accepts the Marshall Plan, devised by US secretary of state George C. Marshall to aid European economic recovery after World War Two.

… (1930) The first world cup soccer contest is held in Montevideo, Uruguay.

… (1923) The British parliament passes a law banning the sale of alcohol to under-18s.

… (1878) The Congress of Berlin ends with the European powers limiting Russian naval expansion, permitting Austria-Hungary to occupy Bosnia-Herzegovina and gaining Turkish recognition of the independence of Serbia, Romania and Montenegro and of Bulgarian autonomy under Turkish suzerainty.

… (1643) In the English Civil War, the Cavaliers take an early victory over Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads at Roundway Down.

12^th … (1987) ‘Sunday Times in court over Spycatcher’: The Sunday Times newspaper found itself in the dock today over the controversial book Spycatcher, written by former MI5 agent Peter Wright. The government has stopped publication of the book in England and is attempting to prevent publication in Australia. The Sunday Times has gone against the government’s injunction and has published excerpts of the book. The British government is insisting that the book is a breach of confidentiality. Wright has revealed the innermost workings of MI5 and highlights some of the illegal activities of the agency. It also suggests that Sir Roger Hollis, a former MI5 boss, was a Soviet spy, and that the agency attempted to undermine Harold Wilson’s Labour government in 1974-76. The political implications are embarrassing for the present government and it has imposed an injunction on the Guardian, the Observer and the Sunday Times, forbidding even a mention of the book in the press.

… (1982)  Hostilities between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands are officially ended.

… (1952) Dwight D. Eisenhower resigns from the army in order to begin a presidential campaign.

… (1944) The RAF becomes the first air force to use jet aircraft in operational service.

… (1878) Turkey cedes Cyprus to Britain.

…. (1804) Former U.S. treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, now the subject of a hit West End stage musical, died following a duel with vice president Aaron Burr.

… (1799) Britain passes the Combination Act, which bars any combination of working men trying to improve working conditions in an attempt to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas from France and the formation of trade unions.

… (1789) Fire sweeps Paris after two days of rioting.

… (1705) Death of Anglican priest Titus Oates, anti-Catholic conspirator who alleged there was a plot to assassinate Charles II and place his Catholic brother James on the throne, thus causing the execution of 35 suspects and the exclusion of Catholics from parliament.

… (1536) ‘Great scholar and humanist dies’: Desiderius Erasmus, the great classicist of the Renaissance, has died. He will be missed for his cultivated common sense and his ability to criticise kings and churchmen. His greatest work, Colloquia, opened new ground by exposing the abuses of the Church, paving the way for the likes of Martin Luther. Erasmus also published the first Greek text of the New Testament and a new Latin translation with the hope of reconciling faith and reason, so bringing Christianity and the culture of the Ancients closer together. An advocate of charity and moderation in all things, Erasmus was deeply critical of corruption in the church and fell out with Luther over methods of teaching; gentle reason and tolerance were his preferred tools. Erasmus spent much of his later life in Cambridge and in Basel. Though always surrounded by controversy, he became widely known and respected and advanced the revival of learning.

…I have a Catholic soul, but a Lutheran stomach. [Erasmus, on why he failed to fast during Lent – he died today, 1536.]

11^th, (1990) Police and Mohawk Indians fire at each other near Montreal over a land rights dispute.

… (1979) US Skylab burns up on re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere after six years in space.

… (1960) One of the side benefits to today’s Telstar communications satellite launch will be transatlantic television for Britain. The US Telstar, which forms part of the INTELSAT system that spans the globe, uses radio receivers, amplifiers and transmitters along with the electronic technique of multiplexing to relay many telephone and television signals simultaneously. Britain will now be able to receive American game shows.

… (1935) Death of Alfred Dreyfus, the French soldier whose conviction for treason aroused accusations of anti-Semitism and caused a national scandal.

… (1789) The Marquis de Lafayette presents the Declaration of the Rights of Man to the National Assembly.

… (1776) ‘Captain Cook sets sail to find the NorthWest Passage’: Explorer Captain James Cook set sail today from Plymouth harbour on his third important voyage of discovery, in search of a passage round the northern coast of America from the Pacific side. He is expected to retrace some of his earlier routes through New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Cook joined the Royal Navy in 1755 and began his first major voyage of exploration in 1768, while in command of Endeavour. His success led to a promotion – as commander of Resolution and Adventure he set off in 1772 to determine how far northwards the lands of Antarctica stretched. Cook has proved an able commander – his last expedition only suffered one death throughout the whole three years. He returned last year having sailed 60,000 miles (96,000 km) in three years. This present expedition is expected to be equally long.

… (1742) A Papal Bull condemns Jesuit tolerance of Confucianism in China.

… (1690) ‘William of Orange defeats James II’: Deposed Roman Catholic King of England James II met defeat today at the hands of the current king, William III or William of Orange, on the banks of the River Boyne in Ireland. James had recently raised a French/Irish army from his exile in France and landed in Britain intending to retake the crown. James was deposed in June 1688 shortly after the birth of his son when parliament became concerned about the possibility of a Catholic succession to the throne.

10^th, (2000) A giant landslide in Manila kills 200 people.

… (1992) Manuel Noriega is sentenced to 40 years in jail on drugs charges.

… (1989) Sectarian feelings may be running a bit high in Glasgow tonight after Rangers Football Club announced that it had paid £1.5 million for a Roman Catholic player. The signing of Scottish striker Maurice Johnston breaks Rangers 100-year-old tradition of fielding only Protestant players. Johnston, currently with the French club Nantes, had been expected to return to Celtic FC.

… (1985) ‘Rainbow Warrior blown up in New Zealand’: The Greenpeace protest ship Rainbow Warrior sank today in Auckland harbour after two explosions tore the hull apart below the waterline. A Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira was killed in the blast, but nine other people on board escaped uninjured. There are suspicions that French secret agents are behind the explosions – Rainbow Warrior was preparing to lead a flotilla of seven peace vessels into the French nuclear testing site of Muroroa Atoll in the Pacific to coincide with Bastille Day. The international implications of French Secret Service involvement in the Rainbow Warrior sabotage plan would be serious.

… (1984) The Nigerian junta tries to smuggle kidnapped foreign minister Umaru Dikko out of London in a diplomatic bag.

… (1978) Death of Giorgio de Chirico, Italian painter who was the originator of Metaphysical painting.

… (1976) ‘Poison cloud covers Seveso’: Leaked chemicals from a factory have created a cloud of poison over the northern Italian town of Meda near Seveso, causing panic among the residents. There is criticism that efforts to inform and evacuate have not already been made. A faulty pressure valve sprayed more than two tons of the toxic weedkiller TCDD, containing the cancer causing agent dioxin, into the atmosphere. The dioxin has produced burning rashes, headaches, diarrhoea and vomiting in more than 250 people so far. Birds and animals have died and plant life and water supplies have also been contaminated.

… (1964) The Bahamas gain their independence from Britain.

… (1941) Jelly Roll Morton, American ragtime piano player and composer, dies in Los Angeles.

… (1900) The Paris Metro opens.

… (1890) Wyoming becomes the 44^th state of the Union.

… (1851) Death of Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, French pioneer of the photographic process.

… (1778) King Louis XVI of France declares war on England in support of the American rebels.

… (1754) ‘Benjamin Franklin calls for unification’: The representative for Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, today presented the Albany Congress with a proposal for union between the British colonies. He and William Hutchinson have drafted a plan which would give this hypothetical union the power to build forts, raise armies, equip fleets, levy taxes, declare war, make peace and negotiate treaties with other nations. The so-called Albany Plan has not been ratified and it is unlikely it will be for some time, because no consensus can be found. This situation, however, leaves the colonies divided in the face of a unified French presence in North America; some sort of union would allow for co-ordination of defence.

… (AD 138) Death of Hadrian, Roman emperor who sponsored the building of a wall across northern Britain to keep the Scots out of England.

9^th, (1990) A 15-mile (24 km) stretch of the Cumbrian coast in north-west England is declared unsafe after items contaminated by the leaks from Sellafield nuclear plant in 1983 are washed up on the beach.

… (1990) Nairobi is closed down on the third day of rioting in Kenya.

… (1989) US president George Bush begins a tour of Europe, starting in Poland.

… (1984) ‘Lightning causes York Minster fire’: York Minster Cathedral was struck by lightning today, causing a fire in the roof which destroyed the south transept of the 700-year-old building, which was fully protected against lightning. The fire was soon detected and the church clergy, working in relays, managed to save most of the treasures held in the building. The rescue operation continued until blazing beams and debris falling from the roof made it dangerous to continue. Some conservative critics within the Church of England have proclaimed the fire an act of retaliation by God over the consecration of Rt. Rev. David Jenkins, the Bishop of Durham, who has recently questioned some of the orthodox beliefs of the church. Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie has retaliated by saying that God must certainly have intervened on behalf of the cathedral since only the south transept was destroyed and the famous Rose Window was left intact.

… (1957) Nikita Krushchev, first secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, heads off a coup attempt and banishes ex-prime minister Georgi Malenkov to Kazakhstan.

… (1943) British and US forces begin the invasion of Sicily.

… (1938) Thirty-five million gas masks go into the shops in Britain in anticipation of World War Two.

… (1925) In Dublin, 22-year-old Oonagh Keogh becomes the first female member of a stock exchange.

… (1922) Eighteen-year-old American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 metres in 58.6 seconds.

… (1902) A German pharmaceutical company has today taken out a patent on a new compound which will alleviate insomnia. The company claims that barbaturic acid, a derivative compound of malic acid found in unripe apples and urea, can be used as a sleeping aid, as an anaesthetic for surgery and to help control epilepsy. Prolonged use may be addictive.

… (1850) Death of Zachary Taylor, American statesman and general, 12^th president 1849-50.

… (1810) Argentina proclaims its independence from Spain at the Congress of Tucuman.

… (1440) Flemish painter Jan van Eyck dies in Bruges, leaving the altarpiece of The Adoration of the Lamb at Ghent Cathedral and the double portrait Giovanni Amolfini and His Wife as his main claims to fame.

…The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. [Edmund Burke, British political philosopher, who died today, 1797.]

…Burke was a damned wrong headed fellow, through his whole life jealous and obstinate. [Charles James Fox, on British political philosopher Edmund Burke, who died today, 1797.]

8^th, (1990) One billion television viewers watch West Germany defeat Argentina to win the World Cup.

… (1989) ‘Secret talks raise hopes of Mandela release’: News of a meeting three days ago between imprisoned ANC leader Nelson Mandela and outgoing president P.W. Botha has caused a stir of speculation in South Africa. The meeting at Cape Town’s presidential offices, the Tuynhuys, was conducted without any press coverage and lasted a mere 45 minutes. Growing calls for the release of Mandela, who has been in jail for more than 26 years, and international pressure for the ending of apartheid has put the heat on the South African government. Liberals have taken today’s news as a sign that the authorities may finally be prepared to come to the negotiating table, and that they accept Mandela as the man they will have to face. Others, however, are less pleased – Winnie Mandela suspects Botha’s motives and right-wingers see any discussion with black leaders as a betrayal of the white minority.

… (1979) Death of Michael Wilding, British stage and screen actor and sometime husband of Elizabeth Taylor.

… (1978) Two German mountaineers, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habelar, today successfully scaled Mount Everest, without the use of oxygen, which has been crucial to the success of all previous expeditions to conquer the world’s tallest mountain. Officially 29,028 ft (9416 m) high, Everest runs through Nepal between India and Tibet. Its name in Tibetan means “Goddess Mother of the World”. It was first conquered in 1953.

… (1965) Starting gates for horse-racing are used for the first time at Newmarket in Britain.

… (1943) French Resistance leader Jean Moulin is executed by Nazi torturers who include Klaus Barbie.

… (1939) Death of British Henry Havelock Ellis, British psychologist and essayist best-known for his studies of human sexual behaviour.

… (1933) Death of British novelist Anthony Hope, author of The Prisoner of Zenda.

… (1905) American tennis player May Sutton becomes the first foreigner to take a Wimbledon title.

… (1497) Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon to attempt to find a sea passage to India.

7^th, (2005) ‘Bomb attacks on London’: A series of bomb attacks on London’s transport network has killed more than 30 people and injured about 700 others. Three explosions on the Underground left 35 dead and two died in a blast on a double-decker bus. The first three bombs went off at 0850 on underground trains just outside Liverpool Street and Edgware Road stations, and on another travelling between King’s Cross and Russell Square. The final explosion was around an hour later on a number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, not far from King’s Cross.

… (1988) An 11-year-old American boy pilot takes-off from San Diego, bound for Le Bourget in Paris.

… (1985) Seventeen-year-old Boris Becker beat Kevin Curren today to become the youngest ever Wimbledon men’s singles title holder. Becker is a powerful player, relying on enormous energy and physical strength to win.

… (1970) Death of Sir Allen Lane, founder of Penguin and the first publisher to promote the paperback.

… (1950) The first airshow is held at Farnborough in Surrey, UK.

… (1941) ‘US takes over occupation of Iceland’: President Franklin D. Roosevelt today ordered American troops to occupy Iceland, in a move to release British forces from Iceland and deter any attack from the Nazis. Although Iceland is an independent country, Britain occupied it earlier this year to prevent Germany from turning it into a base from which to further threaten British shipping. Although the United States is not at war with Germany at this point, the country is as committed to the Allied cause as is possible without actually declaring war on Germany. Roosevelt continues to stress that the US must remain “an arsenal of democracy”.

… (1937) The second Sino-Japanese war breaks out.

… (1930) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr Watson, has died at 71. Edinburgh-born Doyle trained as a doctor and began writing while in practice at Southsea. His interest in science and history was reflected in many of his novels. In later life he became a spiritualist. He was knighted in 1902.

… (1853) ‘Japan open to trade after 250 years of isolation’: US Naval officer Commodore Matthew Perry today persuaded Japan to unlock its doors to trade with the rest of the world. Backed by armed ships in Edo Harbour, Perry convinced the current shotgun that the Japanese should treat shipwrecked sailors with more consideration, that American vessels should be allowed to purchase coal and that American merchants should be allowed to trade in at least one port. Japan effectively closed its doors to the western world when it expelled the Spanish in 1624 and the Portuguese in 1639. Only the Dutch have been allowed extremely limited access to the country under very exacting restrictions and Japanese citizens are not permitted to travel outside the country. Although this surprise capitulation by the shotgun will be greeted with delight in the West, it will cause some anxiety and unrest in Japanese society.

… (1816) Irish playwright Richard Sheridan, best known for School for Scandal, dies in poverty.

… (1815) Following Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo on June 18, the victorious allies march into Paris.

… (1307) English king Edward I, conqueror of the Welsh, dies on his way to Scotland to fight Robert the Bruce.

6^th, (1990) ‘NATO seeks a new role’: In the wake of the momentous events in Eastern Europe and the drive towards reunification by the two Germanies, NATO has declared that the Warsaw Pact is no longer a military threat to the West, and so must now seek a new role for itself in the 1990s. This declaration in London comes hard on the heels of the announcement in May by NATO defence ministers of major cuts to budgets. It is understood that NATO will become a primarily political organisation.

… (1988) ‘North sea rig explosion kills 166’: An explosion on the North Sea oil rig, Piper Alpha has resulted in the loss of 166 lives. According to survivors of the disaster, a huge explosion wiped out the control room, and a further explosion propelled a fireball across the platform, destroying the superstructure. Amidst the twisted wreckage and flames 500 ft (162 m) high, men plunged 200 ft (65 m) into the sea to their deaths. The intense heat and the flames hampered rescue operations, and it is believed that many of the men could not swim. Braving the flames and cranes crashing into the sea, high speed dinghies picked up as many survivors as possible. Seven NATO warships, 21 smaller vessels and six helicopters are continuing the rescue operation. The fire continues to rage, fuelled by oil pumping indiscriminately from beneath the sea bed. Occidental Petroleum, the firm operating the rig, is expected to call in famous firefighter and well capper Red Adair to try to bring the ferocious blaze under control.

… (1973)  Otto Klemperer, German born conductor particularly noted for his interpretations of Beethoven symphonies, dies at the age of 88.

… (1960) Death of Aneurin Bevan, British Labour politician who, as minister of health from 1945 to 1951, created the National Health Service.

… (1960) American author and Nobel Prize-winner William Faulkner dies aged 62.

… (1928) The Lights of New York, the first all-sound feature film, is premiered.

… (1893) French author Guy de Maupassant dies in an asylum for the insane.

… (1892) Dadabhai Naoraji becomes Britain’s first non-white MP.

… (1892) American steelworkers are killed in a clash with armed Pinkerton men during a strike at the Carnegie plant in Homestead.

… (1809) Pope Pius VII is arrested for excommunicating Napoleon.

… (1801) The English and Spanish fleets are defeated by the French off Algeciras.

… (1535) ‘Sir Thomas More executed’: Distinguished politician and author Sir Thomas More was executed today at the Tower of London after being found guilty of high treason. Formerly a favourite of King Henry VIII, More refused to take an oath of supremacy to the king as head of the Church in preference to the Pope, so was charged and found guilty of high treason. He has been held in the Tower for a year in hope that he would recant. Sir Thomas is greatly respected in the country and has had a most distinguished political and diplomatic career. London born, he studied at Oxford under Linacre and his religious beliefs were strongly influenced by Colet. More entered parliament in 1504 and from 1509, when he enjoyed the favour of the King, was employed on various foreign missions. He was appointed Speaker of the Privy Council in 1518 and became Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, during which time he was knighted. Against his own strongest wishes he succeeded Wolsey as Lord Chancellor in 1529 and resigned in 1532 over King Henry VIII’s ecclesiastical policy and his marriage to Anne Boleyn. As a devout Catholic, More refused last year to recognise the King as head of the Church and hence he lost his own head today.

… (1189) French-born Henry II of Anfland dies in Tours, France, to be succeeded by Robert I, known as “the Lionheart”.

5^th, (1989) Colonel Oliver North is fined $150,000 (£95,000) and given a suspended prison sentence for the role he played in the Iran-Contra affair.

… (1988) ‘Ordination of women moves a step closer’: Amidst fears of a split, the Church of England voted today to move towards the ordination of women priests. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, voted against the motion which passed with a majority of less than 60 per cent. It is understood that he is unhappy about the present proposition not because he is opposed to female ordination but because it allows bishops, priests and parishes the right to refuse women priests, which may provoke a split in the Church. This process toward the ordination of women priests will be taken a step further in 1992 when the General Synod will vote on the matter.

… (1977) Pakistani prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is ousted by a coup led by General Zia ul-Haq.

… (1975) The Cape Verde Islands gain their independence from Portugal.

… (1975) Arthur Ashe beats Jimmy Connors to become the first black men’s singles champion at Wimbledon.

… (1919) French tennis player Suzanne Lenglen wins the Wimbledon women’s singles title for the first time.

… (1902) Edward VI foots the bill for 450,000 impoverished Britons to celebrate his coronation with a free dinner.

… (1830) The French capture Algiers and seize its ruler’s fabulous jewellery collection.

… (1817) The first gold sovereigns are issued in Britain.

… (1811) Venezuela’s revolutionary congress declares its independence from Spain.

… (1791) George Hammond is appointed first British ambassador to the United States.

4^th, (1986) New York’s Statue of Liberty gets a centenary facelift.

… (1979) Algerian leader Ben Bella is released after 14 years in jail.

… (1934) Death of Marie Curie, the Polish-born scientist who discovered radium and won two Nobel Prizes, for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911.

… (1892) In the British general election, James Keir Hardie wins the Holytoun constituency in Lanarkshire, Scotland, to become the first socialist MP in the House of Commons.

… (1848) The Communist Manifesto is published.

… (1829) The first horse-drawn buses go into action in London.

… (1826) America has lost two of its founding fathers today as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on the anniversary of the acceptance by Congress of their historic Declaration of Independence. Both men were part of the five-member committee which drafted the original declaration.

… (1776) ‘Congress accepts Declaration of Independence’: In an historic session today the Continental Congress accepted, with minor amendments, the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson under the instructions of a five-member committee. Although Congress voted on July 2 to declare independence, the declaration passed today formally severs American links with Britain. It has come about largely as a result of the War of Independence, which raged for over a year. The document will be sent to King George III.

…We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. [American Declaration of Independence, 1776.]

… (1761) Death of Samuel Richardson, British wrier whose novel Clarissa ran to seven volumes.

… (1712) Nine whites are killed in a slave uprising in New York.

3^rd, (1988) The USS Vincennes, based in the Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, shoots down an Iranian airliner with 286 people on board in the mistaken belief that it is a bomber.

… (1987) ‘Butcher of Lyons gets life’: Klaus Barbie, the Nazi SS commander in Lyons during World War Two, was convicted today, amidst cheering and clapping in court, of crimes against humanity. The 73-year-old listened to the verdict from his bullet-proof dock in silence. He had been living in Bolivia since 1951, enjoying the protection of various military regimes until he was turned over to the French authorities in 1983. Barbie was responsible for the deportation of Jews from the Netherlands in 1940. In 1942 he transferred to France as SS commander in Lyons where he tracked down resistance workers and Jews, including rounding up of Jewish children from an orphanage at Iziev. He was also notorious for torturing resistance leader Jean Moulin, earning himself the name of “Butcher of Lyons”. He escaped capture at the end of the war and was employed by US intelligence in Germany until moving to Bolivia in 1951.

… (1969) Rolling Stone Brian Jones is found drowned in a swimming pool.

… (1962) French property in Algeria is taken over as the country gains its independence.

… (1954) All goods finally come off ration in the UK as post-war shortages are ended.

… (1940) Over 1000 French sailors die when the French fleet in Miers-el-Kebr, Algeria, is destroyed at the order of Winston Churchill to prevent it falling into French hands.

… (1928) The first commercial television set goes on sale in the US at $75 (£40).

… (1905) In Odessa, Russian troops kill over 6000 to restore order during a strike.

… (1898) Captain Joshua Slocum sails into Newport, Rhode Island in his boat Spray, becoming the first round-world sailor.

… (1863) ‘Confederates routed at Gettysburg’: With more than 51,000 dead and wounded, the Battle of Gettysburg is over and the Confederate Army has been routed. Superior numbers and strong defensive positions helped General George Meade’s Union Army to defeat General Robert E. Lee just outside the market town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is estimated that General Lee has lost more than a third of his force of 70,000 men during the three days of conflict which began on July 1. This may prove to be a turning point in the grim and bloody struggle between the North and South.

Related:

• Short Historical Essay (3): ‘Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address’…

… (323 AD) Constantine I, Roman emperor in the West, defeats Licinius, the Eastern emperor, near Adrianople.

2^nd, (1997) Death of James Stewart, Hollywood screen idol who won an Oscar for his performance in The Philadelphia Story.

… (1990) A hundred Muslim pilgrims die of suffocation in a tunnel in the Holy City of Mecca.

… (1976) ‘Vietnam Reunified’: North and South Vietnam were reunified today in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon and the tragedy of the Vietnam War. The division 22 years ago into separate states under the terms of the Geneva Convention (to ensure peace after the Indo China War) resulted in continuous fighting and massive loss of life: the Communist Vietcong within South Vietnam attempted to seize power from the government, aided by North Vietnam and China. The US provided military support to the South Vietnamese government for a number of years and during the early 1960s their involvement increased and the war escalated. The bloody war continued for many years at the cost of hundreds of thousands of military and civilian lives, devastating the countryside and laying waste to the economies of both countries with no definite winner or loser. Having become unpopular for its part in the war, the US withdrew in 1973, having suffered the most humiliating political defeat. A peace treaty was signed between North and South Vietnam in the same year, but in March last year North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam and Saigon fell in April. The resulting Socialist Republic of Vietnam proclaimed today faces enormous economic and social problems.

… (1964) President Johnson signs the US Civil Rights Bill, which prohibits racial discrimination.

… (1954) Czech tennis player Jaroslav Drobny beats Australian Ken Rosewall to take the men’s singles title after the longest-ever Wimbledon final.

… (1951) The worst floods in US history leave 41 dead and 200,000 homeless in Kansas and Missouri.

… (1937) American pilots Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan take off from New Guinea on their round-world trip but fail to arrive at their destination, Howland Island in the central Pacific.

… (1900) ‘First Zeppelin Flight’: Aviation history was made today in Germany as Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first airship (a dirigible balloon with a rigid frame named zeppelin after its inventor). A great pioneer of German aviation, Count von Zeppelin has devoted himself to the study of aeronautics since he left the army in 1891. He began construction of his zeppelin in 1897. Although the dirigible concept is not a new one – a number of airships have been built by other designers based on the idea of a power-driven aircraft buoyed up by lighter-than-air gas. Zeppelin’s airship is the largest yet to be built. The 420 ft (136 m) L.Z.1 flew for an hour and a quarter over Lake Constance driven by two 16 hp Daimler engines reaching speeds of up to 20 mph (32 kph) before its steering gear seized up. Zeppelin has been hailed as a great master of airship design and plans to set up a factory to make the airships at Friedrichshafen.

… (1881) US president James Garfield is injured by an assassin’s bullets.

… (1865) ‘William Booth establishes Christian “army”’: British evangelist and itinerant preacher William Booth today founded the Christian Mission in Whitechapel, one of London’s worst slums. Thirty-six-year-old Booth from Nottingham has been a minister of the Methodist New Connection church for some years but the church has been reluctant to accept his poor converts. As a result, he has established his own mission along military lines, with military titles, hierarchy and uniforms. More than a Christian evangelical church, Booth’s “Salvation Army” acts as a social service and reforming organisation for the most destitute members of society. He works with his wife and public preacher Catherine.

July 1^st, (1990) The deutschmark becomes the official currency of both East and West Germany.

… (1984) Naples Football Club pays £1 million ($1.85 million) for Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona.

… (1937) The 999 emergency telephone call comes into force in Britain, the first of its kind in the world.

… (1929) The cartoon character Popeye first appears in the USA.

… (1916) The Battle of the Somme begins with heavy casualties.

… (1916) Coca-Cola launches its distinctively shaped bottle.

… (1898) ‘China leases New Territories to Britain’: Britain acquired today a 99-year lease to the New Territories on mainland China in a continuing drive for trade dominance in the region. Currently in possession of Hong Kong island and the Kowloon Peninsula as a consequence of the two Opium Wars, this latest acquisition will further enhance Britain’s standing as a major trading partner in the region. The wars forced open Chinese ports to British trade, particularly trade in opium from British India, which is used to pay for porcelains, silks and teas purchased from China. After the first Opium War (1840-42), Britain acquired Hong Kong under the Treaty of Nanking and at the end of the second Opium War in 1860, acquired the Kowloon Peninsula under the Peking Convention. The new territories, however, must be returned to the Chinese government in 99 years time.

… (1896) Death of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the American author of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

… (1860) Death of American inventor Charles Goodyear, pioneer of rubber processing.

… (1858) ‘Darwin presents theory of evolution’: Amidst controversy, eminent British scientist Charles Darwin has presented his views on evolution and the principles of natural selection to the Linnean Society in London. Churchmen are concerned that Darwin’s theory refutes the Book of Genesis; scientists are sceptical because his ideas seem to dismiss the work of Lamarck. Darwin has based much of his work on observations made while serving as a naturalist on HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836. During this time his observations convinced him that species evolved gradually and that natural selection is responsible for changing the genetic constitution of a species in favour of particular genes carried by successful individuals. Almost pipped to the post by naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace, who holds similar views on evolution, Darwin has presented his findings in the nick of time. He will publish a book next year.

… (1847) The first adhesive stamps go on sale in the USA.

…Peace is indivisible. [Maxim Litvinov, Russian statesman, in a speech to the League of Nations, 1936.]

..

JUNE

30^th, (1997) The first novel by J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, is published.

… (1997) ‘Hong Kong is given back’: Against a backdrop of celebrations all over China, Hong Kong has been handed back to the Chinese after 99 years of British administration. Attending the ceremony are Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair, as well as Chinese President Jiang Zemin who has promised to govern Hong Kong by the principle of “one country, two systems”.

… (1984) Death of Lillian Hellman, American playwright best-known for The Little Foxes.

… (1974) Russian ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to the West while on tour in Canada.

… (1971) Three Russian astronauts are found dead after a record-breaking 24 days in space which ended in oxygen failure.

… (1969) ‘Nigeria grabs control of all relief’: All relief operations on both sides of the front line of the Nigerian civil war are being taken over by the Nigerian military government, a spokesman announced today. This means that the International Red Cross (ICRC), individual churches and various other relief organisations – of which there are 20 – will now have to operate exclusively through the Nigerian National Commission for Rehabilitation. This move comes from the Nigerian government’s determination to prevent food and other supplies getting into the hands of Biafran troops. The rest of the world, however, is concerned for the fate of the starving millions of the devastated region of Biafra. ICRC officials in Geneva say they will be striving to resume food airlifts to Biafra as soon as possible.

… (1936) Margaret Mitchell’s romantic novel Gone with the Wind is published.

… (1934) Adolf Hitler eliminates all his political opponents in the Night of the Long Knives.

… (1919) Death of British physicist Lord Rayleigh, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904 for his discovery of argon gas.

… (1894) Tower Bridge in London is officially opened.

… (1837) The use of the pillory is banned in Britain.

… (1822) In Spain, rebels take King Ferdinand VII prisoner.

… (1789) The revolutionary mob in Paris attacks Abbaye Prison.

… (1520) ‘Aztec king slain by Spain’: The Aztec sovereign of Mexico, Montezuma II, was killed today by the Spanish conquerors of Hermando Cortez who had overthrown his empire and taken him prisoner. Misled by the ancient prophecies of his race, Montezuma II and his people received Cortez and his men as divinities when they first arrived at the Mexican capital, Tenochtitlan. His father, Montezuma I, was a mighty ruler whose power stretched from the Atlantic and to the Pacific. Montezuma II himself was a successful conqueror until overthrown by Hernando Cortez.

29^th, (1990) Lithuania announces it will suspend its declaration of independence for 100 days.

… (1976) The Seychelles become an independent republic.

… (1974) Isabel Peron takes over the presidency of Argentina when her husband succumbs to illness.

… (1965) The first US military ground action begins in Vietnam.

… (1956) American playwright Arthur Miller marries Marilyn Monroe.

… (1941) Polish pianist, composer and statesman, Paderewski dies.

… (1940) Death of Swiss painter and graphic artist Paul Klee, individual 20^th-century artist.

… (1925) ‘South Africa imposes new racist laws’: The South African government today adopted racial inequality as a political policy, passing an act which bars black South Africans from holding skilled or semi-skilled jobs. Job inequality between blacks and whites has its roots in the goldmining industry of the last century when mining bosses had an almost limitless pool of cheap, unskilled labour in the native population. Skilled labour, however, had to be attracted from overseas by the lure of high wages. Although by the 1900s the blacks had acquired the necessary skills for promotion and would still have been cheaper to employ, white employees refused to be ousted from their positions. In 1922, a move by the Chamber of Mines to reduce inequality and cut white wages met with a storm of violent protest. The white lobby has proved too powerful for the government to ignore, and today’s legislation may be the first of many new laws, marking the rise of a new, systematic oppression of the majority black population.

… (1921) Death of Lady Randolph Churchill, American mother of Winston Churchill.

… (1905) The Automobile Association (AA) is founded in Britain.

… (1864) Samuel Crowther, Bishop of Niger, becomes the first black Church of England bishop.

… (1855) The Daily Telegraph is first published in Britain.

… (1801) The first census is carried out in Britain.

… (1620) ‘Tobacco treat for Virginia’: The UK government has today banned the growing of tobacco in Britain. A tobacco-growing monopoly has instead been granted to the colony of Virginia, at a tax of one shilling per pound. Colonists have for some time been using the leaf as their main exchange commodity in return for manufactured goods from Europe. Nicotiana tabacum, named after the French ambassador to Lisbon who is said to have sent seeds to Catherine de’ Medici, is of American origin, smoked by the Indians. But King James I of England denounced it as a health hazard in 1604.

… (1603) The Globe Theatre in London burns down as a cannon is fired for the king’s entrance in Shakespeare’s Henry V.

… (48 BC) Julius Caesar defeats his brother-in-law and former ally Pompey at Pharsalus and thus becomes absolute ruler of Rome.

28^th, (1988) The longest trial ever held in Spain comes to an end after 15 months during which 1500 witnesses are cross-examined to try to establish guilt in the selling of toxic olive oil that killed 600 and left thousands more maimed.

… (1950) The novice US football team beats Britain 1-0 in the first round of the world cup in Brazil.

… (1940) The Russians seize Bessarabia from Romania.

… (1937) In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin has 36 “confessed” German spies shot.

… (1919) ‘Peace Treaty signed at Versailles’: The peace treaty officially ending four years of devastating war finally signed today. The treaty was first presented to the six chief German delegates at the historic conference in the Trianon Palace Hotel at Versailles on May 7, 1919. The Germans considered the terms excessively harsh – they include demands for massive reparations – and refused to sign, causing British prime minister Lloyd George to make a gloomy prediction of another war. The Germans, however, quickly changed their minds when threatened with an occupation by Allied troops.

… (1902) The United States authorises the construction of the Panama Canal.

… (1861) Robert O’Hara Burke, Irish explorer of Australia who with W.J. Wills crossed the continent from north to south, dies of starvation on his return from the exploration of the mouth of the Flinders River.

… (1841) The ballet Giselle is premiered in Paris.

… (1836) Death of James Madison, fourth president of the United States whose influence at the Constitutional Convention which met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the constitution gained him the name of “father of the American constitution”.

…All the world over, I will back the masses against the classes. [British statesman William Ewart Gladstone, in a speech at Liverpool, 1886.]

27^th, (1990) ‘Hubble trouble’ The Hubble space telescope – launched in April to claims from NASA that it would revolutionise the understanding of the universe – is fatally flawed. It was designed to see light that has been travelling through space for 15 billion years – time close to the “Big Bang”. But NASA officials admitted today that the Hubble’s light-gathering system, said to be “the most precise ever built”, has a wrongly shaped mirror which will prevent it from functioning any better than ground-based telescopes. Although scientists claim this fault can be rectified, nothing can be done before 1993. The Hubble cost $2 billion dollars and is calculated to cost at least $8 billion more during its decade-long lifetime in space.

… (1990) ‘Queen Mother’s 90 glorious years’: London offered a custom-made birthday parade to the Queen Mother to celebrate her ninetieth birthday this evening. She arrived at Horseguards Parade in an open landau accompanied by Princess Margaret and the Prince of Wales. From there she watched an hour-long spectacular involving all the regiments of which she is colonel-in-chief, and contingents from some 300 organisations with which she is involved. The turnout included the Black Watch and the Toronto Scottish, Fellows of the Royal Society and members of the Mothers Union. A 500-strong choir sang “Underneath the Arches” and “The White Cliffs of Dover”.

… (1988) Intrepid British mountain climbers Dave Hurst and Alan Matthews became the first blind climbers to reach the summit of Mount Blanc in Switzerland, Europe’s highest mountain at 15,781 ft (4810 m).

… (1976) Six Palestinians hijack an Air France Airbus from Athens and force it to fly to Entebbe in Uganda.

… (1971) The Fillmore East in New York, the rock club every rock star wanted to play, closes its doors for ever.

… (1954) The first nuclear power station is opened at Obninsk in the Soviet Union.

… (1939) Pan-American Airlines operates the first scheduled transatlantic air service, a 19-seat flying boat.

… (1900) The Central Line comes into service between Shepherd’s Bush and Bank as part of the London underground.

… (1871) A new system of currency based on the yen is introduced in Japan.

… (1816) Death of Samuel, 1^st Viscount Hood, British admiral whose military successes included defeating the French off Dominica in 1782 and capturing Toulon in the French Revolutionary Wars.

… (1778) ‘Liberty Bell peals again for American freedom’: Today the Liberty Bell has been returned to Philadelphia after spending a year hidden under the floorboards of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was taken there as a precautionary measure when the city was threatened by the British one year ago. The 2080 lb (943 kg) bell has a circumference of 12 ft (3.6 m) and was originally commissioned for the state house of the British province of Pennsylvania. It was cast by Thomas Lester’s London foundry and bears the biblical inscription “Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” It was rung on July 8, 1776 to proclaim the Declaration of Independence, and has been a symbol of American independence ever since.

… (1693) The first magazine for women, the Ladies Mercury, is published.

26^th, (2000) ‘Human genome draft completed’: An historical landmark has been reached as scientists announce that they have completed a rough draft of the human genome. Researchers across the world have worked for over a decade to decipher the biochemical instructions required to build and maintain the human body. They have determined the exact sequence of the three billion individual chemical building blocks that make up DNA, the long, double-stranded molecule which is hidden in the nuclei of nearly all cells. Even though the DNA code will require decades of further study, it will allow doctors to diagnose diseases much earlier, and help pharmaceutical companies design drugs tailored to individual patients.

… (1984) The Rev. Jesse Jackson prevails upon Fidel Castro to release 22 jailed Americans.

… (1984) Death of Carl Foreman, American writer, producer and director whose films include The Bridge on the River Kwai, High Noon and The Guns of Navarone.

… (1959) Ingemar Johansson becomes the first Swedish heavyweight boxing champion when he knocks out Floyd Patterson in New York.

… (1930) Joseph Stalin announces that his murderous purges are “purifying” the Soviet Union.

… (1917) ‘Americans land to boost Allied hopes’: The first unit of American troops to land in France – an advance guard of 1 million – arrived in a French port today and were met by escorting destroyers. No time was lost in unloading the stores. Negro labourers ran up and down gangways carrying tents, tinned meats, biscuits, coffee, sugar, etc. For obvious reasons, details of the arrival of General Pershing’s army in France are being kept secret. It is known, however, that there will be a period of preparation before the American troops go to the battlefront.

… (1913) Emily Dawson becomes the first female magistrate in London.

… (1906) The first Grand Prix is held at Le Mans.

… (1857) The new military honour the Victoria Cross is awarded by Queen Victoria to 62 servicemen at a ceremony in Hyde Park, London.

… (1830) King George IV of England dies and his brother William IV takes the throne.

… (1794) The French defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Fleurus.

… (363 AD) Roman emperor Julian the Apostate, the first non-Christian emperor since Constantine, dies of spear wounds inflicted during a battle with the Persians.

25^th, (1997) Death of Jacques Cousteau, French underwater explorer and aqualung diver.

… (1991) ‘Slovenia and Croatia declare independence’: Yugoslavia plunged deeper into political crisis as Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence today. Despite warnings from the EC and the US that they would not be recognised, the two key republics voted overwhelmingly to “disassociate” from Yugoslavia, annual federal laws and gradually sever ties with the other republics. Croatian officials said that although the republic would consider itself part of Yugoslavia for the time being, it wants to negotiate with other republics to form an alliance of sovereign states. Slovenia’s Interior Minister, Igor Bavcar, announced that a formal ceremony proclaiming independence will be taking place tomorrow. Faced with the break-up of the country, Yugoslavia’s federal parliament called an emergency session and asked for army intervention to prevent any border changes. EC foreign ministers have agreed not to recognise the declarations of independence by the two republics and to freeze contacts with their leaders.

.,. (1976) Death of Johnny Mercer, American composer, lyricist and singer who wrote Broadway and Hollywood musicals including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

… (1975) Mozambique gains its independence after four centuries of Portuguese rule.

… (1969) Pancho Gonzalez and Charlie Paserell play the longest ever singles match at Wimbledon which lasts 5 hours and 12 minutes.

… (1950) ‘War in Korea’: Open hostilities began today between Communist North Korea and the Republic of Korea in the South. There has been constant tension in the country since the end of World War II, when the USSR established a puppet government in the Russian-controlled sector and militarised the line of the 38^th parallel. A United Nations commission was established to oversee free national elections, but North Korea refused to allow the delegates in. On August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was proclaimed in the south and Syngman Rhee was elected President. This was followed on September 9 by the formal establishment of the Democratic People’s Republic in the north. Unrest, subversion, and border incidents began almost immediately and today’s clash seemed inevitable. The North Korean army and air force total some 127,000 men, while the South Korean army numbers approximately 98,000.

… (1932) The Indian cricket team play their first Test against England at Lord’s and lose by 158 runs.

… (1925) The first car telephone is exhibited in Germany.

… (1903) ‘Radium find gives Curies Nobel chance’: Today scientist Marie Curie announced the discovery of radium. Mrs Curie began a systematic search for the element when research she was doing with her husband, Pierre, pointed to the existence of something even more radioactive than either uranium or thorium. Radium is a radioactive metallic element found in pitchblende and other minerals and is remarkable for its spontaneous disintegration. Many are predicting that the Curies will carry off the Nobel Prize for Physics for this breakthrough discovery.

… (1870) Queen Isabella II of Spain abdicates.

… (1867) Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio, patents barbed wire.

… (1797) Admiral Lord Nelson is wounded in the arm in battle and the limb is amputated.

… (1788) Virginia becomes the tenth US state.

24^th, (1983) Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space when she blasts off in Challenger with four male astronauts.

… (1978) Twelve white missionaries are massacred in Rhodesia’s bush war.

… (1973) Eamon de Valera resigns as president of Ireland aged 90.

… (1948) The Berlin airlift begins as the Allies fly food and essential supplies to Berliners after the Soviets blockade the city.

… (1902) King Edward VII has an emergency appendix operation two days before his planned coronation.

… (1717) The Grand Lodge of English Freemasons is formed in London.

… (1519) Death of Lucrezia Borgia, illegitimate daughter of Pope Alexander VI.

… (1509) Henry VIII of England is crowned.

… (1314) Led by Robert the Bruce, the Scots defeat the English army at the Battle of Bannockburn.

…I don’t care for war, there’s far too much luck in it for my liking. [Napoleon III, Emperor of France, following a narrow and bloody French victory at Solferino, 1859.]

23^rd, (2002) A fire in a youth hostel kills 15 backpackers in the town of Childers, Australia.

… (1991) The International Monetary Fund agrees to offer associate membership to the Soviet Union.

… (1980) Death of Olivia Manning, British novelist best known for her Balkan Trilogy.

… (1980) Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Ghandi and next in line for political power, is killed in an air crash.

… (1848) Adolphe Sax is granted a patent for the saxophone.

… (1839) Lady Hester Stanhope, English gentlewoman who spent much time living with Arab tribes in the Middle East, dies in poverty.

… (1796) Pope Pius VI signs an armistice with Napoleon.

… (1757) British troops under Robert Clive defeat the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj-ud Dawlah, at the Battle of Plessey, thereby making possible the British annexation of Bengal.

… (1683) ‘Quaker Penn seeks peace with Indians’: William Penn, the English Quaker and advocate of civil and religious liberty, signed a treaty with chiefs of the Lenni Lenape Tribe today in a bid to ensure the peace of his colony. Penn was granted a huge tract of land in the New World by King Charles II, which he subsequently named “Pennsylvania” after his father. Since arriving from England in September 1682 Penn, author of No Cross, No Crown, has gone all out to establish friendly relations with the Indian tribes in the area. Today’s solemn ceremony took place under an elm tree at Shakamaxon, Philadelphia.

…Surely the right course is to test the Russians, not the bombs. [British Labour politician, Hugh Gaitskell, in the Observer, 1957.]

22^nd, (1989) In China, seven students involved in the Tiananmen Square protests are shot after televised show trials.

… (1989) The captain of the capsized cross-Channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise is charged with manslaughter.

… (1979) In Britain, Liberal politician Jeremy Thorpe is cleared of conspiring to murder homosexual Norman Scott.

… (1956) Death of British poet and novelist Walter de la Mare, best known for the poem “The Listeners”.

… (1941) Germany invades the USSR.

… (1939) ‘French surrender’: Today, eight days after German troops entered Paris, the French formally surrendered to Germany. President Petain’s request for an armistice was transmitted to Hitler on the night of June 16. Hitler’s terms were delivered to the French envoys two days later. Talks between the two countries took place while German troops continued to advance through the Loire. On June 22, however, the French bowed their heads and accepted all of Hitler’s terms. The bitter event took place in Marshall Foch’s old railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne – the same used by the French to humiliate the Germans when they accepted their surrender in 1918.

… (1940) France accepts the armistice terms of Germany and Italy.

… (1906) President Roosevelt sues John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company for operating a monopoly.

… (1814) The Marylebone Cricket Club and Hertfordshire play the first match at England’s Lord’s Cricket Ground.

… (1377) Richard II accedes to the throne of England.

…When Barbarossa commences, the world will hold its breath and make no comment. [Adolf Hitler, referring to the planned invasion of Russia, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, 1941.]

21^st, (1988) The Burmese government imposes a curfew as the regime totters in the face of student protests.

… (1970) Tony Jacklin becomes the first British golfer to win the US open in 50 years.

… (1942) General Rommel’s troops take 25,000 Allied prisoners at Tobruk, on the Libyan coast.

… (1919) The 27 vessels of the German fleet interned at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys are scuttled by their crews.

… (1908) A suffragette demonstration in London attracts 20,000 supporters.

… (1908) Death of Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, best known for Scheherazade.

… (1876) Mexican soldier and statesman Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, best known for his defeat of the Texans at Alamo, dies in poverty-stricken exile.

… (1868) Richard Wagner’s opera Die Meistersinger von Nümberg is premiered in Munich.

… (1852) Death of Friedrich Froebel, German educationist who founded the first kindergarten in 1837 at Blankenburg.

… (1843) The Royal College of Surgeons is founded in Britain.

… (1796) Scottish explorer Mungo Park reaches the River Niger.

… (1788) The US constitution comes into force.

… (1675) The construction of Sir Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral in London begins.

… (1377) Edward III of England dies after a reign studded with successful military ventures.

…We have to believe in free will. We’ve got no choice. [Polish-born US writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, 1982.]

20^th, (1990) Nelson Mandela gets a ticker-tape welcome in New York.

… (1990) ‘Classic red bus terminates here’: The Routemaster, the world-famous London double-decker bus, is to be phased-out because of old age, it was announced today. In its 30-years of faithful service the red “open platform” bus has become a tourist attraction in its own right and passengers in a hurry have come to rely on being able to hop and off the bus. But despite cannibalising even older buses for spare parts, London Regional Transport is finding it an increasing struggle to keep the fleet on the road. “The problem is that earlier models are developing fundamental faults that cannot be easily repaired”, a spokesman said. The news has saddened a lot of people; the Routemaster is universally acknowledged to be the “best designed bus of all times”.

… (1887) Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee is celebrated all over Britain and the Empire.

… (1863) West Virginia, the Panhandle State, becomes the 36^th state of the Union.

… (1837) Eighteen-year-old Victoria accedes to the English throne on the death of her uncle, William IV.

… (1819) ‘Steamship cracks the Atlantic’: The first steamship to cross the Atlantic – or any ocean at all, for that matter – arrived to a tumultuous welcome in Liverpool, England today. The Savannah sailed from Savannah, Georgia, and took 25 days to make the momentous crossing. The Savannah is 98 ft (27 m) long and her 90 horsepower engine is fuelled by wood and coal. She is also equipped with sails. During the crossing the crew regularly unfurled the sails when the engine was shut down to clean the salt from her boilers. This magnificent and innovative vessel was built by an American, Moses Rogers, for the express purpose of discovering if steamships can be considered practicable for ocean-going voyages. The Savannah’s success has proved that they most certainly can!

… (1789) In France, the Third Estate of the States General forms a National Assembly to oppose the aristocracy’s domination of the proceedings.

… (1597) Dutch navigator Willem Barents, who led three expeditions to find the north-west passage and discovered Spitzbergen on his final trip, dies at sea on the return voyage.

19^th, (1993) Death of Sir William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies and the Spire, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

… (1963) In Britain, the contraceptive pill is made available to women free under the National Health Service.

… (1935) The British Government overrides the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, by agreeing to allow Germany a massive increase in its naval strength.

… (1924) British climber George Mallory, who wanted to climb Everest “because it’s there”, disappears 1,000 ft (305 m) from the summit.

… (1829) ‘Sir Robert tells London police: ‘keep ‘em peeled’’: Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel founded the London Metropolitan Police today. The newly reconstructed force has been modelled along the lines of the highly respected Irish constabulary. The measures Sir Robert is taking to reform and humanise the criminal law – particularly those parts of it that relate to offences against property and offences punishable by death – are earning him much praise. As one prominent Liberal Whig has said, Peel can rightly claim that all his legislation has sought “some mitigation of the severity of the criminal law, some prevention of abuse in the exercise of it, or some security for its impartial administration.”

… (1820) Sir Joseph Banks, British botanist and explorer who made a round-world trip with Captain Cook, dies aged 77.

… (1790) The French Assembly abolishes hereditary nobility.

…Longevity is the revenge of talent upon genius. [Cyril Connolly, British journalist, in the Sunday Times, 1966.]

18^th, (2000) At Dover, 58 Chinese immigrants are found suffocated in the back of a lorry while trying to enter Britain illegally.

… (1979) ‘Elated Carter turns SALT to SWALK’: The climatic signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks took place at last at the magnificent State Hall of the Imperial Hofburg Palace in Vienna today. President Jimmy Carter and President Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev shook hands, sat down, signed the documents, and rose again. Then suddenly an elated Jimmy Carter threw pomp and protocol to the winds. Taking a quick step towards the “Old Contemptible”, he threw his arms around his granite shoulders and kissed him Russian-style on both cheeks. Brezhnev was totally taken aback, while the American Press Corps present responded with a gasp of stunned delight.

… (1975) The first North Sea oil arrives on shore in Britain.

… (1940) Charles de Galle, founder of the Free French in England, made a radio appeal from London today urging his fellow countrymen to continue to resist the Germans. It was in response to Marshall Petain’s announcement yesterday that the French have approached the Germans with a request for an Armistice.

… (1936) Death of Maxim Gorki, Russian novelist and dramatist who became the first president of the Soviet Writers Union.

… (1928) ‘First woman to fly Atlantic’: Thirty-year-old Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly the Atlantic when the tri-motor Friendship, in which she was a passenger, landed at Burny Port today. Miss Earhart, the daughter of a railroad attorney and graduate of Columbia University, is employed as a settlement worker in Boston. Aviation is a passionate hobby with her and she is a very accomplished pilot. A plucky girl, Miss Earhart hopes to make a solo flight across the Atlantic herself one day.

… (1928) Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer who reached the South Pole ahead of Captain Scott, dies in a plane crash while trying to rescue another explorer.

… (1815) ‘Napoleon beaten in the mire of Waterloo’: British and Prussian forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Blucher finally defeated Napoleon in a bloody battle at Waterloo, in Belgium, today. Fighting started at about 11.30 am, and raged ferociously all day. Initially Napoleon’s 74,000 men and 246 guns were pitched against Wellington’s army of 67,000 men and 156 guns, but at 1 pm Blucher’s army arrived to join the fray. The water-logged state of the cornfields made combat conditions even more appalling. Soldiers fell dead and dying at every turn and soon mutilated bodies were thick on the ground. Napoleon’s first decided advantage was gained at 6 pm, when Wellington’s position fell into his hands. But the Iron Duke kept a cool head, quickly readjusting his lines and fortifying his torn centre. The desperate fighting was ultimately concluded by a British-Prussian victory. The total number of casualties on both sides is estimated to be around 62,000.

… (1789) Austrian troops occupy Brussels.

… (1583) The first life insurance policy is issued in London.

… (1155) A thousand die in riots as the English-born Pope Hadrian crowns Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in Rome.

… (1037) Persian Philosopher and physician Avicenna dies, leaving an encyclopaedia of philosophy, Ash-Shifa (The Recovery), and the Canon of Medicine, which has become a valued source of knowledge throughout the Middle East and Europe.

…I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim, “resistance to tyranny is obedience to God”. [Susan B. Anthony, American feminist, in court, 1873.]

17^th, (1970) Edwin Land patents the first Polaroid camera.

… (1963) Death of John Cowper Powys, British novelist and poet.

… (1950) The first kidney transplant is carried out in Chicago.

… (1944) Iceland becomes an independent republic.

… (1867) In Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Joseph Lister performs a mastectomy upon his sister using carbolic acid as an antiseptic – thereby becoming the first surgeon to attempt any form of antiseptic treatment.

… (1823) Charles Macintosh patents a waterproof material.

… (1719) Death of Joseph Addison, English essayist, poet and Whig statesman who co-founded the Spectator.

… (1579) Francis Drake drops the Golden Hind’s anchor off the south-west coast of America and names the area New Albion.

16^th, (1983) ‘Europe back in space business’: Everything went according to plan when the European rocket Ariane 1, blasted off from the National Space Centre at Kouron, French Guiana today. Ariane launched the one-ton ESCI into an elliptical “transfer orbit”. Early tomorrow the satellites booster rocket will be fired to thrust it into “geostationary orbit” 22,000 miles (35,000 km) above the equator. Ariane’s future has been uncertain since it crashed on its second and fifth missions. Today’s performance, however, means Europe is back in competition with the American space industry for satellite contracts.

… (1977) Death of Werner von Braun, German rocket pioneer who pursued his career under the Nazis and then worked on the US space programme after the war.

… (1972) German police capture Ulrike Meinhof, the last member of the Baader-Meinhof group still at large.

… (1963) Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union blasts off in Vostok 6 to become the first woman in space.

… (1958) Yellow lines marking no-parking zones appear on British roads.

… (1958) Former prime minister of Hungary Imre Nagy is hanged for the role he played in the unsuccessful revolution of 1956.

… (1935) ‘Roosevelt takes on Depression’: President Roosevelt’s complicated “New Deal” legislative package which is aimed at tackling the severe economic problems of the American nation took another step forward today. The Social Security Bill – embodying old-age pensions, unemployment insurance and public health aid – has been passed by the House of Representatives. This important Bill with its far reaching implications is now the unfinished business of the Senate. A successful passage is predicted for early this week.

… (1929) The first four places in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance test are won by Bentleys.

… (1815) ‘Napoleon’s troops crush Prussia’s’: After a bitter and bloody battle the French scored a resounding victory against the Prussians at Ligny, in Belgium, today. Napoleon opened hostilities at about 2.30 pm and by 3.15 pm the battle was fiercely engaged. At about 7.45 pm a contingent of elite French troops broke the Prussian centre. The Prussian commander of the Lower Rhine, Field Marshal Blucher, responded by leading his cavalry reserve to stem the French advance. There was a tense moment for the Prussians when Blucher was knocked from his horse and only the prompt intervention of his aide-de-camp, Count Nostitz, saved him from being trampled to death. By 9 pm it was all over. The Prussians lost an estimated 12,000 men, the French 8500.

… (1880) Salvation Army ladies wear their bonnets for the first time as they march through Hackney in London.

… (1869) Charles Sturt, English explorer who discovered much of Australia, dies aged 74.

… (1835) In response to the widespread disappointment with the political results of the 1832 Reform Bill, social reformer Mr. William Lovett officially founded the London Working Men’s Association today. Despite the Bill’s famous six points for reform, Mr. Lovett claims that fundamental issues of social inequality are still not being addressed.

…I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free. [Abraham Lincoln in a speech at Springfield, Illinois, today, 1858.]

15^th, (1954) Atom bomb inventor Robert Oppenheimer is declared a security risk by Senator Joe McCarthy’s committee because of his opposition to the development of the hydrogen bomb.

… (1934) In Venice, dictators Hitler and Mussolini meet for the first time.

… (1933) China and Tibet end a two-year war with a treaty that agrees mutual respect for the pre-war border.

… (1888) Emperor Frederick III of Germany dies.

… (1860) ‘New school for Nightingale’: Nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale today opened the world’s first school for nurses at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. The heroine of the Crimean War, Nightingale has done more than anyone to raise the standards of nursing and to improve the way in which the job is viewed. During the war, she not only tended the sick and wounded in the most primitive conditions, but pressed the British government for better food supplies and hygiene facilities. The £45,000 used to open the new school comes from the Nightingale Fund, established through public subscription to commemorate Crimea. The school will provide nurses with their first formal training courses.

… (1846) The 49^th parallel is proclaimed to be the border between the US and Canada.

… (1844) In the US, Charles Goodyear patents vulcanised rubber.

… (1825) The Duke of York lays the foundation stone of London Bridge.

… (1813) Britain forms a new coalition with Prussia and Russia against Napoleon.

… (1790) French Protestant militia massacre 300 Roman Catholics.

… (1752) In a brave – or perhaps foolhardy – act, American founding father, diplomat and scientist Benjamin Franklin today flew a kite in a thunderstorm to prove his theory that electricity and lightning are the same phenomenon. He also believes that electricity is “an Element diffused among, and attracted by, other matter, particularly Water and Metals”. If it is, it should be possible to harness its power.

… (1381) English poll tax protestor Wat Tyler is executed at Smithfield.

… (1215) ‘Baron Knights sign deal’: King John and his barons met on the banks of the River Thames at Runnymede, near London, today to hammer out a new deal. The document signed is called the Magna Carta. Its effect will be a decentralisation of power, taking total authority from the hands of the King and granting the people of England – and particularly noblemen – certain basic rights and liberties. The barons have been pressing for the agreement in the wake of years of heavy taxation and increasing power of the monarchy. In a show of good faith, the King has agreed to a penalty clause – if he does not keep to the terms of the charter, a council of 25 barons are allowed the ultimate sanction of taking him to war.

14^th, (1990) In Bucharest, Romania, street battles break out between students demanding democracy and miners providing support for the interim government of Iliescu.

… (1983) Protests erupt in Santiago against the regime of Chilean dictator General Pinochet.

… (1982) ‘Argentines surrender, Falklands back to Britain’: “Britain is great again,” boasted Margaret Thatcher as Argentinean troops today surrendered to the British commander of land forces in the Falklands. The surrender marks the end of a six-week conflict that has cost 254 British and 750 Argentinean lives. The conflict began on April 2 when, in a continuing dispute with Britain over the sovereignty of the islands, Argentina invaded the Falklands and, on the following day, South Georgia. A large British task force was immediately despatched on the three-week voyage to the South Atlantic. Despite diplomatic attempts by the United States and others to prevent hostilities, fighting began later that month. Notable losses were the sinking of the General Belgrano, Argentina’s second-largest warship, 30 miles (4second-largest warship, 30 miles (48 km) south of the 200-mile (320 km) exclusion zone imposed by Britain around the Islands, and the British destroyer HMS Sheffield, which was struck by an Argentinean Exocet missile.

… (1964) Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment.

… (1940) German troops march into Paris.

… (1936) Death of G. K. Chesterton, British novelist, essayist and poet who published more than 100 volumes.

… (1917) German planes bomb London for the first time.

… (1913) ‘Suffragette sacrifice’: Bearing banners with the words “Fight on and God will give the victory”, suffragettes today attended the funeral of Emily Davison, who was killed by King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby earlier this month. Davison grabbed the reins of the horse as it thundered towards the winning post, intending only to publicise the suffragette cause – votes for women – but her bid for publicity went horribly wrong. Today’s funeral was not attended by Mrs. Emmeline Parkhurst, founder of the British movement, who is in prison. In the face of the stubborn and patronising attitude of Liberal prime minister Asquith and his government, the suffragettes have adopted an increasingly violent strategy – including pouring acid into letter-boxes. Such tactics have not endeared them to the populace, but the force-feeding of suffragettes on hunger strike in prison has aroused great public sympathy.

… (1839) A regatta is held for the first time at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

… (1814) The Netherlands and Belgium are united by the Treaty of London.

… (1800) Napoleons forces vanquish the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo.

… (1645) ‘Cromwell leads decisive victory’: Parliamentary troops under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell are reported to have inflicted a heavy defeat on Prince Rupert’s Royalist forces at Naseby, 20 miles (32 km) south of Leicester in the English Midlands. After a pursuit by Cromwell, the opposing armies took up positions on the ridges flanking the valley of Broad Moor – 10,000 Royalists facing 14,000 of Cromwell’s men. The Royalists successfully attacked Cromwell’s left wing, but then made the fatal error of pursuing the fleeing Parliamentarians. Cromwell seized his chance to regroup the right flank of his cavalry to make a crushing assault on the Royalist centre, routing Prince Rupert’s army and scoring a decisive Parliamentary victory in the Civil War.

13^th, (1989) Mikhail Gorbachev and Chancellor Kohl agree that East and West Germany should be reunited.

… (1956) Real Madrid wins the first European Cup in Paris, beating Stade de Reims 4-3.

… (1951) Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne, lays the foundation stone of the National Theatre on the South Bank in London.

… (1944) ‘Doodle Bugs batter London’: London came under shock attack today as Hitler let loose a devastating new weapon on the city. The so-called V1 flying bomb, or “doodle bug”, as it has been named, is a long-range device that can be launched safely from within enemy territory. Travelling at lightning speed, it moves too fast for anti-aircraft guns to target it accurately, and its super-power warhead is likely to bring down any fighter plane attempting to intercept it. Nazi scientists are said to have been working on the bomb for some time, but British intelligence has not known where it was being made or when it would be used. Ultimately the only way to deal with it may be to discover and destroy its launch sites.

… (1930) Sir Henry Segrave, who broke the British land and water speed records, is killed when his speedboat capsizes at 98 mph (158 kph) on Lake Windermere in northern England.

… (1893) The first women’s golf championships are held at Royal Lytham in Britain and is won by Lady Margaret Scott.

… (1842) Queen Victoria becomes the first British monarch to travel by train when she takes a trip from Slough to Paddington.

… (323 BC) Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, who came to the throne at the age of only 20 and conquered Persia, Egypt, Babylon, central Asia and part of India, dies aged 33 returning from India.

…So greatly did she care for freedom that she died for it. So dearly did she love women that she offered her life as their ransom. That is the verdict given at the great Inquest of the Nation on the death of Emily Wilding Davison. [Christabel Pankhurst on Emily Davison, who died protesting for her cause June 4, 1913.]

12^th, (2003) Death of Gregory Peck, Hollywood actor.

… (1997) The Globe Theatre opens its doors on the South Bank, London.

… (1991) ‘Russians go to vote in first democratic election’: The people of Russia are making history today as they go to the polls in the country’s first-ever democratic elections. As they cast their votes, frontrunner Boris Yeltsin is sweating it out, waiting to hear whether he has gained the 51 per cent of the vote that he needs to make it through the first round. Yeltsin is one of six candidates. Individually, none of the others is likely to get a big enough vote to defeat him, but their combined share could present problems. Yeltsin supporters say that the other candidates have a subversive purpose in mind, and are standing only to undermine his chances of becoming president.

… (1982) Death of Dame Marie Rambert, Polish-born ballet dancer and teacher who founded the Ballet Rambert in London.

… (1979) American Bryan Allen pedals his way across the Channel in a man-powered aircraft to win a £100,000 ($185,000) prize.

… (1975) ‘Indian PM Ghandi may have fixed victory’: A shock verdict in Allahabad, India today has caused a political scandal and a crisis of confidence in the country’s leadership. A judge in Allahabad, home constituency of Prime Minister Indira Ghandi, has ruled that her landslide victory in 1971 was invalid because civil servants illegally aided her campaign. Mrs. Ghandi, who came to power in 1966, is the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister after the country gained independence from Britain in 1947. Today’s verdict has brought angry calls for Mrs. Ghandi’s resignation, and she is now faced with the biggest political storm of her career.

… (1965) The Beatles are each awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

… (1963) Civil rights lawyer Medgar Evers is murdered by white segregationists in Mississippi.

… (1930) The Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay over the vast Gran Chaco region comes to an end after claiming 100,000 lives.

… (1917) King Constantine of Greece abdicates.

… (1809) Pope Pius VII excommunicates Napoleon Bonaparte

… (1667) Jean-Baptiste Denys, personal physician to Louis XIV, successfully transfuses the blood of a sheep to a 15-year-old boy.

… (1630) The fleet of the Massachusetts Bay Company docks at Salem with 700 Puritan colonists on board.

… (1458) Magdalene College, Oxford, is founded.

…Once in the racket you’re always in it. [Al Capone, Chicago gangster, charged today with 5000 prohibition offences, 1931.]

11^th, (1990) Two die as the tanker Mega Borg catches fire in the Gulf of Mexico.

… (1990) Right-wing politician and novelist Mario Vargas Llosa is defeated in the second round of the Peruvian elections.

… (1989) At the tender age of 17 years and 109 days, Michael Clang of the United States today became the youngest-ever winner of the French Open tennis championships. He beat Stefan Edberg of Sweden.

… (1988) ’80,000 celebrate Mandela’s birthday’: A crowd of 80,000 packed London’s Wembley Stadium today in what must be the biggest 70^th birthday party ever. The only person unable to attend was the birthday guest himself – black South African leader Nelson Mandela, who has been in prison since 1964, serving a life sentence on a conviction of attempting to overthrow the state. In tribute to him, singers and musicians from all over the world, including South Africa itself, came to join in the day-long concert, which was televised and broadcast live to an estimated audience of 1 billion in 60 countries. Deputy leader of the banned African National Congress, Mandela has come to epitomise the struggle against apartheid. Attempts to keep politics out of the affair were thwarted, and many performers made references to South Africa’s “terrorist state” and to the lack of strong British opposition to apartheid.

… (1977) Dutch marines storm the train in which South Moluccan terrorists are holding terrorists.

… (1970) Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerenski, prime minister of Russia in 1917 until the Bolshevik Revolution, dies in exile in New York.

… (1955) Twenty-two years of Liberal rule end in Canada with Progressive Conservative John G. Diefenbaker’s victory.

… (1946) Italy is proclaimed a republic.

… (1940) Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declares war on the Allies.

… (1905) British golfer Harry Vardon wins his fourth Open golf championship at Prestwick, Scotland.

… (1727) George II of England accedes to the throne following the death of his father, George I, the first Hanoverian king of England.

… (1573) In Britain, a Puritan pamphlet calling for the abolition of episcopacy is suppressed in the House of Commons.

…The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes – ah, that is where the art resides. [Artur Schnabel, Austrian concert pianist, 1958.]

10^th, (1991) ‘Air base empties as volcano erupts’: A mass evacuation of 14,500 US personnel is taking place at Clark Air Base in the Philippines after Mount Pinatubo erupted, raining a shower of ash and volcanic debris over the surrounding area. The volcano was thought to be dormant. US spokesman Lt. Col. Ron Rand confirms that the evacuees are being driven to the US naval air base at Subic Bay, 30 miles (48 km) to the south-west. There are a total of 40,000 US personnel in the Philippines, half of whom were stationed at the Clark Air Base.

… (1986) Irish pop singer Bob Geldof and American philanthropist John Paul Getty II are given honorary knighthoods by Queen Elizabeth II.

… (1983) Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Party wins the British elections.

… (1967) ‘After six days of war Israel doubles its size’: Six days of hostilities between Israel and its Arab neighbours ended today with a decisive victory for the Israelis, and a 200 per cent expansion in the territory they hold. The so-called Six-Day War has been a clear demonstration of Israeli air supremacy. The war began on June 5, after Syria had asked for Egypt’s help in withstanding threatened Israeli retaliation against Syrian border raids. Egypt’s President Nasser called for the removal of UN peacekeeping forces at Suez, closed the Gulf of Aquaba, mobilised the army and moved troops into Sinai. Israel’s answer was a burst of simultaneous air attacks on Syrian, Egyptian and Jordanian air bases that decimated its enemies’ air capability. In the week that followed, Israel went on to defeat all enemy resistance.

… (1965) A British European Airways de Havilland jet airliner flying from Paris to London makes the first landing by automatic control.

… (1934) British composer Frederick Delius dies in France, leaving work such as On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring, Appalachia and A Village Romeo and Juliet as his memorial.

… (1926) Death of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi y Cornet, who worked exclusively in Barcelona where his church of the Sagrada Familia is his best-known building.

… (1924) Italian socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti is assassinated by Mussolini’s Fascists.

… (1829) The rivalry between England’s two most prestigious universities, Oxford and Cambridge, took to the water for the first time today. Two eight-man crews raced each other along the River Thames at Henley in south-east England, in a contest of rowing power named “The Boat Race”.

… (1727) King George I of England dies in Osnabrück.

… (1190) Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, who spearheaded the Third Crusade, is drowned in a river on his way to the Holy Land.

9^th, (1989) In China, show trials begin at the leaders of the demonstration in Tiananmen Square.

… (1975) The BBC and LBC relay the first live transmissions from the House of Commons.

… (1970) Bob Dylan is given an honorary degree at Princeton University.

… (1967) Israel seizes the Golan Heights on the fifth day of war with Syria, Egypt and Jordon.

… (1959) America launches the George Washington, the first nuclear submarine with Polaris missiles.

… (1951) ‘Last Nuremberg Nazi hanged’: The judgement of the Nuremberg court will be fulfilled today as the noose slips over the head of the last Nazi condemned to hang for “crimes against humanity”. The trials, which took place between November 1945 and October 1946, were conducted by four judges and four prosecutors from the United States, United Kingdom, USSR and France. In all, 24 of Hitler’s top men were accused on a number of different counts, including conspiracy to wage wars of aggression, killing of hostages and crimes against peace. Twelve men, including leading Nazis Goering and Ribbentrop, were given the death penalty – a fate Goering only escaped by killing himself.

… (1908) King Edward VII of England visits Tsar Nicholas II on board the royal yacht in the Baltic Sea, the first meeting between a British monarch and a Russian tsar.

… (1898) China grants Britain a 99-year lease on Hong Kong.

… (1870) ‘Dickens dies in mid-classic’: Britain is in mourning today after the death of the nation’s best-loved author, Charles Dickens, who died of a stroke at home. He was engaged in his latest novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, which remains half-finished. The punishing schedule of Dickens’ last few years affected his health badly, and is largely to blame for his sudden death. While continuing to write, he also made a series of tours of England and the United States in which he gave readings from his own works to enraptured audiences. Dickens’ professional success was partly marred by personal unhappiness – he and his wife separated in 1859, and his sons failed to live up to his expectations. He died at Gad’s Hill Place in Kent, the house he had loved from boyhood and finally owned.

… (1198) Otto of Brunswick is crowned German king and Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV.

… (AD 68) ‘Deserted Nero stabs himself’: Reports from Rome today claim that the Emperor Nero has taken his own life. He is said to have stabbed himself in the throat with a dagger. The suicide occurred after Nero returned from Greece to find that he had been deserted by his Praetorian Guard. Resentment against the Emperor had been brewing throughout the Empire, and there have recently been revolts in Africa, Spain and Gaul. High levels of taxation to fund the Emperor’s excesses have been one cause of the hostility, as has his total lack of interest in government. Leaving affairs of state to his advisers, Burrus and Seneca, Nero preferred to think of himself as a creative artist: “I have only to appear and sing to have peace once more in Gaul,” he boasted.

8^th, (1986) Kurt Waldheim becomes president of Austria despite growing evidence that he collaborated with the Nazis in World War II.

… (1979) Death of English actor Michael Wilding, former husband of Elizabeth Taylor.

… (1969) Spanish dictator General Franco closes the border with Gibraltar in the hope of ruining its economy and thus wresting it from the British.

… (1930) King Carol II of Romania is proclaimed king once more after returning from exile.

… (1928) Chiang Kai-Shek seizes Peking and ends the Chinese civil war.

… (1914) London sees the first performance of Borodin’s opera Prince Igor to be staged outside Russia.

… (1876) Death of George Sand, French novelist and sometime mistress of Chopin.

… (1847) In Britain, a new law limits women and children to a 10-hour working day.

… (1809) ‘Brains behind the American revolution’: Thomas Paine, guiding light of the American Revolution and one of the most influential thinkers of the age, died in New York City today. Through his writings, Paine inspired and revived the nation’s morale during the dark days of America’s fight for independence from Britain. His famous pamphlet Common Sense, published in 1776 and including the words, “The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind” sold more than 100,000 copies in three months. The American Crisis, published later in the same year, is credited with contributing to American success at the Battle of Trenton. While in France, Paine wrote The Rights of Man, a defence of the French revolution that earned him the brand “traitor” in his native Britain. Although a supporter of the revolutionary cause, he was opposed to the execution of Louis XVI: this aroused radical suspicions and landed him in the Luxembourg Prison, where he worked on the statement of his religious beliefs, The Age of Reason, published after his release.

…Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. [Thomas Paine, British writer and political philosopher, who died today, 1809.]

… (632) Mohammed, Prophet and founder of Islam, died today in Mecca. Mohammed took up his calling late in life: at 40, a revelation from Allah convinced him that he must spread the word of the one true god, and he began to forge the new religion. By the time of his death, and after several jihads (holy wars), most of the Arab peninsula had come to accept Islam, with Mohammed as its leader. Central to the Islamic message is a belief in the afterlife, in which the good will be rewarded by entry to Paradise: Mohammed will now pass into that “blissful abode – garden and vineyard” where there will be “girls with swelling breasts … and a brimming cup … a recompense from [the] Lord”.

7^th, (1990) President de Klerk lifts the state of emergency in South Africa.

… (1981) ‘Israeli first strike on Iraqi reactor’: Israeli fighter jets have carried out a bombing raid on a nuclear reactor near Baghdad, Middle Eastern sources claimed today. The raid succeeded in destroying the plant. Prime Minister Begin justified the attack on the basis of the defensive “strike first” theory, saying that Iraq was planning to manufacture nuclear weapons to use against Israel. The event comes at a particularly difficult time in Arab-Israeli affairs. Negotiations, led by US envoy Philip Habib, are currently underway to prevent further confrontation between Israel and Syria over the Syrian establishment of Soviet surface-to-air missiles in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley in April.

… (1977) Street parties are held all over Britain to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee.

… (1971) India seals its border with newly independent Bangladesh to keep out cholera-stricken refugees.

… (1970) English novelist E. M. Forster, author of A Room with a View, Howard’s End and A Passage to India, dies aged 91.

… (1945) Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes is premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London.

… (1933) The ballet The Seven Deadly Sins is premiered in Paris with choreography by Georges Balanchine and music and libretto by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht.

… (1905) Norway declares its independence from Sweden.

… (1712) Philadelphia bans the import of slaves.

… (1566) Sir Thomas Gresham lays the foundation stone of the first Royal Exchange in London.

… (1329) ‘Hero of Bannockburn dies’: All Scotland is in mourning today for the death of her king, Robert I, who finally succumbed to leprosy, from which he had been suffering for some time. Familiarly known as Robert de Bruce, the King seized the throne in 1306, at a time when Scotland was under English domination, and was immediately attacked and driven into hiding by English forces. Refusing to accept defeat, he returned to earn a place in Scottish history with his legendary victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, when he routed the armies of Edward II and drove the English off Scottish soil. Despite his victory, it would be another 14 years before the English finally agreed to accept Robert as the rightful king of Scotland.

6^th, (1984) At the order of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Indian troops storm the  Golden Temple in the Holy City of Amritsar to arrest Sikh militants who have taken refuge there – 712 Sikhs and 90 soldiers are killed.

… (1982) Stars such as Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, Bob Dylan and Linda Ronstadt appear at an anti-nuclear rally at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

… (1976) American oil billionaire Jean Paul Getty, who made his first million by the time he was 22, dies in England aged 83.

… (1961) ‘Thinker’s thinker dies’: Carl Gustav Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, died today in Switzerland at the age of eighty-five. Jung’s contributions to the study of the psyche include his division of personality types into introverted and extroverted, his ideas on the four functions of the mind – thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition – and his belief in a “collective unconscious” linking all mankind. A highly original thinker who loved the simple life, Jung spent his last years with his wife Emma in the house they had built by the shores of Lake Zurich.

…Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you. [Carl Gustav Jung, Austrian psychoanalyst who died today, 1961.]

… (1956) Death of American archaeologist Hiram Bingham, who located the lost Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru.

… (1949) ‘Orwell’s bleak view’: In his novel, Nineteen Eighty Four, published today, George Orwell has painted a grim picture of the dangers awaiting society if it allows politicians excessive power. In Orwell’s view, this would lead to the establishment of a totalitarian state, in which citizens have little say and government has a stranglehold on the spread of information, systematically distorting truth to suit its own ends. The argument is one which the author has brooded on for some years and picks up the theme of his 1945 bestseller, Animal Farm, which centred on the corrupting effects of political power. Although suffering from tuberculosis, Orwell was determined to complete the book and wrote the last pages in a remote house in the Hebrides, in between periods of hospitalisation.

… (1944) ‘Allies send a million men to free Europe’: As morning dawned over France today, five desolate beaches on the northern French coast – codenamed Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword – became the scene of the largest military invasion in the world’s history. Under the supreme command of US General Dwight D. Eisenhower, around 1 million men, in 4000 ships, disembarked to begin their assault on Rommel’s “Atlantic Wall” and to battle their way into France. The combined Allied troops, including French, Canadians, British and Americans, were spearheaded by units of the US 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Divisions who landed near the town of Saint Mére-Eglise; British commandos were meanwhile taking key bridges and knocking out Nazi communications. Plans for the Normandy Invasion – also known as Operation Overlord – have been underway since January, but were threatened by the worst channel weather in 25 years. Taking advantage of a break in the weather, Eisenhower ordered the fleet to set sail. Four of the beaches surrendered early, but Omaha proved more of a problem. This evening, however, sizeable sections of all five landing areas are under Allied control. The final campaign to defeat Germany has begun.

… (1936) Gatwick Airport opens in Surrey, UK.

… (1891) Death of Sir John Alexander Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada.

… (1683) In Oxford, Eilas Ashmole opens the first public museum, the Ashmolean.

5^th, (1991) The Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 and the Group Areas Act of 1950 are nullified in South Africa.

… (1990) Iran demands that British author Salman Rushdie is handed over to British Muslims.

… (1989) Solidarity beats the Communists in the first free Polish elections since World War I.

… (1988) Kay Cottee sails into Sydney harbour, becoming the first woman to sail solo round the world non-stop.

… (1972) The Duke of Windsor, briefly King Edward VIII of England, is buried at Frogmore, Windsor.

… (1967) War breaks out between Israel and the neighbouring countries of Egypt, Jordon and Syria.

… (1916) ‘War chief Kitchener drowns at sea’: The long and distinguished military career of Herbert, Viscount Kitchener was abruptly brought to an end today when the SS Hampshire, carrying him on a mission to Russia, hit a German mine and sank off the Orkney Islands, north-east of the Scottish mainland. Born on June 24, 1850, near Listowel in County Kerry, Lord Kitchener held many prominent posts during his lifetime, among them commander-in-chief during the South African War, when – in one of the less savoury episodes of his career – he herded Boer Women and children into concentration camps in his fight against guerrilla resistance. He will be best remembered for his lead in World War I, which he predicted would be a long drawn-out war, to be decided by the “last million men” that Britain could put into battle. He organised “Kitchener armies” of volunteers trained to a professional standard and on a scale unseen in British history, since when the general public have come to see him as a symbol of national victory.

… (1915) French sculptor and draughtsman Henri Gaudier-Brzeska is killed in action in World War I, aged 23.

… (1806) Louis Bonaparte is declared king of the Netherlands.

… (755 AD) English missionary Boniface, known as the Apostle of Germany, is murdered with 53 companions in Germany by unbelievers.

4^th, (1989) More than 2,000 died in Tiananmen Square, Peking, when government troops opened fire on protesting students.

… (1977) Damage estimated at £15,000 was caused when fans dug up the Wembley turf after Scotland beat England 2-1.

… (1940) The evacuation of Dunkirk which had begun on May 27 was completed. Thousands of small ships and vessels, under heavy German attack, returned to the south coast of England with 338,226 soldiers.

… (1913) Suffragette martyr Emily Wilding Davison was trampled at Tattenham Corner, Epsom, during the Derby. She flung herself in front of the King’s horse, and died on June 8.

… (1832) The Great Reform Bill, an electoral measure which disenfranchised rotten and corrupt boroughs, became law.

… (1805) The first Trooping of the Queen’s Colour took place at Horse Guards Parade, London.

… (1798) Giovanni Casanova, Italian adventurer and romancer, died in Bohemia.

3^rd, (1995) UN Rapid Intervention force is sent to Bosnia.

… (1984) The British government admits there is a higher level of leukaemia than average around Sellafield nuclear station.

… (1981) Shergar, one of the Aga Khan’s many horses, wins the Derby – by a record 10 lengths.

… (1972) In Cincinnati, Sally Priesland is ordained as the first woman rabbi.

… (1965) Joined to his Gemini 4 spacecraft by a Space Age “umbilical cord”, astronaut Edward H. White today became the first American to take a walk in space. The walk lasted 20 minutes, and is part of a programme investigating the effects of prolonged space flight on man.

… (1956) British Railways end third class travel.

… (1942) ‘New ship-based planes for US to crack Japanese’: The Midway Islands, lying about 1150 miles (1850 km) west-northwest of Hawaii, are the scene of a new kind of warfare – airborne attack between American and Japanese carrier based planes. After last month’s humiliating surrender of United States troops under the command of General Jonathon Wainwright, the Americans hope that this bold, new-style offensive will help them to reclaim the Pacific islands from the Japanese, who have established a massive military presence there. If these hopes are fulfilled, the Battle of Midway – as it is being called – could prove a turning point for the Allies in the Pacific war.

… (1899) Death of Johann Strauss the Younger, composer of the Blue Danube.

… (1864) In the American Civil War, more than 6,000 Unionists are killed or wounded in less than an hour at Cold Harbour.

… (1665) British naval forces under the Duke of York defeat the Dutch fleet off the coast of Suffolk.

2^nd, (1985) English football clubs are banned indefinitely from playing in Europe on account of hooliganism by British fans abroad.

… (1979) ‘Poland’s Pope comes home’: There was an emotional welcome waiting for Pope John Paul II as he set foot again on the soil of his native Poland. Born 59 years ago in Wadowice and christened Karol Wojtyla, John Paul was only elected to office on October 16 last year – the first non-Italian to be elected Pope in 456 years. Although Poland is under Communist rule, much of the population remains true to its Roman Catholic roots. The Pope’s visit marks a major opening-up in the relationship between the Church and the countries of the Communist block.

… (1966) American automatic spacecraft Surveyor lands in the south-west part of the moon’s Oceanus Procellanum.

… (1964) The PLO is formed in Jerusalem.

… (1954) Eighteen-year-old jockey Lester Piggott wins his first Derby on Never Say Die, the first American horse to win the Derby since Iroquois in 1881.

… (1953) ‘Vivat Regina!’:  In a sense of ritual pomp and splendour at London’s Westminster Abbey today, the Archbishop of Canterbury solemnly lowered the Crown of St Edward on to the head of Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, to make her Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Ireland. Outside, in the cold and wet, thousands of spectators waited for the new Queen to emerge and make her journey to Buckingham Palace in the commercial golden coach. Black-market tickets for the event were going for as much as £50 ($92), while a balcony with a good view commanded up to £3500 ($6500). Those who could not make it were glued to the screens of a record two and half million televisions. Ironically, had it not been for the abdication of her uncle Edward VIII in favour of her father George VI, Elizabeth would not have had the starring role in today’s ceremony. Married in 1947 to her distant cousin Prince Philip of Greece, now Duke of Edinburgh, Elizabeth has been representing her father on state occasions since 1951, due to the gradual decline in the King’s state of health. It was while on a state visit with her husband in Kenya, en route to Australia and New Zealand that the Queen heard of her father’s death and her accession to the throne.

… (1946) Italy’s monarchy is abolished and the country becomes a republic.

… (1882) Italian nationalist leader Giuseppe Garibaldi dies aged 74.

… (1896) ‘Marconi invention: no wires attached’: Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, now living in London, has taken out the first patent for a wireless telegraphy apparatus, a device that transmits spoken messages over long distances without the aid of wires or cables. Using a transmitter and a receiver, Marconi’s invention broadcasts sound by means of invisible electro-magnetic, or radio, waves – a phenomenon first demonstrated by the German physicist, Heinrich Hertz. Although at present transmission is limited to a distance of under 12 miles (19 km), Marconi aims to extend its range still further, perhaps even to France.

… (1868) Britain crushes the Marathas in India and annexes their land.

… (1780) Lord George Gordon foments riots to protest against the ending of penalties against Roman Catholics in the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1778.

June 1^st, (2001) ‘Royal family massacred in Nepal’: The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal has been thrown into deep crisis with the murders of 11 members of the Royal Family, including King Birendra and Queen Aiswary, during a banquet. Prince Dipendra, heir to the throne, has been named as the killer. It is believed he shot dead his parents and relatives, then turned the gun on himself. There has been no official word about what triggered the violence, though reports suggest the incident followed an argument about the Prince’s choice of bride. Although the Prince is gravely ill in hospital, royal tradition means he is the rightful successor to the throne. King Birendra’s brother, Prince Gyanedra, has been appointed regent until the fate of the crown prince is known.

… (1979) Rhodesia takes the name of Zimbabwe.

… (1971) The two-room shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born is opened to the public as a tourist attraction.

… (1942) Television licenses are first issued in Britain.

… (1939) While carrying out trials in Liverpool Bay, the Royal Navy submarine Thetis leaks carbon monoxide, poisoning 70 of its crew.

… (1935) In the interests of road safety, the British government is introducing a test for would-be motorists. The test will put drivers through their paces, checking how well they can manoeuvre a vehicle, how good their eyesight is, and how well they know the rules of the road.

… (1910) Captain Robert Falcon Scott sails out of London’s East India docks in the Terra Nova, bound for the South Pole.

… (1879) Eugene Louis Jean Napoleon, Prince Imperial of France, is killed in the Zulu campaign in South Africa.

… (1831) Sir James Clark Ross locates the magnetic North Pole on his Arctic expedition with Admiral Parry.

… (1815) Napoleon Bonaparte swears fidelity to the French constitution.

… (1621) ‘Glimmer of hope for Mayflower pilgrims’: Settlers in the New England colony of New Plymouth have been wondering just how secure their settlement is, but a patent, issued today by the Council for New England, has put their minds at rest. When the Pilgrims, a group of religious dissenters, set sail in the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, on their 66-day voyage last year, they carried with them a patent from the Virginia Company granting them territory in Virginia and allowing the right to self-government. Their plans went wrong, however, when severe weather at sea put them off course, forcing them to land outside the limits of the grant. Although the new patent has given them the title to the land, the Pilgrims have had to sort out the government question for themselves. Fortunately, before disembarking, they had already entered into a solemn covenant with each other, which they call the Mayflower Compact. The terms bind them, as a body, to form a government, and to abide by any laws it may make.

MAY

31^st, (1991) The 17-year civil war in Angola comes to an end.

… (1989) The speaker at the House of Representatives resigned today following investigations by the House Ethics Committee into financial impropriety. Jim Wright is the first speaker in US history forced to resign.

… (1962) Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.

… (1961) South Africa declares itself a republic independent of the British Commonwealth.

… (1958) The Kremlin agrees to talks with the US on an atmospheric test ban treaty.

… (1939) Britain interns fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and thousands of other fascist sympathisers and aliens as the government consolidates emergency war powers.

… (1927) ‘The last Model T’: The last Model T Ford, No. 157,007,003, rolled off the assembly line today. It is to be replaced by the Model A. Retooling the Ford production lines will take six months and cost at least $200 million. Henry Ford has held on to the Model T too long, and has now lost first place to General Motors. Ford introduced the moving assembly line technique of mass production in the US. One result has been a drop in price – the first model Ts cost $850 in 1908, but they now sell for under $300. But the thriving second-hand market has hit sales. Other companies are countering this by making their cars slightly different every year. Nonetheless the automobile has become an essential part of American life.

… (1902) ‘Outgunned Boers Quit’: “With grief”, South Africa’s Boer generals formally surrendered to Britain tonight. The Boer War started with humiliation for the British – mere famers overwhelmed the imperial forces in battle after battle. In the end 450,000 of Britain’s elite troops were pitted against only 80,000 Boer fighters, who relied on mobility and expert guerrilla tactics. Britain’s Lord Kitchener finally countered this by cordoning off the land and herding the Boer women and children into concentration camps, where more than 20,000 – one in three – died of disease and malnutrition. The camps have caused deep dissent in Britain and outrage in Europe, where Britain has been dubbed the “Dirty Dog”. The peace treaty provides for eventual self-rule for the Boer republics, with the issue of votes for natives to be dealt with after that.

…Perhaps it is God’s will to lead the people of South Africa through defeat and humiliation to a better future and a brighter day. [Jan Smuts, Boer general, at the Boer War peace conference, 1902.]

… (1809) Death of Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn, who began his musical career at the age of eight as a cathedral chorister in Vienna and went on to become Kapellmeister to the Esterhazy family.

30^th, (1990) France bans imports of British beef in case it carries the BSE virus, known as “mad cow disease”.

… (1989) ‘Goddess of Democracy outfaces Chairman Mao’: A defiant Goddess of Democracy and Freedom confronted the huge portrait of Chairman Mao in Peking’s Tiananmen Square this morning. The 30 ft (9 m) figure, modelled on New York’s Statue of Liberty, was sculpted overnight by Chinese art students out of fibreglass and plaster. A million people flooded the square again today to demand dramatic reform, defying the martial law declaration of 10 days ago in an awesome confrontation with authority. The pro-democracy campaign is now nationwide. The divided party leadership will be forced to act soon – but how?

… (1989) Food riots in Argentina threaten the economic policies of new president Carlos Menem.

… (1972) ‘Japanese Red Army raids Tel Aviv’: Three Japanese Red Army terrorists opened fire on unsuspecting passengers at Lod international airport in Tel Aviv today, killing 26 people. The three men passed through security without any difficulty before taking automatic rifles from their bags and opening fire on the terrified crowds in the baggage hall. Two of the terrorists were shot by security guards and the third was arrested. They are reported to have been working for a Palestinian group in Lebanon.

… (1960) Doctor Zhivago, author Boris Pasternak died, aged 70.

… (1959) The Auckland Harbour Bridge on New Zealand’s North Island is officially opened.

… (1959) The first hovercraft is launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England.

… (1788) Death of Voltaire, French philosopher, scientist, moralist and man of letters.

… (1640) Death of Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, one of the most influential figures in Baroque art in northern Europe.

… (1536) Eleven days after he has had his wife Anne Boleyn beheaded, King Henry VIII of England marries Jane Seymour, former lady-in-waiting to Anne and to Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

… (1498) Italian explorer Christopher Columbus embarks on his third voyage under the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

… (1431) ‘Joan left to burn’: Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake, accused of being a witch, in Rouen today. The last word she spoke before succumbing to the flames was “Jesus”. She was 19. The peasant maid whose “voices” led her to drive the English from Orleans and put King Charles VII on the throne was wounded in battle a year ago and captured. Her Burgundian captors sold her to the English Duke of Bedford for 10,000 crowns. The duke, not daring to execute her, handed her over to a church court in Rouen for a secret Inquisition trial. The judges declared Joan’s visions diabolical and charged her with heresy and witchcraft. Interrogated and tortured for months, she was finally tricked into admitting her guilt. She retracted the confession, and was then condemned as a relapsed heretic and sent to the stake. King Charles VII did not lift a finger to help her.

…War should belong to the tragic past, to history: it should find no place on humanity’s agenda for the future [Pope John Paul II, in a speech in Coventry on this day, 1982.]

29^th, (2009) Music producer Phil Spector was jailed for at least 19 years for the 2003 murder of Hollywood actress Lana Clarkson.

… (1989) Russian politician Boris Yeltsin is elected to the Supreme Soviet after popular protests at his exclusion.

… (1985) ‘European Cup violence kills 41 at Heysel’: Hated soccer hooligans went on the rampage at Heysel Stadium in Belgium tonight, causing a riot which left 41 fans crushed or trampled to death and some 350 injured. Most of the causalities were Italian football supporters. Chanting, flag wave hooligans from ‘Liverpool’ charged Italian fans in the stands during the European Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool, causing immediate panic as a wall and safety fence collapsed under the surge of people. The fighting went on as police struggled to rescue those who were trapped, with the hooligans using lethal iron bars and bottles – whatever they could seize – as weapons. Bodies were being laid out in the car park as mounted riot police rode in to stop the fighting. Europe has been plagued by marauding bands of British hooligans in recent years. Tonight’s mindless violence will surely see them – and their teams – banned.

… (1979) Bishop Abel Muzorewa, one time president of the African National Congress, becomes the first black prime minister of Rhodesia.

… (1972) Presidents Nixon and Brezhnev sign the first arms reduction pact.

… (1958) French statesman Charles de Gaulle is summoned from retirement to deal with a crisis in Algeria, where French settlers are in revolt against prospective Algerian independence.

… (1954) Diane Leather, a 21-year-old chemist at Birmingham University, became the first woman to run a mile in under five minutes.

… (1953) ‘Everest crowned by Hillary and Tenzing’: A British team has “crowned” Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, reaching the summit just four days before Britain crowns its new queen, Elizabeth II. New-Zealand born climber Edmund Hillary and the Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay reached the 29,001-ft (8839.5 m) summit at 11:30 this morning. They stayed for about 15 minutes to take photos and plant the Union Jack, the Nepalese flag and the UN flag side by side in the snow, with biscuits and a cake as a Buddhist offering. Then they began the downward climb, tired but elated at their success. For 30 years men have tried and failed to scale Everest – or “Chomolungma” as it is called in Tibetan, “goddess mother of the world”. Hillary and Tenzing used up-to-date mountaineering equipment, including special nylon clothing and oxygen equipment, and expedition leader Colonel John Hunt planned the assault meticulously, making a close study of previous climbs. An attempt earlier this month failed in high winds, but today the weather was perfect.

… (1884) Oscar Wilde married Constance Lloyd in Paddington, London. She wore a yellow dress and carried a bouquet of lilies.

… (1795) The Virginia Assembly opposes Britain’s Stamp Act.

… (1660) ‘Cheers for Charles’: Charles Stuart entered London today on his 30^th birthday to become King Charles II, restoring England’s monarchy following Oliver Cromwell’s commonwealth. He was well received – the public actually asked him to come home. Apart from a short and disastrous visit in 1650 when he led a Scottish army to defeat at Worcester, Charles has been in exile since Cromwell had his father, Charles I, beheaded in 1649. Oliver Cromwell died two years ago and his son Richard’s weak rule brought public demands for restoration of the monarchy. Charles issued a declaration at Breda in Holland agreeing to full cooperation with parliament, and an English fleet was sent to bring him home, arriving in Dover four days ago. When Charles arrived in London today, flowers littered the streets, bells were ringing and old Cavaliers wept for joy. The new King has brought considerable cheer following Cromwell’s Puritan rule.

… (1500) Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz drowns at sea during a storm.

… (1453) Constantinople finally falls to the Turkish army after a siege lasting for a year.

…The Queen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of “Women’s Rights”, with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feeling and propriety. [Victoria, Queen of England, in a letter, 1870.]

28^th, (1987) ‘Teenager lands plane in Red Square’: A West German teenager’s prank caused world-wide mirth today and seriously embarrassed the Soviet Union. Mathias Rust, 19, flew his light Cessna plane from Helsinki to Moscow, buzzed the Kremlin and landed in Red Square – evading the entire Soviet air defence system. He alighted to sign autographs for astonished Moscow passersby before being taken away by bemused policemen. Extremely unamused are the hard men in the Kremlin, who are unlikely simply to dock Mathias’s pocket money. The young prankster is in deep trouble.

… (1985) Thousands drown as a cyclone hits Bangladesh.

… (1984) Eric Morecambe died, aged 58.

… (1982) Barcelona Football Club buys Argentinean footballer Diego Maradona from Argentinos Juniors for a record £5 million ($9.25 million).

… (1972) The Duke of Windsor, English king who abdicated to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, dies in Paris.

… (1967) The 65-year-old British yachtsman Francis Chichester receives a hero’s welcome when he arrives in Plymouth 119 days after setting out on a solo round-the-world-trip.

… (1940) The Belgian army surrenders to the Nazis.

… (1937) Death of Alfred Adler, Austrian psychiatrist whose theories introduced the concept of the inferiority complex.

… (1936) Alan Turing submitted his paper On Computable Numbers, setting out the basic principles for modern computers.

… (1932) ‘Dutch hold back North Sea’s tide’: Dutch engineers completed the world’s biggest dam today – a major victory in their 800-year battle to push back the sea. The dam wall, or dike, is 18 miles (29 km) long, and turns the Zuider Zee into a vast freshwater lake, called the Ijsselmeer. The dam cuts Amsterdam from the sea, and ships must now use the 14-mile (22 km) deep-water North Sea Canal, completed in 1876. The dam will eventually provide cramped Holland with 500,000 acres (203,000 hectares) of reclaimed land. It is a slow process: flooded land is diked, pumped dry, then leached with fresh water to remove the salt and treated with gypsum before it can be used for agriculture. Most of the new land will be below sea level, needing continuous pumping. Holland’s thousands of windmills maintain the complex system of water levels, though they are steadily being replaced with motor driven pumps.

… (1891) The first world weightlifting championships are held at the Café Monico in Piccadilly, London.

27^th, (1994) Novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn returns to Russia after 20 years in exile.

… (1990) ‘Kremlin triggers shopping frenzy’: The Kremlin announced its new economic package today – and provoked an unprecedented shopping frenzy in the Soviet Union. Hordes of panic buyers emptied shops of everything, and many left empty-handed. The reforms mean the traditional food subsidies will be phased out to create what the Kremlin calls a “regulated market economy”. Meat prices and sugar will double and bread will cost three times as much. But the new package is not law until parliament approves it, and there may be a referendum.

… (1988) In Canada, a man is acquitted of murdering his mother because he was sleepwalking. He drove to her home, hit her with an iron bar and then stabbed her.

… (1963) Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first prime minister of Kenya.

… (1957) Buddy Holly And The Crickets released That’ll Be The Day, their first record.

… (1949) ‘Communists take Shanghai’: After a month-long siege, the communist Chinese took Shanghai today with hardly a shot fired. The remnants of Chiang Kai-shek’s routed Nationalist army are retreating towards Canton in the south and it is only a matter of time before communist leader Mao Tse-tung’s victory is complete. Two years ago the Nationalists outnumbered the communist forces three to one and had vastly superior firepower, yet even with these advantages they were no match for Mao’s guerrillas. Last year United States general David Barr reported to Washington that the Nationalists had “the world’s worst leadership” and that there was “widespread corruption and dishonesty throughout the armed forces”. Large numbers of Nationalists defected to the communist side, which conversely consists of motivated, disciplined and well-led men – and they have the additional support of China’s peasants. Heavy US backing for the Nationalists could not counter this. Communist rule now stretches from Berlin to Shanghai.

… (1905) ‘Japan sinks Russian fleet’: Japan has won a great naval victory, annihilating the Russian Baltic fleet sent to relieve Port Arthur. Only three of the 38 Russian ships escaped from the straits of Tsushima in the Sea of Japan, while Japanese admiral Togo Heihachiro’s fleet lost just three torpedo boats. Togo outmanoeuvred the Russians and sank all four Russian capital ships – including the Admiral Nakhimov, reported to have been carrying $2000 million in gold and platinum. The Baltic fleet set sail 18 months ago for Vladivostok. It was too late to save Port Arthur, which surrendered to Japan on January 2 after a seven-month siege. On March 10 the Japanese routed the 200,000-man Russian army at Mukden. A humiliated Russia now has no choice but to concede defeat.

… (1900) Belgium becomes the first country to elect a government by proportional representation.

… (1851) Adolf Anderssen of Germany wins the first chess International Masters tournament, held in London.

… (1703) Russian tsar Peter the Great proclaims St Petersburg the new capital of Russia.

… (1657) Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell refuses parliament’s offer of the title of King of England.

… (1647) Alse Young, the first person to be executed for being a witch in America, was hanged in Connecticut.

… (1564) Death of French Protestant reformer John Calvin.

…There is no art which one government sooner learns of another than that of draining money from the pockets of the people. [Adam Smith, pioneering economist, 1776.]

26^th, (1988) Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats opens in Moscow with a British and American cast.

… (1975) American stuntman Evel Knievel suffers severe spinal injuries in Britain when he crashes while attempting to leap 13 buses in his car.

… (1942) British prime minister Winston Churchill signs a military pact with Russian leader Joseph Stalin, who promises him “close collaboration after the war”.

… (1940) ‘Makeshift Navy Evacuates British from Dunkirk’: A strange armada of more than 700 boats set sail from Britain across the English Channel today as virtually everything that would float made for the beaches at Dunkirk in France to rescue 380,000 trapped Allied troops. The awesome Nazi war machine has taken just 10 days to sweep aside Allied defences in France and Belgium. In a lightning push through the Ardennes, German troops cut off the retreating British, French and Belgian armies now facing annihilation on the beaches. Helped by RAF air cover, the besieged troops are fighting a fierce rearguard battle to defend the beaches, but the makeshift flotilla of destroyers, ferries, fishing boats and pleasure craft are coming under heavy fire as they pick up the exhausted troops.

… (1908) A major oil strike is made in Persia, the first in the Middle East.

… (1868) ‘Impeached president just survives defeat’: The US senate today found impeached US president Andrew Johnson not guilty – by only one vote. On February 21 Johnson defied last year’s Tenure of Office Act, which Congress passed over his veto last year, by firing secretary of war Edwin. M. Stanton – who refused to go, barricading himself in his office. Three days later Congress voted to impeach the president. The Senate trial began on March 13 – though the charges fell short of the “high crimes and misdemeanours” required for impeachment. Southern Democrat Johnson’s main crime was reconstructing the defeated rebel states “according to his own will”. Republican congressman demanded much tougher measures. It is their “Radical Reconstruction” plans that are now going ahead.

… (1865) ‘US Civil War over: half a million dead’: The last organised resistance in the US civil war ended today when General Kirby Smith surrendered Confederate forces west of the Mississippi. Resistance east of the Mississippi ended on May 4, following General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox on April 9. The Confederate navy still holds the port of Galveston in Texas. The war has torn America: half a million are dead and the South is crippled. President Lincoln’s death is a severe loss to the post-war healing process; he called for generous reconciliation in his last speech, three days after Appomattox. President Andrew Johnson is instigating plans for amnesty and to bring the rebel states back into Congress.

… (1805) Napoleon Bonaparte is crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.

… (1791) The French Assembly forces Louis XVI to hand over the crown and state assets.

… (1660) King Charles II of England lands at Dover after a nine-year exile.

…The history of the World is the World’s court of justice. [Freidrich von Schiller, German dramatist, on this day, 1789.]

25^th, (1990) British prime minister Margaret Thatcher today warned of the dangers of global warming and pledged Britain to a 30 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, which are thought to be the main cause of global warming. The pledge breaks stride with the Bush administration, which has refused to commit itself, calling first for further research on the problem. But environmental groups are saying Mrs. Thatcher’s 30 per cent cut is not nearly enough. A United Nations report published today concludes that worldwide emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and chlorofluorocarbons will have to be cut by 60 per cent to stabilise atmospheric concentrations at current levels – which are already too high and continuing to escalate. The report warns of global temperature increases of 2˚ F in 35 years, and 6˚ F by the end of the next century, with potentially disastrous consequences. The report was approved by scientists representing 39 countries.

… (1986) South African troops drive 25,000 blacks out of Crossroads squatter camp.

… (1986) Worldwide, 30 million people run a “Race Against Time” for Sport Aid to raise money for the starving in Africa.

… (1961) The Ku Klux Klan clash with civil rights “Freedom Riders” in Montgomery, Alabama.

… (1959) The US Supreme Court rules that Alabama’s ban on boxing matches between black and white is unconstitutional.

… (1951) Two British diplomats have gone absent without leave in London. Both Donald MacLean and Guy Burgess had held senior Foreign Office positions in Washington. It is understood that police in Europe have been alerted, with checks in countries bordering the Soviet bloc. The Foreign Office has refused to comment.

… (1950) French troops clash with Viet Cong guerrillas in Vietnam.

… (1938) Alicante is bombed by General Franco’s aircraft as his Falangists fight a bitter civil war against the Republicans.

… (1925) ‘Monkey business’: Press men and religious sects both converged on the courthouse in the small Tennessee town of Dayton today to see the local schoolteacher, John T. Scopes, stand trial for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Tennessee passed a law two months ago outlawing Darwin and anyone else who contradicted the Bible’s version of creation, but Scopes defied the new law. High drama is assured in the “Monkey Trial”, as it is being called.

… (1850) The first hippopotamus ever seen in Britain arrives as an exhibit for London zoo.

… (1787) ‘Americans start to draft constitution’: A rather special group of Americans met in the State House in Philadelphia today to set about writing a new constitution for the United States. Among them are George Washington, hero of the Revolution; the Philadelphia lawyer John Dickinson, who helped draft the first constitution; the indomitable Benjamin Franklin, Pennsylvania’s president, now 81; Alexander Hamilton of New York, at 32 a distinguished soldier and famous lawyer; Virginia leader James Madison, master of republican theory; and several dozen other brilliant men. The meeting was called because Congress faces bankruptcy and the states are alarmed by Shays’s Rebellion earlier this year. The uprising by bankrupt farmers showed the need for a stronger central government, but under the Articles of Confederation the government has no control over commerce and cannot raise taxes or enforce its own laws.

… (1768) Captain Cook sets forth from England in his ship the Endeavour on a voyage to explore the Antipodes.

…History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history that we make today. [Henry Ford, on this day, 1916.]

24^th, (1988) Snow falls on the Syrian Desert and on Damascus for the first time in 50 years.

… (1973) In Britain, Lord Lambton and Earl Jellicoe resign from the government in a call girl/security scandal.

… (1959) Death of John Foster Dulles, US secretary of state under Eisenhower.

… (1941) The Royal Navy’s pride, the 42,000 ton battleship HMS Hood, has been sunk in a duel with the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic. Nearly all the crew of 1400 have drowned.

… (1862) London’s Westminster Bridge is opened.

… (1856) American anti-slavery campaigner John Brown leads the Free-Staters in a massacre of the pro-slavers at Pottawatamie Creek.

… (1814) Pope Pius VII, exiled by Napoleon Bonaparte, returns to Rome.

… (1809) Dartmoor Prison is opened in England to house French prisoners of war.

… (1689) The English parliament passes the Act of Toleration for the relief of Dissenters.

… (1534) ‘Copernicus turns Heavens upside down’: As he lay dying today, the canon of Frauenberg cathedral in Poland was brought the first copy of a treatise he has written that overturns church doctrine on man’s place in the universe. According to Nicolaus Copernicus, our world is not the centre about which all else in the heavens turns, as Aristotle and Ptolemy claimed. His book, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, claims that the Earth and the other planets revolve round the sun – which itself doesn’t stay in one place. The universe, he says, is much bigger than once thought – and man’s place in it is far from central. In fact Copernicus’s scheme of things sounds very plausible. The book is bound to cause immense controversy. Copernicus is aware of this – he first wrote about his theories in 1514, but was very discreet about them.

…The Catholic Church has always refused and continues today to refuse to make the market the supreme regulator and almost the model or synthesis of social life. [Pope John Paul II, on this day, 1991.]

23^rd, (2017) Sir Roger Moore died, aged 89.

… (1991) Chinese authorities mark the fortieth anniversary of their “liberation” of Tibet with low-key celebrations.

… (1960) ‘Nazi Eichmann caught in Israel’: Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion announced today that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has been captured and will stand trial in Israel. Eichmann, the “technician of death”, was in command of the Gestapo section charged with exterminating the Jews and supervised the network of death camps where six million Jews died. He escaped at the end of the war. Reports in Israel claim that Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal tracked Eichmann down in Argentina, where he was living under the name Ricardo Klement.  Israeli agents then kidnapped him and brought him back to Tel Aviv in an official plane. Wiesenthal, who lost 89 relatives in the Holocaust, has helped bring hundreds of Nazis to trial.

… (1948) The Empire Windrush sets sail from Jamaica with the first boatload of West Indian immigrants invited to Britain to help with post-war reconstruction.

… (1945) Heinrich Himmier, Adolf Hitler’s minister of the interior, commits suicide.

… (1934) ‘Violent end for criminal couple’: Bank robbers and murderers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow died in a hail of bullets today when they drove their car into a police ambush in Louisiana. More than 50 bullets hit the pair, police said. Parker and Barrow have terrorised the south-western US during the last four years, killing 12 people in a series of armed raids on small-town banks and gas stations. Barrow was 25, and Parker 23.

… (1925) British publishing magnate Sir Edward Hutton dies after falling off his penny farthing bicycle.

… (1887) The French crown jewels go on sale, raising six million francs.

… (1873) The North West Mounted Police are formed in Canada.

… (1795) In Paris, troops put down an uprising caused by bread shortages.

… (1785) Benjamin Franklin announced his invention of a bifocal eyeglass, enabling people to see far away and close up without switching glasses.

… (1498) Italian religious reformer Girolama Savonarola is hanged and burnt at the stake for heresy by his political rivals.

… (1498) ‘Sea Success for Da Gama’: The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut on India’s Malabar Coast today after almost a year, the first European to reach the Indies by sea. Da Gama sailed his four ships south from Lisbon to the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, and then up Africa’s east coast. The sultan of Mozambique thought the voyagers were Muslim and gave them pilots for the journey north, but hostile Arabs attacked them at Mombasa. Da Gama’s reception in Calicut could have been warmer: the gifts he took ashore today were more suited to Africa, and Calicut’s ruler rejected them. Arab traders have tried to turn the Indians against their Portuguese rivals.

22^nd, (1990) New Zealand boats take the first three places in the Whitbread Round the World yacht race.

… (1972) Richard Nixon becomes the first US president to visit the USSR. He was met by Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The two world leaders will hold talks on arms limitation and the avoidance of military confrontation. Nixon’s policy of détente with the communist world is beginning to bear fruit – the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) that he started with the Soviets in 1969 have resulted in agreements that the two leaders will sign during Nixon’s week in Moscow. He is also expected to address the Soviet people on television.

… (1932) Death of Irish dramatist Lady Augusta Gregory who, with W.B. Yeats, founded the Irish Dramatic Movement, a theatre company that moved into the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1904.

… (1915) A troop train collides with a passenger train at Gretna Green in Scotland, killing 227 people.

… (1908) ‘Wrights Patent Flying Machine’: Wilbur and Orville Wright patented their flying machine today, four years after their historic first powered flight at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. That day the “Flyer I” made four flights, the longest lasting a minute and covering  852 ft (259 m). Today they still use the same machine, very much improved, to make flights of 40 minutes, travelling up to 25 miles (40 km) at altitudes of 150 ft (46 m) or more. Strangely the brothers are hardly known in America, except to a few hundred enthusiasts. But now their pioneering work is starting to bear fruit: last year the US Army Signal Corps contracted the Wrights to build a two-man aircraft capable of flying 125 miles (201 km), and later this year the brothers are to take their aircraft on tour in France – hence today’s patent.

… (1885) French novelist, dramatist, poet and national literary hero Victor Hugo dies in Paris aged 83.

… (1795) Scottish explorer Mungo Park sets forth on his first voyage to Africa.

… (1455) In the first battle of the English Wars of the Roses, the Yorkists are defeated by the Lancastrians at St. Albans.

… (337 AD) Constantine the Great, who in 313 AD issued the Edict of Milan which established toleration of Christians, is baptised on his deathbed, becoming the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity.

21^st, (2003) More than 2000 people die as a massive earthquake hits Algeria.

… (1991) The former prime minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi, was assassinated today by a woman terrorist suicide bomber at an election rally in Southern India. He was 46.

… (1981) Singer-songwriter Bob Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica.

… (1975) The Baader-Meinhof terrorist gang goes on trial in Stuttgart.

… (1956) The U.S. exploded the first airborne hydrogen bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

… (1927) ‘Solitary spirit of Lindbergh’: Charles Lindbergh landed his plane in Paris this evening to win the $25,000 prize for the first solo flight across the Atlantic. A crowd of 100,000 turned out to welcome the 25-year-old American pilot in his specially built plane, the Spirit of St Louis, as it landed at Le Bourget airport. Lindbergh took off from Roosevelt Field in Long Island early yesterday and was in the air for 33 hours and 40 minutes. He learned to fly five years ago and was flying a mail run between Chicago and St Louis when he heard about the prize money on offer. Now he is an international hero. US president Calvin Coolidge is sending a Navy cruiser to take him back to the US.

… (1894) Queen Victoria opens the Manchester Ship Canal.

… (1840) New Zealand is proclaimed a British colony.

… (1618) Death of Italian physician Hieronymous Fabricius ab Aquapendente, who discovered one-way valves in veins.

… (1553) Lady Jane Grey, great granddaughter of Henry VII, is forced to marry Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, who has ambitions for the throne of England.

… (1471) King Henry VI of England dies in the Tower of London, probably the victim of murder instigated by King Edward IV.

…The House of Lords is a model of how to care for the elderly. [Frank Field, British politician, 1981.]

20^th, (2002) East Timor celebrates as it gains independence from Indonesia and becomes a new nation.

… (1998) Liza Minnelli, Gregory Peck, Jack Nicholson, and Sophia Loren attended the funeral of Frank Sinatra in Beverly Hills.

… (1989) ‘China crisis’: Martial law was declared in Peking today as huge demonstrations calling for reform continue to shake China. Peking seemed to be in the control of the people as more than a million demonstrators gathered in support of pro-democracy student campaigners on hunger strike in Tiananmen Square. The campaign of mass defiance has spread to other major cities. The demonstrations started last month following the death of former party chairman Hu Yaobang, who was seen to be in favour of reform. Two days ago talks between the students and government leaders failed. But so far the protests have been peaceful.

… (1972) Marc Bolan’s T. Rex notched up their fourth and final number one single, Metal Guru – the same time as their final number one album, Bolan Boogie.

… (1956) Death of British caricaturist and writer Sir Max Beerbohm, author of Zuleika Dobson.

… (1939) Pan-American Airways begins its first commercial flights between the USA and Europe.

… (1939) In London, approximately 200,000 people attend the first Chelsea Flower Show, held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital.

… (1895) In the USA, income tax is declared unconstitutional.

… (1867) Queen Victoria lays the foundation stone of the Albert Hall in London.

… (1802) France restores slavery and the slave trade in her colonies.

… (1609) The sonnets of dramatist William Shakespeare are published.

… (1588) The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon on its mission to conquer the English.

… (1506) ‘Columbus still believed in Asia’: Christopher Columbus died today at Valladolid in Spain, virtually penniless, and still believing he had reached Asia. He was 55. The Spanish court, 14 years later, still had not paid him the royalties owed him from his discoveries in the New World. Columbus spent seven years persuading Spain’s Queen Isabella I to finance an expedition to search for a westward route to the Orient. Three months after leaving Europe his three ships reached the Bahamas. Columbus sailed back and forth across the Atlantic on three further voyages, none successful. On the third voyage he was returned to Spain in chains for having seven rebellious settlers hanged, and on his last voyage he was marooned on Jamaica for a year. But he was a master mariner: his discovery of favourable winds in both directions opened up the New World to European exploitation.

… (1347) Popular Roman leader Cola di Rienzo, having gained the support of the people against the nobles, attempts to restore Rome as a Republic.

19^th, (1991) Helen Sharman, the first Briton in space, blasts off with two Soviet cosmonauts for a rendezvous with the Soviet Mir space station.

… (1906) The 12-mile (19 km) Simplon Tunnel linking Italy and Switzerland through the Alps is officially opened.

… (1900) The 169 islands collectively known as the Kingdom of Tonga, or the Friendly Islands, become a British protectorate.

… (1898) British statesman William Gladstone, elected Liberal prime minister four times, dies aged 88.

… (1864) Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne, American novelist and short story writer.

… (1802) Napoleon institutes the title Légion d’honneur, which will be the highest honour awarded for civil and military distinction.

… (1795) James Boswell, biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson, dies at the age of 54.

… (1649) England is declared a Commonwealth by the Rump Parliament.

… (1536) ‘Anne Boleyn goes to the block’: Anne Boleyn, English King Henry VIII’s second wife, was beheaded in London today. She was 29. She had been charged with incest with her brother and four counts of adultery, but her real crimes were to let the king tire of her, and to fail to bear him a male heir. She gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, soon after they were married three years ago. Earlier this year Henry had her arrested after the stillbirth of a boy. He had meanwhile become infatuated with Anne’s lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, and with Anne out of the way, an immediate marriage is planned. Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon, died in January. When she failed to bear him a son he tried to have the marriage annulled, and when Pope Clement VII refused Henry broke with the Roman Church so that he could marry Anne. In fact they had already married in secret.

…The ballot is stronger than the bullet. [Abraham Lincoln, in a speech on this day, 1856.]

18^th, (1990) In the face of strong Soviet disapproval, West and East Germany took the first step towards unity today when their two finance ministers met in Bonn to sign a formal accord on monetary union. From July 1 the two countries will have one currency – West Germany’s Deutschmark.

… (1987) Iraqi Exocet missiles hit the US naval frigate Stark, killing 26 – Baghdad says it is an accident.

… (1974) ‘India goes nuclear’: India exploded a nuclear device in the Rajasthan desert today. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi issued a statement saying the underground blast was for peaceful purposes, but experts on nuclear proliferation say India could be close to developing a nuclear bomb – and it has the jets and missiles to deliver it. Today’s test blast will create nervousness across the border in Muslim Pakistan, which was severely beaten four years ago in the third war between the two nations.

… (1954) The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) comes into effect.

… (1909) Death of British poet and novelist George Meredith.

… (1832) In Paris, French novelist George Sand publishes her first novel, Indiana, in which she makes a plea for women’s right to independence.

… (1804) ‘Napoleon claims crown’: Napoleon Bonaparte is to be crowned Emperor of France, 11 years after the Revolution guillotined King Louis XVI, ending the monarchy. Napoleon was asked to take the throne in a petition by his senate following the outcry in February over a royalist attempt to assassinate him. He has ruled as a virtual king since he was made consul for life two years ago, when a referendum brought him more than three million votes with only a few thousand against him. Napoleon has built a new order in France which has revolutionised law, education, industry and government, balanced the budget, restored the economy and established France as the major world power, and the French love him for it.

… (1803) Britain abandons the Treaty of Amiens, signed only the year before, and declares war on France.

… (1652) Slavery is banned in Rhode Island,

…It is neither fitting nor safe that all the keys should hang from the belt of one woman. [Thomas Brinton, Bishop of Rochester, on the influence of the unscrupulous Alice Perrers over her ageing lover, King Edward III, 1376.]

17^th, (2003) Casablanca, Morocco, is ravaged by terrorist bombs.

… (1993) Rebecca Stephens is the first woman to climb Everest.

… (1990) ‘Churchill’s ghost voice’: US speech researchers say they have proof that three of Winston Churchill’s most famous wartime speeches were recorded by an actor. They are the promise to the nation of nothing but “blood, toil, tears and sweat”, the Dunkirk rallying call “We shall fight on the beaches, in the fields, in the streets and in the hills”, and the “finest hour” speech predicting the Battle of Britain. Churchill made the speeches himself in parliament, but the famous words broadcast to the public and sent to the US to rally war support were recorded in the BBC studios. Actor Norman Shelley long ago claimed he had done the job because “Churchill was too busy”. This was recently confirmed by a BBC archivist. Researchers at Sensimetrics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tested Churchill’s speeches with a computerised system they developed for verifying tapes used in court as evidence – and said the speeches in question were “quite different” to Churchill’s.

… (1989) The communist government of Czechoslovakia frees playwright Vaclav Havel after only three months of a nine-month jail term.

… (1984) Prince Charles attacked a proposed extension to the National Gallery as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much loved and elegant friend”.

… (1973) ‘Watergate secrets go public’: America watched in fascination as televised Senate hearings on the Watergate affair opened today. Senator Sam J. Irvin, Democrat of North Carolina, virtually accused the Watergate burglars of trying to steal America’s “right to vote in a free election” when he opened public sessions of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. White House denials that President Richard M. Nixon’s administration knew about the break-in at Democratic Party headquarters last June have worn thin as the scandal unfolded. A week ago senior Nixon aides John Mitchell and Maurice Stans were indicted for perjury. Today’s first witness testified that Nixon’s re-election campaign leader, Jeb Magruder, had hidden vital papers within hours of the burglary. Tomorrow one of the burglars, James McCord, takes the stand.

… (1969) Dubliner Tom McClean rows from Newfoundland to Ireland, becoming the first person to cross the Atlantic in a rowing boat.

… (1962) Hong Kong puts up its own “Berlin wall” to keep out migrants.

… (1935) Death of Paul Dukas, French composer, teacher and critic, best-known for his orchestral scherzo The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

… (1900) ‘Mafeking relieved – euphoria in Britain’: Extraordinary scenes of rejoicing have swept across Britain as a cable from South Africa brought news that the 217-day siege of the British garrison at Mafeking has been broken. London’s streets filled with huge crowds of revellers as the tide turned in the Boer War following a string of humiliating defeats for the British forces. Reinforcements under Lord Roberts attacked the Boers from two sides, overwhelming the besieging army. Hero of the day is cavalry officer Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, the British commander in Mafeking. His unwielding defence tied down thousands of Boer troops and he has captured the British imagination.

…Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down. [Robert Frost, American poet, in a speech at the Milton Academy today, 1935.]

… (1792) Merchants meeting under a tree in what is now Wall Street founded the New York Stock Exchange.

16^th, (1997) The Mobutu regime in Zaire collapses.

… (1991) The Queen became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

… (1991) ‘Edith for PM’: France has its first woman prime minister. Socialist president Francois Mitterrand announced today that Edith Cresson will replace the unpopular Michael Rocard, who has been dismissed. Mrs. Cresson’s appointment gives Mitterrand’s government a new élan and, yes, glamour which were distinctly lacking. “Life is hellish for a woman in politics unless she is elderly and ugly,” she told an interviewer today. Cresson is neither of those – she’s an elegant redhead of 57 and doesn’t look at all like a grandmother, though she is one. She is also a tough customer. Mitterrand dubbed her his “little soldier” because of her record for taking on the worst tasks and winning. Cresson was Minister for European Affairs, and previously for Trade. She has pushed an aggressive trade policy to put France’s exports on the map. Now she faces a recession and rising unemployment – and the task of rallying a sagging socialist vote before the next elections. But Cresson appears to relish the prospect.

…Men are not in any sense irreplaceable, except in one’s private life. [Edith Cresson, who became France’s first woman prime minister today, 1991.]

… (1989) The first successful hole in the heart operation to be performed on an adult is carried out on 66-year-old Eileen Molyneaux at the Brook Hospital at Greenwich in London.

… (1983) Diana Ross reunites with Mary Wilson and Cindy Birdsong to appear as The Supremes during a spectacular to celebrate Motown Records’ 25^th birthday.

… (1980) Dr George Nickopoulous is indicted in Memphis on 14 counts of over-prescribing drugs to 11 patients, including Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

… (1969) Pete Townsend, guitarist with British pop group The Who, spends a night in jail in New York after kicking a policeman off stage.

… (1943) ‘Bouncing bombs skip like stones’: The Ruhr Valley, the industrial heart of Nazi Germany’s war machine, was crippled tonight by two RAF bombs. The raids breached two huge dams, the Mohne and the Eder, sending walls of water down the valley, sweeping away everything in their path. Dortmund and Mulheim ground to a halt, their steel plants swamped and the coal mines flooded. The Eder dam, the biggest in Europe, is still emptying. The low flying Lancaster bombers dropped special bombs that bounced like skipping stones over the surface of the dams and sank behind the walls before exploding. Bombing the walls the conventional way was useless – they were simply too strong. The British aircraft designer Dr Barnes Wallis had the idea of bombing the inside of the walls, since explosions under water have much more force. With this in mind he designed his special bouncing bombs. The cost of tonight’s raid to the RAF’s 617 Squadron was heavy – sadly less than half the bombers returned. But the pilots’ lives were not lost in vain – the cost of the raid to Germany is incalculable. The Dam Busters raid was known as Operation Chastise.

… (1888) Emile Berliner gives the first demonstration of a flat recording disc to members of the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

… (1703) Death of the French writer of fairytales Charles Perrault, whose collection Conte de ma mere l’Oye was translated into English as Tales of Mother Goose.

15^th, (1989) ‘Soviets and Chinese thaw icy relations’: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev shook hands with China’s leader Deng Xiaoping in Peking’s Great Hall of the People today, breaking the ice in the long-standing quarrel between the two nations that has split the Communist world. But the historic occasion was upstaged by the extraordinary events that deliberately occurred just outside the Great Hall as half a million Chinese gathered in Tiananmen Square demanding democratic reform. The demonstrations, which started last month, are led by student protestors, some 3000 of whom are on hunger strike. So far the demonstrations have been peaceful. China’s leaders have been severely embarrassed in front of the Soviet leader by today’s massive demonstrations. To the Chinese leader they constitute a great loss of face.

… (1988) The USSR begins evacuating troops from Afghanistan.

… (1972) ‘Governor George gunned down by White assassin’: George Wallace, Governor of Alabama, is fighting for his life in a Washington hospital after an assassination attempt earlier today. Wallace, known for his racist and segregationist policies, was campaigning for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in Maryland when a young white man shouted “Hey George” – and fired five shots at him at close range. Wallace was hit in the stomach, leg and in the spine. Doctors are confident Wallace will survive the shooting, but fear his spinal cord may have been damaged and he could be paralysed. The gunman, Arthur Bremer, 21, was arrested at the scene.

… (1957) Britain’s first H-bomb is dropped on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

… (1954) The Queen returned from her first Commonwealth tour – which lasted six months and covered 43,618 miles.

… (1936) Aviator Amy Johnson arrives in England after a record-breaking flight from London to Cape Town and back.

… (1918) The world’s first regular air mail service begins between Washington and New York.

… (1895) Death of John Whitaker, English publisher of Whitaker’s Almanac.

… (1829) The US Congress designates the slave trade as piracy.

… (1800) One James Hatfield attempts to assassinate King George III at Drury Lane Theatre, London.

… (1718) London lawyer James Puckle patents the machine gun.

14^th, (1990) Anti-Semitism resurfaces in France with the desecration of a Jewish grave at Carpentras cemetery.

… (1987) U.S. actress Rita Hayworth died, aged 68.

… (1983) Spandau Ballet had their first and only No 1 on the album charts with True.

… (1973) Space exploration entered a new era today as the US space station Skylab 1 blasted off for orbit. Successive three-man crews will live on the space station for weeks on end. Skylab is the converted third stage of a Saturn 5 rocket.

… (1968) French workers go on a one-day strike to support demonstrating students.

… (1964) ‘Mighty Nile succumbs to progress’: Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev today pressed a button, a huge sand barrier exploded and the River Nile changed its course. The river had to be diverted to build the next stage of the Aswan High Dam which is being funded by the USSR. It will cost $1 billion, but the dam will turn nearly a million acres of desert into irrigated farmland and will double Egypt’s electricity output. Work started four years ago and the huge wall – 17 times the size of the Great Pyramid – will be finished in 1970. The dam will create a lake 6-miles (9.5 km) wide and 350-miles (503 km) long, displacing about 100,000 people – and inundating many of the ancient sites of the Pharaohs. Egypt has put the needs of the people before its historic remains. However, an international appeal is raising funds to have the temples and tombs moved to safety.

… (1956) A British frogman disappears while bugging the underside of President Khrushchev’s warship in Portsmouth.

… (1955) The Eastern bloc signs the Warsaw Pact.

… (1948) ‘Israel born in fire’: With eight hours still to run before the British mandate in Palestine expires, the torn nation’s 400,000 Jews today proclaimed the Zionist state of Israel and threw open the door to Jewish immigrants, banned since 1944. US president Harry Truman immediately recognised the Jewish state. Meanwhile battle raged on between Jews and Arabs in a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives this year, and the Arab armies ranged around the new state prepared for invasion. With Britain’s troops withdrawing, the 30,000-strong Jewish defence, Haganah, is on a full-scale war footing. After centuries as a scattered, persecuted nation, the Jews’ determination is fearsome.

… (1900) The second modern Olympic Games open in Paris – and this time women are allowed to compete.

… (1801) Pasha Yusuf Karamanli of Tripoli declares war on the US.

… (1796) British physician Edward Jenner carries out the first successful vaccination against smallpox.

… (1643) Four-year-old Louis XIV became King of France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII.

13^th, (1981) ‘Pope in Vatican shooting’: A crowd of 20,000 people in St Peter’s Square in Rome today saw Pope John Paul II shot four times by a Turkish gunman. The Pope, in his white open-top jeep, was blessing the crowds during his weekly audience when the gunman opened fire, hitting the Pope and wounding two other people. The gunman was arrested as the jeep sped to safety. After a five-hour operation the Pope was declared out of danger and is expected to recover fully. The gunman, Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, had escaped from Turkey where he was apparently being held for murder. He shot the Pope in protest at “American and Russian imperialism”.

… (1971) Soul star Stevie Wonder turned 21, finally got his hands on his earnings, which had been held in trust, and left Motown Records.

… (1961) Hollywood star Gary Cooper died, aged 60.

… (1958) Right-wing French settlers, backed by the military, seize government buildings in Algiers as 40,000 demonstrators take to the streets to demand independence.

… (1930) Death of Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, zoologist and statesman who was the League of Nations’ high commissioner for refugees, in which capacity he introduced the Nansen passport for displaced persons and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1923.

… (1844) Spain establishes a military peacekeeping force known as the Guardia Civil.

… (1835) Death of John Nash, English architect who was commissioned by King George IV to redevelop parts of London including Regent Street and Trafalgar Square.

… (1607) ‘Hard times ahead for new settlers’: Captain Christopher Newport sailed his three ships into Chesapeake Bay today to find a British colony. The newly chartered London Company’s first colonists named the settlement Jamestown after King James I. However, some of the 104 settlers foresee problems ahead. Most of the settlers are gentlemen, unused to the hard manual labour required if the colony is to be secure. Most of the provisions were used up on the voyage and it is now too late to plant crops. The Company instructed the colonists to search for gold and find a route to the Pacific – but they may have to wait.

…I used to say that politics was the second lowest profession and I have come to know that it bears a great similarity to the first. [Ronald Reagan, on the run-up to the presidential campaign trail, on this day, 1979.]

12^th, (1991) The first multi-party general election since 1959 is held in Nepal.

… (1969) The minimum voting age in Britain is lowered from 21 to 18.

… (1949) ‘USSR unblocks Berlin’: The Soviet Union has called off its blockade of Berlin after more than a year. Today cheering crowds in the four-power city met the first food convoy to arrive by road from the West. The former capital is entirely surrounded by Russian-occupied Germany. The Russians had closed the roads, stopped the trains and banned food imports from the Soviet sector in protest at the Western Allies’ plans to create an independent republic in West Germany. Britain and America beat the blockade with a round-the-clock airlift, with up to 200 flights a day ferrying food and supplies to the city. Moscow agreed to lift the siege following negotiations at the United Nations.

… (1937) The coronation in London of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth is broadcast live worldwide by the BBC.

… (1926) ‘General Strike fails’: Britain’s Trades Union Council has called off the General Strike that has brought the nation to a virtual halt for the last nine days. A bare skeleton of essential services kept the country going after public transport, rail, ports, post, supplies and industry as a whole simply stopped on May 4. Police barricaded vital centres and there were armoured cars on city streets as the army escorted convoys of emergency supplies. The middle classes, from students to City men (and their wives), volunteered at the official Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies to drive lorries or sort mail. Meanwhile the miners’ strike continues with the sympathy of the TUC.

… (1916) ‘Irish Rebel Leaders shot’: The leaders of the Easter rising in Ireland have all been executed. General Sir John Maxwell announced that James Connelly, last of the seven Republican Brotherhood leaders who proclaimed an Irish Republic on Easter Monday, was shot today. He had been wounded, and was taken on a stretcher to face the firing squad. General Maxwell has refused to give up the body of writer Patrick Pearse, the rebel leader, for a Catholic burial, saying he did not want to create a martyr. Trouble has been mounting since the new Home Rule Bill was passed four years ago. However, the rebellion was quickly suppressed.

11^th, (1991) ‘Cyclone death toll mounts’: The death toll from the cyclone which has devastated Bangladesh is climbing towards 250,000. The entire coastal plain, millions of acres of fertile rice land, is underwater following fierce floods that swept away whole communities. Now, with millions of people marooned in the midst of the flood, there is no water to drink, no food, no shelter, no medical care, and little help on the way. Suppliers are needed instantly – foreign aid has been promised, but not much has yet arrived, and getting it to those who need it is a massive problem.

… (1988) Kim Philby, former British intelligence officer who spied for the Soviets, died in Moscow aged 76.

… (1985) The main stand at Bradford City football ground in northern England catches fire, killing 40 and injuring more than 170.

… (1981) ‘Cats Purring’: A new musical opened in London today – another immediate hit for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. This show is different, even for the eclectic Lloyd Webber, Cats is a ballet-musical, setting T. S. Eliot’s playful poems in Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats to Lloyd Webber’s music, sung by a sinuously agile cast in vivid feline make-up. The score includes some good songs that could be hits, like “Memory”, sung by Grizabella the Glamour Cat. Other characters are suave feline felon Macavity, Rumpleteazer, and the Jellicle Cats who “are black and white and come out at night.” As in Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita, Lloyd Webber hits all the right notes in Cats. It’s a lit of fun – and that’s what musicals are for.

… (1960) The world’s longest liner, SS France, is launched at St Nazaire by General de Gaulle.

… (1956) Elvis Presley first enters the UK charts with “Heartbreak Hotel”.

… (1941) ‘Blitz batters London’: A pall of smoke hid the ruins as a badly shaken London emerged this morning from the worst bombing raids yet. At least 1400 people died as 550 German planes unloaded hundreds of bombs and more than 100,000 incendiaries over the city last night. Only 33 bombers were shot down. Many people are still trapped beneath the rubble as rescue teams’ fight to free them. The damage is immense: the House of Commons, Westminster Hall, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum and all the big railway stations are badly damaged. St Paul’s Cathedral was hit, but still stands. German radio announced the raid was a reprisal for the bombing of German cities. London has now lost a total of 20,000 killed in the Blitz and a further 25,000 have been injured.

… (1927) Spanish Cubist painter Juan Gris dies in Paris, where he has lived since 1906.

… (1900) US world heavyweight champion Jim Jeffries knocks out former champion James J. Corbett in New York after 23 rounds.

… (1858) Minnesota becomes the 32^nd US state.

… (1857) ‘Indians defy British rule’: Britain’s Indian sepoy troops have mutinied in Meerut, killing their officers and every European they could find. Thousands are marching to seize Delhi. The uprising started after troops of the 3^rd Bengal Cavalry were jailed for refusing to handle new supplies of cartridges because they are greased with cow fat – cows are sacred to Hindus. Muslim soldiers, meanwhile, say the bullets are greased with pig fat, which no Muslim would touch. There is widespread resentment over British rule, which has run roughshod over Indian sensibilities. British reforms such as banning child marriages and suttee (widow suicides) have raised an outcry, and a new measure last year requiring sepoys to serve overseas, thus losing caste, brought further discontent.  The British commander at Meerut was warned of today’s rebellion but did not believe it could happen and took no precautions.

… (1824) The British capture Rangoon, using a steamship in war for the first time.

… (1812) British prime minister Spencer Perceval is shot dead in the House of Commons by bankrupt John Bellingham.

… (1778) Death of William Pitt (the Elder), the first Earl of Chatham, British statesman known as the Great Commoner.

…Dangers by being despised grow great. [Edmund Burke, British politician, in a House of Commons speech today, 1792.]

10^th, (1994) ‘Mandela sworn in’: — Leader of the African National Congress party, Nelson Mandela, has been sworn in as the first president of a multi-racial South Africa. The ceremony took place in Pretoria after an overwhelming victory in last month’s elections.

… (1990) Robert Maxwell launches the first European newspaper called The European.

… (1981) Francois Mitterrand becomes president of France on his third attempt.

… (1977) Death of American film star Joan Crawford.

… (1973) American Indian activists end their 10-week takeover of Wounded Knee.

… (1963) The Rolling Stones recorded their first single, Come On, a day after finalising their first record deal.

… (1940) ‘Churchill will fight’: — Following furious argument in Parliament over military bungling in Norway, Winston Churchill has replaced Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister and is forming an all-party war government. Meanwhile news came that Adolf Hitler’s troops had stormed Holland and Belgium. If Belgium falls, the Maginot Line, the main British defence, will be broken. In Westminster today rebel Tory MPs refused to back Chamberlain unless the opposition Labour and Liberal Parties were brought into an emergency government, but Labour refused to serve under Chamberlain, pre-war champion of appeasement with Hitler. Chamberlain then resigned in favour of Lord Halifax, the foreign secretary. But Labour MPs rejected Halifax in favour of Churchill. With Britain in dire peril, he promised his people nothing but “blood, toil, tears and sweat.”

… (1941) Hitler’s deputy, Rudolph Hess, flies to Scotland to attempt peace talks but is imprisoned by the British.

… (1933) The Nazis begin burning books by “un-German” writers.

… (1869) ‘US railroad links east and west’: — The east and west coasts of the US were linked today by a transcontinental railroad. Bands played and crowds of railwaymen cheered as the Central Pacific Railroad from the west, and the Union Pacific Railroad from the east, met in Utah. Telegraph messages flashed news of the link-up across the nation as the Governor of California brought a sledgehammer down on the final railway spike, made of gold – and missed. The 1776-mile (2858 km) track has taken three years of digging, bridge-building and tunnelling to complete.

… (1866) The American Equal Rights Association is formed.

… (1863) ‘Stonewall Shot By His Own Troops’: — The brilliant commander in the Confederate army General T. J. “Stonewall” Jackson is dead. Shot accidentally by his own troops eight days ago after inflicting a crushing defeat upon the Union army at Chancellorsville in northern Virginia, he developed pneumonia as a result of his wounds and died today. He was 39. Stonewall Jackson graduated from West Point, distinguished himself in the Mexican War and taught for 10 years at the Virginia Military Institute. He joined the Confederates in 1861. As their outnumbered forces fell back at the battle of Bull Run that July, Jackson stood firm – “like a stone wall”, said General Barnard Bee – winning the day for the South, and his nickname. Consistently successful in battle, Jackson’s death is a great loss to the South.

… (1849) ’22 Killed in War of Words’: — Troops fired into a rioting crowd in New York City today, killing 22 and injuring 56. The crowd had gathered outside the Astor Place Opera House to revile British actor Charles Macready, who has openly scorned the vulgarity of Americans and American life. The mob was armed with clubs, paving stones and bricks.

… (1818) Death of Paul Revere, who made the famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington to warn militiamen of the approach of English troops.

… (1811) Britain announces that paper money is to be legal tender to stave off an economic crisis.

9^th, (1991) William Kennedy Smith, nephew of Senator Edward Kennedy, is charged with sexual battery.

… (1988) ‘Australia opens show-case Parliament’: — Australia’s new Parliament House in Canberra was inaugurated today in a glittering ceremony attended by Australian prime minister Bob Hawke and Queen Elizabeth II of England. The House, which took over 10 years to build, has been planned as a showcase for Australian art, with many specially commissioned works from Australia’s leading sculptors, painters and craftspeople incorporated into the fabric of the building. Most notable among these is a vast tapestry which dominates the Great Hall, covering the whole of the main wall. The tapestry, reproduced from a painting by Australia’s premier artist, Arthur Boyd, was four years in the making by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, which followed with minute precision every nuance of colour and change of line of Boyd’s work. The inauguration comes 87 years to the day since Australia’s first federal parliament met in Melbourne.

… (1987) Tom Cruise married the first of his three actress wives, Mimi Rogers. He later married Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.

… (1981) Adam And The Ants scored their first UK No 1 with Stand And Deliver.

… (1978) The body of kidnapped Italian statesman Aldo Moro is found in a car in central Rome. He had been shot 11 times.

… (1972) Israeli troops storm a hijacked jet at Jerusalem, freeing 92 passengers held hostage by Palestinian Black September terrorists.

… (1962) The Beatles sign a recording contract with EMI’s Parlophone label.

… (1946) Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates in favour of Prince Umberto.

… (1926) American explorer Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the North Pole.

… (1918) British troops block the German army’s attack on Ostend, Belgium.

… (1911) The British parliament agrees to Home Rule for Ireland.

… (1904) Death of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, British explorer and journalist who was sent to Africa to find Dr Livingstone.

… (1903) French Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin dies at his home on the Polynesian island of Hiva Oa.

… (1805) Death of German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller.

… (1671) ‘Daring theft of crown jewels’: — An Irish adventurer, Colonel Thomas Blood, talked his way into the Tower of London tonight disguised as a priest. He smuggled in several armed accomplices and they made off with the crown jewels. They escaped from the Tower but were arrested soon afterwards and are now in jail, awaiting the pleasure of the jewels’ rightful owner, His Royal Highness King Charles I.

… (1657) Death of Pilgrim Father William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.

8^th, (2006) The Rolling Stones had to postpone their European tour as guitarist Keith Richards underwent brain surgery after falling out of a coconut tree in Fiji.

… (1991) ‘Nazi criminals go unchallenged in UK’: — A British government investigation shortly after World War II identified dozens of Nazi war criminals living in Britain – but no action was taken and the report was kept secret for 40 years. It detailed SS men, members of death squads and notoriously cruel and perverse death camp doctors among the 200,000 post-war East European immigrants to Britain. But the investigation, run by MI5 intelligence men, was not looking for Nazis but for Communist sympathisers and potential Communist agents. The report came to light in the wake of the new War Criminals Act which became law this week. Home Secretary Kenneth Baker is expected to give the MI5 report to a police team at London’s Scotland Yard which has already started investigating war criminals in Britain.

… (1990) Estonia adopts its 1938 constitution and affirms independence.

… (1977) Dutch art dealer Peter Menten goes on trial in Amsterdam, charged with murdering Polish Jews in 1941 for financial gain.

… (1961) Former British diplomat George Blake is jailed for 42 years for spying for the Soviets.

… (1955) Hiroshima victims arrive in the USA for plastic surgery.

… (1947) Department store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge dies, leaving only £1544.

… (1945) Street parties are held all over Britain as VE Day is celebrated, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Winston Churchill announced the end of war with Germany in a message broadcast from 10 Downing Street.

… (1924) Afrikaans becomes the official language of South Africa.

… (1921) Sweden abolishes the death penalty.

… (1915) ‘1200 Lost as U-Boat Sinks Lusitania’: — The Cunard transatlantic liner Lusitania was sunk today off Ireland by German torpedoes when a U-boat struck without warning. Of the 1924 people aboard, 1200 are feared drowned, including at least 50 infants. The U-boat fired two torpedoes, and the huge ship, queen of the Cunard fleet, sank in 20 minutes. There is widespread outrage at the attack, particularly in neutral America – 120 of those are American, and they include associates of President Woodrow Wilson. When war broke out in Europe last August Americans, almost to a man, wanted nothing to do with it, and the President vowed to keep the US neutral. But US shipping has been harassed and in February the Germans threw a U-boat blockade around Britain, declaring all vessels fair game to torpedoes. Today the Germans said the Lusitania was carrying munitions, and that they had advertised in New York newspapers warning Americans not to sail on her. But public sympathy is strongly against them, and President Wilson has sent a furious protest to Germany, demanding reparations and an instant halt to unrestricted submarine attacks.

… (1873) Death of the English economist, philosopher and reformer John Stuart Mill.

… (1849) In the first international yacht race, Bermudan boat Pearl beats the American Brenda.

… (1429) ‘Peasant girl recaptures Orleans’: — France’s warrior maiden, Joan of Arc, today led the Dauphin’s troops to victory over the English laying siege to Orleans. Clad in full armour, the inspired and inspirational peasant girl drove the Earl of Salisbury and his 5000 men back over the Loire. The English knights’ goal is yet more French land, while Joan’s army fought with the religious fervour of crusaders – which is what they are. Since she was 13, Joan has heard holy “voices” giving her the mission to rid France of the English. Today, still in her armour, Joan gave thanks to God for her victory, which turns the tide against the enemies from across the Channel.

…I have got an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced staff. [The Duke of Wellington, in a letter to Lord Stewart at the beginning of the Waterloo campaign today, 1815.]

7^th, (2011) Spanish golfer and former world number one Seve Ballesteros died, aged 54, two and a half years after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

… (1991) ‘Scientists can clone Abe Lincoln’s genes’: — A team of geneticists at Johns Hopkins University was given permission today to clone genes from the remains of US president Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865. They will work with blood stains, bone chips and samples of his hair still preserved. Lincoln is thought to have inherited Marfan’s syndrome, characterised by tallness, long arms and a weak heart. The scientists want to test whether Lincoln really had it.

… (1977) Ninety thousand tickets for Bob Dylan’s concerts at Earl’s Court in London sell out within only eight hours.

… (1973) ‘Watergate Pulitzer for Woodstein’: With US President Richard M. Nixon under increasing pressure to admit a White House cover-up, the Washington Post today won the Pulitzer Prize for the work of investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate scandal. Woodward and Bernstein – now widely known as “Woodstein” – have been relentless in unravelling the tangle of deceit behind the illegal break-in and wire-tapping at the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington last June by Nixon re-election campaign members. A White House investigation concluded that administration officials were not involved, and six months after the break-in Nixon was re-elected in a historic landslide. But his credibility has been damaged as new revelations pushed the suspicion of complicity ever higher, right to the desk in the Oval Office where it was once said: “The buck stops here.” A week ago, with his most senior aides resigning and facing indictment, Nixon again denied involvement. In 10 days the Senate starts its hearings on the affair.

… (1954) ‘French Indo-China hopes dashed’: — “We will not surrender,” French General de Castries told army headquarters in Hanoi as Viet Minh insurgents overran the besieged fortress of Dien Bien Phu today. But almost the entire garrison of 16,000 men has been killed. The victory of the communist forces today marks the end of France’s hopes of retaining her colonies in Indochina after eight years of war. The next step is the negotiating table. Meanwhile President Eisenhower has announced that the US would join in “united action” to prevent a communist takeover in Southeast Asia.

… (1945) ‘Nazis Surrender’: — Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies early this morning and the war in Europe ended. German chief of staff General Alfred Jodl signed the instrument of unconditional surrender at 2.40 am and delivered his nation “into the victors hands, for better or worse,” as he remarked. Jodl was met by Britain’s General Montgomery, US chief of staff General Bedell Smith and Soviet General Suslapatov at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, a small schoolhouse in Rheims, northern France. The Nazis have collapsed in the last two weeks as the allies advanced on all sides. Adolf Hitler killed himself a week ago as his once-mighty war machine was swept away. Mussolini was shot two days earlier and a million German troops in Italy and Austria surrendered the next day, followed by the German armies in Holland, Denmark, north Germany and Norway. Europe lies shattered, but the Nazi horror is over, and victory in the East is only a matter of time.

… (1943) Allied forces capture Tunis from the Germans.

… (1942) Japanese and American naval forces engage in the Coral Sea.

… (1926) The voting age for British women is lowered from 30 to 21.

… (1918) A peace treaty between Rumania and the Central Powers is ratified.

… (1915) A German U-boat torpedoed the British transatlantic liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 American citizens. The event was a key factor in the U.S. joining World War I.

… (1847) The American Medical Association is founded.

… (1832) Greece is declared an independent kingdom under British, French and Russian protection.

… (1823) In spite of his deafness, Beethoven conducts the first performance of his Ninth Symphony.

… (1763) American Indian Chief Pontiac attacks the English garrison at Detroit.

… (1663) The Theatre Royal in Drury Lane opens with a performance of The Humorous Lieutenant by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher.

…I let down my friends, I let down my country, I let down our system of government. [Richard Nixon, speaking today, 1977.]

6^th, (2001) John Paul II became the first pope to enter a mosque, during a trip to Syria.

… (1994) The Channel Tunnel, linking Britain with mainland Europe, is officially opened by the Queen and president Mitterrand.

… (1990) P.W. Botha resigns from the ruling National Party in South Africa in protest at talks with the ANC.

… (1974) West German Chancellor Willy Brandt resigned from office today after an East German spy was found on his staff. Gunter Guillaume had worked for Brandt for four years, despite warnings that he was a security risk. Brandt became foreign minister in 1966 and West Germany’s first Social Democratic chancellor in 1969. In 1971 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his policies of establishing détente with the Communist bloc.

… (1983) Experts in Bonn announce that the Hitler diaries discovered by a Stern reporter are fake.

… (1960) Princess Margaret married photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones at Westminster Abbey.

… (1959) The Cod War between Britain and Iceland over territorial fishing rights hots up when Icelandic gunboats fire live ammunition at British trawlers.

… (1954) ‘Four-minute mile barrier just broken by Bannister’: Roger Bannister, a 25-year-old medical student, broke an invisible barrier today when he ran a mile in three-fifths of a second less than four minutes. He was running at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, representing the university against the Amateur Athletics Association, with two fellow students setting the pace. Experts long held that it was impossible for a man to run a mile in less than four minutes. Today Bannister took two seconds off the previous record, set by Swede Gunder Hagg in 1945.

… (1937) ‘Hindenburg Explodes’: The giant transatlantic airship Hindenburg exploded while landing in New Jersey tonight and plunged to the ground in flames, killing 35 of the 97 aboard and injuring many others. Herb Morrison, a radio commentator for WLS in Chicago, described the scene to listeners. “Oh, the humanity, all the passengers, I don’t believe it,” he said before breaking down in tears. Sailors from the nearby naval base fought to rescue passengers from the burning wreck. The 1000ft airship was delayed by a thunderstorm at the end of her three-day crossing from Frankfurt, and it is thought lightning ignited her 7 million cubic ft of hydrogen gas as her wet mooring ropes touched the ground. This is the fifth airship to crash and today’s tragedy must spell the end of the line for them.

… (1910) King Edward VII of England dies and George V accedes to the throne.

… (1851) American inventor Linus Yale patents the Yale lock.

… (1527) Rome is sacked by German mercenaries who daub Raphael cartoons with graffiti as they loot the city during battles between the Holy League and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

…Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison. [Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist and writer, who spent time in prison and laid the foundations for passive resistance in his book Civil Disobedience. He died today, 1862.]

5^th, (1988) Japanese television broadcasts the first transmission from the summit of Mount Everest.

… (1980) ‘SAS Dares to Strom Embassy’: As millions watched live on television, commandos of Britain’s secret Special Air Service stormed the Iranian Embassy in London’s fashionable Knightsbridge to break a six-day terrorist siege. The gang was demanding release of political prisoners in Iran. The commandos attacked without hesitation after the terrorists started shooting hostages. The commandos killed four of the five gunmen and freed 19 surviving hostages. The Embassy building was gutted.

… (1968) ‘Paris riots swell’: Paris was torn by violence today as 30,000 students ripped up the streets to make barricades and student “commando squads” clashed with riot police, answering the police teargas grenades with a hail of bricks and Molotov cocktails. Six hundred and fifty students were injured, and 350 police. The first demonstrations, six weeks ago, were anti-American, but student arrests prompted student leader “Danny the Red” Cohn-Bendit to stage a mass sit-in at the university. Tow days ago the riot police broke it up, bringing accusations of police brutality – and today’s riots. Tonight the city awaits the mass demonstration planned at the Arc de Triomphe for tomorrow morning. It is unlikely to remain peaceful. Meanwhile, millions of dissatisfied workers are said to be moving towards support for the left-wing students.

… (1961) Alan. B. Shepherd today became the first American in space. His tiny Mercury spacecraft, Freedom 7, blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop a Red-stone rocket fort a 15-minute sub-orbital flight, reaching an altitude of 116 miles (186 km) before a splashdown 303 miles (488 km) downrange. The US is still well behind the Soviets: on April 12 Russian Yuri Gagarin blasted into orbit for 108 minutes and circled the Earth before landing safely.

… (1963) Britain’s first satellite is launched from Vandenburg air base, California.

… (1955) The World Bank warns that poverty is a greater threat to world peace than the Cold War.

… (1955) The post-war occupation of Germany officially ends as the Allied High Commissioners meet for the last time in Berlin and Germany regains sovereignty, with the country split into two parts, East and West.

… (1920) Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco are arrested in New York City for possession of anarchist literature.

… (1865) The first train robbery is carried out, near North Bend, Ohio.

… (1821) ‘Napoleon is dead’: Napoleon Bonaparte died today in exile on the remote British island of Helena. He was 51. The military genius known as the “little corporal”, Emperor of France and Conqueror of Europe, could not survive more than six years in such a restricted prison. “There is no more oil in the lamp” he told Montholon, his secretary, late last year. Ill since then, he fell into a coma today and died a few hours later. In France he is widely revered, the legend underpinned by the memoirs he wrote in exile. His British captors had no hand in his death – though they did everything to make his life a misery, plaguing him with petty restrictions even during his illness. Napoleon had lost the three great loves of his life: France, power – and his empress. He rejected her in 1810 because she had not given him a male heir. She died seven years ago, but today, the last word Napoleon spoke was “Josephine”.

…I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of 40,000 men. [Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, on Napoleon, who died in exile on St Helena today, 1821.]

… (1760) The first hanging takes place at Tyburn, at the northeast edge of Hyde Park, London, when East Ferrers pays the penalty for murdering his valet.

4^th, (2000) The Love Bug virus wreaks havoc with computers all over the world.

… (1983) President Reagan announces his backing for the Nicaraguan Contras in their conflict with the Sandinistas.

… (1982) A British destroyer HMS Sheffield has been sunk in the Falklands War, with 22 crewmen killed and many burned. Sheffield was hit without warning by an Exocet missile launched from 20 miles (32 km) away by an Argentinean Air Force fighter-bomber the ship’s radar never saw. The Royal Navy has no defence against Exocets. Both missile and fighter are French-made.

… (1980) Yugoslavian president Tito (Josip Broz) dies aged 87, having ruled his country since 1953.

… (1970) Journalist Seymour Hirsch wins the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, when American troops killed the inhabitants of My Lai village, women and children included.

… (1979) ‘Maggie jubilant’: — Britain’s first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, moved into No. 10 Downing Street today after a resounding election win that gives her Conservative government a majority of 43 seats in parliament. A jubilant Thatcher said she felt an “aura of calm”. Married to a businessman and the mother of two, she is a grocer’s daughter. She espouses a monetarist economic policy. She took the reigns of the Conservative Party in 1975 after ousting Edward Heath. Today she promised a complete transformation of Britain’s economic and industrial climate. Thatcher is planning a war on inflation, privatisation of the nationalised industries and a curb on trade union power. “Hands off”, the Trades Union Council warned her tonight. But Thatcher-watchers say it is unwise to underestimate her.

… (1970) ‘Vietnam protesters killed at Kent State’: — US National Guardsmen shot and killed four students at Kent State University in Ohio today. The dead students, two men and two women, were taking part in a massed anti-war protest when the soldiers fired into the unarmed crowd. Nine students were wounded. Two more students were shot dead at Jackson State University, Mississippi. The killings follow three days of student rioting in which the National Guard used bayonets, teargas and finally bullets. Thousands of students came out today in defiance of a state ban on all public meetings. The Nationwide campus demonstrations erupted after President Richard Nixon sent US troops into Cambodia last week.

…When dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy. [Richard M. Nixon, US president, commenting on the shooting of rioting students at Kent State University today, 1970.]

… (1926) ‘Britain comes to a standstill’: — Britain’s workers downed tools today en masse and the country ground to a halt. The first-ever General Strike began at midnight after the general council of the Trades Union Congress voted in favour of supporting the miners’ strike that began four days ago in protest at a wage reduction. Talks between the government and the TUC broke down late last night after printers at the Daily Mail refused to print an article by the editor which denounced the TUC as revolutionary. There have been reports of strikers in Glasgow trying to force public vehicles off the road, and the army has been put on full alert in Scotland, Yorkshire and South Wales. It is rumoured that volunteers and troops will be used to keep essential services running.

… (1904) Charles Rolls and Henry Royce sign a provisional agreement to collaborate in the production of Rolls-Royce cars.

… (1863) ‘Maoris strike back’: — A 23-year running conflict in New Zealand erupted today in a pitched battle between Maoris and British settlers at Taranaki. A Maori leader, Rewi Maniapoto, has been urging his people to rise up and kill Westerners, and three weeks ago a war party attacked and killed eight British soldiers. There are growing signs of a widespread rebellion. The Maoris accuse the settlers of cheating them out of their land. Settlement has spread rapidly despite the Treaty of Waitangi, which enshrined Maori rights in 1840, and conflict has spread with it.

… (1839) The Cunard shipping line is founded by Sir Samuel Cunard.

… (1799) Tipu Sahib, the formidable warrior Sultan of Mysore in southern India, fights to the death when the British overwhelm his capital at Seringapatam.

3^rd, (1991) ‘Czech officials made to blush over pink tank’: — Czech president Vaclav Havel’s foreign ministry apologised to the Soviet ambassador in Prague today over the “vandalism” that had “desecrated” a Soviet war memorial in the city. Two days ago an art student painted a Russian pink tank. He said it was “out of place in the current climate of disarmament”. The incident is a symbol of continuing Czech confusion over the Soviet role; Prague remembers both the Russian tanks that crushed the “Prague Spring” of 1968 and those that liberated the city from the Nazis in 1945. Today the tank was painted green, ready for Independence Day.

… (1988) Time magazine publishes advance extracts of the memoirs of Donald Regan, former chief of staff to President Reagan, which tell how astrologer Joan Quigley influenced White House decisions.

… (1958) Death of Henry Cornelius, South African-born British film director whose most notable films are the comedies Passport to Pimlico and Genevieve.

… (1951) ‘Britain fetes the new Elizabethan age’: — The South Bank of the River Thames in London lit up this evening as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth opened the Festival of Britain. The five-month festival is designed to disperse the grey post-war cloud with a bright vision of Britain’s future. Clusters of illuminations and the revolutionary architecture of the Dome of Discovery and the Festival Hall have drastically changed the South Bank, which was destroyed in the London Blitz. Festival entertainments include a large fun-fair, sculptures, a railway and the Festival Pleasure Gardens.

… (1937) ‘Best-selling romance for Hollywood?’: — American writer Margaret Mitchell has won a Pulitzer Prize for her first novel, Gone With The Wind. The 1000-page romance, published last year, sold a million copies in the first six months. Set in Georgia, the novel portrays the destruction of the old South during the Civil War as wilful heroine Scarlett O’Hara struggles to regain her family’s lost possessions. Her lovers, one a gentle aristocrat, the other as unscrupulous as Scarlett herself, are a symbol of the harsh new order’s triumphant over the old. There are rumours of discussions over film rights.

… (1917) The first US destroyers arrive in Britain to join the naval forces ranged against the Germans in World War I.

… (1814) ‘Bourbons take the biscuit’: — France has a Bourbon king again after 22 years of revolution and conquest under Napoleon Bonaparte. Louis XVIII entered Paris today and took the throne following Napoleon’s defeat by the allies and his forced abdication and exile to Elba last month. When Louis wrote to Napoleon from exile 12 years ago, asking him to restore the monarchy, Napoleon replied: “You must not expect to return to France. It would mean marching over a hundred thousand corpses.” But it is Napoleon that has left Europe strewn with corpses, and Louis returned without a fight. He had fled France early in the Revolution and proclaimed himself King in his exile when his nephew, Louis XVII, was guillotined. Talleyrand is to be the King’s foreign minister.

… (1810) English poet Lord Byron takes one hour and 20 minutes to swim the Dardanelles strait in Turkey.

… (1808) Above Paris, one of the constantans is shot dead in the first duel to be fought from hot air balloons.

… (1790) Port Louis in Tobago is razed by fire.

… (1788) The first daily evening newspaper, the Star and Evening Advertiser, is published in London.

… (1654) The first toll bridge in America comes into operation in Massachusetts.

… (1494) ‘Columbus China trip finds Jamaica instead’: — On his second voyage across the Atlantic in search of a westward route to the East, the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus today discovered Jamaica, a tropical paradise of forests and mountains. But it is not the fabled Orient, and the fleet is turning back to Isabella, the colony Columbus founded on Hispaniola last month. Columbus returned to Spain last year after his first voyage west, carrying gold and some of the native people, and claiming to have reached islands off the coast of Asia. Encouraged, Queen Isabella funded the second voyage much more generously than the first, providing 17 ships and 1500 men. But Columbus has found no trace of the court of China and its gold – only a succession of beautiful islands peopled by primitive Indians. The 399 sailors Columbus left on Hispaniola on the first voyage had been killed by the Indians, he has found very little gold, and the new colony is proving troublesome. Columbus can expect a cool reception at court when he returns to Spain this time.

…In Flanders fields the poppies blow…Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place. [John McCrae, Canadian poet, written on this day, 1915.]

2^nd, (2016) Leicester City won the English Premier League. At the start of the season their odds were 5,000-1 – the same as those for Elvis Presley being found alive.

… (1999) English actor Oliver Reed died, aged 61, after a drinking competition in an English pub in Malta, while making the film Gladiator. Out-takes and a body double were used to complete his scenes.

… (1994) Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first democratic elections. He was inaugurated as his country’s first black president a week later.

… (1989) China imposes martial law as pro-democracy demonstrators’ camp in Tiananmen Square.

… (1982) ‘Furore over sinking of the General Belgrano’: — The Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano was torpedoed and sunk today by the British submarine Conqueror – 30 miles (48 km) outside the 200-mile (320 km) “exclusion zone” Britain has declared around the Falkland Islands. Some 360 crewmen perished. The Argentinean government has denounced the attack as “a treacherous act of armed aggression”, but British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher insists that the cruiser posed a threat. A Royal Navy task force set sail last month for the Falklands to dislodge Argentinean forces that occupied the British islands on April 4. Last week a British advance force recaptured the island of South Georgia. Argentina has for many years laid claim to the Falklands.

… (1972) Death of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI.

… (1965) The first satellite television programme links nine countries and more than 300 million viewers.

… (1957) Death of Senator Joe McCarthy, who chaired the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations that carried out the communist witch-hunts in 1950s America.

… (1936) ‘League dithers as Ethiopia tumbles’: — With Italian troops closing on the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie and his family fled into exile today. The Italians have caused international outrage by bombing Ethiopian villages with mustard gas. Rejecting negotiations, Italy’s Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia last October with 100,000 men, plus bombers. Bent on vengeance, the Italians overwhelmed the border city of Adowa, where Ethiopian forces humiliated the Italians in 1896. Following Selassie’s impassioned plea for help, the League of Nations called for sanctions against Italy, but both France and Britain vacillated on the crucial oil embargo. As Ethiopia succumbs to its fate the League loses all credibility as a peacekeeping force.

… (1923) Lieutenants Kelly and Macready make the first non-stop flight across America in 27 hours, travelling from Long Island to San Diego in a Fokker T-2.

… (1857) French playwright and poet Alfred de Musset dies of a heart attack.

… (1797) The British naval mutiny spreads to the North Sea fleet.

… (1519) ‘Renaissance man moves on’: — The Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci has died at Cloux in France at the age of 67. In an era of artistic genius he shared with the universally talented Michelangelo, the dazzling painters Titian and Raphael, and Bramante, giant of architecture, Leonardo was perhaps the greatest of them all. Born in Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary, he trained in Florence under Verrocchio. His most famous works are indubitably the mural The Last Supper and the portrait Mona Lisa. Leonardo was court artist to the Duke of Milan for 18 years – as well as a civil and military engineer, and an expert mathematician and biologist, a grinder of lenses, a designer of clock mechanisms, of devices for transmitting energy, even of flying machines. In his quest for understanding the natural world, he studied birds in flight, swirling streams and rock strata, his amazingly acute eye freezing motion in sketches and diagrams. After the French invasion of Milan in 1499 he returned to Florence, becoming military engineer and architect to Cesare Borgia. Leonardo was as great a scientist as he was an artist. To him art and science were one, part of the search for knowledge. Seldom has a search been so rewarded: Leonardo leaves an immediately rich body of work.

May 1^st, (1997) Labour leader Tony Blair is elected UK Prime Minister.

… (1994) Leading Formula One driver and Brazilian Ayrton Senna has been killed on the same stretch of track as fellow driver Roland Ratzenberger was two days earlier at San Marino Grand Prix.

… (1989) Anti-government protests in Prague demand the release of jailed playwright Vaclav Havel.

… (1967) ‘The King finds a Queen’: — Elvis Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll and still the world’s No. 1 heartthrob, caused widespread female dismay this morning when he married his sweetheart of seven years, Priscilla Beaulieu. The couple wed at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas at a civil ceremony with 100 guests. Priscilla wore a traditional flowing white dress and veil, and Presley a formal suit and black tie. The wedding cake was six tiers high. After the reception they flew to Palm Springs for a two-day honeymoon. Presley is due in Hollywood on Thursday for final work on his new movie, Clambake, and then they’ll complete the honeymoon at Graceland, Presley’s Memphis mansion.

… (1960) Days before US President Eisenhower and Soviet Chairman Khrushchev meet at a Paris summit, an American spy plane has been shot down over the Soviet Union today by a Soviet surface-to-air missile. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured. The US has denied Russian accusations that it was spying.

… (1945) In Germany, Hitler’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels kills his wife, his six children and finally himself, the day after his leader’s suicide.

… (1941) Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane is premiered in New York.

… (1931) ‘Empire State scrapes the skies of New York’: — US President Herbert Hoover opened the tallest building in the world in New York today – the 102-storey Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue, which stands an incredible 1250 ft (380 m) high. It is the city’s third new “skyscraper” in just one year. It went up with lightning speed, the steel framework being finished in less than six months. It met its deadline for completion – today – with no time to spare – the day many New York office leases expire. The Empire State Building has more than 2 million sq ft (609,800 sq m) of office space, much more than the city can absorb with the Depression in full swing. The owners are hoping sightseers to the lofty observation decks will help to pay the taxes.

… (1912) ‘Nijinsky dances into notoriety’: — The brilliant young Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky scandalised Paris tonight with a performance so sensual some critics described it as “bestial”. Nijinsky is a faun amongst nymphs in Claude Debussy’s L’Apres-midi d’un Faune, premiered tonight – yet it was the final sequence, when Nijinsky danced alone with a long scarf, that was so outrageous. Nijinsky, 24, upsets and delights all at once – his performance, as ever, was stunning as is the whole ballet. Nijinsky’s first effort at choreography, it brings alive the familiar friezes of ancient Greece. Like Debussy’s score, it is pure impressionism. Nijinsky first came to Paris three years ago with Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and was an instant sensation.

… (1936) Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia flees the country.

… (1904) Death of Antonin Dvorák, Czechoslovakian composer best-known for his New World Symphony.

… (1898) During the Spanish-American war, an American fleet squadron slips into Manila harbour and destroys the obsolete Spanish fleet.

… (1873) ‘Explorer meets death in Africa’: — The Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingston has died of malaria in the middle of Africa. He was 60 years old. More than any other man, Livingston helped to open Africa to the church – and to Western commerce. The London Missionary Society sent him to South Africa in 1841. He made the first ever crossing of the Kalahari Desert, and, fired by a vision of peoples the church had not reached, began a dramatic journey further afield. It took him to Luanda on the west coast of Africa and to the Indian Ocean on the east coast, and he discovered the stupendous Victoria Falls on the way. Back in London his reports on central and east Africa aroused great interest. Livingston then spent years searching for the source of the Nile, and was already feared to have died until the journalist Henry Morton Stanley found him two years ago, already a sick man, but determined to continue his search.

… (1862) The Union Army occupies New Orleans.

… (1851) Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London.

… (1840) The first Penny Black stamps bearing Queen Victoria’s head go on sale five days before the official date of issue.

… (1808) Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favour of Joseph Bonaparte.

… (1707) The Union between England and Scotland is proclaimed. The treaty merging the two countries creates the Kingdom of Great Britain.

… (1700) Death of John Dryden, English Poet Laureate and writer.

APRIL

30^th, (1993) Tennis player Monica Seles was stabbed in the back during a match in Hamburg by a man determined to see Steffi Graf take her place as world No 1. Seles said: “It changed my career and irrevocably damaged my soul.”

… (1983) Death of George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer who was first artistic director to the New York City Ballet.

… (1975) ‘Saigon Falls’: — Communist North Vietnamese forces entered the capital of South Vietnam today, signalling an end to the 15-year Second Indochina War. Despite signing the Paris ceasefire two years ago, the Saigon had continued its efforts to eliminate Communist power in its territory. It was a forlorn hope that this could be achieved with American help, let alone without it. The complete withdrawal of US troops in 1973 and Washington’s decision to accord the Communist-backed Provisional Revolutionary Government equal status with Saigon signalled to the northern leadership in Hanoi that further American intervention would not be forthcoming. Communist forces in Vietnam have been trying to unite their country under a national government since World War II.

… (1967) ‘Ali stripped of his title’: —  In a dramatic and unprecedented move, Muhammad Ali has been stripped of his world heavyweight boxing crown for refusing to be conscripted into the US armed forces. Ali’s claim that he is exempted from serving in Vietnam on religious grounds has been rejected. The boxing authorities have promptly taken away his title and revoked his licence. Ali, 25, first won the title as Cassius Clay in 1964. He changed his name to Muhammad Ali after converting to the Muslim faith and becoming a minister. He is expected to appeal, but until the case is resolved fans will be deprived of watching a man popularly regarded as the greatest boxer this century.

… (1965) Bob Dylan opens his first UK tour in Sheffield.

… (1957) Egypt reopens the Suez Canal to traffic.

… (1948) The first Land Rover is exhibited at the Amsterdam Motor Show.

… (1945) ‘Adolf Hitler ends it all’: — In a scene straight out of Wagner’s epic music-drama. The Ring of the Nibelungen, Adolf Hitler has ended his evil reign. After bidding farewell to the few aides remaining with him in his Berlin bunker hideaway, the megalomaniac who has reduced his country and much of Europe to ashes then retired to his suite and shot himself. His wife of just 48 hours and former mistress, Eva Braun, took a cyanide potassium capsule. In accordance with Hitler’s instructions, both bodies were then burnt. During the last three months of his life Hitler is said to have been close to insanity as he bowed to the inevitability of defeat for his once all-powerful, super Reich.

… (1936) Death of A.E. Housman, the English poet who wrote two volumes of lyrics, A Shropshire Lad and Last Poems, on the themes of human vanity and transience.

… (1912) A second reading of the Irish Home Rule Bill is moved in the House of Commons by Winston Churchill.

… (1900) The republic of Hawaii cedes itself to the US.

… (1803) The US purchases Louisiana and New Orleans from the French.

… (1789) ‘Washington takes the oath’: — President George Washington was inaugurated as the first U.S. president in a ceremony at Federal Hall in New York today. The 67-year-old Virginia landowner is widely recognised within his own country, and indeed beyond, as the only man capable of giving the new federation the wise and sure leadership it will need in its infancy. Washington was the architect of the idea of a federal convention as the best way of organising a union of states. His leading role in establishing this framework of government is said to have made him reluctant to accept the presidency when it was initially offered earlier in the year. The loud cheers which were heard when Washington took the oath have hopefully reassured him of the America’s people faith in his integrity and ability, qualities which he demonstrated time and again during the War of Independence which only recently ended.

… (1772) The first dial weighing machine is patented by John Clais of London.

…I wouldn’t believe Hitler was dead, even if he told me so himself. [Hjalmar Schacht, German banker, 1945.]

29^th, (1987) The musical Cabaret is performed in London without music when the orchestra goes on strike.

… (1985) The six year wrangle between the family of the late Sir Charles Clore and the British Inland Revenue has been settled. A total of £67 million is to be paid to the Revenue on Clore’s world-wide assets, estimated at £123 million. The Revenue originally claimed £84 million because, it alleged, he was living in England. His son claimed his father had lived in Monaco.

… (1981) Peter Sutcliffe admitted in court that he was the Yorkshire Ripper.

… (1980) ‘Master of suspense dies’: — The screen’s master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, died in Los Angeles yesterday aged 80. The ghastly thrills which Hitchcock injected into his films were worked out in minute detail before he began filming. His unique brand of visual storytelling invariably centred upon his chief preoccupations of sin and confession, a reflection perhaps of his Jesuit upbringing. Some of Hitchcock’s early work in Hollywood was marred by studio intervention. Potentially interesting subjects evident in Spellbound and Notorious, for example, tended to be submerged beneath a superficial Hollywood gloss. His most famous film, Psycho, starring Antony Perkins, was rejected by all the major studios, forcing Hitchcock to finance it himself. The film’s success made him a millionaire. The film industry’s ultimate accolade, an Oscar, eluded Hitchcock to the end, despite the fact that at least a dozen of his works are considered masterpieces.

… (1977) Trade Unions are declared legal in Spain for the first time since 1936.

… (1958) My Fair Lady opened in the West End, with Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Higgins.

… (1945) German plenipotentiaries in Italy sign terms of surrender.

… (1945) ‘What horrors herein?’: — As the Allies continue their advance into territory previously held by German forces they are gradually uncovering evidence of unspeakable crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Nazis. The latest abomination has been uncovered on the outskirts of the small Bavarian market town of Dachau, just north-west of Munich. In this ironically picturesque setting Hitler’s SS set up a death camp, possibly as early as 1933. More than 200,000 people, mainly of Jewish faith, are estimated to have been exterminated here or held before being transferred to another concentration camp.

… (1937) American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers commits suicide just two months after he has patented nylon.

… (1930) A telephone link is established between Britain and Australia.

… (1885) ‘Blue stockings make strides’: — The decision to allow women to sit the examinations of Oxford University is further evidence that the door of academe is widening – slowly. This advance is due almost entirely to the efforts of Emily Davies, guiding force behind a committee dedicated to securing higher education for women. Cambridge agreed to open its local examinations to women in 1865 after the success of a pilot project in 1863 when 91 women sat the exams. Four years ago women were allowed to sit the Tripos examination also. However, women are not to be awarded degrees.

… (1842) In Britain, a Corn Act is passed introducing a new sliding scale to the price of domestic corn at which foreign importation is allowed.

… (1376) Sir Peter de la Mare takes office as first Speaker of the House of Commons.

…Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan “Soak the Rich” [Heywood Broun, US journalist, 1922.]

28^th, (1996) A madman shoots dead 35 people and badly wounds 17 at Port Arthur in Tasmania.

… (1988) Twenty-eight-year-old Sian Edwards becomes the first woman to conduct at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

… (1977) In Germany, Baader-Meinhof group terrorists Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Jan Raspe, dedicated to the violent overthrow of capitalist society, are jailed for life.

… (1969) ‘”Non” to De Gaulle’: — After emerging intact from the political debris resulting from last year’s riots, President de Gaulle has fallen from power over the comparatively uncontroversial issue of regional electoral reform. His decision to resign after his failure to win the referendum of two days ago was inevitable because he had staked his presidency on this pet issue. De Gaulle will be succeeded by his former wartime aide and prime minister since 1962, Georges Pompidou. “It’s like being cuckolded by your chauffeur,” was de Gaulle’s characteristically blunt comment on this reversal in his fortunes. By saying “Non” to the 79-year-old de Gaulle, the French people may be signalling their readiness to move to more liberal government.

… (1953) Japan is finally allowed the self-government of which it had been stripped after World War II.

… (1945) Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was today shot and strung up head down by his own countrymen. The man once called “II Duce”, the leader, is now seen as little better than a common criminal. The same treatment was meted out to his mistress, Claretta Petacci.

… (1936) King Fu’ad of Egypt, who became monarch when Britain granted limited independence to Egypt in 1922, dies aged 68.

… (1919) ‘Germany must pay for WWI’: — After negotiations lasting three months the five Great Powers – Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the United States – have agreed the terms of the post-war settlement. Despite the moderating influences of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and, especially, US President Woodrow Wilson, France insisted on her pound of flesh. French premier Georges Clemenceau, known as “the tiger”, was hell-bent on recouping France’s losses to Germany after the last conflict between the two countries in the 1870s. The major clauses of the Versailles Treaty agreed in Paris provide for war reparations to France, a limit on the size of Germany’s armed forces and the creation of a League of Nations to safeguard world peace. Alsace and Lorraine have been restored to France and the Saar placed under French administration. The treaty may, though, sink without trace so far as America is concerned, for Congress has still to ratify it and rumour has it that many in the House are strongly opposed to the idea of a League of Nations.

… (1789) ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’: — A mutiny is reported to have broken out on a British armed transport ship in the South Seas. The captain of the 94-ft (29 m) Bounty, Captain William Bligh, and 18 loyal crew members have been put in an open boat and are now drifting in the direction of Timor, near Java. The mutineers, led by master’s mate Fletcher Christian, are thought to be returning to Tahiti, where the Bounty recently took on board a consignment of 1000 young breadfruit trees which Bligh intended taking to the West Indies as a food source for the African slaves there. The cause of the mutiny is unclear, but Bligh’s harshness has been offered as a possible explanation. It has also been suggested that the sailors have been beguiled by the charms of the native Tahitian women. One mutineer, John Adams, talked of the possibility of starting a new life on one of the many remote South Sea islands.

… (1788) Maryland becomes the seventh state of the Union.

… (1780) The first advertisement for an abortion clinic appears in London’s Morning Post.

… (1770) Captain Cook lands at Botany Bay in his ship the Endeavour.

27^th, (1990) ‘Slovo comes home’: — The leader of the South African Communist Party, Joe Slovo, will arrive inPretoriatomorrow to take part in peace talks with the administration of President de Klerk. The return of the 64-year-old Lithuanian ends a 27-year exile made possible because the South African government’s has ceased to ban the SACP and ANC. Many white South Africans are very suspicious of the formerJohannesburglawyer, who is one of the most senior commanders of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto to we Siswe (“Spear of the Nation”).

… (1986) ‘Nuclear meltdown fears come true atChernobyl’: — The nightmare of meltdown in a nuclear reactor has finally come true. The first sign of trouble was picked up byUSspy satellites which detected a fire at theChernobylnuclear power station, north ofKiev,Ukraine. Scientists at the Swedish Forsmark nuclear power station next reported a huge rise in radiation levels as fall-out spread toScandinavia. No word of warning was issued by the Soviet authorities to neighbouring countries. Experts believe the accident may have been caused by catastrophic failure of one of the reactor’s welded pressure vessels, allowing melt-down of fuel in the core. The reactor is of a water-cooled type not used inBritainor theUS. The accident will undoubtedly refuel the ongoing debate between the pro and anti-nuclear lobbies, while the lack of information from the Soviets will also lend weight to calls for more stringent checks on nuclear fuel facilities world-wide.

… (1976) Pop Star David Bowie’s special train is halted for several hours on the Polish-Russian border while customs officers search baggage, confiscating Nazi books and mementoes.

… (1972) Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian president who was deposed in 1966 by a military coup while he was inChina, dies inBucharest,Hungary.

… (1970) American actor Tony Curtis is fined £50 inLondonfor possession of cannabis.

… (1968) In Britain, a new Abortion Act liberalising the law on abortion comes into force.

… (1950) The British government officially recognises the state ofIsrael.

… (1939) ‘War preparations’: — The British government has announced its intention of setting up a ministry of supply and introducing conscription for the first time since World War I. The move comes in the wake of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s military guarantees toPoland,RomaniaandGreece. Six months’ military service will be compulsory for men as they reach the age of 20. Both Liberal and Labour politicians are opposed to the plan, denouncing it as surrender to militarism. The conscripts are to receive an unexpected perk – pyjamas, which have never before been provided for rank-and-file British servicemen.

… (1937) ‘Triumphant opening ofGolden GateBridge’: — The new Golden Gate suspension bridge linking the city ofSan FranciscowithMarinCountyreached completion today after four years. Among its remarkable features are 746-ft (227 m) high bridge towers, the tallest in the world, and 4200-ft (1280 m) span, the longest in the world. Fast-rising tides, frequent storms and fogs and the difficulty of blasting through bedrock 100 ft (30 m) below the surface of the water to plant earthquake-proof foundations were among the many problems overcome. Users of the bridge are guaranteed a spectacular view from the six-lane roadway perched 250 ft (76 m) above the surface of theGolden Gatestrait.

… (1932) Imperial Airways begin an air service fromLondontoCape TowninSouth Africa.

… (1882) American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson dies aged 78.

… (1828) ‘London welcomes its own zoo’: — The Zoological Society of London has opened a zoological gardens in Regent’s Park almost two years to the day after its founding in 1826. Although today’s inauguration was restricted to Fellows of the Society it will not be long before the zoo is welcoming the general public. The Society’s aim in opening the zoo is to advance our knowledge of the animal kingdom and introduce “new and curious subjects” to an even more curious human audience. The zoo already has monkeys, bears, emus, kangaroos, llamas, lizards and turtles. The royal menagerie atWindsormay be transferred to the gardens, as may the selection of animals kept in the Tower. The Zoological Society takes the well-being of its animals seriously – gentlemen visitors are not allowed to carry whips in the gardens and ladies are politely but firmly requested to refrain from poking the beasts through the bars of the cages.

… (1521) Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed by the inhabitants of theislandofMactanin thePhilippines.

…Your country needs you. [British conscription poster, 1939]

26^th, (1994) After three and half centuries of white domination, South Africa has gone to the polls in its first ever multi-racial elections. Millions of black South Africans have voted for the first time after years of negotiations between F.W. de Klerk’s National Party and the African National Congress. Nelson Mandela of the ANC is tipped to become president.

… (1984) William “Count” Basie, American jazz pianist and bandleader, dies aged 79.

… (1975) In Portugal’s first free elections for 50 years, former exile Mario Soares emerges the victor as leader of the Portuguese Socialist Party.

… (1975) At a conference, Labour members voted 2-1 to leave the EEC.

… (1944) Russian and American forces meet near Torgau in East Germany.

… (1937) ‘Fascists unleash terror on Guernica’: — The civil war in Spain took a sinister and devastating turn today with the sudden and horrific bombing by German planes of the medieval Basque town of Guernica. The town was crowded with people who had come in from the surrounding area for market day. Much of the damage was caused by incendiary bombs which exploded into flames on landing. Survivors say that the aircraft also strafed the town with machine-gun fire, causing additional casualties. The attack will inflame Republican sympathisers who allege that the support given by the German and Italian governments to the rebel Nationalist forces of Fascist leader General Franco are in direct contravention of the non-intervention agreement reached by the League of Nations last year. The Soviet Union is the only country to extend a helping hand to the Republican government, although an International Brigade recruited from among opponents of fascism in several European countries has rallied to help. Events in Guernica inspired one of Picasso’s most famous paintings.

… (1923) The Duke of York marries Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

… (1921) London sees its first motor cycle patrols.

… (1915) Allied troops land at Cape Helles, in the Dardanelles.

… (1900) In Canada, a raging fire envelops Hulland Ottawa, rendering 12,000 homeless.

… (1865) As the American Civil War draws to a close, General Johnston surrenders at Durham station.

… (1865) ‘Was he Lincoln killer?’: — Doubts are being cast on the claim that the man shot in Virginia in the early hours of this morning was indeed the killing of President Lincoln. Federal troops arrived at the farm of Richard Garrett, near Port Royal, after a tip-off that John Wilkes Booth, the president’s alleged killer, and an accomplice were hiding in Garrett’s tobacco barn. At about 3 am the barn was set alight and “Booth” was shot, although whether by his own hand or a soldier’s is unclear. The man lingered, conscious but saying very little, for some four hours before expiring. The body was then brought back to Washington. Unequivocal identification was not possible because the body was so badly disfigured. The authorities’ wish to close the case as speedily as possible may be hampered by the allegation that Booth, an ex-confederate secret agent, did not in fact mastermind the president’s assassination.

25^th, (1990) The Hubble space telescope is launched from the space shuttle Discovery.

… (1990) ‘Hit man kills train robber’: — One of Britain’s most notorious criminals, Charles Wilson, was murdered yesterday as he sat beside the swimming pool of his villa in Marbella, Spain. His killer coolly pumped three bullets into him before shooting his Alsatian dog, then escaping on a yellow mountain bike. The killing is thought to be the work of a British “hit man” sent by a rival drug baron. Wilson, 57, was known to have been involved in drug smuggling and had ambitions to become the Mr Big of the trade on the Costa de Sol. The “treasurer” of the £2.6 million ($4.8 million) haul from the Great Train Robbery in 1963, Wilson moved to Spain with his wife Pat two years ago. He was released from prison in 1978 after serving 11 years 4 months of a 30-year sentence for his part in the robbery.

… (1988) Death of Clifford Simak, American journalist and science-fiction author.

… (1982) Death of British actress Celia Johnson, perhaps best-known for Brief Encounter.

… (1977) Elvis Presley made the last new music recordings of his life in Michigan, including his version of Unchained Melody.

… (1974) A military coup in Portugal ended the longest dictatorship in Europe. It was named the Carnation Revolution, as soldiers were showered with the flowers.

… (1964) The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen loses her head to thieves.

… (1960) ‘US race riots’: — Ten blacks were shot dead in Mississippi today after the latest in a succession of racially inspired incidents. Relations between white and black Mississippians have deteriorated since the Supreme Court’s decision in 1954 to declare racially segregated schools unconstitutional. Whites have felt increasingly threatened by the demands for wholesale and immediate change that resulted from the court’s decision. More extreme elements within Mississippi white society have resorted to bombing black churches and murdering civil rights workers to prevent the overturn of long-established practices. The black community has retaliated through sit-ins, boycotts and acts of violence.

… (1956) American heavyweight boxer Rocky Marciano retires unbeaten.

… (1926) Puccini’s opera Turandot is premiered with Arturo Toscanini as conductor.

… (1953) ‘Scientists crack the genetic code’: — The world of science moved several steps closer to understanding man’s genetic make-up today with the publication of a paper which establishes the structure and function of DNA. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecules which store an individual’s genetic code. British scientist Francis Crick and American biologist James Watson, both of whom work at Cavendish Laboratories in Cambridge, have built a model which shows how the strands of DNA are coiled in a double-helix and connected by hydrogen bonds between the bases. DNA has thus been identified as the most important substance in the transmission of hereditary characteristics. The implications for medical science cannot be over-estimated. The finding will undoubtedly help research into the prevention and detection of hereditary diseases. The breakthrough was made possible by the work of the Irish biophysicist Maurice Wilkins, whose X-ray diffraction studies enabled Crick and Watson to build their model.

… (1915) ‘Troops storm ashore at Gallipoli’: — Over 90,000 allied troops, most of them British and Australian, met stiff resistance from Turkish forces as they stormed ashore on the Gallipoli peninsula early this morning. The aim of the landings is to seize the Turkish forts guarding the approaches to Constantinople and open up a route to assist Russian forces. The landings have been described by observers as a triumph of naval improvisation, for no purpose-built landing craft were provided and the troops received no special training for the task. Luckily for the Allies, they landed at the extreme end of the peninsula and some way from the main Turkish forces, which are commanded by Mustapha Kemal under the direction of the German general Liman von Sanders. Since the failure of the Anglo-French fleet last month to penetrate the main Turkish defences, Kemal’s two divisions have been reinforced to six, one more than the five at the disposal of the British commander, Sir Ian Hamilton.

… (1859) The building of the Suez Canal begins under the supervision of engineer and designer Ferdinand de Lesseps.

… (1792) ‘French get upbeat anthem’: — Patriotic fervour is still burning brightly in France almost three years after the storming of the Bastille. Captain Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, an army officer stationed in Strasbourg, spent all last night composing an anthem dedicated to the ideals of the new republic – which include beating the Austrians whom de Lisle is fighting on the French border. The rousing tune and stirring words, also by de Lisle, should ensure the song’s success with army units. The only let-down is the title – an uninspiring “Chant de guerre de l’armée du Rhin”. However, that will surely change once the song reaches a wider audience.

… (1774) Death of Anders Celsius, the Swedish astronomer who devised the centigrade temperature scale.

… (1719) Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is published in London.

… (1660) The English parliament votes for the restoration of the monarchy.

24^th, (2018) The monetary value of online streaming music services overtook global sales of CDs and vinyl for the first time.

… (1989) Herbert von Karajan resigned today as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Karajan has cited failing health as his reason for ending the 34-year relationship with the orchestra. Earlier this year West Berlin’s Culture Senator, Volker Hassemer, agreed to the 80-year-old conductor’s proposal that the annual number of his concerts in Berlin be halved to six. The recent election of a Social Democrat-Green Party coalition brought the less sympathetic Frau Anke Martiny to the post held previously by Herr Hassemer. Frau Martiny, who shares the Left’s general dislike of the maestro for his alleged Nazi past, made clear that Karajan should retire.

… (1980) ‘Disaster in the Desert’: — An attempt by crack forces to rescue the 53 American hostages held captive in the US embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran since last November has ended in humiliating failure. Eight helicopters took off from US aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Oman early this morning to rendezvous with a 97-man “Delta” rescue team at a remote area in the desert, codenamed Desert One. Dust storms forced down two of the helicopters short of the target area and another aircraft developed hydraulic problems, forcing the abandonment of the rescue bid. As the helicopters and six giant C-130 Galaxy transports attempted to retreat, one of the five remaining helicopters flew into one of the Galaxies, engulfing the two in flames. The deaths of eight US servicemen and the loss of five pieces of expensive military hardware are a bitter blow to President Jimmy Carter.

… (1986) Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, for whom a British king gave up his throne, dies in Paris aged 89.

… (1967) The Russian spacecraft Soyuz 1 crashes, killing astronaut Vladimir Komarov.

… (1953) Winston Churchill was knighted by the Queen.

… (1949) The remaining rationing of foodstuffs in post-war Britain comes to an end as British children gain unlimited access to sweets.

… (1939) Robert Menzies becomes prime minister of Australia as leader of the United Australia Party.

… (1916) ‘Bloody struggle for Irish freedom’: — A bloody uprising against British rule has thrown Dublin into chaos. The day after Easter Sunday, a force of around 2000 Irish paramilitaries has succeeded in seizing the General Post Office. Street fighting is continuing as the rebels battle to establish positions in other areas of the city. The leaders of the rebellion, named as Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett and James Connelly, have proclaimed a provisional Republican government. Given the military weight against them, however, it can only be a matter of time before they are forced to surrender. The uprising comes two years after the decision by the British Liberal PM Herbert Asquith to suspend implementation of the Home Rule for Ireland bill until hostilities with Germany cease. In this time there has been an increase in support for paramilitary groups committed to the aim of immediate independence for Ireland.

… (1895) Captain Joshua Slocum sets forth from Bristol in his sloop Spray to sail round the world single-handed.

… (1866) ‘White supremists form the Klan’: — President Andrew Johnson’s programme of reconstruction in the wake of the Civil War is attracting much criticism. In the South a secret society called the Ku Klux Klan has been formed by ex-Confederates dedicated to the principles of “white supremacy”. The Klan hopes to stem the liberation tide towards blacks by waging a war of terror against them. Meanwhile, radical Republicans say that Johnson is allowing provisional governments in the South to undermine blacks’ rights.

… (1858) ‘Ben is back’: — The best and biggest bell in the world, Big Ben, is at last ready to be hung in the clock tower of Westminster Palace, at the second attempt. Last year Messrs Warner of Cripplegate transported to London a giant bell Cast at their Stockton works, only to have it cracked after being pounded by a 13-hundred-weight clapper fitted on the orders of Edward Denison, the man in charge of the project. The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is hoping that their recasting of metal from the cracked bell will fare better – it should have a four hundredweight hammer only. Londoners will hold their breath when the bell is sounded next month.

… (1731) Death of Daniel Defoe, British journalist, novelist and economist, author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders.

…Any institution, which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil. [Maximilien Robespierre, in the declaration of Human Rights, 1793.]

23^rd, (1990) Death of Paulette Goddard, American actress who starred in Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.

… (1990) ‘US hostage freed’: The release of the American professor Robert Polhill in Beirut last night after 39 months in captivity has raised hopes that more hostages held by Islamic fundamentalist groups may soon be freed. The call by Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi for the release of all hostages has been taken as a sign of willingness on the part of the Lebanese kidnap groups to negotiate in earnest. Gaddafi specifically mentioned two Red Cross workers, Emmanuel Christen and Elio Erriquez, who are being held by Abu Nidal’s Revolutionary Council, a group which has close ties with the Libyan leader. Polhill, 55, is the first Beirut captive to be freed since David Jacobson was released in 1986.

… (1984) The discovery of the virus that causes AIDS was announced. It was later named HIV.

… (1983) The German weekly magazine Stern announced yesterday that it has in its possession 60 volumes of hitherto unknown diaries kept by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The distinguished British historian Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor-Roper) is convinced that the diaries are genuine. German historians, on the other hand, are expressing extreme scepticism. One, Herr Werner Maser, said that the whole business “smacks of pure sensationalism”. Serialisation in both Stern and the London Sunday Times is expected.

… (1969) ‘Kennedy killer sent to Death Row’: A Los Angeles jury decided today that Sirhan B. Sirhan should be sent to the gas chamber for the murder of Senator Robert Kennedy in June last year. Last week the jury rejected psychiatric evidence that portrayed Sirhan as a psychotic mentally incapable of premeditated murder. Sirhan claims to have shot Kennedy to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian Arabs. He will now join the 80 men already on Death Row in San Quentin prison. State law allows him to appeal.

… (1968) The first decimal coins appear in Britain, easing the way to decimalisation in 1971.

… (1962) In the biggest-ever Ban the Bomb demonstration, 150,000 people rally in London’s Hyde Park.

… (1935) Joseph Stalin officially opens the Moscow Underground railway system.

… (1915) British poet Rupert Brooke dies of blood poisoning on his way to active service in the Dardanelles.

… (1879) The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens in Stratford-upon-Avon.

… (1850) British poet William Wordsworth dies aged 80.

… (1661) Charles II is crowned King of England.

… (1616) Death of Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish novelist and dramatist, author of Don Quixote.

… (1616) ‘Curtain down on Shakespeare’: Mr. William Shakespeare, a gentleman of substance well-known in theatrical circles, has died at New Place, his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was 52. He entered the theatre as an actor and was soon engaged as a player by one of the foremost troupes of the day, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The troupe was renamed the King’s Men on acquiring the patronage of His Majesty King James I, a keen theatregoer, and went on to hold the pre-eminent position among the theatrical companies of the day. Mr. Shakespeare’s contribution to their success was not inconsiderable, as he had by this time become a massive playwright whose tales of life, love and the ever-changing nature of man’s condition drew a devoted audience to the company’s Globe and Blackfriars theatres. As a shareholder in the company, Mr. Shakespeare reaped the rewards of his endeavours and shrewdly invested the proceeds in property in London and Stratford. None of Mr. Shakespeare’s large body of work, which includes poems as well as plays, is available in authorised editions, although plans are afoot to correct this state of affairs. Mr. Shakespeare leaves a wife, Anne, and two daughters, Judith and Susanna.

…I came, I saw, God conquered. [Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, after the battle of Muhlberg, 1547.]

22^nd, (1997) The siege of the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, has ended after four months as government troops stormed the building. All 14 Tupac Amaru guerrillas were killed. One Japanese citizen also died but the remaining 71 hostages were rescued. The rebels were demanding the release of 440 of their comrades.

… (1994) ‘Nixon dies’: — Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States – 1969-74 has died age 81. During his two terms in office, the Republican president negotiated the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam and began the process of reconciliation with China and Russia. But at home the Watergate conspiracies brought disgrace and his resignation.

… (1984) ‘AIDS breakthrough’: — Medical researchers working in the United States and France have identified a type of human cancer virus that may be the causative agent in the killer disease AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The virus identified by the team of Robert Gallo, working at the US National Cancer Institute, has been identified as human T-Cell lymphotropic virus, Type III, or HTLV-III. A very similar virus has been identified by the French team of Jean-Claude Chermann, Francoise Barre Simoussi and Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, and designated lymphadenopathy-associated virus, or LAV. The discovery has raised hopes of finding an anti-AIDS vaccine and the possibility of eventually developing antibodies that could be used to treat patients with full-blown AIDS. The disease, which was first described in 1981, suppresses the body’s immune system, leaving it open to attack from life threatening diseases such as cancer.

… (1983) £1 coins are introduced in Britain to replace the paper £1 note.

… (1979) Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones escapes jail on a drug conviction in return for performing a benefit concert for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.

… (1972) John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook arrive in Australia, the first people to row across the Pacific.

… (1971) ‘End of hated Haitian’: — Haiti’s hated leader Francois Duvalier, known as “Papa Doc”, has against all the odds died peacefully in bed, aged 63. By Haitian standards “Papa Doc” lived to a ripe old age – the life span of the average Haitian male is 47 – despite a string of ailments. Duvalier’s 14-year regime was remarkable for all the wrong reasons: violent suppression of all opposition, a private army of thugs called the Tonton Macoute to terrorise the population, and sinister dabbling in witchcraft. He survived six assassination attempts. During the last two years of his life he felt secure enough to venture out of his huge white palace with its four obsolete armoured cars and 40 mm AA guns on the front lawn. He had a predilection for reading the future in chickens’ entrails and keeping the heads of decapitated rivals.

… (1969) British yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston completes his solo non-stop round-world trip in his ketch Suhaili in 312 days.

… (1964) British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in the Soviet Union a year earlier for spying, is exchanged for the Soviet agent Gordon Lonsdale.

… (1915) The Germans use poison gas for the first time on the Western Front.

… (1889) ‘On your marks, get set, stake that claim’: — An estimated 200,000 people were on the starting line at noon today for the start of a land run in Oklahoma territory. At the crack of the starting pistol the rush was on to stake claims to the two million acres which Congress has agreed should be released for new settlers. Each successful claimant will receive 160 acres of prairie. The race is intended to ensure a fair distribution of the land, but there are reports that some settlers are already in the new territory, making themselves at home. The pressure on the US government from the railroads and land-hungry whites to allow them into Indian territory has been immense. Organised groups of people called Boomers have been settling here illegally since at least 1879. The Indians cannot be sure that today’s land race will be the last State-endorsed appropriation of their territory.

… (1838) The British packet steamer Sirius becomes the first steamer to cross from New York to Britain.

… (1509) Henry VIII became king aged 17 after the death of his father, Henry VII.

… (1500) On his way to India with 13 ships, Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvarez Cabral discovers Brazil and claims it for Portugal.

21^st (2003) Death of Nina Simone, singer and songwriter of jazz and blues music, aged 70.

… (1992) Eurodisney opens its doors in Paris.

… (1989) More than 10,000 mass in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

… (1968) ‘Heath given double-edged sword’: Conservative Party leader Edward Heath was today handed a political hot potato by fellow Tory and former Cabinet minister Enoch Powell, who has called for an end to non-white immigration from the Commonwealth. In a highly charged and emotive speech given in Birmingham, Powell likened the Labour government’s policy of allowing 50,000 dependents of immigrants into the country each year to that of a people “busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre”. The liberal-minded Mr. Heath, who has denounced the speech as racist and inflammatory, is expected to take a strong line with Powell, possibly ejecting him from the Shadow cabinet. Ironically, by supporting Powell he could revive his popularity with the British electorate, many of whom are worried by the number of immigrants entering the country.

… (1960) ‘Rio miffed byBrasilia’: Brasilia, the brain-child of President Juscelino Kubitschek, was today dedicated as the official capital of Brazil. Building work in the new capital is still underway and several of the more ambitious projects planned by architect Lucio Costa and his adviser Oscar Niemeyer will take several more years to complete. The new city stands on a plateau some 580 miles (930 km) north-west of previous capital Rio de Janeiro. Miffed at their city’s loss of status, and the pouring of huge amounts of money into developing the interior of the country, the citizens of Rio de Janeiro are denouncing the plan. President Kubitschek intends that Brasilia and the region in which it stands should be seen as a symbol of Brazil’s future greatness. However, there are also fears that the ambitious programme may bankrupt the country, which has high inflation and has doubled its foreign debt since work began on planning Brasilia in 1957.

… (1946) Death of John Maynard Keynes, British economist who argued that unemployment can only be eased by increased public spending.

… (1916) Former British consular official Roger Casement arrives in Ireland from a German submarine to lead the Sinn Fein rebellion but is arrested by the British.

… (1918) ‘Red Baron runs out of luck’: The most feared fighter pilot of World War I, Germany’s Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was killed today, shot by a single bullet. Competing claims for the deed have been received from a Canadian pilot of 209 Squadron, Roy Brown, as well as from British and Australian ground artillery. A report has also been received from the observer of a British reconnaissance plane who allegedly fired on a German in a scarlet plane as he passed him. By the time of his death, the “Red Baron” had notched up 80 “kills”, most of them British. Von Richthofen’s passion for shooting down enemy airmen was said to have been assuaged for 15 minutes by each “kill”. It is doubtful that his victims would draw any consolation from the fact that the Baron would order a silver trophy for each plane he shot down.

… (1914) American troops occupy the Mexican city of Vera Cruzin in order to stop German weapons reaching the Mexican command.

… (1901) Mark Twain, American journalist and author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, dies aged 74.

… (1901) Sculptor Auguste Rodin shocks Paris when his semi-nude statue of Victor Hugo is exhibited at the Grand Palais.

… (1898) The US declares war on Spain.

… (1831) The Texans vanquish the Mexicans at the Battle of San Jacinto.

… (1828) From this day on, no American will be able to plead ignorance of his or her own language. A new dictionary compiled by lexicographer and philologist Noah Webster promises to put some cultural distance between US citizens and their British cousins. The two-volume work, entitled The American Dictionary of the English Language, is the first attempt to standardise the American language and distinguish it from the English of the British.

… (1790) ‘Franklin sent off in style’: One of independentAmerica’ founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, was buried today in one of the most splendid funerals ever seen in Philadelphia. Tributes to the man regarded as epitomising New World sensibility have been flooding in – especially from France, whereFranklin achieved hero status. One of the most sought-after men on the Parisian social scene, Franklin could be seen everywhere – literally, for his portrait could be found on all manner of objects, from snuff boxes to chamber pots. Fellow Americans will remember his many witticisms with affection and his role in the drafting of the US constitution will be remembered with deep gratitude.

… (1699) Death of Jean Racine, French dramatist and outstanding tragedian of the French classical period.

… (1509) Henry VIII accedes to the English throne on the death of Henry VII.

…All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. [Mark Twain, who died today, 1910.]

20^th, (1990) ‘Gorbachev plays hardball’: — Nice guy Mikhail Gorbachev showed the iron fist concealed within the velvet-smooth glove yesterday by cutting off 85 per cent of gas supplies to the rebellious republic of Lithuania. Shortly before this move, Gorbachev had ordered that the Baltic state’s oil pipelines be shut down. A Soviet foreign ministry spokesman has warned that if Lithuania does not tow the Kremlin line and back down from its declared aim of independence “we may have to take other measures”. The Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis remains defiant, however: “We can hold out for 100 years without gas and oil”. Despite pleas from the Lithuanians, the European Community has resolutely stayed outside the quarrel between Moscow and her Baltic satellites, urging restraint on both sides. Western governments are unwilling to pile yet more pressure on the beleaguered Soviet president, fearing that it may unseat him.

… (1989) ‘Battleship explosion kills 47’: — A 16-inch gun turret of one of the oldest ships in the US Navy, the 45-year-old battleship Iowa, exploded during firing practice today, killing 47 sailors. The accident is thought to have been caused by a spark igniting one of the hundred-weight bags of cordite used to fire the one-ton shells. The ship is equipped to carry Cruise missiles, but her gun technology is of World War II vintage. Iowa was one of four warships taken out of mothballs recently to beef up the US Navy to the 600-ship target set by President Reagan. Today’s accident questions the wisdom of re-commissioning nautical dinosaurs just to make the US Navy look good on paper.

… (1944) The RAF drops a record 4,500 tons of bombs on Germany in a single raid.

… (1929) King Victor III of Italy opens a parliament composed entirely of Fascists under the leadership of Benito Mussolini.

… (1896) ‘Art Nouveau attracts old money’: — Fashionable Paris is being drawn like a magnet to the gallery opened recently by the well-known connoisseur, dealer and writer on Japanese art Samuel Bing. His “Maison de l’Art Nouveau” is devoted to showing both fine and applied works of art – but with a difference. All the works are examples of the so-called “new art” and owe their inspiration to the present. When M. Bing threw open his doors in the Rue de Provence last December he unveiled a vast and bewildering array of paintings and decorative objects, each of them executed as unique items and designed from scratch. This aesthetic ideal is currently in vogue all over Europe, and can be seen in poster and book illustration, glasswork, jewellery, textiles, furniture and architecture. The practitioners of the new art prefer naturalism to the formalised type of decoration seen in the past. The effects can be startling – writing plant forms as patterns, heart-shaped holes in furniture, cast-iron lilies and copper tendrils. The one drawback to “art nouveau” is expense. However, a lowering of costs through standardisation would kill the ethic behind the work and the interest of a fashionable clientele who love the new art for its exclusivity.

… (1857) West African Muslim leader Al Haij Uman lays siege to the French fort of Medine in Senegal.

… (1770) ‘Cook discovers Terra Australis’: — The Royal Society of London has received an update on the progress of its scientific expedition to the Pacific which set sail two years ago. The 98-foot long coal-hauling bark Endeavour, commanded by 40-year-old Yorkshireman Lieutenant James Cook, has safely delivered a party of the Society’s scientists to Tahiti. After observing the transit of the planet Venus from Tahiti, Cook struck out south and south-west in an attempt to find the southern continent, the so-called Terra Australis. Instead he reports finding a group of islands called New Zealand which he has charted over six months. He is currently running north along the south-east coast of Australia, surveying as he goes.

… (1768) Death of Canaletto, Venetian artist who specialised in painting views.

… (1653) Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Long Parliament which governed England in the Civil War.

19^th, (2011) Fidel Castro resigned as head of the Communist Party of Cuba after more than 45 years. He died aged 90 in 2016.

… (2004) Two fuel trains collide in North Korea, causing a massive explosion and 3,000 casualties.

… (1999) The German parliament returns to the newly-renovated Reichstag building in Berlin.

… (1997) Tennis player Andre Agassi married actress Brooke Shields. Their marriage lasted two years.

… (1995) ‘Huge explosion shakes Oklahoma City’: — A lorry packed with 4,000 pounds of explosives has blown up a government building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, some of them children attending a nursery there. The blast happened just after 09.00 local time when most workers were in their offices. Chaos ensued as paramedics treated survivors on the pavement and recue workers dug others from the rubble. The ten-storey Alfred Murrah building housed the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, as well as social security offices and a nursery. President Bill Clinton vowed “swift, certain and severe punishment” for those behind the attack. “The United States will not tolerate and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards,” he said. The attack comes exactly two years after the siege at Waco, Texas and some commentators are linking the two. However, there are also suspicions that right-wing groups, or Middle Eastern terrorists are involved.

… (1993) ‘Waco cult siege ends in inferno’: — At least 70 cult members are feared dead as fire swept through the besieged headquarters of the Branch Davidian sect near Waco, Texas. Cult leader David Koresh is not believed to be among the survivors. White House officials say the fire was started deliberately by cult members when the FBI began a dawn raid. The cult’s buildings have been surrounded since February when four agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were killed as they tried to arrest Mr. Koresh on firearms charges. Tear gas canisters and stun grenades were fired into the fortified compound and an armoured vehicle started to demolish the walls. By the time fire crews arrived the fire had taken hold on the wooden buildings. The fire worsened when the cult’s store of munitions exploded. Eight cult members escaped from the blaze.

… (1983) A car bomb destroys the US embassy in Beirut.

… (1966) Australian troops leave Sydney to join the American forces in Vietnam.

… (1959) The Dalai Lama, Tibetan leader fleeing the Chinese invasion of his country, finds sanctuary in India.

… (1948) The US tests a plutonium bomb at Eniwatok atoll in the Marshall Islands.

… (1933) Britain bans all trade with the USSR.

… (1882) ‘Darwin dies’: — Charles Darwin, the most controversial scientist of the age, has died at his home in Kent, England, after 50 years of ill health. He was 73. Darwin rejected both medicine and the church before he took an unpaid job as a naturalist on HMS Beagle’s five-year Pacific voyage in 1831. The unique Galapagos Islands fauna were the main inspiration for Darwin’s theory of evolution, which has revolutionised biology with the idea that man’s ancestry is bestial. Last year Darwin published On the Formation of Vegetable Moulds, about earthworms. He concluded that they show intelligence rather than mere instinct – like a man.

… (1824) British poet Lord Byron dies of a fever at Missolonghi while fighting against the Turks alongside Greek nationalists.

… (1775) ‘American rebels ready to fight’: — The British government’s impatience with its rebellious colonists in America has finally led to bloodshed. Yesterday a force of 700 Redcoats was dispatched by the recently appointed royal governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, to destroy the military stores at Concord. Local militiamen were ready and waiting for the British column, alerted to the danger by a member of the Sons of Liberty, Paul Revere, who had ridden through the night to warn them of the impending raid. Outnumbered by 10 to 1, the militiamen were soon put to flight at Lexington Green. The Redcoats went on to Concord only to find that the munitions had been hidden or destroyed and a force of about 400 armed rebels was ready to fight. The British were forced to withdraw and are now reported to be making their way back to Boston.

… (1689) Death of Queen Christina of Sweden who abdicated in 1654.

… (1588) Death of Paolo Veronese, Italian painter who specialised in enormous scenes of the splendour of Venice in its Golden Age.

18^th, (1991) Publisher Robert Maxwell launches his Mirror Group Newspapers towards public flotation on May 21, meanwhile complaining that the British press have never acknowledged his achievements.

… (1989) At the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Spanish tenor Jose Carreras gives his first concert for three years following his illness from leukaemia.

… (1980) Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zimbabwe.

… (1979) Jeremy Thorpe, former leader of the British liberal Party, goes on trial accused of conspiring to murder his male lover.

… (1968) An American tycoon buys London Bridge for £1 million, confusing it with Tower Bridge.

… (1958) ‘Pound circulates’: After being detained in a mental asylum for almost 13 years the American poet Ezra Pound is to be freed by the US authorities. Pound, 73, was arrested in Italy at the end of the war and charged with treason for making anti-US broadcasts to American troops on Rome Radio. Doctors considered Pound unfit to stand trial on his return to the States, whereupon he was incarcerated in St Elizabeth’s hospital for the criminally insane in Washington D.C. Pound continued to write and completed several more of his Cantos, among other works, during the long years of his imprisonment.

… (1955) ‘Einstein Dies’: Albert Einstein died in his sleep today at Princeton Hospital, aged 75. Regarded as one of the most creative intellects in human history, Einstein made his greatest contributions to scientific theory before the age of 50. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics in 1921, for his photoelectric law and his work in the field of theoretical physics. His theory of relativity, which had its beginnings in an essay he wrote when he was only 16, was verified by the Royal Society of London in 1919. Einstein’s commitment to world peace and Zionism brought him into conflict with right-wing opinion in his native Germany. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Einstein renounced his German citizenship and went to America. In 1939, after Lise Meitner split the atom, he impressed upon President Roosevelt the importance of US scientists developing an A-bomb ahead of the Nazis, and his recommendation marked the beginning of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. The horror of Hiroshima in 1945 shocked Einstein into drafting an impassioned plea calling for the establishment of a world government to prevent future use of the bomb, aware that, without his theory of relativity, the nuclear age would not have dawned.

… (1954) President Neguib of Egypt resigns, leaving the government of the country to be carried on by a council of ministers.

… (1949) The Republic of Ireland Act comes into operation. Ireland declares its independence.

… (1942) Bombers from a US aircraft carrier bomb Tokyo.

… (1906) ‘San Francisco tumbles in massive earthquake’: At precisely 5:13 this morning San Francisco was hit by the most violent earthquake ever recorded in its history. Worst hit by the earthquake and subsequent fire is the central business district, where an estimated 512 blocks in the four square-mile (10 sq km) area are thought to have been either destroyed or to be currently under threat. Survivors who have been made homeless by the disaster are making for the relative safety of the 1000 acre (405 hectare) Golden Gate Park to the west of the town, where temporary accommodation is being erected by the emergency services. First estimates suggest that as many as 700 people may be dead and a further 250,000 made homeless. Earthquakes have hit San Francisco before – in 1864, 1898 and 1900 – but none has wrought such widespread devastation.

… (1791) William Wilberforce’s parliamentary campaign to abolish the slave trade meets defeat in the House of Common.

… (1775) Paul Revere rides from Charleston to Lexington to warn US militiamen of the British advance.

… (1689) ‘Hanging judge cheats gallows’: George Jeffreys, one of the cruellest of the deposed King James II judges, died in the Tower of London today, aged 44. Charged by the King with the task of setting up a court to deal with the rebellion of 1685, led by the illegitimate Protestant son of Charles II, the Duke of Monmouth, Jeffreys set about his task with bloodthirsty zeal. Over 300 of Monmouth’s peasant followers were hanged at Jeffreys’ “Bloody Assizes” and 800 sent to forced labour in Barbados. Jeffreys, a Protestant, was then made Lord Chancellor by his grateful monarch, a position he held until the Glorious Revolution last year swept James from power. Jeffreys attempted to escape the country disguised as a sailor but was caught and imprisoned in the Tower. He was awaiting trial at the time of his death.

17^th, (2011) The first episode of TV fantasy epic Games Of Thrones was aired. The final series began in April 2019.

… (2003) Death of John Paul Getty, aged 84, American oil magnate who founded the J. Paul Getty Museum in California and was one of the richest men in the world.

… (1990) Moscow imposes a blockade upon Lithuania in an attempt to stem demands for independence.

… (1984) ‘Libyan Embassy Snipers Kill Woman PC’: A peaceful demonstration in London’s St. James Square turned into a battlefield today when a gunman inside the Libyan embassy opened fire on the protestors. A tragic victim of the outrage was 25-year-old woman police constable Yvonne Fletcher, one of several police officers on duty in the square, who later died of her injuries in hospital. Ten other people were injured, none seriously. The embassy has been sealed off by police while the British government plan its response. Politicians are calling for diplomatic bags to be searched in future to prevent the importation of arms. The government-controlled Libyan media are portraying the incident as an attack on their embassy by British police and “other foreign agents”.

… (1982) The Polish Solidarity Organisation becomes legal after a 10-year ban.

… (1980) Rhodesia becomes independent Zimbabwe.

… (1970) Country singer Johnny Cash performs for President Nixon in the East Room of the White House.

… (1963) In Moscow, British businessman Greville Wynne is charged with spying.

… (1961) A small force of about 1300 Cuban exiles has been thwarted in its aim of toppling the Communist regime of Fidel Castro. The invasion force ran into the Cuban army soon after landing in the Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) and its members were either captured or shot.

… (1953) ‘Chaplin will never go back to USA’: Charlie Chaplin, the world’s most famous comic actor, today announced from his home in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland, that he will never return to the United States. London-born Chaplin left the States last year for Europe where he has been promoting his latest film, Limelight. He seems to be the latest victim of Senator McCarthy’s campaign against “undesirables” – politicians and newspaper reporters have repeatedly accused him of being a communist sympathiser and of having links with subversive organisations, charges which he has strongly denied. The US government is also after Chaplin for non-payment of back taxes. After leaving the country Chaplin was informed that his re-entry rights would be questioned by the US Department of Justice if he attempted to return. He subsequently took the decision to surrender his re-entry permit in Geneva.

… (1924) Benito Mussolini’s Fascist party wins the Italian elections.

… (1919) ‘Artists unite for success’: Leading film-makers, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith have joined forces to launch their own company, called United Artists Corporation. The talented quartet want control of their own artistic destinies and feel that this can only be achieved if they control the production and distribution of their films. Fairbanks, the moving spirit behind the formation of the company, plans to produce a series of adventure epics which promise to make full use of his handsome physique and natural grace.

… (1860) The first match between an American and English boxer takes place in Hampshire, England.

… (1790) Death of Benjamin Franklin, American diplomat, scientist and author.

… (1521) ‘Luther’s Diet of Worms’: The congress of church and state heads meeting at Worms to decide the case of the nonconformist German priest Martin Luther has granted him an extra day’s grace. At this afternoon’s meeting Luther requested time to reflect on the assembly’s demand that he acknowledge or deny the vast body of heretical works attributed to him. The 38-year-old firebrand is not without friends in high places, despite the open hostility of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His refusal to accept the authority of the Church of Rome over individual conscience and the Bible has struck a sympathetic chord in many quarters of German society. Luther’s supporters fear that any moral triumph will be at the price of a ban on his writings.

… (1421) Over 100,000 people are drowned at Dort in Holland when the sea breaks through the dykes.

16^th, (1990) ‘Mandela plays Wembley’: Freed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela tonight publicly thanked the world for its support during his 26-year imprisonment by the South African government. His platform was Wembley stadium, where about 72,000 people gathered to hear 50 top British, American and African stars pay him tribute. The globally transmitted concert attracted names like Simple Minds, Lou Reed, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young and Terrence Trent D’Arby and cost an estimated £2 million. It is hoped that some of the revenues will go to charity. Some Conservative MPs have accused the BBC of left-wing bias: the concert broadcast ends with public criticism of the government’s opposition to sanctions against South Africa.

… (1988) The Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s military commander, Khalil al-Wazir, was today mown today by bullets at home in Tunis, the Tunisian capital. The PLO says the killing is the work of an Israeli hit squad. Mr. al-Wazir – or Abu Jihad – had been a thorn in the Israelis’ sides for years and masterminded many attacks into Israel from Lebanon. He was also thought to have orchestrated the recent Palestinian unrest in the occupied territories.

… (1975) The communist Khmer Rouge seize Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

… (1964) The Rolling Stones released their eponymous debut album.

… (1953) The royal yacht Britannia is launched.

… (1947) U.S. statesman and millionaire Bernard Baruch coined the phase “Cold War”.

… (1917) Vladimir Ilyich Lenin returns to Russia after three years of exile in Zurich.

… (1912) ‘The unsinkable does the unthinkable’: The British luxury liner the Titanic has sunk after hitting an iceberg during her maiden voyage to New York. Over 1500 people are feared drowned in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The vessel collided with the “skyscraper” sized iceberg shortly before midnight on April 14, causing a 300-foot (91 m) gash in the vessel’s right side. Five of the ship’s watertight compartments were punctured, causing the ship to sink at around 2:20 am. The ship’s double-bottomed hull, divided into 16 watertight compartments, was said to make her unsinkable. Reports from some of the 691 survivors suggest there were not enough spaces on the lifeboats for the 2224 people on board. More lives would have been lost if the liner Carpathia had not reached the Titanic within 80 minutes.

… (1902) More than 20,000 people rally in Dublin Park to protest against British government legislation.

… (1883) Paul Kruger becomes president of the South African republic.

… (1850) ‘Tussaud waxes lyrical’: The founder of the famous museum of waxworks in London, Madame Marie Tussaud, died today aged 89. Madame Tussaud learnt the art of wax modelling from her uncle, Philippe Curtuis. When the French Revolution broke out she was art tutor at Versailles to Louis XVI’s sister Elizabeth and, after a period of imprisonment, she was given the unpleasant task of making death masks from heads freshly severed by the guillotine. It is said that she recognised many of them as people she had known in happier times. She left Paris in 1802, accompanied by her collection of waxwork models and two sons from her unsuccessful marriage to a French engineer, Francois Tussaud. She spent the next 33 years touring Britain before opening a permanent display in London.

… (1828) Death of Francisco de Goya, the Spanish painter whose deafness changed the nature of his work, making it frequently macabre and menacing.

… (1746) ‘Prince Charles not so bonny’: The hopes of the grandson of the deposed Catholic king of England, James II, regaining the throne of England for his family were dealt a severe blow today at Culloden Moor in Scotland. It was here that the so-called “Young Pretender”, Charles Edward Stuart, decided to take on the might of the British Army under the command of William, Duke of Cumberland, the second son of George II. “Bonnie Prince Charlie” Stuart’s 5000 Highlanders were no match for Cumberland’s 9000 soldiers, many of them regulars equipped with the latest weaponry. Many are questioning the wisdom of Stuart’s decision to make a stand on flat ground which offered every advantage to Cumberland’s artillery. Stuart managed to escape the carnage and is thought to be in hiding somewhere in the area.

… (1515) Roman Catholic mass is banned in Zurich as the Lutheran reformation sweeps Europe.

… (1446) Death of Filippo Brunelleschi, Florentine architect and sculptor who built the dome for the city’s cathedral.

…Dear comrades, soldiers, sailors and workers! I am happy to greet in you the victorious Russian Revolution! [Vladimir Ilich Lenin, in a speech made at Finland Station in Petrograd, 1917.]

15^th, (1998) Death of Pol Pot, aged 70, cruel dictator of Kampuchea (now Cambodia) and murderer of thousands of people.

… (1989) ‘Soccer fans crushed to death’: — Ninety-five people were crushed to death and 200 injured this afternoon in Britain’s worst sports disaster, at Hillsborough stadium, Sheffield. The day promised to be memorable for the quality of football played by FA Cup semi-finalists Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Instead it turned into a nightmare. The tragedy occurred when a gate was opened to ease a crush of around 4000 Liverpool supporters who arrived shortly before the kick-off and were trying to get into the ground. Most of the fans then thronged into a packed stand, crushing those at the front who were prevented from escaping by a high wire mesh fence erected to stop pitch invasions. This is the second tragedy that has attended a Liverpool FC game: in 1985, 41 supporters of the Italian team Juventus were killed when Liverpool fans went on the rampage at Heysel Stadium in Belgium.

… (1986) ‘US go after Gaddafi’: — The whereabouts’ of President Reagan’s bogey-man “mad dog” Colonel Gaddafi, were not known this evening after the US bombing of his presidential palace in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Among the 100 people killed in the raid was Gaddafi’s 15-month-old adopted daughter, Hanna. President Reagan ordered the attack in reprisal for Libya’s firing of two missiles at the American manned radar base on the Italian island of Lampedusa. Neither missile hit its target. The US fighters that carried out the attack came from bases in the UK. There are fears that Gaddafi will not turn the other cheek over this incident.

… (1966) ‘London voted Tops’: — Time magazine has declared London the city of the decade. In its eyes London is “a sparkling and slapdash comedy, switched on, a dazzling blur, buzzing, pulsing, spinning.” Never before have young people in Britain had so much money and opportunity at their fingertips. There are jobs a-plenty, they have money in their pockets and new ideas of tolerance, free love and hedonism have replaced 50s caution and conservatism.

… (1955) The first McDonald’s hamburger store opens, in San Bernardino, California.

… (1945) Looted Nazi art treasures, including paintings by Rubens, Goya, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci, are found in an Austrian mineshaft.

… (1925) John Singer Sargent, American painter specialising in society portraits, dies in London where he has lived since 1884.

… (1925) Sir James Barrie donates the copyright of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.

… (1912) The Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 people.

… (1865) President Andrew Jackson is sworn in as American President following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

… (1797) Revolutionary fever has spread across the Channel and infected the Royal Navy’s fighting men at Spithead and Nore. The mutinies in the channel fleet are caused by arrears in pay, bad food, ill treatment, lack of leave and arduous blockade duty. The unrest could not have come at a worse time, with Britain at war with Revolutionary France. Admirals Jervis and Howe are threatening draconian measures if order is not quickly restored.

… (1793) The Bank of England issues the first £5 banknotes.

… (1770) English chemist Joseph Priestley discovered rubber could erase pencil marks.

… (1764) Death of Madame de Pompadour, powerful mistress of King Louis XVI of France.

… (1753) Dr Samuel Johnson publishes his dictionary, the product of nine years’ work.

14^th, (1987) Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has wrong-footed the White House by proposing a round of arms cuts. The Soviet leader’s offer to remove the Soviet Union’s entire stock of short-range missiles in Eastern Europe would form part of an agreement on medium-range missiles. The initiative could lead to an early disarmament treaty with the United States, although President Reagan has never suggested going this far in arms cuts and may hold back for political reasons.

Refer also:

• World Affairs: ‘Nuclear weapons and START treaty’…
• World Affairs: ‘The Washington Summit (2010)’…

… (1983) The first cordless telephone is introduced in Britain.

… (1951) Death of Ernest Bevin, British Labour politician and minister of labour in the coalition government during World War II.

… (1931) Britain gets its first Highway Code.

… (1903) In New York, the typhus vaccine is discovered by Dr. Harry Plotz.

… (1814) The US repeals its trade embargo with Britain.

… (1865) ‘Drama off stage as Lincoln shot’: President Abraham Lincoln is failing fast after being shot in the back of the head at point-blank range. The president and Mrs. Lincoln were attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington when the attack occurred. His assailant, John Wilkes Booth, a member of one of America’s most distinguished acting families and a Confederate fanatic, then jumped from the box on to the stage, shouting “Sic semper tyrannis! [‘Thus always to tyrants’] – The South is avenged”. He then ran out of the theatre, limping heavily, mounted a horse and galloped off into the night. Lincoln will go down in history as the man who saved the Union and in the process brought about the emancipation of American black slaves. In his own words: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.” A manhunt is underway to bring the assailant to justice.

13^th, (2003) Paula Radcliffe breaks the world record in the London Marathon.

… (1997) American golfer Tiger Woods has stunned the sporting world and rewritten golf history. He has become both the youngest player (21) and the first black player ever to win the US Masters tournament. He also thrilled crowds of supporters by beating the previous record with his 72-hole score of under-18 par 270, having the widest ever winning margin of 12 strokes, and breaking records with his totals for the last 54 holes, as well as the second and third rounds. His brilliant career is just starting.

… (1990) ‘Soviets admit to Katyn massacre’: One of the Kremlin’s best-kept lies was admitted today after decades of deception: the systematic murder of over 15,000 Polish army officers by the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, forerunners of the KGB. This crime, known as the Katyn massacre after the pine forest in western Russia where the executions were carried out in the spring of 1940, has always been officially blamed on the Germans. The evidence, though, has always pointed to the Soviet Union as the culprit. The announcement by the Soviet news agency Tass coincides with the visit to Moscow of the Polish leader, General Jaruzelski. The conspiracy of silence over Katyn began as a diplomatic necessity in World War II, when to tarnish the image of “Uncle Joe” Stalin would have spoiled the Allies’ propaganda campaign. After the war, western governments preferred to continue the lie rather than admit that they had been party to the deception.

… (1939) Italian dictator Mussolini invades Albania.

… (1935) Imperial Airways and Qantas inaugurate a London to Australia air service.

… (1919) British troops under the command of Brigadier General Dyer open fire on an unlawful demonstration by Sikhs in the Holy City of Amritsar.

… (1912) The Royal Flying Corps (RFC), an armed service of the air, is formed in Britain.

… (1904) In the Russo-Japanese War a mine sinks the flagship of the Russian fleet, killing 600.

… (1882) The Anti-Semitic League is founded in Prussia.

… (1829) The House of Commons passes the Catholic Emancipation Act.

… (1742) ‘Handel’s Messiah triumphs’: The new choral work by the German-born composer George Frederick Handel, Messiah, has been received enthusiastically by audience and critics alike at its premiere performance in Dublin. Mr. Handel, who has lived in England for the last 30 years, conducted the performance himself. Perhaps best known for his Water Music, composed for His Majesty King George I, Mr. Handel has found his fortunes at a low ebb in recent years due to a decline in the popularity of the Italian-style operas in which he used to excel. He is now turning his attention to the writing of oratories.

… (1668) John Dryden, British poet and critic, is appointed Poet Laureate.

… (1605) Death of Boris Fedorovich Godunov, Russian statesman who became tsar on the death of Fyodor I, for who he was regent and whose heir, Dmitri, he may have murdered.

… (1598) Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes to promote peace between Roman Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants).

12^th, (2010) The Vatican’s official newspaper L’Osservatore Romano praised The Beatles’ “beautiful melodies” and said of John Lennon’s claim they were “more popular than Jesus”: “It wasn’t that scandalous.”

… (2004) Cricketer Brian Lara achieves 400 runs, the highest ever score in test cricket.

… (1983) ‘Falklands invader pays the price’: — General Leopoldo Galtieri, the man who ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands, has been sentenced to 60 days’ imprisonment while the authorities decide what to do with him. Galtieri has criticised his fellow generals’ part in the recent military defeat at the hands of the British. The feathers of General Mario Menendez, the former military governor of the Falklands capital Port Stanley and a member of Argentina’s most powerful military family, were well and truly ruffled by Galtieri’s accusation of cowardice, which appeared in the newspaper Clarin. Galtieri’s attempt to spread the blame for the Falklands’ debacle may be seen as an attempt to forestall his own downfall, which now seems inevitable.

… (1981) The Americans have marked the twentieth anniversary of the first manned space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin with the launch of the revolutionary Columbia space vehicle – which is reusable. The vehicle is launched in the usual way from a pad at Kennedy Space Centre, but after re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere lands on a runway like a conventional aircraft. The “space shuttle” will be tested at the end of the year.

… (1961) ‘Russians win the human space race’: — A new phase in the competition for top dog status between the Soviet Union and United States opened today when Russian cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. The single orbit of the Earth completed by Gagarin in the four-and-a-half ton Vostok 1 space vehicle took 108 minutes. Gagarin is said to feel fine and shows no immediate signs of the adverse effects that weightlessness and re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere can have on the body.

… (1954) Bill Haley and the Comets recorded Rock Around The Clock – the biggest-selling single of the 1950s in the UK.

… (1945) ‘Four-term Roosevelt dies’: — America is mourning the sudden loss of one of its greatest political figures, Franklin D. Roosevelt. He died today aged 63 after suffering a stroke. Roosevelt was no stranger to adversity, despite every material advantage and impeccable Ivy League credentials which suited him to a career in politics. In 1921, after 11 years in the Senate, he was crippled by poliomyelitis at the age of 39 and forced into temporary retirement. During his first presidential term of office (1932-36), Roosevelt developed his New Deal programme of spending America out of the Great Depression. In his fourth, and last, term Roosevelt’s ideals for a safe and secure world inspired the foundation of the United Nations Organisation, whose charter is to be unveiled in San Francisco at the end of the month. He will be a hard act to follow, and his successor, Vice-President Harry S. Truman, will no doubt be grateful for a honeymoon period with Congress, no matter how brief.

… (1914) George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion opens in London with Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Sir Herbert Tree in the leading roles.

… (1877) Britain annexes the Transvaal, causing deep resentment amongst the Boers.

… (1861) ‘Confederates challenge Lincoln’: — Confederate forces today threw down the gauntlet to Republican president Abraham Lincoln by firing on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour. The fort, which is still under construction, and its garrison of around 85 Federal troops have been under threat since the new president first took office some five weeks ago. Lincoln’s opposition to the second Crittenden amendment, which would have allowed states to be either pro-slavery or pro-freedom, resulted in six more states seceding from the Union and joining South Carolina to form the Confederate States of America. The Federal troops garrisoned in Fort Sumter and at other military installations within the confederacy were called on to surrender or face starvation. Lincoln responded by announcing that reinforcements would be sent to relieve the beleaguered fort, indicating his determination to bring the rebels to heel. It can only be a matter of time before President Lincoln, a firm believer in centralised government, mobilises the vast resources available to his generals. Theoretically outnumbered by a ratio of 2:1 in manpower, and 30:1 in availability of arms, the Confederates can only be hoping that their cause will attract aid from overseas.

… (1838) English settlers in South Africa vanquish the Zulus in the Battle of Tugela.

… (1817) Death of Charles Messier, French astronomer who made a list of nebulae known as the Messier catalogue.

… (1606) The Union Jack becomes England’s official flag.

… (1204) The Fourth Crusade, which started from Venice, is diverted by the Venetians to sack Constantinople and establish a Latin empire there.

…A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead ten or fifteen years. [Harry S. Truman, 1958.]

…Men have never been good, they are not good, they never will be good. [Karl Barth, Swiss Protestant theologian, and World War I pastor, 1954.]

11^th, (1994) The rock band Oasis released their debut single, Supersonic.

… (1990) ‘Supergun for Saddam?’: — The usual calm which pervades the British Foreign Office has been disturbed by the seizure at Teesport, Middlesbrough, of an Iraq-bound shipment of heavy “oil pipes” that look suspiciously like sections of a large gun. British Customs officials were certain that the contents of the eight crates offloaded from the Bahamas-registered merchantman Gur Mariner could be classified as munitions. An embargo on arms exports to Iraq introduced during the Iran-Iraq war is still in force. A spokesman for one of the companies involved in the manufacture of the “pipes”, Sheffield Forgemasters, has described the allegations as “something out of a sci-fi fantasy”. Despite the scepticism of some military experts about the feasibility of a 130-ft (39 m) long gun made of 140 tons of tubing, Ministry of Defence scientists are backing the theory.

… (1989) English football clubs are readmitted to the European Cup after a ban imposed because of the behaviour of soccer hooligans.

… (1961) ‘Nazi Eichmann finally faces trial’: — Alleged Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann today entered a Jerusalem court to hear the 15 charges against him, 12 of which carry the death penalty. As head of the Gestapo’s Jewish section, Adolf Eichmann is said to have been responsible for sending millions of Jewish men, women and children to their deaths during the Second World War. Eichmann fled to Argentina after the war in an attempt to evade capture but was eventually tracked down by the Vienna-based Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesenthal then tipped off the Israeli secret service. A team of secret service agents kidnapped Eichmann last year and brought him back to their own country to face a long overdue trial.

… (1960) Death of Sir Archibald McIndoe, New Zealand-born plastic surgeon who pioneered new techniques while treating RAF pilots burned in World War II.

… (1951) ‘MacArthur loses his stripes’: — World War II hero General Douglas MacArthur, the man who accepted the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945 and went on to reform the Japanese constitution, has been stripped of all his commands by an irate President Harry Truman. He will be replaced by General Matthew B. Ridgway. Trouble between the commander-in-chief of the 16-nation UN force in Korea and the US president had been brewing since March 31, when the counter-offensive launched by the UN forces succeeded in bringing them to the 38th Parallel, the invisible line that divides pro-Western South Korea from Soviet-backed North Korea. MacArthur and his men reached this point last year and were on the brink of defeating the North Koreans when China stepped in. MacArthur unofficially publicly declared that UN forces should pursue the war into China if needs be. Truman read it as a direct challenge to his authority to determine the conduct of US foreign policy.

… (1935) ‘More pain for the Dust Bowl’: — Disaster has already struck the hard-pressed folk of America in the shape of the Depression. Now, just as they were pinning their hopes on a brighter future with President Roosevelt’s New Deal programmes, dust storms are threatening half the country. The worst-hit areas are the so-called “Dust Bowl” states of Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. In the 20s much of the vast prairie was planted with wheat which degraded the topsoil, leaving the land dusty and arid, ideal for the turbulent prairie winds to whip up into a huge black destructive mass that can devastate homes and crops. The government is being urged to declare the affected area a disaster zone.

… (1929) The cartoon character Popeye appears for the first time, in a William Hearst newspaper.

… (1919) The International Labour Organisation is founded in affiliation with the League of Nations to improve living standards and working conditions.

… (1913) French aviator Gustave Hamel sets a record by flying the Channel from Dunkirk to Dover and back in 90 minutes.

… (1909) Tel Aviv, the first modern Hebrew city, was founded.

… (1713) France cedes Newfoundland and Gibraltar to Britain.

… (1689) ‘Green Light for Orange’: — The joint coronation of William III, Prince of Orange and champion of Protestantism, and his wife Mary, Protestant daughter of the deposed Stuart king James II, sets the seal on a remarkable transition of power within British government. Since arriving in Britain last November, William has been involved in lengthy negotiations with the Lords and Commons over the future rule of the country. A Bill of Rights which excludes Roman Catholics from the throne, gives political and civil rights to the people and supremacy to parliament, is expected to reach the statute books later in the year. Meanwhile, the nation is breathing a collective sigh of relief at seeing the back of James II, whose obsession with promoting the Catholic cause brought about his downfall.

… (1514) Italian architect Donato Bramante dies while still engaged in the building of St Peter’s in Rome, which he had begun in 1506.

10^th, (1998) ‘Northern Ireland Peace Deal’: — Peace talks between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Republic of Ireland’s leader Bertie Ahern have ended in an historic agreement on the future of Northern Ireland. Dubbed The Good Friday Agreement, the plan is the result of nearly two years of negotiations. Tony Blair said the accord marked a new beginning: “Today I hope the burden of history can at long last start to be lifted from our shoulders.” The agreement includes plans for a Northern Ireland Assembly and cross-border institutions involving the Irish Republic. The proposals will be presented to the people of Ireland and put to a referendum in May. Bertie Ahern said he hoped now a line could be drawn under Ireland’s “bloody past”.

… (1989) Nick Faldo becomes the first Briton to win the US Masters.

… (1989) Police and rioters clash in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, USSR.

… (1974) Golda Meir resigns as Israeli Prime Minister.

… (1960) The US Senate passes the Civil Rights Bill.

… (1944) ‘De Gaulle’s brave Gauntlet’: — The announcement in Algiers yesterday that Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle is to be the commander-in-chief of all Free French forces has prompted an angry response from his rival for the post, First World War veteran, General Henri Giraud. Giraud has called his ousting “illegal”. De Gaulle, who is number one on the hit list of the collaborationist Vichy government of Marshal Petain, fled to London from Paris after the fall of France in 1940. He persuaded the British government to let him use BBC radio to reach fellow Frenchmen willing to fight for the freedom of their country. As sole leader of the French government in exile, de Gaulle is now poised to unveil his ambitious plans for arming the Resistance to a dubious British government.

… (1932) In the German elections Paul von Hinderburg is elected president with 19 million votes to Adolf Hitler’s 13 million.

… (1921) Sun Yat-Sen is elected president of China.

… (1919) ‘Zapata zapped’: — People’s champion Emiliano Zapata was today cut down in a hail of bullets after being ambushed by soldiers of the Carranza regime. Zapata took his first step along the revolutionary path in 1910 when the policies of dictator Porfirio Diaz ensured that land appropriated from the peasants remained in the possession of the wealthy. Power changed hands several times in quick succession, as first Diaz, then Francisco Madera, then Victoriano Huerta were unseated. Throughout this time Zapata fought for acceptance of his plan to return to a communal system of land ownership, under the slogan “Land and Liberty”. An alliance with the unpredictable Pancho Villa brought some military successes but eventually ended when Villa’s army was defeated. Zapata, now isolated, continued the fight. Essentially a man of principle, he died untainted by the desire for power and money evident in some of his lieutenants.

… (1864) Archduke Maximilian of Austria becomes Emperor of Mexico.

… (1858) Chinese governor-general Ye Mingchen of Canton dies in Calcutta, a prisoner of the British.

… (1841) The New York Tribune is published for the first time.

… (1820) The first British settlers arrive at Algoa Bay, South Africa.

… (1809) Austria declares war on France and invades Bavaria.

…Mankind is not a tribe of animals to which we owe compassion. Mankind is a club to which we owe our subscription. [G.K. Chesterton, English writer, in the Daily News, 1906.]

9^th, (2003) ‘Saddam statue topples with Baghdad’: Scenes of joy greeted US tanks as they rolled into the Iraqi capital Baghdad, confirming that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power. In the main square, a group of Iraqis tried to pull down a statue of the Iraqi despot in a show of contempt for their former leader. They climbed the statue to secure a noose around its neck but were unable to topple it. US troops joined in, using an armoured vehicle to gradually drag down the statue. Just before the statue was down, a US soldier covered the face with a US flag. This was not well received so it was quickly removed and replaced by the old Iraqi flag, to roars of approval. As the statute fell, the crowds jumped on it, chanting as they danced on the fallen effigy, in a symbolic gesture of contempt as it was torn to pieces. They then cut off the head, tied chains around it, and dragged it through the streets. The US military campaign in Iraq is set to continue, although a US Army spokesman has made a very upbeat assessment of the gains made so far in Iraq.

… (1992) John Major’s Conservative Party won the General Election. The Tories secured a record-breaking 14 million votes on a turnout of 77 per cent.

… (1989) ‘Namibia close to independence’: Namibia’s fight for independence moved a step nearer success today with the announcement of a cessation of hostilities between South Africa’s armed forces and guerrilla fighters of the left-wing nationalist movement South-West Africa People’s Organisation. Under the UN-sponsored agreement, guerrillas who have crossed into Namibia from their bases in Angola will withdraw to UN-run camps. In return, South Africa will continue preparations for free elections, which SWAPO is hot favourite to win. If all goes well, Namibia could be just months away from finally throwing off the shackles of colonial rule. Proclaimed a German protectorate in 1884, it has been occupied by a stubborn South Africa since World War I, after which the government in Pretoria was expected to order its forces to withdraw.

… (1981) Nature magazine publishes a paper containing the longest ever scientific word, which boosts 207,000 letters.

… (1945) Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian who involved himself with anti-Hitler conspirators, dies in Buchenwald concentration camp.

… (1940) The Germans invade Norway and Denmark.

… (1882) Death of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English painter and poet who co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

… (1869) The Hudson Bay Company cedes its territory to Canada.

…The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines. [Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect, died today, 1959.]

8^th, (2013) Margaret Thatcher died aged 87 at the Ritz Hotel in London.

… (1990) British Golfer Nick Faldo wins his second successive US Masters.

… (1989) It is revealed that more than 40 Soviet submariners died after a nuclear-powered “Mike” class submarine refused assistance from nearby Western merchant ships when it caught fire.

… (1986) Film star Clint Eastwood was voted mayor of Carmel, California, where he lived.

… (1977) English rock band The Clash released their self-titled debut album.

… (1973) ‘Picasso draws last breath’: — Spanish painter Pablo Picasso died today at his chateau at Mougins after suffering a heart attack. He was 91. His genius began to flower after he moved from his native Barcelona to Paris in 1904. Stimulated by the unique intelligence and artistic climate of the French capital, he threw off his “blue period” of limited colour variation and gloomy subject matter to concentrate on a lighter style, known as his “rose period”. Picasso’s early spirit of artistic adventure led him to originate the abstract style that became synonymous with his name – Cubism. His legacy consists of 140,000 paintings and drawings, 100,000 engravings, 300 sculptures and thousands of other documents, such as the menu cards he illustrated to pay for his dinners in the early days in Paris. Nevertheless, he still found the time for enjoying the good life, beautiful women and bullfighting.

… (1962) Cuban leader Fidel Castro offers to ransom prisoners held since the invasion of the Bay of Pigs on April 19, 1961.

… (1953) ‘Kenya jails Kenyatta’: — British colonial administrators in Kenya today sentenced Jomo Kenyatta and five others to seven years’ hard labour. Kenyatta is alleged to be the leader of the secret terror organisation known as the Mau Mau, which has waged a gruesome campaign against white settlers in an attempt to drive the British out of East Africa. Jomo Kenyatta denied the charge against him and made a few allegations of his own, describing the trial as an attempt to trample the legitimate rights of the native African people. The white settlers in Kenya, however, hope that Kenyatta’s imprisonment will bring an end to the bloody campaign which the Mau Mau launched last year.

… (1925) The Australian government and the British Colonial Office offer low-interest loans to encourage 500,000 Britons to emigrate to Australia.

… (1904) Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale, a mutual recognition of each other’s colonial interests with particular regard to France’s in Morocco and Britain’s in Egypt.

… (1838) ‘Bon Voyage!’: — The massive new steamship Great Western left Bristol today on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to Boston. Her designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, estimates that the 236-ft (71 m) long wooden ship should reach her destination in 15 days. The Great Western is considerably longer than other vessels plying the Atlantic and has a huge capacity for coal, which drives her four boilers and provides steam for her paddle wheels. She also has a full complement of sails and rigging. The voyage has aroused interest among businessmen, who may be interested in using steamships as passenger liners.

… (1513) A new province in the Americas has been claimed for the Spanish throne by the man who completed the conquest of Puerto Rico. Juan Ponce de Leon set sail and found what seems like an island paradise – although it may not be an island at all. He has called his latest discovery Florida, the Spanish for Easter Day, Pascua Florida, when the island was first sighted.

…Whoso, therefore, ill-treats, beats or pushes any of the natives, whether he be in right or wrong, shall, in their presence, be scourged with 50 lashes, in order that they may perceive that such conduct is against our will; and that we are desirous to deal with them in all love and friendship, according to the order of our superiors. [Commander Jan van Riebeeck’s orders to his men before they disembark from three Dutch East India Company ships to found a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652.]

7^th, (1990) ‘Fire rips through ferry: 150 dead’: — Fire-fighters are still trying to dampen down the inferno that may have claimed the lives of 150 people aboard the Danish ferry Scandinavian Star. The Bahamas-registered vessel was en route to the Danish port of Frederikshavn from the Norwegian capital of Oslo when the fire broke out in the early hours of this morning. Disturbing reports of serious breaches of safety regulations have been received from survivors, many of whom were rescued by a Swedish ferry. They are telling tales of fire alarms that did not work and a panicky crew, many of them Filipinos and Portuguese, more interested in helping themselves than the passengers. Some people had been allowed to sleep in their vehicles, in flagrant violation of maritime safety rules. The captain is allegedly convinced that the killer blaze was the work of an arsonist.

… (1978) President Carter backpedals on building the neutron bomb.

… (1971) Nixon promises to withdraw 100,000 troops from Vietnam by Christmas.

… (1958) ‘Anti-nuclear force on the march’: — This Easter weekend has seen an extraordinary protest against Britain’s nuclear bomb programme. Supporters of the recently established Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) walked from London all the way to Aldermaston, the Berkshire site of Britain’s Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, where nuclear warheads are made. About 3000 men, women and children are estimated to have taken part in the ban the bomb march, and a further 9000 turned up for the rally outside the main gate of the high security defence plant.

… (1953) Swedish civil servant Dag Hammarskjöld succeeds Trygve Lie as secretary-general of the United Nations.

… (1949) Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific opens on Broadway.

… (1948) The World Health Organisation (WHO) is founded in Geneva.

… (1947) Death of Henry Ford, American car manufacturer.

… (1943) British economist John Maynard Keynes launches a plan for post-war reconstruction.

… (1943) Chemist Albert Hoffman synthesizes the drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) at his laboratory in Switzerland.

… (1906) ‘Vesuvius kills hundreds’: — Hundreds of Italians living in the vicinity of Mount Vesuvius have been killed in a cataclysmic volcanic eruption. Lava from the volcano has devastated the nearby town of Ottaiano and in Naples, some nine miles away, buildings have collapsed under the weight of the debris from the eruption. The volcano has been active since AD 79 when, after years of lying dormant, it erupted with spectacular, and tragic, effect. The thriving towns of Pompeii and Stabiae were buried under ash and the city of Herculaneum under a mud flow. The smoking giant has frequent outbursts, usually harmless. This latest is one of the most destructive in its fractious history and many are wondering how long they can go on living in its unpredictable shadow.

… (1862) General Ulysses Grant’s troops vanquish the Confederate army at the Battle of Shiloh.

… (1739) ‘Turpin hangs’: — Travellers in northern England may once more sleep easily in their beds after the hanging today of notorious highwayman Dick Turpin. The innkeeper’s son from Essex had been operating in the area for about two years, after working on the fringes of London with his then partner-in-crime Tom King. The duo, whose haunts included Epping Forest and Hampstead Heath, built on the myth of highwaymen started by the dashing French rascal Claude Duval, who once stopped a coach in which a lady was travelling, took only £100 of the £400 she was carrying and ransomed the rest by dancing with her on Hampstead Heath. The 26-year-old one-time valet, and some say model for charming rogue Macheath in John Gay’s musical hit The Beggar’s Opera, was eventually caught in 1669 and hanged at Tyburn. A train of weeping women was said to have attended his magnificent funeral. The romance of these “kings of the road” is still alive, although the increase in their numbers is causing alarm with the authorities. A mob took away Turpin’s body for burial after it was cut down from the Mount, outside the walls of York city.

…You have a row of dominoes set up; you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is that it will go over very quickly. [President Dwight D. Eisenhower on the “domino effect”, during the Battle of Dien Ben Phu, 1954.]

6^th, (1994) ‘African presidents shot down’: — The presidents of the African states of Rwanda and Burundi were killed when their plane crashed near Kigali, Rwanda. Some observers say the aircraft was brought down by rocket fire. Juvenal Habyarimana and Cyprian Ntayamira were returning from a meeting of African leaders in Tanzania, set up to discuss ways of ending the ethnic violence in their countries. Violent clashes between the Hutu tribe and the minority Tutsis has plagued both states for hundreds of years. The deaths of the presidents could make the situation worse. Heavy fighting has already been reported around the presidential palace in Rwanda and explosions have been rocking the city in Kigali.

… (1984) Seventeen-year-old South African runner Zola Budd is granted British citizenship only 13 days after signing her application so that she can run for Britain in the Los Angeles Olympic Games.

… (1982) Forty-four-year-old American Jim Princeton returns $37.1 million (£20 million) in negotiable bearer certificates which he finds outside 110 Wall Street.

… (1968) Pierre Trudeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada.

… (1965) The US launches the first commercial communications satellite, Early Bird.

… (1944) Pay As You Earn (PAYE) Income Tax is introduced in Britain.

… (1939) A Polish defence pact is signed in London by Britain, France and Poland.

… (1917) ‘The Doughboys Enter WW I’: — President Woodrow Wilson today signed the resolution which takes the United States into war on the side of Britain and France. America’s participation had been made inevitable by Germany’s intensification of its submarine campaign against the merchant shipping routes to Britain. American ships have been suffering increasingly heavy losses, despite Germany’s earlier promise to abandon the campaign. The decision to enter the war represents a political about-face for Wilson, but the President nonetheless won ecstatic applause from Congress for his rousing call “to save democracy” and unanimous support for the war resolution.

… (1896) ‘Olympics anew’: — A modern version of the ancient Olympic Games was opened today in Athens, initiated by French aristocrat Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who hopes to stimulate interest in physical fitness and promote understanding between nations. The first record of the Games dates from 776 BC, although it is thought they were already 500 years old by then. The venue was Olympia, home of the Greek god Zeus in whose honour they were held every four years – until Greece lost its independence and the Christian Roman emperor, Theodosius, abolished them to discourage paganism, in AD 394.

… (1843) English poet William Wordsworth is appointed Poet Laureate.

… (1814) ‘Boney gets the Elba’: — French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was today forced to abdicate unconditionally. The beginning of the end for the ambitious Corsican was his defeat last October at the so-called “Battle of the Nations” near Leipzig, where he had lost a third of his half-million troops. With his once mighty army now reduced to a pathetic rump of fighting men, many of them conscripts, Bonaparte nevertheless refused to negotiate and in an audacious manoeuvre inflicted reverses on the advancing allied armies. However, it soon became apparent that the allies could outwit him by quickly reaching Paris and setting up a new government. Last week British, Russian, Prussian and Swedish troops poured into Paris. From his headquarters at Fontainebleau, Napoleon received news of the French people’s enthusiasm for the return of the Bourbons and his own Marshals’ reluctance to continue the struggle. He therefore had to step down. In return for relinquishing his empire, the allies have given him sovereignty over Elba, the island to which they are exiling him.

… (1580) An earthquake in London damages St Paul’s Cathedral.

… (1520) Raphael, Italian Renaissance painter and architect, dies on his 37^th birthday.

… (1199) Richard I of England dies from an infected wound while besieging Chaluz Castle during the Crusades.

…Nothing easier. One Step beyond the pole, you see, and the north wind becomes a south one. [Robert Peary on how he reached the North Pole, 1909.]

5^th, (1991) President Bush orders US Air Force transport planes to begin dropping supplies to Kurdish refugees in northern Iraq.

… (1989) Vietnam announces it will withdraw its troops from Cambodia by September 1989.

… (1989) ‘Solidarity turns the corner’: — The end of communist rule in Poland is now in sight after today’s historic political pact between the independent trade union federation Solidarity and the government of Wojciech Jaruzelski. After weeks of seemingly hopeless negotiations, Solidarity has finally won the right to contest partially free elections and to publish its own newspaper. The pact also provides for a democratically elected senate and president. Opinion polls will be held in June. Solidarity has been banned by the Polish authorities since 1982. Its re-legislation is well overdue, since martial law was finally lifted in the middle of 1983. However, throughout the ban, the organisation continued to receive widespread support among a Polish population that is desperate for saviours. Many hopes are now riding on Solidarity and its charismatic leader, Lech Walesa. The current regime’s apparent willingness to allow Solidarity to take part in the political process is widely acknowledged to be an indication of its own inability to provide answers to Poland’s mounting economic problems in the absence of popular support.

… (1982) The British task force sets sail to oust Argentinean forces from the Falkland Islands.

… (1975) Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek dies in Taiwan aged 87.

… (1964) Death of General MacArthur, commander of the Pacific forces in World War II.

… (1960) The film Ben Hur wins 10 Oscars.

… (1955) ‘Churchill resigns’: — An era in British politics came to an end today as Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill announced his resignation. He will be succeeded by Foreign Secretary Sir Anthony Eden. Churchill’s decision to pass the Conservative torch to a younger man is not unexpected. Two years ago he suffered a crippling stroke which has taken its toll of his 80 years. With characteristic candour, Churchill said he was too old to hold the reins of government, although he hopes to continue as MP for Woodford.

… (1944) The Germans begin the deportation of the Jews from Hungary.

… (1915) Jack Johnson, the first black world heavyweight boxing champion, loses his title to “great white hope” Jess Willard.

… (1895) ‘Wilde About The Boy’: — A trial has opened at the Old Bailey which promises to become the talk of London society. Playwright Oscar Wilde, the author of the highly successful plays The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere’s Fan, is sueing the Marquess of Queensberry for libel. The Marquess is alleged to have left a note at Mr. Wilde’s club accusing him of sodomy. Now the Marquess is threatening to produce an impressive list of witnesses to testify in support of his allegation. Insiders claim that the temper of the boxing-mad Marquess has been sorely tried by his son, Alfred, who has made no secret of the intimate nature of his relationship with Mr. Wilde.

… (1874) Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus receives its premiere in Vienna.

… (1794) ‘Guillotine turns on the revolutionaries’: — Nine months after losing his place on the Committee of Public Safety which rules France, Georges Jacques Danton has also lost his head. Today the revolution’s most dazzling speaker, a force for moderation, was guillotined for corruption. Executed with him were 14 members of his group, called “The Indulgents”. A lawyer by profession, Danton was one of the fathers of the Revolution. His call for a relaxation of the “Terror” and the policy of flushing out counter-revolutionaries received such heartfelt support from the public that Robespierre, fearing for his position in the regime, moved against him. Robespierre’s action may have an unsettling effect on other National Convention members.

… (1793) ‘Washington’s capital idea’: — George Washington has approved plans for new public buildings and roads in America’s capital city. Work will begin soon on the meeting place of the US Congress, the design of which has been handed to William Thornton, who has no previous architectural experience. The runner-up in the design competition, Stephen Hallet, is to supervise the project. The president chose the site for the new capital as well as the site for this building – to be called the Capitol, after the centre of government in ancient Rome. French architect Major Pierre L’Enfant is to be responsible for the overall design of the new city, which is to be laid out on classical lines.

… (1649) Death of John Winthrop, English coloniser and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

…Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men … there is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. [Lord Acton, British historian, 1887]

4^th, (1986) ‘Murdoch tries to end ugly war in Wapping’: — Media mogul Robert Murdoch is ready to make peace with the workers who have been trying to disrupt operations at his new multi-million pound, super-tech factory at Wapping in London’s docklands. The plant’s new technology has been installed at the expense of compositors who now find themselves out of work. Murdoch is hoping that the apparently generous offer of giving the old Gray’s Inn Road plant, in west central London, to the printers’ union will bring the acrimonious dispute to an end. The strike, involving some 2000 print workers, has led to ugly scenes on the picket line at Wapping as police have attempted to ensure the safe passage of delivery lorries. Production of a number of Murdoch’s papers, including the Times, Sun and Sunday Times, has been affected. The papers are being produced by management while journalists – traditionally allies of the printers – have been told they will be fired if they fail to cooperate.

… (1981) ‘Brixton is Britain’s latest battle-zone’: — Brixton, a predominately black district of south London, tonight became a battle zone for the second night running. Police with protective shields faced an army of rioting youths – black and white – armed with petrol bombs and anything else they could lay their hands on. Whole streets were engulfed in the violence which ended in 200 police injured and some 213 arrests. Cars were overturned and wrecked and shops looted for valuables. What sparked the violence is disputed. Community leaders are citing years of heavy-handed policing and racial harassment as a potential powder keg waiting to erupt. Senior police deny that their methods provoked a confrontation or that the riots have a racial origin, pointing to the fact that blacks and whites were seen fighting shoulder-to-shoulder. A police presence is necessary, they argue, because of the high incidence of drug dealing and other crime in the area.

… (1979) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the ousted prime minister of Pakistan, is hanged by the military regime for the alleged murder of a political opponent.

… (1973) The World Trade Center, then the world’s tallest building at nearly 1,370ft high and with 110 storeys, opened in New York

… (1968) ‘Dream-maker King shot dead’: — Civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, the man who inspired black and white Americans with his eloquence, vision and compassion, was today shot dead by an unidentified white assassin at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The son of a preacher, Dr King became world famous in 1963 for his “I have a dream” speech in which he spelt out his vision for America’s poor, both black and white. Dr King first played a major role in the civil rights movement in 1955 when he led a year-long bus boycott in protest against segregation on public transport in Montgomery, Alabama. Afterwards he established the South Christian Leadership Conference, which used non-violent marches and protests as a way of drawing attention to the issues of black rights and poverty. At the time of his death, King was planning a multi-racial Poor People’s March. His award of the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964, came at a time when he was coming under fire from more militant black activists increasingly frustrated by his pacifist approach. King’s murder may help these elements within the civil rights movement win the argument against moderation in the continuing fight for equality.

… (1963) The Beatles snatch the first five places in the US singles charts with “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “Twist and Shout”, “She Loves You”, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me”.

… (1949) Britain, Canada, the US, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy and Portugal sign the North Atlantic Treaty to protect Western nations from soviet aggression.

… (1896) Gold is discovered in the Yukon.

… (1849) Prussia’s Frederick William IV is elected Emperor of Germany but refuses to take the crown.

… (1774) Death of Oliver Goldsmith, English dramatist, poet and novelist whose best-known work is the play She Stoops to Conquer.

… (1720) In return for a loan of £7 million ($13 million) to finance war against France, the House of Lords passes the South Sea Bill which allows the South Sea Company a monopoly on trade with South America.

… (1687) James II of England issues a Declaration of Indulgence, by which all Acts against Nonconformists and Roman Catholics are suspended.

… (1581) ‘Drake’s world tour a triumph’: — England’s latest hero, the navigator Francis Drake, was today knighted at Deptford by Queen Elizabeth after entertaining  Her Majesty to a banquet aboard the Golden Hind, the ship in which he repeated Ferdinand Magellan’s feat of circumnavigating the world. Drake’s flotilla of five small ships carrying 160 men and boys left Plymouth on December 13, 1577. The three-year voyage was dogged with problems and passengers had to “haul and draw” with the mariners. Drake attacked Spanish ships off the coasts of Chile and Peru and annexed a “fair and good” bay which he named New Albion. The ship ran aground on a shoal in the East Indian Archipelago, but slid off it after 20 hours and headed for home.

3^rd, (2016) Media outlets began reporting on the “Panama Papers” – leaked financial documents relating to the workings of 214,000 offshore companies, some of which were being used for fraud, tax evasion and evading international sanctions.

… (1991) Death of Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer and pioneer of contemporary dance in the USA.

… (1991) Graham Greene, author of international repute, dies aged 86.

… (1982) Buenos Aires celebrates the invasion of the Falkland Islands while the UN says Argentina must withdraw.

… (1922) In Russia, Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Communist Party.

… (1897) ‘Lonely Brahms ends a musical era’: Germany’s foremost classical-romantic composer, Johannes Brahms has died at his home in Vienna at the age of 64. Supported by his father and by fellow musicians, notably the composer Robert Schumann, Brahms big breakthrough came in 1868 with the first performance in Bremen of his German Requiem. Lauded across Europe, and with compositions for piano, chamber orchestra, and chorus, Brahms began work on his first symphony. He would deliberate over this for some 20 years, and then follow it almost immediately with a second. Work on all four symphonies was punctuated by piano and chamber pieces and songs. As a personality Brahms was a complex mixture: both gruff and tender, a bachelor who longed for love and yet shied away from commitment.

… (1882) ‘Jesse James bites the dust’: The notorious outlaw Jesse James, head of the James Gang and mastermind of countless bank and train robberies, was gunned down today at his home in St Joseph, Missouri. Neighbours were shocked to learn that the man they knew as Thomas Howard had a $10,000 price tag on his head. James met his end at the hands of a new recruit to the gang, Bob Ford, who was staying with James, his wife and two children. Ford allegedly shot James in the back of the head as he stood on a chair to straighten a picture. James’s 20-year life of crime began at the end of the Civil War after an apprenticeship with the pro-Confederate band of guerrilla fighters led by William Quantrill. After the war, James and his brother Frank founded their own gang. But in 1876 an attempted bank raid in Northfield, Minnesota went wrong and the gang was decimated. James re-formed the gang, but it never achieved the same success.

… (1862) Death of Sir James Clark Ross, English explorer who gave his name to Ross Barrier, Ross Island and Ross Sea, Antarctica.

… (1784) ‘Parliament curbs East India Company’: The India Act has at last been steered through the British Houses of Parliament to bring some measure of order to the affairs of the East India Company, Britain’s agents in India. The struggle to modify the Company’s powers and make it more accountable to the government in London cost Whig politician Charles Fox his job last year. William Pitt has now succeeded, but not without disturbing the interests of the directors of the Company. The imperial power wielded by the governor general in British India, Warren Hastings, has attracted adverse comment from liberal commentators who point to the taxpayers’ money that is used to benefit the organisation’s employees and no one else.

…Any cook should be able to run the country. [Vladimir Ilich Lenin, returning to Moscow from exile today, 1917.]

2^nd, (1991) Diego Maradona, star of Napoli football team, flies home to Argentina hours before being banned from every sporting activity in Italy after failing a drugs test.

… (1991) British businessman Roger Cooper is released from an Iranian prison after serving five years of a ten-year sentence for alleged spying.

… (1991) Soviet coal miners go on strike across the USSR.

… (1982) ‘Argentina’s junta snatches Falklands’: — The British South Atlantic dependency of the Falklands Islands is now in the hands of Argentinean military forces. Falkland’s governor Rex Hunt ordered the company of British Marines stationed in the island’s capital, Port Stanley, to surrender when it became clear that they were massively outnumbered by the invasion force. Fears were raised last week when a party of Argentinean “scrap metallers” landed on the sparsely populated British island of South Georgia, 150 miles (240 km) away. Observers believe that the military junta in Buenos Aires, led by President Leopoldo Galtieri, may have read the British Foreign Office’s silence on this as a sign that Britain is prepared to give up her costly commitment to the 2000 islanders, the vast majority of whom reject Argentina’s claim to their homeland. The British government is now discussing the possibility of sending a task force to eject the invaders.

… (1979) Prime Minister Menachem Begin becomes the first Israeli leader to make an official visit to Egypt.

… (1979) ‘Khmer Rouge genocide exposed’: — Vietnamese soldiers now occupying Cambodia are showing the world the unspeakable brutality of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s ousted communist regime. Mass graves containing piles of skulls and bones of at least 2000 people have been found near the town of Stung Treng in north-eastern Cambodia. The new Vietnamese-backed administration in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh estimates that one million people may have perished during Pol Pot’s three-year experiment to take his people back to “Year Zero”. A member of Ho Chi Minh’s Indochinese Communist Party in the 1940s, Pol Pot committed his Khmer regime to a programme of enforced collectivisation, involving the mass evacuation of city-dwellers to the Cambodian countryside. Many of the victims of this radical policy were either worked to death or murdered for resisting the Khmer Rouge’s chilling brand of ideological purism.

… (1977) ‘Red Rum pulls off hat trick’: — Red Rum, Britain’s favourite racehorse, today crowned a magnificent career by becoming the first horse ever to win three Grand Nationals. The 12-year-old gelding galloped past the winning post to notch up another impressive victory at Liverpool’s Aintree race course and add to his unprecedented record in Britain’s premier steeplechase; wins in 1973 and 1974 and second places in 1975 and 1976. Red Rum made light of his 11st 8lb handicap, sailing over the 30 fences and finishing the 4 mile 856-yard (7.2 km) race 25 lengths ahead. His performance has surpassed the wildest dreams of his 89-year-old owner, retired businessman Noel Le Mare. Before “Rummy” was bought for him in 1972 by part-time trainer “Ginger” McCain for 6,000 guineas, Mr. Le Mare had spent over £100,000 trying to realise his ambition of owning a National winner.

… (1974) Death of Georges Pompidou, President of France.

… (1962) The first panda crossing opened outside Waterloo station, London. It baffled pedestrians and the scheme was abandoned within five years.

… (1938) The Spanish Civil War ends with General Franco’s Fascists as the victors.

… (1921) The IRA first obtain Tommy guns from two gunsmiths in Hartford, Connecticut.

… (1860) The first Italian parliament meets in Turin.

… (1836) Charles Dickens married Catherine Hogarth. They divorced after 20 years and ten children.

… (1810) Napoleon Bonaparte marries Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian emperor.

… (1792) The first silver dollar of America’s new currency was struck today in Philadelphia by the Bank of the United States. Each coin contains 371 grains of silver metal. The American eagle on each dollar is a reminder of the fledgling country’s determination to establish an identity that owes nothing to Britain.

April 1^st, (2004) Google announced the launch of its Gmail email service.

… (2001) Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslavian president, is arrested in Belgrade.

… (1999) A minimum wage was introduced into Britain. All workers over the age of 22 had to be paid at least £3.60 an hour.

… (1988) Iraq is accused of using poisonous gas on Kurdish villagers.

… (1983) ‘Peace chain at Greenham’: Actress Julie Christie and nonagenarian CND supporter Lord Brockway were among the estimated 30,000 campaigners who today linked hands in the cause of world peace. The 14-mile (22 km) long protest chain enveloped the US Air Force base at Greenham, where a women’s peace camp was set up last year, and also the centres of Aldermaston and Burghfield. This latest civil protest at the presence of nuclear missiles on English soil went off peacefully, thanks largely to a “softly, softly” approach by Thames Valley and military police. No arrests were made, despite several attempts by protestors to breach the perimeter fence of the base.

… (1976) Death of Max Ernst, German-born Surrealist artist and leader of the Cologne Dada group, who adapted the techniques of collage and photomontage to Surrealist uses.

… (1969) The Beach Boys sue Capitol Records for $2,041,446.41.

… (1960) The US launches its first weather satellite.

… (1948) ‘Berlin blockade segregates Soviets’: Relations between former wartime allies have been put under severe strain by the Soviets’ sudden imposition of tough checks on all Western transport entering Berlin. The western Allies fear that this may signal an attempt to force the entire city into the communist sphere of influence. The city, which is divided into four occupation zones – administered by France, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union – is already isolated within the Soviet controlled eastern part of Germany. The Allies suspect the Soviets of planning a complete blockade of the former German capital. The Soviets say they are only responding to the Allies’ decision to unify their three separately administered zones into one West German zone.

… (1945) US forces invade the Japanese island of Okinawa.

… (1924) HMV introduces the first gramophone to change records automatically.

… (1917) Scott Joplin, American ragtime composer and pianist, dies in poverty in an asylum.

… (1891) A telephone link between London and Paris comes into operation.

… (1795) Martial law is declared in France as food shortages spark riots.

… (1204) Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II of England.

MARCH

31^st, (1989) The master of the Exxon Valdez tanker responsible for polluting a vast stretch of Alaskan waters is sacked for drunkenness by the Exxon company.

… (1985) The British National Coal Board announces a record annual loss of £2225 million.

… (1980) Black American athlete Jesse Owens has died, aged 67. He was the star of the 1936 “Aryan” Olympics in Hitler’s Germany, winning four Gold Medals – but Hitler refused to shake his hand at the Olympics because he was black.

… (1959) ‘Dalai Lama Flees Tibet’: — The ruler and spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, has fled to safety in India after Chinese military occupation of his country has made his position in Lhasa impossible. He slipped quietly away on horseback, narrowly escaping capture by the Chinese. On his arrival in West Bengal the young priest-king was welcomed by thousands of Tibetans now also in exile. He was careful to avoid overt criticism of Chinese troops who are reported to be using force in their efforts to eradicate the country’s ancient Buddhist faith. Tibet was an independent nation until 1951, when China’s People Liberation Army invaded, crushing all resistance, imposing Chinese law, language and customs. Resentment at the communist suppression of religious customs boiled up into violent protests earlier this year, which were harshly put down. According to Tibetan sources an estimated 63,000 Tibetans lost their lives, while an equivalent number fled to safety in India. The Chinese have installed Panchen Lama in the Dali Lama’s place.

… (1939) The British government pledges to defend Poland under the terms of a new tripartite UK/French/Polish treaty.

… (1934) American bank robber John Dillinger escapes from police custody.

… (1913) New York’s Ellis Island receives a record 6745 immigrants in one day.

… (1901) German inventor Gottlieb Daimler names his latest 53 mph, four-cylinder creation after his daughter, Mercedes.

… (1889) ‘Eiffel changes Paris skyline’: — Paris, the graceful capital of measured stone architecture and mellowed historic buildings, received its tallest and brashest tourist attraction yet when the new Eiffel Tower was opened today by French première Tirard.  The soaring skeleton of exposed wrought-iron latticework is by far the tallest manmade structure in the world, standing at almost a fifth of a mile. Only the revolutionary engineering in Alexandre Eiffel’s design makes the tower possible: its pylons are curved so precisely that the high wind pressures the top of the tower is subjected to compress the structure on to its base rather than weakening it. Eiffel also built the steel structure that holds up the Statue of Liberty in New York. It has taken two years to complete the tower in time for this year’s Paris Exposition celebrating the centenary of the French Revolution. A monument to the achievements of modern engineering, the 984 ft (300 m) tower dominates the whole city. Many Parisians, including the writer Guy de Maupassant, are far from happy that science should so dominate in this world capital of art. Visitors and Parisians both, however, will certainly enjoy ascending effortlessly in the Eiffel Tower’ power-driven glass lift cages for the truly wonderful view.

… (1866) Chile sides with Peru in war against Spain.

… (1858) China capitulates to British and French demands for trade concessions.

… (1854) Japan finally opens its doors to American traders.

… (1820) American missionaries arrive in Honolulu to spread the Word.

30^th, (2002) ‘Queen Mother Dies’: — Buckingham Palace has announced that the Queen Mother has died peacefully in her sleep, aged 101. The Queen was at her bedside when she passed away this afternoon at the Royal Lodge, Windsor. The news was announced two and a half hours later. Hundreds of people have begun paying their respects at royal palaces, describing her as a “fairy-tale grandmother”, and tributes have been flooding in from all over the world. Prince Charles, who was believed to be very close to his grandmother, is returning home early from Switzerland where he has been skiing with his two sons. He is said to be devastated. She will have a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 9^th April.

… (1989) American actor Kurt Russell wipes the smile from Goldie Hawn’s face by proposing marriage in front of a television audience of 1.5 billion people who are watching the couple present Oscars.

… (1981) ‘Reagan survives assassin’s bullet’: — President Ronald Reagan was seriously wounded today in an assassination attempt as he walked out of a Washington Hotel. He was rushed to George Washington Hospital, where a bullet, which passed inches from his heart, has been removed from his lung. The 70-year-old president is reported to have survived the operation well. He told his wife Nancy: “Honey, I forgot to duck” – a line from one of his movies. His assailant, John Hinckley, Jr., fired six shots with a small .22 calibre pistol. Three other men were wounded: presidential press secretary Jim Brady received a head wound. Hinckley, 25, is the son of an oil executive. He dropped out of Yale University to work as a disc-jockey. In 1980 he was arrested with a gun at Tennessee airport when former president Jimmy Carter was arriving. He is reported to be obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and her role in the film Taxi Driver.

… (1980) Twenty are killed as the funeral of the murdered Salvadorian rebel archbishop Oscar Romero turns into a bloodbath.

… (1978) Leading ad agency Saatchi and Saatchi are hired by British Conservatives in a new political propaganda offensive.

… (1950) Léon Blum, French statesman responsible for introducing radical social reforms to France in the 1930s, dies.

… (1925) ‘Death of mystic educator’: — Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian mystic, scientist and educator who created the Anthroposophical Society, has died aged 64. Steiner tried to change the educational system – his schools reject aggressive games and competitive methods in favour of artistic activity and pure thought. He developed a highly productive method of “bio-dynamic” farming which rejects the new artificial fertilisers and poisons. His anthroposophy is a Christianised version of the mystical doctrine of theosophy.

… (1867) ‘America buys Alaska from Russia’: — “An awful lot of ice for an awful lot of dollars,” is how senators in Washington are describing the American proposal to pay $7.2 million to Russia for the frozen waters of Alaska. An impassioned debate about the merits of buying Alaska is reaching its peak as the Senate votes on the issue. Today the two governments signed a treaty of cession, but the US Senate must now authorise payment. Secretary of State William Seward is adamant that the price is a bargain that will handsomely repay investment when the potential for gold and other minerals is exploited.

… (1856) ‘Glory of war dies in Crimea’: — The Crimean War is over. The bloody three-year conflict between Europe and Russia ended with today’s signing of the Treaty of Paris. The devastating power of the modern weapons used in the war has shattered any illusions of the glory of arms. Russia has been forced to agree to the demilitarisation of the Black Sea and will demolish four of its naval bases there. Russia loses access to the Danube River and must give up claims to Rumanian territory. The European powers – Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Piedmont – are guaranteeing the Ottoman Empire against future Russia expansionism or any claims to the loyalty of Orthodox Christians living in Turkish lands. Britain rules the East Mediterranean again.

… (1855) Afghan leader Dost Mohammed ends 12 years of hostilities by signing a peace treaty with the British.

… (1842) Ether is used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.

…McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled. [Joseph R. McCarthy, of whom President Harry S. Truman expressed his distaste today, 1950.]

29^th, (2017) The UK invoked Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, formally triggering the Brexit process.

… (1989) ‘Soviet’s first real election since 1917’: Soviet citizens have turned their thumbs down to the ruling Communist Party in the first real choice they have had since the 1917 revolution. Communist candidates have been humiliating defeated in yesterday’s elections for a new congress – the first contested multiparty election in Soviet history. Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev has unleashed a whirlwind with his perestroika policy of openness – in Moscow Gorbachev’s rival, Russian president Boris Yeltsin, won 90 per cent of the votes, and there were solid opposition gains in the Ukraine and in Leningrad. The Communists have not, of course, lost power – a proportion of the seats in the new assembly were reserved for Party members.

… (1989) ‘Paris Hates Mitterrand’s Pyramid’: France’s president Francois Mitterrand today inaugurated the vast glass pyramid at the entrance to the Louvre in Paris – the largest of the monuments his administration has built to celebrate the bicentennial of the French Revolution. The pyramid, which will form the main entrance to the art museum and former palace of French kings, is the work Chinese-born American architect I. M. Pei. It includes a large underground addition to the Louvre. It has been criticised almost as fiercely as the Eiffel Tower was a century ago, but Mitterrand has stood firm over his latest project. However, Parisians have liked to throw stones in their many revolutions, and it is questionable whether a pyramid of glass will survive.

… (1989) Space Services Inc of Texas becomes the first private company to make a commercial space launch, sending aloft an instrument package.

… (1988) Lloyd Honeyghan knocks out Jorge Vaca to become the first British boxer to regain a world title since Ted “Kid” Lewis some 71 years previously.

… (1979) ‘Idi Amin flees Ugandan capital’: Uganda’s bloody dictator Idi Amin Dada has been driven from the capital, Kampala, and is hiding in the interior. His army is rapidly being worn down by Tanzanian forces sent by President Julius Nyerere to aid Ugandan rebels. Amin’s invasion of Northern Tanzania late last year has been his undoing. International quiescence to the excesses of his rule, during which an estimated 300,000 Ugandans have been killed, finally ended when Nyerere struck back. Kampala has been besieged by Tanzanian forces and the Uganda Liberation Front, and even last-minute support for Amin from the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi has not helped his retreating army. Amin overthrew Milton Obote to become president in 1972. A flamboyant and unpredictable personality, he and his government have been notorious for their brutality. His departure will not be mourned by the Ugandans.

… (1973) US troops pull out of South Vietnam.

… (1970) Peace campaigner and writer Vera Brittain dies.

… (1959) Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon, was released,

… (1929) Britain’s suffragettes have won their battle at last, for tonight the House of Commons voted in favour of the Equal Franchise Bill that gives the vote to all women over the age of 21, amending earlier legislation that had enfranchised only women over 30.

… (1891) British explorer Robert Falcon Scott dies in Antarctica after reaching the Pole.

… (1886) ‘Coca-Cola – A Tonic For The Brain’: A new fizzy drink went on sale at a pharmacy today in Atlanta, Georgia. Coca-Cola, an “Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage”, will cure anything from hysteria to the common cold, claims its inventor, Dr. John Pemberton. The non-alcoholic but nonetheless stimulating drink is made from a secret recipe including syrup, caffeine from the cola nut and a tincture of coca leaves. Dr. Pemberton’s brew faces stiff competition from other elixirs, such as Imperial Inca Cola.

… (1871) British monarch Queen Victoria opens the Royal Albert Hall in London.

… (1792) Enlightened Swedish king Gustavus III is gunned down at a masked ball.

… (1461) Henry VI’s Lancastrian forces are crushed by the Yorkists at the bloody battle of Towton, Yorkshire, and the position of the newly proclaimed King of England, Edward IV, is secured.

…When the white man came, we had the land and they had the Bibles; now they have the land and we have the Bibles. [Dan George, Canadian Indian Chief, 1952]

28^th, (1990) ‘British customs seize Iraqi nuclear triggers’: Forty switches which could be used to trigger a nuclear weapon were seized at London’s Heathrow airport today by US and British officials in a “sting operation”. They were being exported by a Californian firm to Baghdad where they were destined for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s nuclear programme – revealing his plans to build a nuclear bomb. British officials arrested the carrier as he boarded a plane.

… (1980) ‘Mine lift cage plunges a mile’: A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reef gold mine in South Africa plunged more than a mile today, killing all 23 aboard. It is thought to be the longest lift fall ever. Some South African mines reach down to 11,500 ft (3700 m) below the surface. Supplying air to the huge networks of deep tunnels is a major engineering problem; the tunnels seep water which must constantly be pumped out. The stuffy heat, noisy drills, dynamite and danger of rock-falls add up to an industrial hell, worked by many thousands of tribal blacks under white supervision. This is the latest of many disasters in pursuit of South Africa’s gold.

… (1979) The government of British première James Callaghan falls over the Home Rule for Ireland question.

… (1979) ‘Meltdown in US nuclear reactor’: A meltdown in the nuclear reactor core of the Three Mile Island power station at Harrisburg in Pennsylvania caused panic in the eastern United States today. Experts are warning that the reactor core may release radioactive clouds through the region but there are no facilities for a general evacuation of the immediate area. The accident appears to have been caused by the failure of valves controlling cooling water, followed by operator mistakes. Staff at the plant are trying to limit the inevitable release of radioactivity. Local residents are already demanding stricter controls.

… (1969) Former US Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies.

… (1959) The government of Tibet was dissolved by China.

… (1945) Germany mounts its last V2 rocket attack against Britain.

… (1941) The British Navy sinks seven Italian warships for no loss at the battle of Matapan, off the Greek island of Crete.

… (1941) The British writer and member of the Bloomsbury Group Virginia Woolf commits suicide.

… (1939) ‘Franco the victor as Spanish War ends’: After three years of destruction, the Spanish Civil War ended today when General Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces took Madrid peacefully and the Republican government fled to Valencia. Tens of thousands have died, families have been split and the scars of battle will take generations to heal. It has also been a struggle between the forces of fascism and communism: Hitler and Mussolini have supplied Franco with troops, air support and provisions while the Soviet Union has given the Republicans valuable assistance. Idealists flocked from all over the world to fight on the Republican side. Many observers see the Civil War as a bloody dress rehearsal for a wider European war.

See also: Book Review: ‘Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War’

… (1925) Oxford’s boat sank during the annual Boat Race.

… (1912) Oxford and Cambridge boat crews take to the water in the annual Varsity race as both boats sink.

… (1910) The first seaplane takes off near Marseilles in France.

… (1871) ‘Radicals proclaim Paris a Commune’: Patriotic French radicals filled with the fervour of the Revolution of 1789 today proclaimed Paris a “commune of the people”. They are seeking to turn France’s lost war against the Prussians into a triumph for Jacobin-style socialism by installing proletarian rule. Led by intellectuals and workers and backed by a reformed National Guard, the “communards” aim to set up a municipal government independent of the national government, which has fled to Versailles. The communards are incensed that the government has accepted the humiliating peace terms imposed by the Prussians, including the loss of Alsace and Lorraine. But no one is predicting with confidence how long the Commune will last.

… (1868) The Earl of Cardigan, who led the ill-fated “Charge of the Light Brigade” at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War, dies.

27^th, (2002) Death of Billy Wilder, director of films such as Some Like it Hot and Sunset Boulevard.

… (2002) Death of much-loved actor, comedian and musician Dudley Moore at 66 after a long illness.

… (1981) ‘Strike brings Poland to a halt’: Millions of Polish workers today staged a general strike in protest at police harassment of activists belonging to the trade union Solidarity. They were urged to do so by union leader Lech Walsea. The strike is a show of strength against hard-line communists trying to reclaim concessions made last year when mass strikes won Solidarity recognition as the Warsaw Pact’s first independent trade union. The union wants the hard-liners forced out of power. Walsea would be willing to make deals with the communist rulers to secure the union’s position, but union militants are pressing for a more political line. Meanwhile Poland’s new party leader, General Jaruzelski, is under pressure to declare martial law.

… (1980) A North Sea oil platform overturned during a storm late this afternoon and over 100 men are feared drowned. Phillips Petroleum’s Alexander Kielland platform was used for recreation. About 200 workers were relaxing aboard when one of the five legs buckled and the platform turned turtle, trapping many inside. Rescue teams are rushing to the scene, 250 miles from the Scottish coast.

… (1968) Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man to orbit the earth, dies in a plane crash near Moscow, aged 34.

… (1964) Britain’s Great Train Robbers are sentenced to a total of 307 years imprisonment after being found guilty of stealing more than £2.6 million from mail bags.

… (1958) Soviet prime minister Marshal Nikolai Bulganin is ousted by Nikita Khrushchev in a Kremlin power struggle.

… (1945) The last Nazi V-2 rockets to be launched at Britain fell on Orpington, Kent – destroying the bedroom ceiling of Reginald Perrin author David Nobbs who escaped with an injured thumb.

… (1914) Medical history is made in a Brussels hospital where the first successful blood transfusion is performed.

… (1871) Scotland beats England in the first international rugby match between the two nations.

… (1835) Texan rebels are massacred by the Mexican army at Gohad.

… (1814) ‘US Troops Rout Creek Indians’: Troops under General Andrew Jackson today inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in eastern Alabama. More than 800 Indians lost their lives in the battle, which marks the end of a year-long war. Much of the Creek territory in Alabama and Georgia will now be brought into the United States.

… (1813) Prussia declares war on France and Russian forces occupy Dresden.

… (1802) Britain and France sign the Peace of Amiens.

… (1794) The US Navy is established.

… (1774) ‘Britain strong arms America’: The American colonists call them the Intolerable Acts. The British parliament prefers the label “coercive acts” and says they are needed to restore order after the episode of the Boston Tea Party. Whatever the name, London’s latest package of legislation for its unruly colony is causing a furore. The Boston Port Act closes the harbour entirely until the colonists have paid compensation for the spilled tea. The Massachusetts Government Act has put the legislature under control of the crown, and banned all public meetings. In London, parliament is urgently considering further provocative legislation – one such is a bill to try Americans in English courts, while another would give power to British soldiers to requisition any house they want for military quarters. The notion that enforced idleness will encourage Boston’s traders to see the errors of their ways is a curious one – their resolve to confront Britain is hardening daily.

… (1770) ‘End of Tiepolo’s prolific talent’: The last great Italian painter of the Renaissance, Giambattista Tiepolo of Venice, died today after a lifetime of creativity which made him one of Europe’s most sought-after artists. His huge output and extraordinary technical virtuosity gained him patrons in Italy, Germany and Spain, and he died in the latter country, working to the end. With flawless draughtsmanship and brilliant light and colour, Tiepolo’s work sums up the magnificence of Italian decorative painting. A master of perspective, he painted large ceiling frescos which are spectacular illusions of space and light, the actual structure of the building vanishing in the scene. His banquet of Cleopatra and Transport of the Holy House of Loreto, both in Venice, are perhaps his masterpieces. Tiepolo’s two talented sons, trained by their father, will carry on painting in his style.

26^th, (2000) Vladimir Putin replaces Boris Yeltsin as President of Russia.

… (1979) ‘Egypt and Israel sign peace accord’: Hopes of a lasting peace in the strife-torn Middle East were given a major boost today when the leaders of Israel and Egypt signed a historic peace treaty in the presence of US President Jimmy Carter. The agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat to restore diplomatic relations opens a new era: 30 years of conflict between the two nations may now be solved. The treaty crowns two years of patient diplomacy following Sadat’s surprise journey to Jerusalem to open peace negotiations. Both leaders face domestic problems getting today’s bold step accepted. For Carter, the treaty will restore much of the prestige he lost during the Iranian revolution.

… (1973) The first woman stockbroker sets foot on the floor of the London Stock Exchange.

… (1973) English playwright and composer Sir Noel Coward died, aged 73.

… (1964) Funny Girl, the musical that brought Barbra Streisand to worldwide fame, opened on Broadway.

… (1945) David Lloyd George, former Liberal Prime Minister of Britain, dies aged 82.

… (1942) In Germany, Nazis start sending Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp.

… (1936) New Zealand radio begins live broadcasts from the nation’s parliament.

… (1920) British “Black and Tans” soldiers arrive in Northern Ireland.

… (1878) The world’s first game reserve is designated – the Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa.

… (1827) German composer Ludwig van Beethoven dies, aged 57.

… (1780) Britain’s first Sunday newspaper, the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, is launched.

… (1660) ‘England monarchy certain to return’: The return of the monarchy to England is now all but certain after the longest Parliament in the country’s history dissolved itself today. The so-called Long Parliament survived for 20 years through the Civil War. A new Parliament will be elected to prepare the way for the restoration of King Charles II, who has promised to rule as a constitutional monarch. The country is now looking forward to peace.

25^th, (2005) U.S. actress Jennifer Aniston filed for divorce from actor Brad Pitt, citing irreconcilable differences.

… (2002) A powerful earthquake hits Afghanistan causing 1,800 deaths.

… (1999) A fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel between France and Italy kills 40 people.

… (1992) Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned after ten months on the Mir Space Station to a world in which his country, the Soviet Union, no longer existed.

… (1989) ‘Alaskan oil disaster as grounded tanker splits’: The worst oil spill in US history was today threatening to decimate marine life over a wide area as 11-million gallons of crude oil poured uncontrolled into the open sea. The 987-ft super tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and split open on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, yesterday, releasing an oil slick into an area rich in marine wildlife and fishing stock. The cause of the accident has not been revealed but the US Coastguard has subpoenaed the tanker’s captain and two crew members to face federal investigators. There are rumours that the crew had been drinking.  The ship’s owners, Exxon Shipping, have promised to pay for the gigantic, months-long clean-up that will be necessary.

… (1975) ‘Saudi prince kills King Faisal’: Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was murdered by his nephew today during a ceremony at the palace in Riyadh to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad. The killer, 31-year-old Prince Faisal ibn Museid, is reported to be mentally deranged. If condemned under Saudi law he faces a public beheading. Faisal’s death is a diplomatic blow for the United States, which had relied on the king as a moderating influence in the political powderkeg of the Middle East.

… (1958) ‘Sugar Ray takes world title – again’: The great American boxer Sugar Ray Robinson won the world middleweight title for an unprecedented fifth time tonight when he outpointed Carmen Bastillo over 15 rounds in Chicago. Bastillo took the title last year when he outpointed Robinson in a savage fight. Many think Robinson is the greatest fighter of modern times. He is fast and poised, and his combination punches are devastating. Born Walker Smith in 1921, he took his name from a friend’s birth certificate he borrowed so he could fight while still under-age. He won the welterweight title in 1946, and the middleweight title for the first time in 1951. In 1952 he retired, but returned three years later to take the middleweight title from Carl Olson. He lost the title twice last year, and has now regained it – twice.

… (1957) ‘Birth of a vision for Europe’: Six European countries took a historic step towards guaranteeing a future of peace and prosperity for their continent today when they signed the Treaty of Rome and formed the European Economic Community. The new EEC aims to create free movement of people, goods and money to generate an economic boom. The leaders of the founding member-states – France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg – signed the agreement in front of a transcontinental TV link-up broadcast. Tariffs between member states will disappear, common policies will be developed and the first steps towards a European political union will be taken.

… (1949) ‘Oliver’s Hamlet sweeps Oscars’: British actor and director Laurence Oliver was today the toast of Hollywood after his film version of Hamlet swept five Oscars. The production is the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture; Oliver himself won the Best Actor award. Oliver, 41, also directed the film, which had a mixed reception at its premiere last year. Critics then said he was too old to play Shakespeare’s hero opposite 18-year-old Jean Simmons as Ophelia. He was also attacked for hacking the classic down to a mere two and a half hours, but today’s ceremony gives him the last laugh. Oliver’s triumph confirms him as one of today’s leading actors and directors. His screen credits include Rebecca, Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice, while his work with London’s Old Vic has endeared him to thousands of theatregoers.

… (1929) Benito Mussolini, leader of the Fasci di Combattimento organisation, claims to have won 90 per cent of the vote in the Italian elections.

… (1918) Claude Debussy, French composer of Pellèas et Mélisande and La Mer, dies aged 55 after a nine-year battle with cancer.

… (1914) Frédéric Mistral, French poet, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and co-founder of the movement to preserve the culture of Provence, dies aged 84.

… (1876) The Scots win 4-0 in the first football match between Scotland and Wales.

… (1815) Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia form a new alliance against Napoleon Bonaparte.

… (1807) Influenced by the philanthropic MP William Wilberforce, the British parliament abolishes the slave trade.

… (1609) Commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, English navigator Henry Hudson sets off on his third attempt to find the North-West passage.

… (1306) ‘Robert the Bruce crowned King of Scots’: The eighth Earl of Carrick, Robert the Bruce, was today crowned King of Scotland at Scone, becoming Robert I. Bruce’s grandfather lost his claim to the throne in 1292; Bruce won back the crown after murdering his rival John Comyn last year. Comyn was backed by the English under King Edward I. After a decade when his allegiance to the cause of Scottish nationalism was wavering, the murder and his accession to the throne have now committed Bruce to the fight to restore national independence to Scotland.

24^th, (1999) ‘NATO planes strike Kosovo’: — NATO has launched air strikes against military targets in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Key facilities, including a radar facility near the Pristina airfield and an ammunitions base, have been hit. Operation Allied Force, which is under the command of General Wesley Clark, comes after escalating violence between Serbian forces loyal to the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and the ethnic Albanians in the province. Milosevic has been accused of a campaign of ethnic cleansing, driving thousands of Albanians from their homes. UK Defence Secretary George Robertson has said air strikes will continue until Milosevic ends the violence in Kosovo.

…Milosevic should think again, withdraw his troops and sign the peace accord. [George Robertson: MoD news conference]

… (1990) Indian peacekeeping troops pull out of Sri Lanka.

… (1989) ‘US resumes aid to Contras’: — The US Congress today agreed to renew a $40 million aid programme for the right-wing Contra rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. The condition is more Congressional oversight of the administration’s affairs. The funding was stopped during the Iran-Contra scandal, in which it was revealed that CIA and National Security Council chiefs were secretly funding the Contras. The aid money will only be used for non-lethal equipment, but its resumption is an important coup for the Republican right wing.

… (1988) Mordecai Vanunu is found guilty of revealing Israel’s nuclear secrets to the Sunday Times.

… (1976) Death of Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, British Field Marshall and Commander of the Eighth Army in World War II.

… (1976) Argentinean president Isabel Peròn, third wife of former president Juan Peròn, is deposed by the army in a bloodless coup.

… (1953) Death of Queen Mary, widow of King George V of England.

… (1938) British prime minister Neville Chamberlain admits that he will not oppose Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Czechoslovakia in the interests of avoiding war between Britain and Germany.

… (1922) Only three out of 32 horses finish at the Grand National at Aintree.

… (1911) Denmark abolishes capital punishment.

… (1905) Death of J.M. Synge, Irish playwright whose Playboy of the Western World caused riots when it was premiered at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

… (1905) Jules Verne, French author of Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, dies aged 77.

… (1877) The Oxford and Cambridge boat race ends in a dead heat for the first time.

… (1839) ‘China cracks down on opium trade’: — Chinese troops blockaded the foreign traders’ warehouses in Canton today as the Peking court’s struggle to suppress the opium trade moves toward outright war. Commissioner Lin Ze-xu, the Emperor’s special envoy, has surrounded the warehouses and has ordered the foreign merchants to give up more than 20,000 chests of the illegal drug, worth about $12 million. The merchants have little choice but to comply and the opium will be destroyed. The drug – first imported from India in the 17^th century – is ruining China morally and financially, says Peking. But it is filling the coffers of the Scottish, English and American trading houses with entrpot facilities at Canton. It is a balance of addiction: the London exchequer was being drained of silver for the hard-currency payments. China demanded for selling its tea to the thirsty British – until merchants forced them to start accepting payment in opium which the merchants could buy very cheaply in India. The matter will not end with Lin’s tough action: for the Western powers, access to China’s markets is at stake.

… (1603) ‘Elizabeth Glorious Reign Ends’: — Elizabeth I, England’s virgin queen for 45 years, died today. So ends a reign that made England the leading Protestant and maritime power of Europe – and one in which the arts have flourished as never before. Without an heir, she is succeeded by the son of Mary Queen of Scots, uniting the thrones of England and Scotland; he will be James I of England and James VI of Scotland. Her final years were clouded with frustrations at the continuing Irish rebellions and the death of her handsome young favourite, the Earl of Essex. The Queen’s last words were “All my possessions for a moment of time”.

23^rd, (1984) British civil servant Sarah Tisdall is sent to jail for six months for leaking the news to the Guardian that Cruise missiles were on their way to Britain.

… (1983) In the United States, President Reagan dubs the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and proposes a “Star Wars” defence system.

… (1966) In Rome, the first official meeting for 400 years between the heads of the Catholic and Anglican churches takes place.

… (1956) ‘New cathedral rises from war ruins’: — England’s Queen Elizabeth II today laid the foundation stone of the new cathedral being built in Coventry, a symbol of Britain’s resurgence after the wartime horrors of the Blitz. The old 14^th-century cathedral and most of Coventry’s medieval city centre was destroyed by a single 11-hour raid by the German Luftwaffe on 14 November 1940, with over 1000 people killed. Plans were made to rebuild the cathedral in the Gothic style, but Sir Basil Spence’s bold modernist project won the design competition. Decorative works by Sir Jacob Epstein and Graham Sutherland have been commissioned.

… (1933) A bill is passed in the German parliament allowing Adolf Hitler to rule by decree, so establishing a dictatorship.

… (1925) Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was today outlawed in the southern US state of Tennessee. Governor Austin Peay signed a statute forbidding Darwin’s work to be taught in state schools on religious grounds.

… (1919) ‘Mussolini founds Fascist Party in Milan’: — In Milan, a group of disillusioned former socialists and Italian war veterans has formed a political party inspired by the most authoritarian period of the Roman empire. Led by Benito Mussolini, the editor of Il popolo d’Italia, the group is called the Fasci di Combattimento, after the fasces, the axe that was the symbol of ancient Rome authority. The “Fascists” are both revolutionary and nationalistic. Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith, was editor of the Milan Socialist party newspaper Avanti! before he was expelled for his stance in the war. He then founded his own paper. Now, in the current post-war economic and social turmoil, Mussolini and his new party are attacking both communism and liberal business. Their answer for Italy’s problems is a strong state.

… (1918) Big Bertha, a giant German gun, begins shelling Paris from 75 miles away.

… (1861) London’s first tramcars go on the streets in Bayswater.

… (1815) The British Corn Law halts the import of grain.

… (1801) ‘Drunken officers strangle mad Tsar’: — In a brutal Kremlin coup tonight, the mentally unbalanced Tsar Paul I was strangled in his bed by a group of drunken Russian army officers. They then proclaimed his son Alexander the new emperor. The Tsar’s harsh rule, as well as his alliance with Austria against Napoleon (although he later changed sides), alienated the military. He also alienated his people by repealing a  law confining corporate punishment to serfs. Paul I’s life was fraught with argument and instability. Catherine the Great conceived him in an adulterous love affair. Paul fought bitterly with Catherine and her policies; she isolated him from his sons and tried to disinherit him. After her death five years ago, he decreed that no woman could ever rule again.

… (1765) The Stamp Act comes into force, requiring the taxing of all publications and legal documents in British colonies.

… (1752) Canada’s first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, hits the streets.

… (1369) Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile and Leon, is murdered by his brother Henry.

22^nd, (1998) For the first time in Australia, doctors turn off the life support machine of a terminally ill patient.

… (1997) 14-year-old American Tara Lipinski became the youngest ever women’s world figure skating champion.

… (1990) ‘Moscow orders Lithuania back into line’: Moscow today warned the rebel Baltic republic of Lithuania it would strike back at its declaration of independence – announced just 10 days ago – if the new country does not disarm and disband the militia forces now coalescing into a small army. Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev gave Lithuania 48 hours to remove the roadblocks and military posts on its border. Federal Soviet interior ministry troops and KGB forces are being seen in increasing numbers on the streets of Vilnius, the capital. Moscow’s special concern is the state-owned publishing house generating the new republic’s propaganda, which it is thought may be a target for the troops. The new government, however, insists that it will obey the restored 1938 Lithuanian constitution, not the Kremlin.

… (1963) The Beatles released their first album, Please Please Me. Ten of its 14 tracks were recorded in just one day.

… (1945) The Arab League has been set up by seven Middle Eastern countries to coordinate political action and safeguard their sovereignty. The members are Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordon, and Yemen.

… (1942)  The BBC begins Morse code broadcasts to the French Resistance.

… (1933) ‘Nazis open concentration camp at Dachau’: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s ruling National Socialists today opened a concentration camp at Dachau near Munich to detain communists and other “political undesirables”. Under emergency legislation approved last month following the Reichstag fire, the government and its Nazi storm troopers can detain anyone. Those being rounded up are almost all Jews, whom Hitler blames for all Germany’s ills; in a recent speech he banned kosher food and encouraged a ban on all Jewish commerce. Jews now face random violence by street gangs of Nazi sympathisers. Some have had their property destroyed and many are making arrangements to flee the country. Hitler’s power is rapidly growing into dictatorship: he is currently forcing passage of a new bill that will allow him, rather than the ageing president, to rule by decree without the control of the demoralised parliament.

… (1916) The Lord of the Rings author, J.R.R. Tolkien, married Edith Bratt in Warwick. They are played by Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins in a new film, Tolkien.

… (1907) ‘Gandhi’s disobedience stirs South Africa’: Asians living in South Africa today begun a campaign of civil disobedience to protest against new laws that require the entire community to carry pass-books and register their fingerprints. The campaign is led by Mohandas Gandhi, a young London-trained lawyer born in India. The new laws, requiring all Indians to submit to the registration process, carry the threat of expulsion for those who refuse to comply. Gandhi’s campaign applies the principle of non-violent protest he calls “satyagraha” or “steadfastness in truth.”

… (1907) The first taxis with fare meters take to the streets in London.

… (1906) In Paris, England beats France 35-0 in the first rugby international.

… (1903) The Niagara Falls run out of water due to a drought.

… (1896) Thomas Hughes, British author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays and Liberal MP, dies aged 74.

… (1888) The English Football League is formed in a hotel in Fleet Street, London.

… (1832) ‘Final words of Goethe the great thinker’: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the greatest thinkers of his age, has died at the age of 82. Characteristically, his last words were “More light!” Goethe certainly left more light behind him and his influence will be felt for generations to come. He was a literary giant, philosopher, pioneering scientist and political councillor. To Goethe, these roles were all one, parts of a luminous whole. Many of his works are seen as high points of literature, models for others to follow. At his death he was finishing the second part of his celebrated dramatic poem “Faust: A Tragedy”. It is a modern version of the European myth of Dr Johann Faustus, the 16^th-century scholar said to have sold his soul for unlimited knowledge. In 1788 Goethe dedicated himself fully to writing and to the many society love affairs that marked his life. He married a village girl who had already borne him several children.

… (1829) In London, a conference agrees the boundaries of independent Greece, free of Ottoman rule after nearly 400 years.

… (1824) The British parliament agrees to the expenditure of £57,000 to purchase 38 paintings to establish a national collection.

… (1622) Three hundred and fifty American settlers at James River are killed by Indians, the first Indian attack for many years.

21^st, (2006) The very first Twitter post was made by co-founder Jack Dorsey “just setting up my twttr”. About 500 million tweets are now posted every day.

… (1978) Three black ministers were today sworn into the illegal government of prime minister Ian Smith in war-torn Rhodesia. The three, including the Bishop Abel Muzorewa, are underwriting an interim settlement providing the white minority with constitutional safeguards once elections are held. It excludes two black parties led by Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo – observers are sceptical about peace chances.

… (1963) The notorious Alcatraz prison in the bay of San Francisco closes.

… (1960) ‘Blacks massacred at Sharpeville’: — South African police today perpetrated the worst civilian massacre in the country’s history when they shot dead 56 black people and wounded another 162 at Sharpeville, a black township near Johannesburg. About 15,000 blacks had joined a peaceful protest against the hated pass laws that force blacks to carry travel documents at all times. The crowd was met at the township police station by a line of armed police. Rocks were thrown and the heavily-outnumbered police opened fire on the crowd. Meanwhile, seven people were shot dead in similar disturbances in Langa Township near Cape Town. The government has reacted quickly to the protests, banning all black organisations such as the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress. Black leaders have gone underground, calling for a civil disobedience campaign and nationwide strikes.

… (1946) British minister Aneurin Bevan announces his Labour Government’s plans for a National Health Service.

… (1933) The first parliament of Nazi Germany, with Hitler as Chancellor, is proclaimed in the garrison church at Potsdam.

… (1918) ‘Massive German attack at the Somme’: Germany’s field commander General Erich Ludendorff today launched a massive offensive on the Somme in a bid to break the Allied line before fresh American reinforcements arrive. Crack German troops are advancing rapidly along a 60-mile front and the Allies have already been forced back several miles. British troops are bearing the brunt of the attack, which is the German’s first major breakthrough since the early days of the war. Delays in reinforcing the British line are being caused by disagreements between French generals over whether it is more important to strengthen the line or defend Paris. Casualties on both sides are very high.

… (1908) French aviator Henri Farman flies over Paris with the first air passenger.

… (1896) Britain’s first cinema opens in London’s Piccadilly Circus.

… (1871) Chancellor Otto von Bismarck opens the first parliament of the newly declared German Reich.

… (1871) A commune is declared in the French city of Lyons.

… (1843) English Poet Laureate Robert Southey dies.

… (1829) The 60-year-old English prime minister, the Duke of Wellington, fights a bloodless duel with the Earl of Winchelsea over Catholic emancipation, of which the Duke is a convinced supporter.

… (1806) ‘Lewis and Clark chart the wild west’: — The Lewis and Clark expedition that is charting the vast unexplored territory between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean has turned homeward after extraordinary adventures in the American wilderness. The expedition has proved there is no easy water route across the American continent. Army captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark started out from St Louis almost two years ago. They travelled up the Mississippi as far as the Rocky Mountains, crossed over to the Columbia River and thence to the Pacific coast. The original plan was to explore the newly acquired territories of Louisiana in a single year, but difficult navigation, hostile Indians and other hardships caused delays. After a second winter in the wilderness by the Pacific shore, the party has split into two groups; one is exploring the Yellowstone River before they rendezvous at the Missouri River for the home leg of their 8,000-mile journey.

… (1804) A new civil code, the Code Napoleon, comes into force in France.

… (1788) Fire ravages the American city of New Orleans.

… (1556) England’s first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, is burnt at the stake as a heretic under the Catholic queen Mary I, known as “Bloody Mary”.

…A judge is not supposed to know anything about the facts of life until they have been presented in evidence and explained to him at least three times. [Hubert Lister Parker, Lord Chief Justice of England, 1961.]

20^th, (2004) ’US Launches Missiles at Saddam’: American missiles have been launched at Baghdad, signalling the start of the campaign to remove Saddam Hussein from power. President George W Bush made a statement shortly after the bombings began, vowing to “disarm Iraq and to free its people”. He said: “This will not be a campaign of half measures and we will accept no outcome but victory.” The attack came shortly after the 48-hour deadline expired for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq. American sources say the Iraqi leader himself was targeted in the first attacks. The Iraqis say some non-military targets have been hit and a number of civilians have been wounded. The airstrikes began at 05:34 local time. A short time later, Iraqi TV broadcast what it said was a live speech by Saddam. In it he said: “I don’t need to remind you what you should do to defend our country. Let the unbelievers go to hell, you will be victorious, Iraqi people.”

… (1995) More than 5,500 people are rushed to hospital and 12 die when sarin nerve gas is released on the Tokyo subway by the Am Shinrikyo cult.

… (1991) Michael Jackson signed a $65 million (£39 million) deal with Sony. It came after he sold 75 million albums in the 1980s – more than any other artist in the decade.

… (1990) Namibia gains independence as South Africa pulls out to end more than a century of foreign domination.

… (1980) British radio pirate ship Radio Caroline sinks.

… (1974) Six shots were fired at a Rolls-Royce carrying Princess Anne and her husband Captain Mark Phillips. Four people were wounded in the failed kidnap attempt.

… (1934) Radar is first demonstrated in Kiel harbour, Germany.

… (1969) Beatle John Lennon marries Japanese-American artist Yoko Ono.

… (1945) Lord Alfred Douglas, the one-time lover of Oscar Wilde, dies.

… (1841) ‘First detective novel: Poe dunnit’: The poet and literary journalist Edgar Allan Poe has today published a horrifying yet fascinating work of fiction that critics are citing as the first example of a new style – the detective story. The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a challenging piece of work for the reader, who must exercise the deductive powers of a detective to keep pace with Poe’s writing and discover who is really the villain before the final page. An orphan, Poe gave up a military career to write. Until recently he was editor of the Southern Literary Messenger, which has published much of his influential criticism, poetry and prose fiction.

… (1819) Burlington Arcade, the exclusive shopping mall, opens in London.

… (1815) ‘Napoleon returns to Paris in triumph’: Napoleon Bonaparte today re-entered Paris as the returning hero after putting behind him a dreary year of exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba. His protestation of peaceful intentions has not been believed: King Louis XVIII fled to Belgium and the alliance of countries that beat Napoleon’s armies last year – Russia, Britain, Prussia and Austria – are again preparing for war. The allies, who are in Vienna negotiating a complex peace agreement to cover the whole of Europe, have branded Napoleon “the enemy and disturber of the peace of the world”. Later this week they will sign a specific pact to defeat the former emperor.

… (1793) An army of peasant-royalists defeats the forces of the Republican government in the Vendée region of France.

… (1727) Birth of Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist who discovered the law of gravitation.

… (1653) Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, dissolves the Long Parliament.

… (1602) ‘Dutch form East India Company’: The Dutch East India Company has received a charter granting it the monopoly of all trade between Holland and the lands lying between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan. The initiative follows the establishment two years ago of the British East India Company. The company’s purpose is to displace Portuguese traders from Asia and to deny the English a foothold in the lucrative trade in pepper, nutmeg and cloves from the Indies. The States-General’s licence is for trade, but the company will occupy territories and act as a sovereign state to maintain itself. It is to be based at Batavia on the island of Java.

19^th, (1962) Bob Dylan’s eponymous debut album was released.

… (1930) Former British prime minister Arthur Balfour (1902-6) dies.

… (1920) The US Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

… (1877) The first Cricket Test Match took place – Australia beat England by 45 runs.

… (1861) An uneasy truce is established between Maoris and the colonial government of New Zealand in the two-year war over the enforced sale of Maori lands.

… (1834) ‘Tolpuddle martyrs transported’: As punishment for trying to set up a rural trade union, six southern England farmworkers have been sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Australia. The punishment – effectively a death sentence because of the harsh conditions in the colony – has brought a huge public outcry. The convicts are being called the Tolpuddle Martyrs, after the name of their Dorset village.  The men wanted to set up a branch of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. At the same time the Whigs are proposing the abolition of wage subsidies to help low-paid farmworkers like the Tolpuddle Martyrs stay out of the workhouses. Britain’s harsh treatment of its poor is in stark contrast with its international campaign against slavery.

… (1791) Equal rights are granted to French and English-speaking settlers in Canada.

… (721 BC) The Babylonians make the first-ever record of an eclipse of the sun.

18^th, (2009) Actress Natasha Richardson (daughter of Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Richardson and wife of Liam Neeson) died, aged 45, after hitting her head in a skiing accident.

… (1978) ‘Pakistan court condemns Bhutto to death’: An army judge in Lahore today condemned Pakistan’s former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to death after finding him guilty of ordering the murder of a political opponent in 1974. Despite the military court’s ostensible respect for the forms of law, the decision is part of a brutal power struggle. Last July Bhutto’s government was overthrown by the army chief of staff, General Muhammad Zia Ul-Haq. Zia stepped in after an allegedly rigged election victory for Bhutto was followed by rioting, with martial law imposed in some cities. In place of Bhutto’s free-wheeling and often questionable political methods at the head of his Pakistan’s Peoples’ Party (PPP), the anti-communist Zia has imposed Islamic rule and a political clampdown. Bhutto’s lawyers have promised to appeal, but as the final decision rests with General Zia himself clemency is not expected.

… (1978) ‘Red Brigade kidnaps Italy’s ex-prime minister’: Red Brigade terrorists today confirmed they are the kidnappers of former prime minister Aldo Moro, releasing a photograph of the Christian Democratic politician in captivity. Police have been unable to trace the hide-out where Moro is being held by at least six armed men who pulled him from his car in the centre of Rome. The far-left terrorists issued a communiqué accusing Moro of a number of “crimes against the people”, for which they said he would be put on trial for his life. The Christian Democratic Party, for which Moro headed five coalition governments, is refusing to make any deals with the kidnappers.

… (1965) ‘Russian spaceman takes a walk outside’: Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov today became the first man to walk in space as he danced and somersaulted in orbit hundreds of miles above the earth, secured only by a slender lifeline. As co-pilot of the Soviet Union’s Voskhod II craft, 31-year-old Colonel Leonov left the craft to take the first hand-held film images of the earth during his 15-minute adventure, spinning gracefully above the earth in a bright orange space suit.

… (1965) The Rolling Stones were each fined £5 for urinating outside an Essex petrol station.

… (1950) British athlete Roger Bannister runs the first four-minute mile.

… (1949) The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is born.

… (1931) The American Company Schick Inc. starts to manufacture electric razors.

… (1891) The first London-Paris telephone link is opened.

… (1890) ‘Kaiser sacks Bismarck’: Otto von Bismarck, the mighty German chancellor who has governed Prussia and later Germany with a policy of “Blood and Iron” since 1862, was today summarily dismissed from his post by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Despite his ability to build a huge empire, the strong-willed Kaiser wanted none of the old politician’s advice. Even Bismarck’s pioneering social welfare legislation, which in 1889 provided Germans with insurance against illness, accident, and old age, could not deflect the enmity of the socialists whom the 31-year-old Kaiser is trying to befriend. Bismarck seemed to court dismissal: he has often failed to turn up in Berlin, spending his time in the country nursing grievances or giving warnings of anarchist plots.

… (1871) Republican Parisians, fearing a return of the monarchy, stage an uprising in the French capital.

… (1850) The American Express Company is set up in Buffalo, New York.

… (1848) The people of Milan revolt as social unrest spreads through the European mainland.

… (1793) A French revolutionary army is defeated by Austrian forces at the battle of Neerwinden.

… (1745) Britain’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole, dies.

… (1662) The first public bus service is inaugurated in Paris, France.

… (1455) Religious painter and Dominican monk Fra Angelico dies.

… (978) Edward, King of England, is murdered at Corfe Castle, allegedly on the orders of his stepmother, Aelfryth, who wanted the crown for her son, Ethelred the Unready.

…It is very unreasonable for people to be depressed by unfavourable reviews: they should say to themselves, “Do I write better than Wordsworth and Shelley and Keats? Am I worse treated than they were? [A.E. Housman, British poet writing to a friend today, 1924]

17^th, (1992) South Africa’s white population votes in favour of constitutional change.

… (1991) ‘USSR votes on unity’: Soviet voters have gone to the polls to decide whether or not their vast country will remain a single unit. President Mikhail Gorbachev has been passionately campaigning for a “yes” vote in the nationwide referendum, while his rival Boris Yeltsin has been urging a “no”. Six breakaway republics have refused to participate because they are convinced the draft of the new Union Treaty being proposed by Gorbachev would undermine their freedom. Three have announced they will run their own referendum. A strong turnout is expected and analysts believe the “yes” lobby will win by a considerable margin.

… (1978) A tanker, the Amoco Cadiz, runs aground off the Brittany coast, splits in two and begins to release its massive cargo of crude oil.

… (1969) ‘Grandmother Takes Over in Israel’:  A 70-year-old grandmother today took office as Israel’s first woman prime minister. Golda Meir outflanked ultra-orthodox Jews opposed to seeing women in power when she took over the leadership of the Labour Party, following the death last month of Levi Eshkol. Born in the Ukraine, as a young woman she spent many years as a school teacher in the United States before moving to what was then Palestine in 1921. She held important posts in the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organisation. After independence in 1948 she was Israel’s ambassador to Moscow and held two ministerial posts. Defending Israel’s borders against surprise Arab attack will be a major concern of the new prime minister. Meir has chosen General Moshe Dayan, the hero of the Six-Day War, as her defence minister.

… (1968) Violent demonstrations against American involvement in the Vietnam War take place outside the US embassy in London.

… (1959) The US submarine Skate surfaces at the North Pole after completing an historic under-ice voyage to reach its destination.

… (1958) Australian-born polar explorer Sir George Wilkins dies.

… (1921) ‘Birth control clinic opens for London’s poor’: Five years after police in the United States forced a birth control centre to close down for outraging public morals, a British campaigner today opened a clinic to advise mothers on how to avoid having more children. The Mothers’ Clinic in North London has been set up by Dr Marie Stopes, the author of the widely publicised Married Love – one of the first books to discuss sexual relations in a straightforward manner. Dr Stopes, a well known womens’ rights campaigner, is facing stiff resistance to her new clinic from church leaders and doctors who insist that by making contraceptives freely available to poor women, immorality will increase. Margaret Sanger, whose American clinic was closed down for similar reasons, plans to reopen the clinic as soon as possible.

… (1899)  A merchant ship run aground off the English coast sends the first radio distress call.

… (1886) ‘Van Gogh Moves to Paris’: Vincent van Gogh, the young Dutch painter who has been studying at the art academy in Antwerp, has come to Paris to further his training under the supervision of his brother, Theo. The truth is that his family are exasperated by this 33-year-old who has been unable to support himself and shows signs of mental instability. He was sacked from his job at a gallery and abandoned another at a bookshop, failed to make headway with theological studies and was no success as a lay missionary working under the direction of his father, a clergyman. But Van Gogh’s early paintings of peasant subjects, such as The Potato Eaters, show great promise.

… (1853) Death of Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who coined the term Doppler effect to explain the apparent change in the frequency of a wave when the source is moving relative to the observer.

… (1848) Violence breaks out in Berlin against the conservatism of Prussian ruler Frederick William IV.

… (1766) ‘Britain repeals tax to save American colonies’: Parliament in London is tonight voting on the repeal of the controversial Stamp Act, which has been mainly responsible for the climate of rebellion in the American colonies. The Act, passed last year as a means of paying for the increasing cost of maintaining troops in the colonies, required Americans to pay a tax on all legal or printed documents and newspapers or pamphlets. Instead of helping to keep order, it gave the colonists – who have no voice in parliament – a rallying-cry: “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” A boycott of British goods and refusal to buy the hated stamps has mushroomed into an organisation called the ‘Stamp Act Congress’, which recently issued a bill of American rights. A simple repeal of the Act may come too late to stifle the rebellion.

… (1337) Edward, the Black Prince, is made first Duke of Cornwall by his father, King Edward III of England, giving him a 130,000-acre estate and a source of income.

16^th, (1973) British monarch Queen Elizabeth II opens the new London Bridge.

… (1968) ‘US troops massacre 300 villagers in a ditch’: Reports are reaching Saigon of a massacre of 300 unarmed villagers by American troops in the South Vietnamese village of My Lai. Soldiers under the command of Lt William L. Calley were flown in to break a rebel stronghold. More than 300 women, children and elderly men were herded into ditches and riddled with automatic fire. Calley and his men were apparently not shamed by this mass murder, since it was carefully photographed. There are also reports of another horrifying mass killing of civilians by US troops at My Khe.

… (1935) Adolf Hitler renounces the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and introduces conscription.

… (1930) The death of the Spanish leader Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja is announced.

… (1926) ‘Space dream gets boost’: Man’s dream of journeying to the stars took a leap forward today when the American physicist Robert Goddard successfully launched a liquid-propelled rocket. Goddard’s latest rocket did not travel as far as many of the solid-fuelled versions he has been testing, but the new fuel means much greater payloads. The device uses a simple pressure-fed rocket that burns petrol and liquid oxygen. Goddard developed it in his spare time without any funding. He has published detailed papers about his rocketry experiments, but the United States government does not seem very interested.

… (1915) Britain’s Jockey Club decides that war is no reason to stop horse racing.

… (1914) Madame Caillaux, wife of the French finance minister, shoots dead the editor of the newspaper Le Figaro to protect her husband against libel.

…I am just going outside and may be some time. [Lawrence Oates leaves his tent and disappears into the Antarctic blizzard, 1912.]

… (1900) ‘Evans finds ancient hoard at Knossos’: Just days after he started digging at what he suspected was the site of a Cretan Bronze Age palace, the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans today struck an incredible hoard of antiquities dating from 16 centuries BC. Sir Arthur has named the civilisation whose ruins he is excavating at Knossos, on the Greek island of Crete, the Minoan culture – a reference to the mythical Cretan Minotaur. Sir Arthur says there are signs the Minoans worshipped bulls; he believes the sprawling palace may contain the labyrinth built by Daedalus described in the ancient tale. He has also uncovered the earliest known writing. The new find is the most exciting since German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavated Mycaenae in 1874.

… (1888) In Paris, France, Emile Roger makes the first recorded purchase of a motor car, a Benz.

… (1872) The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 in the first English Football Association final.

… (1815) William of Orange is made King of the United Netherlands and crowned William I.

… (1802) The US military academy at West Point is established.

… (1792) ‘India’s most powerful sultan surrenders’: Tippo Sahib, the most powerful Indian sultan still resisting the advance of British imperialism, has finally been beaten in battle. His defeat ends the third war fought over Mysore and means he will be forced to give up half his immense lands to the administration of the British East India Company. Tippo’s secret was that he studied western military operations and was able until now successfully to second-guess British moves. But against General Charles Cornwallis he did not fare as well as the American colonists, who soundly beat the British commander at Yorktown. After this defeat Cornwallis was sent to India as governor-general with the mission of crushing Tippo Sahib. While the sultan has been beaten, he is still far from crushed.

… (1789) German physicist, Georg Simon Ohm, who in 1827 discovered the basic law of electric current, later known as Ohm’s law, is born.

15^th, (1991) Albania and the United States restore full diplomatic relations after a gap of 52 years.

… (1990) Farzad Bazoft, a journalist working for the British newspaper the Observer, is hanged as a spy in Iraq.

… (1990) ‘Brazil’s Indiana Jones shoots the “tiger of inflation”’: Fernando Collor de Mello took office today as Brazil’s first elected president in almost 30 years – and immediately announced dramatic measures to quell the country’s runaway 250 per cent annual inflation. Collor, 33, narrowly won last year’s elections on a populist ticket. He has confiscated $80 billion worth of private savings in a make-or-break economic plan that must now be approved by the congress. Many small savers have been left with less than $150 (£80) in the bank, with the promise of seeing their money back only in 18 months. Collor also plans to dismiss thousands of civil servants and sell off loss making state companies. Collor compared himself to a hunter slaying the tiger of inflation with a single shot, while US President George Bush has compared him to the screen hero Indiana Jones. With film-star looks and a karate black belt, the new president comes from a wealthy family with media interests in Northern Brazil, where he briefly worked as a TV presenter. Collor’s command of the small screen during the campaign swept him to power.

… (1989) The centre of the Hungarian city of Budapest fills with rival demonstrators who voice their opposition to or support for the Communist government.

… (1975) The death is announced of the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

… (1966) British singer Tom Jones wins a Grammy for Best New Artist.

… (1938) ‘Stalin Purges On’: The Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin infamous purges of the Communist Party reached their peak today with the execution of 18 senior figures, several of them Lenin’s favourites. Among those shot at Lubyanka prison, after “confessing” extraordinary crimes against the state, was Nikolai Bukharin. Bukharin’s revolutionary credentials appeared even more respectable than Stalin’s – which perhaps contributed to his fate. The trials have also seen a former premier and an ex-head of the secret police confessing to the most improbable plots to overthrow the Soviet state – but Stalin considers the trials “healthy”.

… (1937) Bernard Faustus sets up America’s first blood bank.

… (1933) Adolf Hitler proclaims the Third Reich in Germany, prompting an exodus of Jews from the country – kosher food and left-wing newspapers are banned.

… (1915) American soldiers under the command of General Pershing enter Mexico to hunt down the revolutionary Pancho Villa.

… (1909) The American entrepreneur G. S. Selfridge opens London’s first American-style department store on a six-acre site in Oxford Street.

… (1900) British prime minister Lord Salisbury rejects US President McKinley’s offer to mediate in the Boer War.

… (1869) ‘Baseball goes pro’: The Cincinnati Red Stockings are professionals, and out of their first 92 baseball games this season they have won 91. Their success as the first truly professional team is encouraging others to follow suit in the organised league, the National Association of Baseball Players. Baseball has come of age. It first appeared in the Eastern United States in the 1820s as a development of rounders. In 1845 the rules were laid out, and in 1857 they were amended by a convention of baseball clubs. Now the whole game is going professional.

… (1820) Maine becomes the 23^rd state of the Union.

… (1584) The reforming Russian tsar, Ivan the Terrible, dies.

… (44 BC) ‘Caesar Slain’: Julius Caesar should have listened to his fortune-teller. “Beware the Ides of March”, he was told, but he insisted on attending a meeting of the Senate in Pompey’s theatre. Caesar has recently compared himself to Alexander the Great, and was planning the conquest of Parthia. Many Romans were convinced he had to be stopped. Stabbed by Marcus Brutus, he fell with the words, “You too, Brutus?”

…Before us stands the last problem which must be solved. It is the last territorial claim which I have to make in Europe, but it is the claim from which I shall not recede. [Hitler storms Prague, 1939]

14^th, (2018) English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died, aged 76.

… (2017) Muirfield in East Lothian, the world’s oldest golf club, voted to admit women as members for the first time in 273 years.

… (1991) Death of Howard Ashman, American lyricist, playwright and director – his best-known work was Little Shop of Horrors, Broadway’s highest grossing and longest running musical.

… (1980) Twenty-two members of a US amateur boxing team die when a Polish airline crashes.

… (1966) Britain’s first coloured policeman, Muhammad Yusuf Daar, is sworn in as a member of the Coventry force.

… (1961) The New English Bible is published.

… (1953) Nikita Khrushchev becomes First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, replacing Georgi Malenkov.

… (1915) The German cruiser Dresden is sunk.

… (1900) President McKinley puts America on the Gold Standard, a monetary system in which paper money is convertible into gold.

… (1891) The first underwater telephone cable is laid on the bed of the English Channel by the submarine Monarch.

… (1883) ‘Karl Marx dies’: Karl Marx died today in London – “the best-hated and most calumniated man of his time”, according to his colleague Friedrich Engels. As a revolutionary philosopher, his materialistic conception of history has established a method of social analysis that goes far beyond the movements of political exiles that took him as their guide. Even if the revolution of the proletariat that he preached never actually happens, socialism now has a prophet and a bible – Marx’s Das Kapital. Marx settled in London after being expelled from Prussia and France for his ever-increasing radicalism. In 1848 Marx and Engels, both followers of Hegel, published The Communist Manifesto, which developed the theory of class struggle. In 1864 Marx, who lived in extreme poverty and spent most of his time reading and writing in the British Museum, helped create the International Working Men’s Association, later known as the First International. In 1860 he published the first volume of Das Kapital, his masterwork, which used dialectical materialism to show that capitalist society would eventually be overwhelmed.

… (1869) The third Maori rebellion in 15 years ends with the defeat of the guerrilla leader Titokowaru.

… (1492) ‘Spain expels 150,000 Jews’: Queen Isabella of Castile has ordered the 150,000 Jews in Spain to accept Christian baptism or face immediate expulsion. Most of the Jews are planning to leave rather than betray their faith, although they have nowhere to go. To Isabella and her husband Ferdinand, both devout Catholics, the offence of the Jews is twofold – in the past they were an important part of the Arab cultural renaissance in Iberia, contributing to the body of Spanish-Arab work on science, philosophy and other subjects that is proving a vital influence in today’s Europe. Now the royals, who have forced the Arabs from Granada, are eager to sweep away the Jews, too. Encouraged by the monarchs, the Inquisition is enforcing absolute religious conformity.

13^th, (2004)  Luciano Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera, in New York, and received a 15-minute standing ovation.

… (1978) Moluccan terrorists hold 72 people hostage in government buildings in Assen, Holland.

… (1977) Czech secret police torture to death the leader of the Charter 77 movement, Jan Potocka.

… (1974) ‘Grenada Marxists take over while PM away’: Sir Eric Gairy, the avuncular prime minister of the Caribbean island Grenada who has a passion for communication with other worlds, has been ousted in a very down-to-earth power struggle. With Gairy away in New York, political control of the island has been seized by 33-year-old Marxist Maurice Bishop and his New Jewel Movement. Bishop’s ragged army of revolutionaries have taken over the radio station and announced they are setting up a government and army. A policeman was killed in the takeover. The former British colony only recently achieved its independence within the Commonwealth.

… (1974) The Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris is opened.

… (1972) Clifford Irving admits in a New York court that he has fabricated the “autobiography” of Howard Hughes.

… (1930) Pluto, the planet furthest from the sun, is discovered by U.S. astronomer Clyde Tombaugh as a result of the calculations made by the astronomer Percival Lowell 14 years earlier. It also coincided 149 years to the day after William Herschel discovered Uranus was a planet (and not a star).

… (1928) Four hundred and fifty people are drowned when a dam near Los Angeles bursts.

… (1926) The first commercial air route is established across Africa with the completion of a 16,000-mile London-Cape Town-London flight by Alan Cobham.

… (1900) British forces under the command of Field Marshal Roberts take Bloemfontein in the second Boer War.

… (1881) ‘Tsar murdered by extremist bomb’: Tsar Alexander II has been murdered by extremists on the very day he had finally agreed to implement democratic reforms. Two bombs were thrown at the Tsar in St Petersburg. The first exploded harmlessly, but as the Tsar stood in the street asking questions about the attack a member of the narodniki extremist organisation threw a second bomb that killed him. Alexander survived a string of assassination attempts after his proclamation ordering the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, but the narodniki were determined to eliminate him. This group of populist intellectuals condemned Alexander to death two years ago for refusing to summon a popular assembly. Ironically, Alexander signed a manifesto that would have created a national consultative assembly just before his death. The assassination itself will now postpone such a step.

… (1781) ‘Amateur stargazer spots new planet’: A new planet unknown to the ancient astronomers has been discovered by a German stargazer. William Herschel, an organist by profession, has a passion for grinding lenses and building telescopes with which to survey the heavens. He noticed that one of the stars in the constellation of Gemini had the characteristics of a planet. Today it was confirmed that a seventh planet in addition to Earth does indeed exist. The new planet, which is even further from the sun than Saturn, has yet to be named, but a possibility is Uranus, after the Greek god of the sky. Hershel is at work compiling a star catalogue.

… (1701) ‘Dutch in Cape Cattle Battle’: A marauding band of Griqua tribesmen rustled more than 40 cattle from Dutch settlers at the Cape of Good Hope today. Last month a hostile band of more than 300 raided outlying farms and took more than 200 cattle – though settlers shot three of the raiders. Such incidents are a feature of life here in a guerrilla war that has been festering almost since the colony was founded nearly 50 years ago. Trouble started when the local Khoisan natives became alarmed at foreign encroachments on their soil. In 1659, the Khoisan clans declared war on the colony, sweeping down in swift cattle raids. The Dutch retaliated by taking Khoisan prisoners. The pattern was established – land encroachment on one side and cattle-stealing on the other – and intermittent warfare has continued ever since. It will grow worse as the white farmers expand into the South African hinterland.

…”Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy-laden.” Perhaps never, in all the suffering of humanity, have these words been spoken to so great an assembly of the homeless, the penniless and bereft. And when the address ended, as the Pope paused a moment before the Benediction, from thousands of throats came a cry of supplication, unforgettable to anyone who heard it – a cry which sounded like an echo of all the suffering that is torturing the world: “Give us peace; oh, give us peace.” [Iris Origo, in Nazi-occupied Tuscany, hears the Pope, 1944.]

12^th, (1999) Death of Yehdi Menuhin, violinist and conductor, aged 82.

… (1994) The Church of England ordained its first woman priests.

… (1991) Saddam Hussein’s troops have crushed a rebellion in southern Iraq, where breakaway Shi’ites are demanding a separate Muslim state. Large numbers of civilians are said to have died. There are now reports that Shia Muslims in Baghdad have rebelled, and Kurdish rebels are resisting government forces in the north of Iraq.

… (1969) Beatle Paul McCartney marries U.S. photographer Linda Eastman at Marylebone Register Office.

… (1969) The song Mrs Robinson is voted Record of the Year and wins a Grammy for US duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

… (1955) Charlie (“The Bird”) Parker, regarded as one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, dies at the age of 35.

… (1947) ‘Truman launches Cold War by warning US of Communist threat’: Americans are coming to terms with a new piece of political jargon – the “Cold War”. Financier Bernard Baruch borrowed the term from columnist Herbert Bayard Swope to describe the power struggle between Washington and Moscow. Now President Truman has put the Cold War at the top of the political agenda with a speech to the US Congress in which he argued the country to mobilise in a global crusade against expanding communism – a policy he is calling the Truman Doctrine. The US would give economic and military aid to countries deemed to be under Soviet threat, such as Greece and Turkey, he said. Washington would also “support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures”. The administration is preparing another foreign policy initiative, the Marshall Plan, which will pour billions of dollars into war-ravaged Western Europe.

… (1945) Young Jewish diarist Anne Frank dies in a German concentration camp.

… (1940) The Russo-Finnish War is brought to an end with victory for the Soviet Union, the aggressor.

… (1938) ‘Nazis Annexe Austria’: Adolf Hitler’s troops marched into Austria today and made the country a German province. But Austrians, who have watched Hitler’s plans for integrating the land of his birth into his Third Reich ever since the murder of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934 in an abortive Nazi putsch, are ecstatic over the Anschluss (annexation). Cheering crowds greeted the jack-booted troops as they poured in, and a massive welcome is being prepared for Hitler himself – he is expected in Vienna within 48 hours. The pretext for the Anschluss was the resignation of Austrian premier Kurt von Schuschnigg, who had been forced to include Nazis in his cabinet. Hitler is already turning his eye on Czechoslovakia, who oppressed native Germans in the Sudetenland seek integration with Germany.

… (1930) ‘Gandhi starts Salt March to defy British’: Mahatma Ghandi, the spiritual leader of India’s nationalist movement, today began a mass protest against British rule. Gandhi – who has been in and out of prison since he began his non-violent protests in South Africa – has chosen salt as his latest weapon. The Raj is insisting on its right to maintain a tax on its monopoly of the salt trade. Gandhi is walking from his house in Ahmadabad to the sea at Jalalpur to make salt with his own hands. About 100 followers have started out with him on the 300-mile journey, but many more are expected to join. He said he was, “prepared for the worst, even for death, in defiance of the salt tax”. Determined to stop this challenge to their authority, British administrators have ordered the destruction of salt pans on the coast and promised Gandhi will not reach the sea.

… (1913) Canberra is made capital of Australia.

… (1912) Juliette Gordon Low founds the Girl Guides (later called Scouts) in the US.

… (1909) ‘Cubans baffle critics’: The current exhibition of avant-garde paintings by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque at the Salon des Independants in Paris has revealed an extraordinary new style that the critics are treating with as much scorn as they did Impressionism in its early years. One writer, Louis Vauxcelles, says the new paintings “reduce everything to little cubes” – so the painters are proudly calling their new movement “Cubism”. Picasso has abandoned his Rose Period harlequins, acrobats and dancers for increasingly abstract and simplified forms, while Braque favours fragments of still-recognisable objects like guitars, faces or wine glasses. The two invented the new abstract style last year, drawing on primitive art from Africa, Egyptian motifs and the geometric landscapes of modern painters like Paul Cézanne.

… (1881) Tunisia is made a protectorate of France because of its strategic importance.

… (1789) The US Post Office is established.

… (1507) Cesare Borgia, once regarded as the saviour of Italy, dies at the siege of Vienna in Navarre.

… (604 AD) Death of St Gregory, the Pope who initiated the Anglo-Saxons’ conversion to Christianity.

…I don’t know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me. [The Duke of Wellington, as his forces occupy Bordeaux, France 1813.]

11^th, (2004) ‘Madrid shaken by bomb blasts’: Ten bombs ripped apart trains at three stations in Madrid during the morning rush hour, killing 190 and wounding 1,200. Spain’s prime minister Jose Maria Aznar said the bombers would be brought to justice. Mr. Aznar said he thought the Basque separatist group ETA was behind the blasts, but Interior Minister Angel Acebes later revealed that an Islamic tape had been found with detonators in a stolen van found near Madrid. Many observers say the bombings bear the hallmarks of the Islamic militant group Al-Qaeda, which has threatened revenge on Spain for backing the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

… (1990) ‘Chile awakens from Pinochet nightmare’: Chile today turned the page on 17 violent and bitter years of repression under General Augusto Pinochet, welcoming in the democratic era of Patricio Aylwin. Standing for a broad coalition, the 71-year-old lawyer soundly beat Pinochet’s nominee Hernan Buchi in last November’s polls. He was sworn in today, and stressed the need for reconciliation in a country where political passions have caused untold harm. Though moderate socialists and church and human rights leaders are celebrating the victory, Pinochet continues as army commander and has threatened to overturn the rule of law again if a single soldier is charged with human rights abuses. Chile’s troubles began in 1970 when Salvador Allende became the world’s first democratically elected Marxist leader. His confrontation with US capital interests and the local elite provoked the coup by his trusted aide Pinochet. Human rights organisations say thousands died as Pinochet set about eradicating what he called “the cancer of Marxism”.

… (1988) The Bank of England pound note ceases to be legal at midnight, replaced by the pound coin.

… (1988) Death of Arthur d’Arcy Locke, South African golf champion.

… (1985) Harrods, the “top people’s store” in Knightsbridge, is bought by the Fayed brothers, wealthy cotton brokers from Cairo.

… (1985) ‘Gorbachev is Leader of the USSR’: The youngest leader in the history of Soviet Communism has taken office in Moscow following the death yesterday of Konstantin Chernenko after a 13-month rule. The new general secretary is 54-year-old Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, who started his working life as a driver of tractors and harvesters. Western diplomats see Gorbachev as a potential reformer; his first official speech is being combed for favourable references to arms control and the prospects for détente with the west. Gorbachev first tried to implement political reforms in 1982 as an adviser to Yuri Andropov. After a period in which the Soviet Union has buried three elderly and ineffective leaders in as many years, Gorbachev could be just the kind of new blood the country needs.

… (1957) Death of Erle Stanley Gardner, American lawyer and novelist who created Perry Mason.

… (1955) Death of Sir Alexander Fleming, 73, Scottish bacteriologist and discoverer of penicillin at St. Mary’s Hospital, London.

… (1945) The vast Krupps factory in Germany is destroyed when 1000 Allied bombers make the biggest-ever daylight bombing raid.

… (1941) ‘US lifeline for warring allies’: America has handed a financial lifeline to friendly nations fighting Hitler and his allies by allowing Franklin D. Roosevelt to apply US economic muscle without declaring war. Congress today approved the Lend-Lease Act, which will allow Britain, China, the USSR and other friendly powers to receive munitions, tanks, ships and other weapons on preferential credit terms. The Allies cannot otherwise afford to keep fighting the war.

… (1926) Eamonn de Valera resigns as leader of Sinn Fein in Ireland.

… (1869) The first Westerner to learn of the existence of giant pandas, French missionary Armand David, wrote: “I saw the panda’s skin. It’s big and beautiful, coloured black and white.”

… (1858) ‘Britain puts down Indian Mutiny’: The Indian Mutiny has finally been put down after 10 months of strife that has forever changed the relationship between the British masters and their subjects. Henceforth, areas under British rule will be treated as vassal states and the Indian army will be more tightly overseen. The old intimacy is gone; stories of outrages by the mutineers have stoked British demands for revenge on India. The revolt was sparked off by British insensitivity to Indian customs: sepoys in the army mutinied after refusing to touch new rifle cartridges they believed were lubricated with animal fat that was either holy to Hindus or unclean to Muslims. It was the first clash against colonial rule.

… (1844) In New Zealand, Maoris rise up against the British and burn a settlement.

… (1702) The first daily paper in England, the Daily Courant, is published.

… (1682) The Royal Hospital in Chelsea is founded to care for soldiers.

10^th, (1990) ‘Iraqis sentence Observer reporter’: A journalist working for a British newspaper has been sentenced to death by a military court in Iraq. Farzad Bazoft, a 31-year-old Iranian-born reporter working for the Observer, confessed to spying charges after months in detention. Last year he tried to enter an Iraqi military base where it had been reported that a huge explosion, caused possibly by a ballistic missile, had caused as many as 700 deaths. A British nurse, Daphne Parish, who was driving with Bazoft, has received a 15-year sentence. There have been immediate pleas for clemency: British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has made a personal appeal to Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein and journalists have begun a vigil outside the Iraqi embassy in London. But there is no sign that Saddam Hussein, who has reacted with fury to all attempts to expose the full range of his military might, will put-off the hanging, ordered for next week.

… (1988) Andy Gibb of the Bee Gees dies of a drug overdose, aged 30.

… (1988) The Chinese army occupies Lhasa, capital of Tibet, after major demonstrations by Tibetans against continued Chinese rule.

… (1986) Ray Milland, Welsh-born actor who starred in many films including Beau Geste and Dial M for Murder, dies aged 79.

… (1985) Death of Konstantin Chernenko, General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party since only 1984.

… (1981) Death of Sir Maurice Oldfield, the British intelligence chief thought to be the model for “M” in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.

… (1980) Jean Harris, an American headmistress, murders her lover Dr Herman Tarnower, inventor of the Scarsdale diet.

… (1974) A Japanese soldier was today found in hiding on Lubang Island in the Philippines. He believed World War II was still being fought, and was waiting to be relieved by his own forces. Told the good news, he is now awaiting a potentially massive payoff from his war pension.

… (1969) James Earl Ray pleads guilty to the murder of civil rights leader Martin Luther King and is sentenced to 99 years in jail.

… (1968) In Wellington Harbour, New Zealand, a car ferry capsizes in a severe storm, drowning 200.

… (1914) In London’s National Gallery, Mary Richardson, journalist and military suffragette, attacks Velasquez’ Rokeby Venus with a meat cleaver.

… (1910) ‘Hollywood? Never Heard Of It’: American film director D.W. Griffith thought he had found just the place to make his film In Old California, but he had to battle to get the producer’s reluctant agreement to rent the old barn in the village where some of the action was shot. There was no reason why Griffith’s bosses on the East Coast should have heard of Hollywood, but his discovery of a spot with the near-perfect natural light the cameras crave could start a studio stampede to the Los Angeles area. Griffith has transformed this young industry with the hundreds of short films he has made for Biograph: he pioneered the use of close-ups, travelling shots and modern editing techniques.

… (1848) ‘US wins ex-Mex states’: The United States is today a million square miles larger thanks to the addition of California, New Mexico and parts of Texas – the spoils of victory in the war with Mexico. By today’s congressional vote, reluctantly approving the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Washington gains control of these lands but must pay their Spanish-speaking settlers $15 million compensation. The treaty ends a period of political hostility almost as bitter as the fighting: one group wanted to annex the whole of Mexico and throw it open to slavery. The abolitionists succeeded in banning slavery in new territories. The war has hardly been glorious – though casualties were light, almost a third of the 100,000-strong American volunteer army has succumbed to disease.

… (1661) Death of Cardinal Jules Mazarin, French statesman and chief adviser to the regent Anne of Austria, mother of King Louis XIV.

…We don’t want apartheid liberalised. We want it dismantled. You can’t improve something that is intrinsically evil. [Bishop Desmond Tutu, South African clergyman, 1985.]

… It is strange how an old man of letters still feels stupid satisfaction at seeing his work printed in a newspaper. This morning, before seven o’clock, I went downstairs three times in my nightshirt to see if the Gil Blas was in my letterbox and if it contained the first instalment of Cherie. Then I roamed around Paris, looking for my posters on the walls. [Edmond de Goncourt, French diarist, writing in his journal]

9^th, (1989) ‘Wild boy Tower unfit for defence’: The reputation of American Republicanism, already shaken by the Iran-Contra scandal, took another battering today when the US Senate decided that the man chosen to be in control of the world’s most powerful armed forces was unfit for the post. They rejected Senator John Tower by a slender 53-47 margin. Senate hearings had focused on allegations of Tower’s heavy drinking while in charge of sensitive arms control negotiations, lewd behaviour with secretaries, and using restricted government information for personal profit. Tower had been in charge of the Iran-Contra hearings.

… (1987) ‘Cholesterol Kid bursts back’: Ex-world heavyweight champion George Foreman is making a comeback. He knocked out Steve Zouski in the fourth round tonight. Since nobody’s ever heard of Steve Zouski, so what? This is what – it is 16 years since Foreman lost the crown to Muhammad Ali in Zaire. He’s now 42 and bigger than before: he weighed in at an immense 263lb or18st 3lb (down from 320) – a flabby, unpenitent, non-dieting heavy-eater. “I’m comfortable at 255,” he says. The fans have dubbed him the Cholesterol Kid. But he won, in a style that commands notice – in fact he looked unstoppable. The man himself is determined to get a shot at the title. In 1977 Foreman had a religious experience in his dressing room after losing a fight to Jimmy Young. He retired from the ring and took to the pulpit for 10 years. Now he’s back – with conviction.

… (1967) Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin, defects to the West.

… (1956) ‘”Terrorist” Makarios deported by British’: In a bid to stem the growing power and violence of the EOKA independence movement in Cyprus, British police have deported the leader of the Greek faction, the Orthodox Archbishop Michael Makarios. The Governor of Cyprus, Sir John Harding, claims that despite his clerical robes the bearded Makarios has been actively encouraging terrorist activity on the island. He was sent to exile in the Seychelles along with a key aide, Bishop Kyprianos. Since it took over the island in 1914 and built strategic military bases, Britain has been trying to keep the peace between the island’s Greek and Turkish population. Makarios is insisting on union with Greece. This is also the aim of EOKA (National Organisation for the Cyprus Struggle), which has carried out bomb attacks against the British. Makarios’s deportation has raised a storm of protest in Nicosia.

… (1946) Thirty-three English football fans are killed when steel barriers collapse at Bolton Wanderers’ football ground.

… (1937) The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell’s powerful book on the effects of the Depression in northern England, is published.

… (1932) Eamonn de Valera is elected president of Ireland.

… (1923) Vladimir Ilich Lenin suffers a massive stroke and retires from the Soviet leadership.

… (1918) Frank Wedekind, German dramatist, actor, poet, singer and essayist, dies aged 54.

… (1888) Death of Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia, who took the title in 1871, the first German ruler to do so since 1806.

… (1864) General Ulysses Grant is made General-in-Chief of the Union Forces in the American Civil War.

… (1831) The French Foreign Legion is founded to serve in African colonies.

… (1796) ‘Boney’s Mme’: Napoleon Bonaparte, the brilliant young French officer who has just been made Commander of the Army of the Interior, today married Josephine, a Creole divorcee and famous society beauty. A widow since her first husband the Vicomte de Beauharnais was guillotined in 1794, Josephine, 33, sought the marriage with Napoleon to protect her reputation after the two commenced a passionate affair which soon became very public.

… (1562) In Naples, kissing in public is made punishable by death.

8^th, (2007) Are You Being Serve? actor John Inman died, aged 71.

… (1990) ‘Iran-Contra trial kicks off’: In a damning White House scandal, a former National Security Adviser has gone on trial on charges of conspiracy, obstructing Congress and lying to the nation. Admiral John Poindexter, President Ronald Reagan’s top security adviser in 1985, became embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair as a consequence of secret agreements made by the Reagan administration to secure the release of US hostages in Iran in 1981. A covert arms sales fund of $30 million was diverted to finance right-wing guerrillas fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government. In 1986 Poindexter resigned, and later told Congress he was to blame and that President Reagan had known nothing of the dealings.

… (1989) The Chinese authorities today declared martial law in Tibet following the massacre of pro-Dali Lama demonstrators by Chinese police in Lhasa this week. All foreigners have been hustled out of the country, and the Chinese are reportedly making arrangements to deport thousands of Tibetans from the strife-torn capital.

… (1989) ‘Vatican dismisses loss-making banker’: The long-running Vatican bank scandal has finally claimed a victim in Holy Orders. Rumours of massive mismanagement of the church’s financial affairs first became public seven years ago when an Italian banker hanged himself in London. Today the Vatican stripped Archbishop Paul Marcinkus of command of Ambrosiana, its loss-making bank which last year had a US $88-million deficit. It is expected to go further into the red as a result of dealings with Italian financiers Roberto Calvi and Michele Sindona. Calvi was found dead under London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982.

… (1988) Police in a southern Indian village keep 3000 residents indoors to enforce a government ban on the nude worshipping of a Hindu god.

… (1988) The writers of American soap operas go on strike for improved terms and there are fears that Dynasty and Dallas are threatened.

… (1983) Sir William Walton, British composer who wrote the film scores the films Hamlet, Henry V and Richard III, dies on the Isle of Ischia, Italy.

… (1983) U.S. President Ronald Reagan used a speech in Florida to call the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.

… (1971) ‘Satellite clash of titans’: Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali over 15 rounds tonight in a historic world heavyweight title fight. The fight grossed an estimated $20 million, which has to make it the most lucrative sporting contest ever. Most of that comes from closed circuit television receipts. Frazier was defending the world title he took from Ali four years ago without a fight. Ali was disqualified for refusing military service in the Vietnam War on religious grounds. He is a Black Muslim and a hero of black communities worldwide. His world-champion flamboyance makes him good news – the TV satellites have beamed him on to every small screen in the world. Both men were Olympic champions. Ali “dances like a butterfly, stings like a bee”- fast, deadly accurate. Frazier was unbeaten when he took the title. Last year the ban on Ali was lifted. Tonight they met in the ring for the first time – but not for the last.

… (1966) In London, Ronnie Kray of the notorious Kray twins walks into the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road and shoots a rival gangster, George Cornell, through the head.

… (1952) An artificial heart is used for the first time on a 41-year-old male patient, keeping him alive for 80 minutes.

… (1917) Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, inventor of the Zeppelin airship, dies aged 79.

… (1917) ‘Tsar’s Time Short As Revolt Grows’: There have been widespread street demonstrations in Petrograd, provoked by food shortages. This is nothing new for the turbulent Russia of today, but for the first time the Tsar’s soldiers have refused to fire on the crowds or suppress the uprising. The army, which has suffered terrible casualties at the German front, now seems more an ally of the people than the increasingly isolated Tsar Nicholas II, who left Petrograd’s garrison commander General Khabalov with the hard task of maintaining order. The moderate parliament, or Duma, which began its new session last week, senses matters are moving to a head as revolutionaries and defecting soldiers roam the streets. The Tsar’s days of absolute power are clearly numbered.

… (1910) The first pilot licences are granted to a British man and a French woman – J.T.C Moore Brabazon and Raymonde de Laroche.

… (1790) The French Assembly votes to continue slavery in the colonies.

… (1702) Queen Anne accedes to the British throne after the death of William III in a riding accident.

7^th, (1999) U.S. film director Stanley Kubrick died, aged 70, at his home near St Albans, Herts. He was best known for his movies 2001: A Space Odyssey and 1971’s A Clockwork Orange, banned in the UK at Kubrick’s request after it was blamed for a spate of copycat violent crimes.

… (1989) ‘Chinese shoot Tibetan rebels’: Chinese security forces opened fire on Tibetan monks and civilians in Lhasa today. Officially, 12 “agitators” were killed, but Tibetans sources claim there are many more dead and wounded. A Western businessman in the city reports seeing “piles of bodies”, and some estimates put the number of deaths in the hundreds. Hundreds more Tibetans have been arrested. The shootings started two days ago during a demonstration to mark the first Tibetan uprising against China 30-years ago. The strife continues as Chinese forces search for demonstrators, while rioting Tibetans have wrecked Chinese-owned shops and offices. China invaded Tibet in 1950, claiming it as a Chinese province, but Tibetans have been pressing for independence since 1985, thwarted by Peking. Today’s show of force is by far Peking’s most brutal response yet. It does not bode well for the Chinese pro-democracy movement in Peking.

… (1984) Donald Maclean, British Foreign Office official and Russian secret agent who fled to the Soviet Union in 1951, dies aged 70.

… (1975) The body of British heiress Lesley Whittle is found in a 60-foot drain shaft, 52 days after she was kidnapped by a man the press call “The Black Panther”.

… (1971) English poet Stevie Smith commits suicide.

… (1971) Swiss men finally vote to give women the right to vote and to hold federal office.

… (1969) Golda Meir, 70, came out of retirement to be elected the first female prime minister of Israel.

… (1945) ‘Allies cross the Rhine into Germany’: Nine years to the day after Hitler’s troops occupied the Rhineland, making war inevitable, American troops have seized a strategic bridge over the Rhine and have begun crossing into Germany. Tonight troops poured across the bridge at Remagen and are now securing other crossings for heavy armour. While Soviet troops are advancing on Berlin, the US is concentrating on southern Germany.

… (1936) ‘Hitler throws gauntlet down to Britain’: In contempt of the Versailles Treaty imposed after World War I, Germany’s chancellor Adolf Hitler has marched his troops into the demilitarised zone east of the Rhine. First reports say the troops, who began arriving through the night by truck, are being met with rejoicing by the local population. In addition to violating the treaty that ended the Great War, Hitler’s actions could force signatories of the 1925 Locarno Pact into action to maintain Europe’s stability. France wants action but Britain appears unconcerned by the development. In its anxiety not to upset Hitler, the British Government has made a naval pact that removes controls on Germany imposed after the Great War and allows it to build a powerful navy. Now Mr. Baldwin’s government wishes to prevent France from issuing a formal challenge to Hitler.

… (1917) ‘First jazz record – but it’s all white’: From today, America has a new sound to swing to. It’s called jazz, the music of the black community, or more precisely Dixieland jazz from New Orleans. The Victor Company has issued a new phonograph recording it says is the first ever jazz recording, spelling an altogether new direction in American popular music. Recorded in New York by Nick La Rocca and his original Dixieland Jazz Band, the disc is entitled “The Dixieland Jazz Band One-Step”. The musicians are all from New Orleans, but they are all white, playing in a style learned from the city’s blacks. It may be some time before black musicians record their music, for to do so they must be able to travel to studios in New York or Chicago.

… (1912) Frenchman Henri Seimet flies from Paris to London in three hours, the first aviator ever to make the journey non-stop.

… (1876) ‘Bell Rings for Telephone’: A revolutionary new device was patented today – the electric voice telegraph or telephone. Its Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, teaches vocal physiology at Boston University and is an expert on communication with the deaf. He discovered the principle behind his machine last year. The telephone converts sound waves into electrical oscillations, which can then be transmitted long distances via a cable. It is possible it could be used on a commercial scale – in which case Alexander Graham Bell’s invention could make him a very wealthy man.

… (1838) Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale”, makes a triumphant debut at the Stockholm Opera in Weber’s Der Freischutz.

6^th, (1988) Dr Kurt Waldheim, Austrian president and former director-general of the UN admits he knew Allied commanders held by his unit in World War II would be executed contrary to the Geneva Convention.

… (1988) ‘IRA activists shot by SAS in Gibraltar’: In a pre-emptive strike against IRA terrorism, British commandoes have shot dead an “active service unit” of Irish Republican activists on the island of Gibraltar. The securiry forces claim the three – Sean Savage, Mairead Farrell and Daniel McCann – were planning to attack a military parade and had a car packed with explosives. But no evidence to support this has yet been produced and eye-witnesses say the three were walking unarmed when they were gunned down at close range without any warning. The search for the car and the supposed weapons cache has widened to Spain and there are suggestions that members of Britain’s elite SAS commando squad may well have been precipitate.

… (1987) ‘Zeebrugge ferry rolls into nightmare’: A British-owned cross-channel ferry overturned in shallow water today outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. More than 200 people are feared drowned in Europe’s worst maritime disaster in recent years. Most of the passengers were British. The Herald of Free Enterprise had just set sail after taking scores of cars aboard through the open bow section, but rescuers could not yet say if the bow doors had been left open in error. Ships and helicopters from Belgian and Dutch ports arrived quickly to save passengers who had escaped death. Survivors are telling horrific tales of being hurled across the lounges as the ship suddenly turned turtle. In London, the government has promised an inquiry into safety measures.

… (1983) Australian Christopher Massey sets a water skiing record of 143.08 mph (228.9 kph).

… (1971) Pearl Buck, American author and Nobel Prize winner who wrote The Good Earth, dies at 81.

… (1971) In London, 4000 women’s libbers march from Hyde Park to 10 Downing Street.

… (1944) Daylight bombing raids on Berlin from US air bases in Britain begin.

… (1932) John Philip Sousa, American composer of military marches, dies aged 78.

… (1921) Police in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in the U.S., issued an order requiring women to wear skirts at least 4in below the knee.

… (1901) An anarchist fails in his attempt to assassinate Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany.

… (1900) Death of Gottileb Daimler, motor engineer and inventor of the motor cycle.

… (1899) ‘Wonder drug kills headache pain’: A new pain relief drug was patented today, and pharmacists are claiming it has almost magical properties. The drug, called aspirin, is said to relieve even severe pain, particularly headaches, muscle aches and joint pains. It acts within minutes. The patent for aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is held by the chemist Felix Hoffmann, who synthesised the drug in his laboratory. Aspirin’s active ingredient occurs in nature in the willow and other plants, and has been known for its medicinal properties since ancient times – but this will be the first time a cheap, reliable pain killer is made universally available. Aspirin has shown itself to be relatively safe in tests so far. Plans are going ahead for its large-scale manufacture and distribution.

… (1853) Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata receives its premier in Venice.

… (1836) The heroic stand by a small band of Texan rebels at the old Alamo mission was today crushed. The 187 besieged Texans have been slaughtered. After a continuous 12-day artillery bombardment, 6000 Mexican troops under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna had the bodies burned as a warning to Texans never again to challenge Mexican rule. One of the few survivors, Susanna Dickinson, a blacksmith’s wife, was set free with a message from Santa Anna to Texan General Sam Houston that further fighting would end the same way. Among the dead was the famous frontiersman Davy Crockett, who had only just returned to Texas after two terms in Washington as a US congressman. The Alamo rebels’ commander, Colonel Travis, had refused to obey Houston’s orders to withdraw to a less vulnerable position.

5^th, (2016) Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of email, died aged 74.

… (1991) The last Cruise missile leaves Greenham Common airbase in Berkshire to be dismantled in Arizona as part of the INF disarmament treaty.

… (1991) Baghdad Radio announces that the Iraqi government has annulled the annexation of Kuwait and promised that Kuwaiti assets will be restored.

… (1984) Tito Gobbi, Italian baritone, dies aged 69.

… (1966) The criminal overlords of London’s East End, 35-year-old twins Ronald and Reginald Kray, were today jailed for 30 years for murder. Four of their underworld gang were also convicted. As they were led away, one of the Krays told the judge menacingly: “I’ll see you later!” It was the longest murder trial ever held at London’s famous Old Bailey, lasting 39 days.

… (1953) ‘Man of Steel Dies’: Joseph Stalin, who forged the Soviet Union into a global superpower at the cost of oppression by which millions were killed, has died of a brain haemorrhage. His body is lying in state in Moscow. No clear successor has yet emerged. Stalin, the son of a Georgian shoemaker, started his career robbing banks to raise Bolshevik funds. He seized power after Lenin’s death in 1929. During World War II he broke Hitler’s military power at Stalingrad – earning him the title of the country’s saviour. He treated with Churchill and Roosevelt on equal terms – and demanded their acquiescence in the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe after the war. Stalin was a brutal leader obsessed with opposition. In his final weeks he suspected a plot by Kremlin doctors.

… (1946) Winston Churchill, on tour in the US, says “An iron curtain has descended across Europe” in a speech about the Russian threat.

… (1936) ‘Seagulls inspire speedy Spitfire’: Britain’s aircraft industry has produced a fighter plane the government believes has the speed and power to counter the startling build-up of military aircraft in Hitler’s Germany. The new fighter, called the Spitfire, is built by Vickers and powered by a liquid-cooled Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. The plane made its maiden flight today, taking off from Eastleigh, Hampshire. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell, who drew up his plans after spending many hours watching how seagulls fly. The single-seat, low-wing monoplane will enter service with the Royal Air Force in the next two years to counter the German Messerschmitt 109, which is said to be the world’s best fighter. Britain’s air defences, which opposition MPs led by Winston Churchill have criticised as incapable of meeting a threat, will be dramatically strengthened by the Spitfire and its companion the Hawker Hurricane.

… (1933) In Germany, the Nazis win almost half the seats in the elections.

… (1926) The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon is engulfed by flames.

… (1856) The Covent Garden Opera House in London is destroyed by fire.

… (1790) Death of Flora Macdonald, Scottish heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to safety after the Battle of Culloden.

… (1778) Death of Thomas Arne, British composer of more than 50 operas and stage works and, most famously, “Rule Britannia”.

… (1770) ‘British Troops Fire on American Demonstrators’: British troops opened fire on an unruly crowd in Boston today, killing five Americans. The incident has been dubbed the “Boston Massacre”. It follows 18 months of simmering tension since they arrived in Massachusetts in a show of force to quell American resentment over the Stamp Act, which taxes all legal or printed documents. Massachusetts was said to be on “on the brink of anarchy”. The Americans saw the troops as oppressors, and there have been fights between soldiers and citizens ever since. Today a crowd gathered at the Customs House became unruly, and a squad led by Captain Thomas Preston opened fire, killing three men and mortally wounding two others. All troops were immediately withdrawn from the town and Preston and six soldiers are under arrest. But the damage has been done: the incident has given the Boston radicals opposing Britain a powerful propaganda weapon.

… (1534) Death of Antonio Correggio, Italian painter of sensuous mythological scenes.

… (1461) Henry VI of England is deposed by the Duke of York in the course of the Wars of the Roses.

4^th, (1989) Pope John Paul II brands Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous on account of its suggestion that part of the Qur’an was inspired by the devil.

… (1980) Robert Mugabe becomes the leader of newly independent Zimbabwe, which had been governed as Rhodesia by the British since 1889.

… (1975) Charlie Chaplin is knighted at Buckingham Palace.

… (1971) Pierre Trudeau, 52-year-old Prime Minister of Canada, marries 22-year-old Margaret Sinclair in secret.

… (1968) ‘Amateur Bastion Goes Pro’: The guardians of Wimbledon’s hallowed turf have at last agreed to the unthinkable – allowing professional tennis players to compete in the world’s oldest amateur tennis tournament. The British Lawn Tennis Association and the International Tennis Federation today voted to open the game to the highly-paid professionals who are drawing huge crowds at other international tournaments. This year about a dozen tournaments will be open to all comers, and a big boost in crowds is expected as amateurs slog it out with the tough new breed of tennis professionals in pursuit of ever-larger prizes.

… (1952) American actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis married in Hollywood.

… (1945) ‘MacArthur’s thriller in Manila’: As promised, US General Douglas MacArthur has returned to the Philippines, where his troops have now taken the capital Manila after months of heavy fighting against the Japanese occupation forces. “I shall return,” MacArthur promised the Filipinos in 1942, when he had to flee aboard a torpedo-boat as the Japanese advanced. Now he has fought his way up through the islands from New Guinea and, with the help of Admiral Nimitz’s Pacific fleet, has virtually cut off Tokyo’s lines of supply. The Japanese navy suffered its worst defeat so far in the Leyte Gulf last October. While US columns converged on Manila, US Army parachutists landed at the fortress of Corregidor to clear the last resistance.

… (1941) British forces and Norwegian resistance fighters raid the German-occupied Lofoten Islands and destroy 11 German boats.

… (1924) Happy Birthday, written by U.S. teacher sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, was first published.

… (1882) The first electric trains in Britain run from Leytonstone in East London.

… (1873) The New York Daily Graphic becomes the first illustrated daily newspaper.

… (1861) ‘Lincoln inherits country in turmoil’: Abraham Lincoln was sworn in today as the 16^th president of a Federation of States united only in name: the country is divided and on the threshold of civil war. Lincoln’s inaugural address did little to alter matters in the southern states where his hostility to slavery – the backbone of their way of life – is well known. Lincoln, a prosperous lawyer and congressman, was about to give up politics when the issue of extending slavery into Kansas and Nebraska fired him to carry on. In 1856 he joined the Republicans but failed to get into the Senate: last year he only narrowly secured his party’s presidential nomination. His first challenge comes from Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which is being deprived of supplies by forces loyal to Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President.

… (1824) The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is founded in Britain.

… (1789) The first US Congress is held in New York with 59 members, each representing a district of approximately 30,000 people.

… (1681) ‘Charles II Gives Quaker New Start in America’: King Charles II has given his authorisation for what promises to be a bold social experiment in his American colonies. Today, by Royal Charter, he granted William Penn, a Quaker, the right to set up a new colony at West Jersey. The King also paid off £160,000 of Penn’s family debts. The Charter gives the 38-year-old Penn near-dictatorial powers over the new colony, its Indian population and its surroundings, which he proposes to name Pennsylvania.

… (1634) Samuel Cole opens the first tavern in Boston.

… (1193) Saladin, legendary Muslim commander during the Crusades, dies in Damascus.

…Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. [Franklin D. Roosevelt, on his inauguration as US president during a period of chaos; American banks closed down as he took the oath in 1933.]

3^rd, (1991) Queen Elizabeth II incurs a wound to her finger requiring three stitches while trying to break up a fight between corgi dogs in the grounds of Windsor Castle.

… (1990) Venezuela suspends foreign debt payments after widespread rioting.

… (1985) ‘Scargill’s army reluctantly admits defeat’: Britain’s coal miners finally bowed to the inevitable today, voting to return to work after a year-long strike that was as much a political challenge to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as an industrial dispute. Mrs. Thatcher is claiming a “famous victory” over the National Union of Mineworkers’ leader Arthur Scargill, who has been a thorn in the side of the Conservative Party leadership since he contributed to the downfall of a Tory government in early 1974. The strike was sparked by Mrs. Thatcher’s government insisting on closing loss-making pits. The miners’ delegates today voted 98-91 to return to work, despite insistence by the National Coal Board management that they would have to accept financial penalties for their actions, and that those dismissed will not be reinstated. The bitter dispute leaves the state-owned National Coal Board facing a record £2.2 billion loss this year. It has accelerated the move away from coal, once the energy source of Britain’s industrial strength.

… (1983) Arthur Koestler, Hungarian-born writer and active member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society, commits suicide with his wife Cynthia as his health declines.

… (1974) A Turkish airlines DC10 crashes into a wood near Paris, killing all 344 people on board.

… (1950) The US Congress votes to admit Alaska as the 49^th state.

… (1942) The West Coast of America is declared a military zone and 100,000 are evacuated.

… (1931) “The Star Spangled Banner” is adopted as America’s national anthem.

… (1924) President Kemel Ataturk abolishes the Caliphate and disestablishes the Islamic religion in Turkey.

… (1923) ‘Time Distils The News’: Americans with no time to read a daily newspaper can now buy Time magazine, which puts the week’s news between two covers. Edited by Henry R. Luce, Time separates out the week’s events, with an emphasis on photographs and analysis; there is social commentary and even some gossip. Mr. Luce has a firm editorial policy: the reporters’ individual styles are submerged by extensive rewriting, conservative in tone, favouring the Republicans. In a country with no truly national newspaper, there is room for a weekly news magazine distributed by rail – an idea others will no doubt copy.

… (1919) ‘Communists go international’: Plans to set Europe ablaze with Communist revolution were announced today by Russia’s Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilich Lenin. A new organisation, the Communist International or “Comintern”, has been set up to dictate policies to Communists in other countries. Its job will be to set up trade unions and Communist propaganda organisations. It is a more radical offshoot of the three Internationals that have existed since the Socialist movement started 35 years ago. Lenin believes he has a greater chance of establishing control if the Socialist creed spreads to neighbouring countries.

… (1857) Britain and France declare war on China, using the killing of a missionary as the pretext.

… (1848) ‘Europe up in arms’: Revolution is sweeping across Europe, spurred by hunger, economic depression and the political demands of the growing middle classes. During a public outbreak of fury in Paris last month, King Louis Phillippe fled while a mob wrecked his palace then formed a government and “national workshops” for the jobless. Now the flames have spread to the Austrian empire, with demonstrations raging in both Vienna and Hungary. In Vienna, conservative statesman Klemens von Metternich has been driven from office. Hungary has declared its autonomy, while Croatia is in turn demanding its freedom from Hungary. Venice has renounced Austria’s authority and proclaimed a republic. Serfdom in the Austrian empire is crumbling; there is no proper constitution. In Germany, unrest may cause the Prussian king to call a constitutional assembly.

… (1847) Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish inventor of the telephone, and who emigrated to the United States, is born.

… (1802) Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” is published.

2^nd, (1990) Three weeks after his release from 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela is elected deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC).

… (1986) ‘Australia finally goes it alone’: Queen Elizabeth II today signed the Australia Bill, severing Britain’s formal ties with its former colony almost two centuries after British convicts were shipped to Botany Bay in 1788. Australia has been virtually self-governing since the 1901 constitution was introduced; but in 1975 Sir John Kerr, Governor General, decided his powers included the right to sack the Prime Minister. He caused a furore by dismissing Labour leader Gough Whitlam. Outraged Australians decided that in future the Queen should have less to do with their government.

… (1972) American spacecraft Pioneer 10 blasts off for Mars and Jupiter on a 21-month lifespan.

… (1969) ‘Supersonic Beauty Takes To The Sky’: Concorde, the supersonic Anglo-French airliner, roared off the runway, straightened its pointed nose and took to the skies today, carrying with it the promise of space-age air travel for the common man. Today’s successful maiden flight at Toulouse of the French prototype 001 brought to fruition the £360 million agreement between France and Britain to build a jetliner that will travel twice the speed of sound. The five-year venture has produced an elegant aircraft: it has delta wings with subtly curved leading edges and a streamlined nose-cone that slopes down in a distinctive droop to give the pilot better visibility on takeoff and landing. The plane will seat 125 passengers. Initially, commercial service will be limited to first-class only, for businessmen in a hurry. Concorde will halve the flying time between London and New York.

… (1958) A British team under Sir Vivian Fuchs achieve the first crossing of the Antarctic from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea.

… (1955) Floods in Australia kill 200 people and leave 400,000 homeless.

… (1949) In Fort Worth, Texas, Captain James Gallagher completes the first round-the-world flight.

… (1930) D.H. Lawrence, British author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and The Rainbow, dies in France of Tuberculosis.

… (1882) An unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria is made by one Robert Maclean.

… (1864) President Lincoln rejects Confederate General Lee’s call for peace talks, demanding surrender.

… (1840) ‘Dickens defeats the deadlines’: The novelist Charles Dickens has started a weekly periodical, Master Humphrey’s Clock, in which he is publishing his two latest books, The Old Curiosity Shop and Barnaby Rudge, by instalments. The phenomenal success of Dicken’s two previous works, Oliver Twist and The Posthumous Papers of Mr. Pickwick, both of which were serialised, has shown that the British reading public likes fiction in regular, tantalising dozes. Dickens’s extraordinary industriousness has kept him ahead of the close deadlines – when he began the Pickwick Papers by instalment in 1836 to illustrate a series of sketches he was writing on only two days’ notice. Dickens is also editing a biography of a famous clown, and writing two books. Oliver Twist is only part-fiction. Dickens’s father was imprisoned for debt, and for several months 12-year-old Charles worked in a factory, living alone amid London’s poverty. His books are full of life, have depth, humour and compassion.

… (1836) ‘Lone Star defiance starts Tex-Mex dust-up’: American settlers in Texas have declared their independence from Mexico and set up a new state with a new flag – the Lone Star. But the Mexican dictator General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna has invaded Texas to reassert control. A small force of Texan rebels under Colonels William Travis and Jim Bowie rode out to meet the army but has now retreated. The rebel army leader, General Sam Houston, is retreating in the direction of San Jacinto Prairie. American settlers have been pouring into Texas for the last 20 years – a split with Mexico was inevitable. The Texans saw their chance last year when discontent with Santa Anna’s policies stirred the Mexicans to revolt against his repressive government.

… (1791) The optical telegraph (semaphore machine) is unveiled in Paris, heralding a communication revelation.

… (1791) John Wesley, British religious leader and founder of Methodism, dies aged 88.

… (1717) The Loves of Mars and Venus, the first-ever ballet to be performed in England, is staged at Drury Lane.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. [Thomas Jefferson: today Congress banned the import of slaves to America, 1807]

March 1^ST, (2001) The Taliban demolish Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.

… (1973) Pink Floyd’s album The Dark Side Of The Moon was released. It would spend 736 successive weeks – more than 14 years – in the U.S. charts.

… (1972) London boy Timothy Davey (14) is found guilty of conspiring to sell cannabis in Turkey.

… (1969) ‘The number’s up for baseball star’: When ace baseball slugger Mickey Charles Mantle retired today, he took his number with him, and the New York Yankees no longer have a No. 7. Mantle shares this honour only with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. Mantle has played major league since 1951. When DiMaggio retired, Mantle replaced him in centrefield. In 1956, Mantle won the Hickock Belt for the professional athlete of the year. He broke Babe Ruth’s record of 16 Home runs in World Series play in 1964, and his 18 remains a record. Mantle hit a grand total of 536 home runs. He is one of the all-time greats in major league baseball – which is 100 years old this year.

… (1961) President Kennedy forms the Peace Corps of volunteers to work in Third World Countries.

… (1959) Archbishop Makarios returns to Cyprus after almost exactly three years of exile.

… (1954) ‘New hydrogen bomb wipes out island’: The US today exploded the most powerful bomb ever made – and tiny Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific died. The explosion was the equivalent of 15-million tons of TNT – hundreds of times more powerful than the weapons that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The “Bravo” test of the world’s first full-scale hydrogen bomb was a complete success. Cameras were there to record the awesome flash and the immense mushroom cloud – the symbol of our post-war era. But the bomb was apparently even more powerful than expected: the shock went right off the dials of the recording instruments. Though the atoll was cleared of islanders and the seas were patrolled, there are reports that Japanese fishermen on boats more than 70 miles from the blast have been seriously burnt by white ash that fell from the sky. In a smaller test blast two years ago, a complete island vanished. This puts the US well ahead in the arms race, but it is only a matter of time before the Soviets test their own H-bomb.

… (1950) British physicist Klaus Fuchs is found guilty of having passed classified information to the Soviet Union since 1943.

… (1949) Boxer Joe Louis retires at the age of 35 after beating 25 contenders for his title.

… (1946) The Bank of England passes into public ownership.

… (1940) ‘New Discovery Leigh Picks Up Top Oscar’: English actress Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in the film Gone with the Wind, now breaking all box-office records in America. The film won five Oscars in all. Miss Leigh was a young unknown when Hollywood producer David Selznick chose her for the part coveted by every female star in Hollywood. She had only one obscure British film to her credit – though she won a record £50,000 movie contract five years ago following a successful stage debut in London. Miss Leigh plays a proud southern belle fighting to regain what her family has lost in the Civil War, using and discarding men along the way. She meets her match in the unscrupulous Rhett Butler, played by Hollywood King Clark Gable – but it is Miss Leigh who has won the Oscar. The film, a marathon four hours long, cost more than $2 million to make. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Margaret Mitchell.

… (1934) Peking’s “Last Emperor” is crowned by Japan.

… (1932) ‘Aviator Lindbergh’s baby snatched’: New Jersey police are searching for clues that might lead them to the kidnapper of the 20-month-old son of the aviator Charles Lindbergh. The baby vanished as Mr. and Mrs. Lindbergh were having dinner, and a $50,000 ransom note was found near the baby’s bed. Police have launched a massive manhunt to locate the boy. Lindbergh achieved fame with his solo Atlantic flight in 1927, and there is nationwide interest in the kidnapping: reporters are flocking to the Lindbergh home in New Jersey and President Hoover is being kept informed. The only clues so far are footprints in the Lindbergh’s garden and a home-made ladder used to reach the nursery. The ransom note is crudely lettered and misspelt but promises “the child is in gut care”.

… (1912) Captain Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump in St Louis, Missouri.

… (1896) Ethiopia routs 100,000 Italian troops after their attempt at invasion.

… (1880) Pennsylvania becomes the first US state to abolish slavery.

… (1875) The US Congress passes the Civil Rights Act.

… (1815) Napoleon Bonaparte has landed at Cannes with 1500 soldiers and is returning to Paris with a rapidly growing army. The Austrian, British and Russian allies are appalled: having banished him to Elba, they believed they had freed Europe of the extraordinary military hero.

… (1780) Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to abolish slavery (but only for newborn babies).

… (1555) ‘Riddle of Nostradamus’s future imperfect’: A “Book of Centuries” consisting of cryptic four-lined rhymed verses has been published in France by Michael Nostradamus, a provincial doctor. The book’s 900 “Centuries” contains a series of prophecies about future events. Predictions include a massive fire in London in the year 1666, global war erupting twice in the far-distant 20^th century, the coming of an anti-Christ from the deserts of Persia later in the same century and, most absurd of all, a revolution that will overthrow the mighty French monarchy before the 18^th century is over. Snatches of Hebrew, Latin and Portuguese, and the use of anagrams, make the book very difficult to understand fully – yet it is impossible to dismiss.

FEBRUARY

28^th, (1991) Khaleda Zia, widow of President Rahman of Bangladesh, wins the freest national election in the country’s history.

… (1989) In Venezuela, President Peres faces riots as food prices rise.

… (1986) ‘Palme, man of peace, gunned down’: Sweden’s prime minister Olaf Palme was shot dead by an unknown assassin as he walked home from a cinema in Stockholm tonight. His wife was wounded in the attack. The lone gunman escaped, and nobody has claimed responsibility for the killing. There seems no obvious motive. Palme was a man of peace and, as such, an outspoken critic of the US war in Vietnam; he set up a panel to ban nuclear weapons in Europe and was a UN mediator in the Iran-Iraq war. He is the first European head of government to be killed in office in 47 years.

… (1975) Thirty-five people are killed in London when an Underground train accelerates into a dead-end tunnel at Moorgate station, crushing three of the six crowded coaches.

… (1973) ‘”Kill us again” dare Indian activists’: Militant American Indian activists seized the Sioux village of Wounded Knee in South Dakota today, and challenged the government to repeat the Indian massacre that happened there more than 80 years ago. The militants are holding 10 hostages. They are demanding free elections of tribal leaders, a review of all Indian treaties and full investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs – whose Washington headquarters were occupied for a week last November by protesting Indians. The militants are members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), formed five years ago. In December 1890, in the last clash between US troops and Indians, the US Seventh Cavalry opened fire on Sioux Chief Big Foot and his followers at Wounded Knee, killing 300 men, women and children.

… (1972) In Marseilles, French police seize 937 lb (425 kg) of pure heroin.

… (1966) The Cavern Club, the venue where the Beatles and many other groups first made their mark, goes into liquidation.

… (1962) J.F. Kennedy, US President in 1962, said: “Arms alone are not enough to keep the peace – it must be kept by men.”

… (1953) British scientist Francis Crick went into the Eagle pub in Cambridge with his American colleague James Watson and announced that they had “found the secret of life”, the double-helix structure of DNA.

… (1935) Wallace Carothers, a chemist at U.S. company DuPont, invented nylon.

… (1922) In a grand ceremony Princess Mary, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary, marries Viscount Lascelles in London.

… (1912) In Missouri, the first parachute jump is made by Albert Berry.

… (1906) Tommy Burns beat Marvin Hart in 20 rounds at Los Angeles tonight to take the world heavyweight boxing title. The fans were more interested in the referee, one James J. Jeffries, who retired unbeaten as world champion last year. He was unbeaten in 22 fights – and only retired because he could not find a sufficiently worthy opponent.

… (1900) ‘Boers Retreat After Relief of Ladysmith’: The four-month siege of the British garrison at Ladysmith in Natal ended today as a relief column finally rode into the battered town and the Boer forces retreated. General Sir Redvers Buller’s relief force had lost more than 1000 men in an encounter with the Boers at Spion Kop, only a few miles from Ladysmith. This followed three major British defeats in a week in December – all under Buller’s command. Amongst the 2000 British dead during “Black Week” was the only son of Field Marshall Lord Roberts, who arrived in Cape Town three weeks later to replace Buller as overall commander. The fast-moving Boer commandos ran rings round the Redcoats after they invaded British Natal at the start of the war in October. But they tied up their forces in sieges at Kimberley, Ladysmith and Mafeking, giving the British time to bring in reinforcements. The sheer weight of numbers is now tipping the scales against the Boers. Two weeks ago Lord Roberts relived Kimberley, and today Buller stands vindicated – with a telegram of congratulation from Queen Victoria.

… (1874) Claimant to the Tichborne fortune Arthur Orton is found guilty of perjury after 260 days, the longest trial in England, and sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour.

… (1784) John Wesley, founder of the Wesleyan faith, signs its deed of declaration.

… (1574) ‘Inquisition burns English sailors’: Two Englishmen and an Irishman were burned at the stake in Mexico today – the Spanish Inquisition’s first European victims in the New World. Since they arrived in New Spain three years ago the priests have used their dreaded powers only to purify the hosts of Indian converts of any lingering traces of Aztec paganism. Today’s three unfortunates stood guilty of “Lutheran heresy”. Another 68 Englishmen were given public lashings and began long terms as gallery-slaves. These men were themselves slave traders, the remnants of a fleet that sailed under Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake from Plymouth seven years ago, fetching slaves from Africa to sell in the Caribbean – in defiance of a Spanish ban. The Spanish navy ambushed the fleet off the Mexican coast, and though Hawkins and Drake escaped, they had to leave two ships and their crews behind. Today’s Inquisition victims are the survivors.

27^th, (2015) Leonard Nimoy – Star Trek’s Mr Spock – died, aged 83.

… (2014) A Swedish employment office sparked chaos after accidentally inviting 61,000 jobseekers to an interview by email.

… (1991) ‘Gulf War Over’: The Gulf War ended today. Saudi forces entered Kuwait City at first light as the Iraqi army fled northward, only to be cut off by allied forces which had moved behind them in a lightning strike. Later in the day the Iraqi government announced its unconditional acceptance of the UN resolution on Kuwait, and US president George Bush announced tonight that the war is over. All allied military action will cease from tomorrow morning. No chemical weapons were used during the four-day ground battle which has ended the war, and allied casualties were light. The US lost 184 men in the war. The allies have taken 80,000 Iraqi prisoners, and allied leaders calculate that 85,000 to 100,000 Iraqis have been killed. Initial estimates are that Iraq’s destroyed infrastructure will take $200 billion and a generation to repair, and that Kuwait’s reconstruction will cost $50 billion.

… (1989) Emergency powers are introduced in Kosovo, Yugoslavia, as Serbians attempt to assert rule over ethnic Albanians.

… (1952) The new United Nations building in New York sees its first session.

… (1948) ‘Communists take power in Prague’: The Czechoslovakian Communist Party today seized power in Prague, and Western leaders fear the country will now become a soviet satellite. Last week the liberal President Eduard Benes told his people a totalitarian Communist regime would never rule in Czechoslovakia. Today he was silent as the Communist Party leader, Prime Minister Klement Gottwald, announced that Benes had accepted a new Cabinet with Communists in all the top jobs. Czechoslovakia was the only one of the new countries in Central Europe to maintain a democratic government – until Nazi occupation in 1939. Benes, in exile during the war, afterwards resumed his post as president – under the shadow of the USSR. Concessions he was forced to make to the Czech Communists led directly to today’s takeover.

… (1939) General Franco’s rebel Nationalist government is recognised by Britain and France.

… (1936) Ivan Pavlov, the Russian physiologist who discovered the conditioned reflex, dies in Leningrad.

… (1933) ‘Reichstag blaze suits Nazis’: A mysterious fire tonight gutted Berlin’s Reichstag parliament. A Dutchman has been charged with arson, but with less than a week to the German elections, observers agree the blaze could not have been more convenient for the ruling Nazi party had they planned it themselves. Nazi leaders immediately blamed the Communist Party. At the scene, Chancellor Adolf Hitler called the fire a “God-given signal” that the Communists should be crushed. In less than two months in office, Hitler has virtually stamped out Communist and Socialist papers. Last week Police Minister Hermann Goering raided the Communist Party headquarters, claiming evidence of a revolutionary plot.

…God grant that this is the work of the Communists. You are witnessing the beginning of a great new epoch in German history. This fire is the beginning. [Adolf Hitler, German Chancellor, speaking to a foreign correspondent as the Reichstag burns, 1933.]

… (1887) Death of Russian composer Alexander Borodin, who works include the opera Prince Igor and the tone poem In the Steppes of Central Asia.

… (1881) A British force that set out to teach Boers of the Transvaal a lesson was wiped out at Majuba today. General Sir George Colley was shot through the forehead – a chilling tribute to deadly Boer marksmanship. The Boers fled British rule in the Cape 50 years ago and declared the Transvaal a republic last year.

… (1879) Two scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore announce that they have discovered saccharine.

… (1869) ‘Freed slaves get the vote – in theory’: Four years after the Civil War, the last of three amendments to the US Constitution enshrining the rights of freed slaves as full US citizens was passed by the US Congress today: the new 15^th Amendment prevents state government denying the vote to anyone “on account of race, colour, or previous condition of servitude”. The defeated rebel states of the South must ratify it before they can be readmitted to the Union – but they can still use poll tax and literacy rules to stop blacks voting, and the current surge of terrorism by white racist secret societies like the murderous Ku Klux Klan is enough to stop most blacks insisting on their rights. For many blacks, very little has changed; the 15^th Amendment is only a piece of paper.

… (1782) The British parliament votes to abandon the American War of Independence.

… (1706) John Evelyn, English diarist who helped to form the Royal Society, dies aged 86.

… (1557) The first Russian embassy in London opens.

…Matthew reminds us that the meek shall inherit the earth. [George Bush, US president, before the Gulf War, 1991.]

26^th, (1995) Barings Bank in London goes into receivership after the Nick Lesson scandal.

… (1993) A car bomb planted by Muslim fundamentalists explodes under the World Trade Centre in New York, killing six people.

… (1991) Saddam Hussein orders Iraqi troops to retreat from Kuwait, declaring a great victory.

… (1990) Playwright Vaclav Havel, Czechoslovakia’s new president, announced in Moscow today that all Soviet troops will leave Czechoslovakia by July, ending 21 years of armed occupation. Most of the troops are expected to be gone by June, when elections are to be held.

… (1987) The Church of England voted to clear the way for the ordination of women priests.

… (1986) In the Philippines, President Marcos is deposed and Mrs. Corazon Aquino is elected.

… (1980) Diplomatic relations are established between Israel and Egypt, to the outrage of other Arab nations.

… (1952) ‘Britain builds its bomb’: Britain has developed an atomic bomb and will test it in the Australian desert later this year. Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s announcement in the House of Commons today comes three years after confirmation that the Soviet Union had the bomb. Churchill said the previous Labour government had developed the bomb in secret – while publicly opposing nuclear weapons. In the US, the Senate committee on atomic energy said that it would help to keep world peace.

… (1951) The 22^nd Amendment is passed, limiting US presidents to two four-year terms in office.

… (1936) ‘Hitler launches people’s car’: A new family car intended to rival Henry Ford’s famous Model T has been unveiled in Germany. Chancellor Adolf Hitler today opened a factory in Saxony that will mass-produce a small, cheap saloon. This Volkswagen – the “people’s car” – has been designed by Ferdinand Porsche of Auto Union, known for more luxurious models. The new Volkswagen is streamlined, and has a revolutionary four-cylinder air-cooled engine mounted over the rear axle. Hitler hopes the new car will transform the German economy.

… (1935) Radar is demonstrated for the first time at Daventry in England by Scotsman Robert Watson-Watt.

… (1901) ‘Boxer leaders beheaded’: Two leaders of China’s Boxer Rebellion were publicly beheaded by a court executioner in Peking today, ending the two-year uprising against the presence of foreigners in China. Japanese soldiers led the condemned rebels to their deaths while a combined foreign force guarded the route. Last August 10,000 allied troops captured Peking and ended a 56-day Boxer siege of the European legations. The Empress Dowager Tz’u-hsi, who shared the “Righteous Harmony Fist” resentment of foreigners and refused to act against the Boxer rebels, had fled the capital. She has not yet dared to return. Western diplomats say the Chinese government will be forced to pay indemnity for the death of 1500 foreigners in the rebellion and that Western troops will be permanently stationed in Peking.

… (1885) A 15-nation meeting in Berlin under Bismarck divides up Central and East Africa among the European nations.

… (1848) The Second French Republic is proclaimed, following the overthrow of the Bourbon king Louis Philippe.

… (1839) The first Grand National steeplechase is run at Aintree, Liverpool.

… (1815) Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from his exile on the island of Elba.

… (1791) The Bank of England issues the first ever pound note.

… (1723) ‘Wren’s own monument is London’s skyline’: Sir Christopher Wren, builder of St. Paul’s Cathedral, died today. He was 90. By the age of 30, Wren was a professor of astronomy at Oxford, a renowned polymath and a founder member of the Royal Society. At 31, he turned to architecture, designing a college chapel at Cambridge and a theatre and college buildings at Oxford. Then the Great Fire of London destroyed 400 acres (161 hectares) of the city in four days. Reconstruction brought a building boom, and Wren replanned the whole city. His street plan was rejected, but he was asked to rebuild the skyline – 51 churches, and a replacement for the medieval cathedral of St. Paul’s, destroyed in the fire. It took him the rest of his life. St. Paul’s took 40 years to build – a work of splendour, its vast dome second only to St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican (on which he modelled it). With St. Paul’s and his many other commissions, such as Kensington Palace and the superb Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich, Sir Christopher Wren left an indelible stamp on London.

25^th, (2001) Death of Sir Donald Bradman, the Australian cricketer who shot to fame in 1930 for scoring 334 runs against England at Headingley.

… (1997) An adult sheep called Dolly, which was successfully cloned by scientists from a single cell at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, has been presented to the public. Many see Dolly the sheep as the first step towards human cloning and have expressed moral outrage. Others feel the new biotechnical advances will have a profound impact on medicine, offering lifesaving procedures.

… (1995) Frank Sinatra, 79, performed for the last time, at a California golf tournament, ending with The Best Is Yet To Come.

… (1988) ‘TV evangelist suffers severe “moral failure”’: American television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart has been banned from preaching for a year by the Protestant church elders of the Assemblies of God after being photographed with a prostitute. Swaggart confessed to “moral failure” on Sunday from the pulpit at his Family Worship Centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He has been visiting the woman in question for the past three years at a house with a sign in the window saying: “Positively no refunds after 15 minutes.”

… (1986) ‘Cory wins as Marcos flees’: Power abruptly changed hands in the Philippines today. Right-wing dictator Ferdinand Marcos and opposition leader Mrs. Corazon Aquino both claimed to have won the elections held two weeks go, and today both held ceremonies to install them as president. Mrs. Aquino, whose husband was shot by Marcos’ troops in 1983, announced that “the long agony” of the 20-year Marcos tyranny was over. Marcos, whose supporters had rigged the polls, delivered a television address confirming his re-election – but the broadcast was blacked out. Within hours thousands of Aquino supporters mobbed Marcos’s palace. He and his family escaped to the rooftop, to be whisked away by US Air Force helicopters.

… (1983) Death of Tennessee Williams, American dramatist whose plays included Sweet Bird of Youth, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Road.

… (1982) The European Court of Human Rights ruled using corporal punishment on school children against their parents’ wishes violated the Human Rights Convention.

… (1964) As he’d promised, Cassius Clay floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee – and hammered Sonny Liston into the canvas at Miami Beach, Florida, tonight in one of boxing’s biggest-ever surprises. After six rounds an injured and humbled Liston, the 7-1 favourite, refused to come out of his corner and world champion loudmouth Clay is now also the world heavyweight’ boxing champion.

… (1939) The first Anderson bomb shelter is built in Britain.

… (1932) Austrian-born Adolf Hitler becomes a German citizen.

… (1922) In France, Henri Landru is guillotined for the murder of at least 10 women, whose bodies have never been recovered.

… (1914) Death of Sir John Tenniel, English artist who was best known for his illustrations for Alice in Wonderland.

… (1913) ‘Guerrilla Warfare Lands Suffragette in Court’: Emmeline Pankhurst, the founder of Britain’s suffragette movement, went on trial near London today accused of bombing Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George’s villa in Surrey a week ago. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. Mrs. Pankhurst described it today as “guerrilla warfare” and accepted responsibility for this and various other violent acts. She and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia have been jailed several times for inciting riots. Mrs. Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in1903 to press for voting rights for British women – rights already established in the British colonies of New Zealand and Australia. Women of all classes joined in massive demonstrations, civil disobedience and hunger strikes – and have been harassed, jailed, and thrown bodily out of Parliament. It is the WSPU’s militant tactics that have brought the suffragettes growing public hostility in this divisive issue.

… (1913) Federal income tax comes into force in the US.

… (1862) ‘Lincoln backs “greenbacks”’: With America locked in civil war, President Abraham Lincoln today introduced a new version of the dollar bill to finance the Union’s mounting Civil War costs. Congress has authorised millions of the new notes, known as “greenbacks”, all the same colour and all the same size, whatever the domination ($1 to $1,000). The greenback is not redeemable in gold or silver – America’s first true paper money, its buying power is a matter of confidence and faith. If the industrial North is suffering under the war burden, the South is worse off: the Confederate dollar started on a par with the Union’s, but its value has slumped. The Confederacy is also printing money it doesn’t have, despite a $15 million loan from a French bank.

… (1841) China offers rewards for British heads as the Opium War rages.

… (1570) Queen Elizabeth I of England is excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

… (1308) King Edward II of England is crowned.

…He who begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all. [Samuel Taylor Coleridge, romantic poet, son of an English clergyman.]

24^th, (1999) Thirty-eight people are killed in twin avalanches which hit the small twon of Galtuer in the western Austrian Alps.

… (1989) Fifty-one die over the Pacific when a cargo door drops off a Boeing 747.

… (1987) Memphis Slim, American blues singer, dies in Paris.

… (1977) US president Jimmy Carter cuts off aid to Argentina, Uruguay and Ethiopia for human rights violations.

… (1968) ‘Tet riposte captures Hue’: After a fierce battle, South Vietnamese and US Army troops today recaptured the old Vietnamese imperial citadel of Hue, which had been in Viet Cong hands for a month. Today’s victory was a counter-attack to the recent three-week Tet Offensive, which cost communist North Vietnam 40,000 men. But the North may be winning the propaganda war – American television pictures have shown scenes of increasing brutality, including the summary execution of prisoners, and opposition to the war is swelling fast.

… (1966) An army coup deposes Dr Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana.

… (1961) ‘Missing Link forged’: British anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey have found a second “Missing Link” in the ancient evolutionary chain between apes and men. Two years ago, after a painstaking 28-year search in East Africa’s Olduvai Gorge, Mary Leakey uncovered the 1 ¾ million-year-old fossilised skull of the most ancient pre-human creature yet found, Australopithecus. Today the Leakey’s uncovered another skull, that of a child, along with a collarbone and parts of a hand. This pre-human’s brain was twice the size of the first skull and half the human size, with smaller teeth, and opposable thumbs. Stone tools were found near the skull. The Leakey’s are calling it Homo habilis – “handy man”. They say it is the earliest toolmaker, and a direct human ancestor.

… (1946) Juan Perón is elected President of Argentina.

… (1932) Speed king Malcolm King beats his own land speed record, reaching 253.96 mph at Daytona Beach.

… (1923) The 400-mile (640 km) journey from London to Edinburgh shrank to a mere day trip as the “Flying Scotsman” set off to inaugurate the London and North Eastern Railway’s new scheduled train service between the two cities. The powerful new steam engine is said to be capable of pulling its line of carriages at 100 mph (160 kph).

… (1920) The Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party announces its programme for establishing the Third Reich.

… (1920) ‘American Astor First Woman MP’: American-born Nancy Astor was today the first woman to speak in Britain’s House of Commons. Her husband, Conservative MP Waldorf Astor, succeeded his father as Viscount Astor last year and moved to the House of Lords. Lady Astor won his seat in the Commons in a by-election two months ago. Today she took her place in the Mother of Parliaments, and rose to speak in opposition to a proposal to abolish the Liquor Control Board. Lady Astor has strong opinions on temperance, and on women’s rights and child welfare.

… (1917) ‘Telegram tips US towards war’: German foreign minister Arthur Zimmermann has sent a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico which could turn the tide of the war in Europe. The message found its way instead to the desk of President Woodrow Wilson, who read it today to an outraged nation. British naval intelligence intercepted the telegram and managed to decode it. Zimmerman had offered Mexico an alliance against the US in return for restoring Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to Mexican control. Though Wilson won re-election last year with his slogan “He kept us out of the war,” it now looks as if he will go down in history as the president who took the US into war.

… (1887) Paris and Brussels establish a telephone line, the first cities to do so.

… (1848) France becomes a republic for the second time as King Louis Philippe abdicates and flees to exile in England while rioters invade the Chamber of Deputies and declare a republic.

… (1825) Thomas Bowdler, the English editor who was more of a censor, died today aged 71. Bowdler was a prude – in 1802 he formed the Society for the Suppression of Vice. He doctored Shakespeare to produce his Family Edition, and excised parts of the Old Testament and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, removing “words and expressions which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family”. He gave a new word to the English language: “bowdlerizing” means ‘literary emasculation’.

… (1815) Death of Robert Fulton, American engineer who invented the steam boat.

… (1815) In New Zealand land is sold to whites for the first time, for a mission church.

… (1582) Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar as a replacement for the Julian calendar.

…Wars come because not enough people are sufficiently afraid. [Hugh Schonfield, British writer, on this day, 1948.]

23^rd, (1991) Thai premier Prem Tinsulanonda is overthrown in a bloodless coup.

… (1987) ‘Warhol’s 15 minutes up’: The man who found art in a Campbell’s soup can has died on the operating table in New York. Warhol was the pope of Pop Art. In the early 1960s he started reproducing blown-up comic strip scenes for New York shop window displays, using a new technique of silk-screening outsized photographic enlargements. His “factory” churned out sequential mass-media images, each slightly different: the soup can or Marilyn Monroe’s face. Warhol often hinted that he was taking both the public and the critics for a ride. “If you want to know anything about me, just look at the surface of my paintings. It’s all there, there’s nothing more,” he once said, causing speculation about whether he implied profundity or shallowness about himself and his paintings.

… (1981) ‘Juan Carlos confronts Fascists’: Fascist officers loyal to the memory of Spanish dictator Francis-co Franco today stormed the Cortes, Spain’s parliament, and held hundreds of parliamentarians hostage. The rebel leader, Colonel Tejero de Molina, pistol in hand, took the podium to announce the coup after his Guardia Civil unit raked the ceiling with machine-gun fire. Meanwhile the Francoist General Jaime del Bosch, the man behind the coup, declared a state of emergency in the east and sent his troops into Valencia. This evening King Juan Carlos responded with a resolute four-minute television address to the nation, saying he had ordered the army to “take measures” to suppress the revolt. The king was counting on popular support – the country’s return to the monarchy after Franco’s death in 1975 had brought the first free elections in 40 years of Fascism. And the Fascist general wavered: the troops returned to barracks, and Spain’s fragile democracy has survived.

… (1968) Theatre censorship ends in Britain.

… (1945) ‘US Flag finally flies over Iwo Jima’: The Stars and Stripes is flying today over Iwo Jima, a strategic island only 750 miles (1200 km) from Tokyo. After 74 days of bombardment and four days of bitter fighting on the ground, the invading force of 30,000 US Marines still has a tough fight on its hands. The crack Japanese garrison, believed to number 23,000, is fighting without quarter and almost no Japanese prisoners have been taken. They are still defending a network of deep underground bunkers. Losses on both sides have been heavy in some of the bloodiest fighting so far. Once conquered, the island-fortress will serve as an Allied air base for the final assault on Japan.

… (1931) Death of Dame Nellie Melba, Australian opera star who had a dessert named after her – Peach Melba.

… (1924) Death of Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28^th president of the United States who proposed a plan for a League of Nations.

… (1917) French actress Sarah Bernhardt has her right leg amputated.

… (1906) Johann Hoch is imprisoned in Chicago for murdering six of his 13 wives.

… (1898) Emile Zola is imprisoned for the publication of his letter J’accuse, which accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongly imprisoned Captain Dreyfus.

… (1863) British explorers John Speke and J.A. Grant announce that they have discovered Lake Victoria to be the source of the Nile.

… (1836) The Mexican army lays siege to the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas.

… (1820) ‘Cabinet bomb plot foiled by police’: Only a few days after the Prince Regent acceded to the throne as King George IV, London police have foiled a plot to murder his Cabinet. The plot was uncovered when a revolutionary group led by London estate agent Arthur Thistlewood was infiltrated by a police informer. Thistlewood had stored a cache of arms in the hay-loft at a house in Cato Street, West London. The plan was to plant a bomb at a house in Grosvenor Square where the Cabinet was to meet tonight for dinner. With the ministers despatched, the prisons were to be thrown open and London set afire. Police raided the house today and arrested Thistlewood and his followers. One policeman was killed in the scuffle.

… (1792) Death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, British painter and first president of the Royal Academy.

… (1732) Handel’s Oratorio is performed for the first time in Britain.

22^nd, (2017) David Bowie received two posthumous Brit awards, a year after his death.

… (1989) Death of Aldo Jacuzzi, American manufacturer of the famous baths.

… (1973) Death of Elizabeth Bowen, Irish novelist whose novels include Death of the Heart and The Heat of the Day.

… (1946) Dr Selman Abrahams announces he has discovered streptomycin, an antibiotic which can be used to treat tuberculosis and bacterial infections.

… (1940) ‘5 year old is new Dalia Lama’: — A five-year-old boy was enthroned in Lhasa today as the 14^th Dalai Lama, spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet, with a regent and council of ministers to guide him. Tenzin Gyatso was born in north-eastern Tibet on June 6, 1935, the very day that his predecessor died. According to Tibetan belief this was no mere coincidence – the Dalai Lamas are held to be the reincarnation of their predecessors, in an unbroken line stretching back 544 years. Lhasa’s wise men located young Tenzin in 1938 and administered the time-honoured tests: the three-year-old boy had to choose various objects that had belonged to his predecessor from a group of similar objects. Tenzin picked them all out, without any hesitation.

… (1934) ‘Somoza executes rival Sandino’: — General Augusto Sandino, the charismatic Nicaraguan guerrilla leader, has been executed by his rival, General Anastasio Somoza, commander of the feared US-trained National Guard. Sandino and three aides were seized by National Guards after a meeting with President Juan Sacasa, and shot. Somoza is now poised for a coup. Sandino’s guerrilla army fought US forces which occupied the country from 1912. They were withdrawn last year when Sandino agreed to a ceasefire.

… (1886) In London, the Times newspaper runs the first-ever classified personal column.

… (1879) ‘The five and dime money machine’: — American storekeeper Frank W. Woolworth was convinced he had a winning idea, and when at first it failed he simply tried again. His first venture was a retail store in Utica, New York, where everything on sale cost the same cheap price – five cents. But the F.W. Woolworth Co. 5 Cent Store was not a success, and today he opened the new F.W. Woolworth Co. 5 and 10 Cent Store in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The area’s conservative Amish and Mennonite communities apparently approve of this aid to thrifty living and have given Woolworth’s new venture a warm welcome. If the store succeeds, Woolworth’s plan is to open a growing chain of 5 and 10 cent stores – he reckons centralised purchasing will help him keep prices down, and profits up.

… (1878) Frank Woolworth opened his first Woolworth shop, in New York. His first British store opened in 1909.

… (1857) Sir Robert Baden-Powell, British hero of the siege of Mafeking in the Boer War and founder of the Boy Scouts, is born.

… (1855) Thirteen gold-diggers are acquitted in Melbourne of rioting and manslaughter after fighting breaks out at the Eureka gold mine.

… (1819) Spain has ceded Florida and all her colonies east of the Mississippi to the United States in a treaty signed today by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. This follows General Andrew Jackson’s invasion of Florida last year. Jackson grossly exceeded his orders to pacify Indian tribes on the Florida border, taking his army deep into Spanish territory to occupy Pensacola in a coup. Jackson faces an inquiry, but it is likely to be a mere formality.

… (1790) French soldiers land in Britain at Fishguard but are quickly captured.

… (1787) France nears bankruptcy, with a national debt of £800 million.

… (1741) ‘Farm revolutionary dies’: — The great agricultural innovator Jethro Tull died today at his farm near Hungerford in England. He was 67. Ten years ago Tull published a book that is already a classic: The New Horse-Houghing Husbandry, or an Essay on the Principles of Tillage and Vegetation. The book is central to the ongoing revolution in agricultural technology. Tull had invented a steerable, multi-tined, horse-drawn hoe – not just a better hoe but a new type of tool for a new kind of farming. Tull’s hoe is ideal for both grain and turnips, the new root crop. Turnips mean more winter stock-feed, which means more manure and therefore a more fertile soil – which no longer needs a whole year’s rest to recover. Turnips fit in perfectly with two grain crops and one of grass and clover for hay and pasture – the high productive four-course system now spreading through England. Tull’s hoe was only half the answer: it requires crops planted in straight, evenly-spaced rows. So Tull invented a mechanical seed-drill – inspired by the pipes of the organ he played in church on Sundays.

… (1732) George Washington, American statesman and general, who became the first president of the US in 1789, is born.

… (1512) Death of Amerigo Vespucci, Italian navigator and discoverer of the New World.

…The latest definition of an optimist is one who fills up his crossword puzzle in ink. [Clement King Shorter, in the Observer, 1925.]

— The Blog Author commenced basic military training at RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire, on this day, in 1983.

21^st, (1989) Czech writer Vaclav Havel goes to jail for initiating demonstrations.

… (1989) Two members of Winnie Mandela’s bodyguard are charged with the murder of 14-year-old Stompie Mocketsi.

… (1986) Shigechiyo lzumi, the world’s oldest man, dies in Japan at the age of 120.

… (1972) ‘Nixon in China’: US President Richard Nixon landed in Peking today, extending the hand of friendship to Communist China. Speaking at a state banquet in the Great Hall of the people, Nixon invited Prime Minister Chou En-lai to join him in a new “long march” to world peace. Nixon and national security adviser Dr Henry Kissinger, who arranged the visit, were met by Chou En-lai at the airport. They then visited Chairman Mao Tse-tung in the Forbidden City. Nixon’s visit reverses the hardline US policy on Communist China – it is the first exploratory step towards full diplomatic recognition of the regime which is backing the other side in the Vietnam War. A major stumbling-block is US support for the Nationalist regime in Taiwan: Peking insists that the US must choose between the two Chinas before relations can be normalised between Peking and Washington.

… (1969) The US Patents Office grants a patent to King Hassan of Morocco for his device to monitor the function of the human heart.

… (1965) ‘Malcolm X Gunned Down in New York’: The American Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was shot dead today while addressing a meeting in New York. A rival sect is suspected of the killing. Malcolm X once preached black violence, but he converted to orthodox Islam after a pilgrimage to Mecca last year and abandoned his extreme, separatist stance for a more optimistic socialism. Born Malcolm Little, Malcolm X led a violent youth; his father was killed for backing black revolutionary Marcus Garvey. Malcolm drifted to New York in his teens, fell into a life of crime in Harlem and served six years for burglary. In jail he read the works of Black Muslim leader Elijah Muhammad, and once freed he joined the sect and changed his name to Malcolm X. Intelligent and articulate, he was soon the chief Black Muslim spokesman. But he proved too radical for the Muslims, and split with them two years ago.

… (1960) Castro nationalises all private businesses in Cuba.

… (1958) A logo by UK artist Gerald Holtom was accepted by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War. Adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, it is now the worldwide “peace symbol”.

… (1957) Israel defies a UN deadline and holds on to the Gaza Strip.

… (1952) Film actress Elizabeth Taylor weds hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton, Jnr.

… (1922) The UK declared Egypt’s independence.

… (1916) ‘German guns batter Verdun’: Massed German artillery started a furious bombardment of a crucial 8-mile (13 km) sector of the French line at Verdun in the middle of the Western Front this morning. The deadly barrage has kept up all day, demolishing the French defences – which were weakened because, ignoring intelligence reports, French commander General Joseph Joffre was convinced the attack would come at Champagne and failed to reinforce Verdun in time. Joffre has now pulled back his troops to minimise losses and German infantry advancing behind the barrage are meeting only scattered machine-gun fire. The German lines are reinforced by a half a million men withdrawn from the eastern front following German successes there. The battle for Verdun could be a long and bloody one.

… (1858) The first electric burglar alarm is installed by Edwin Holmes of Boston.

… (1849) Following the end of the Second Sikh War, the Punjab is annexed by Britain.

…President Nixon’s motto was, if two wrongs didn’t make a right, try free. [Norman Cousins of the Daily Telegraph, on President Richard Nixon, 1979.]

20^th, (2001) Foot and mouth disease hits the UK for the first time in 20 years.

… (1997) Death of Deng Xiaoping, China’s reformist and paramount leader, aged 92, three years after his retirement.

… (1993) Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were charged with the abduction and murder of two-year-old James Bulger.

… (1985) Contraceptives go on sale in the Irish Republic for the first time.

… (1972) Influential US journalist Walter Winchell, who wrote for The New York Mirror between 1929 and 1969, dies.

… (1962) ‘Glenn spins round the world’: Astronaut John Glenn circled the Earth three times in under five hours today to become the first American to orbit the planet. After 10 postponements because of bad weather and technical problems, the US Marine Corps pilot’s flight aboard the tiny Friendship-7 capsule went without a hitch from blast-off at Cape Canaveral to splashdown in the Atlantic near Puerto Rico. During the flight a warning light at mission control indicated the capsule’s vital heat-shield was loose, but re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere went smoothly. This is the third manned flight in the Mercury programme, but the US still lags behind the USSR in the space race – Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space in April last year. Glenn, who was a pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, said he felt “excellent” after the flight.

… (1947) ‘Mountbatten final viceroy for India’: Britain’s Labour government has given Lord Louis Mountbatten the task of supervising a peaceful transition to independence for India after centuries of British rule. The government also announced that Britain will leave India by June next year. As the last viceroy, Mountbatten will try to negotiate agreement between the divided Hindus and Muslims, whose leaders are said to be considering partitioning the country. Mountbatten, a great-grandson of Queen Victoria, was Supreme Allied Commander for Southeast Asia during the War and recaptured Burma from Japan. His appointment is controversial: his predecessor, Field Marshall Lord Wavell, was dismissed from his post and opposition leader Winston Churchill (who had refused to free India) has demanded an explanation.

… (1938) British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns over Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s decision to hold talks with the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

… (1915) Disregarding the Great War that is tearing Europe apart, San Francisco is staging a world fair at which several of the warring states are exhibiting. The Panama-Pacific Exhibition celebrates the opening of the Panama Canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, saving a 7000-mile (11,300 km) journey around Cape Horn. The canal was completed 15 months ago when President Wilson pressed a button, detonating the last area of land away.

… (1811) Austria declares itself bankrupt.

… (1790) Holy Roman Emperor Josef II, whose sweeping reforms provoked rebellion in Belgium, Hungary and elsewhere, dies.

… (1707) ‘Last of the Moguls’: Aurangzeb, the sixth and perhaps last of the great Mogul emperors of India, died today at 88, his empire crumbling about him. Aurangzeb seized the throne at Agra from his father, Shah Jahan, 49 years ago, killing two of his brothers and jailing the third to secure the succession. He moved his capital to Delhi, and his rule was stable until his third son backed a revolt by the Rajputs – the Hindu warriors of Rajasthan. Aurangzeb was at continuous war with the Hindu kingdoms ever after. His military excesses have brought the empire close to bankruptcy, his subjects taxed to starvation. He destroyed hundreds of Hindu temples, and his religious persecutions will leave a long and bitter legacy.

… (1677) Death of Benedict Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Jewish parentage, whose equation of God and nature was furiously attacked by Christian scholars.

… (1653) Martin van Tromp’s Dutch fleet is defeated off the coast at Portsmouth by the English fleet of Admiral Robert Blake.

… (1513) Pope Julius II, patron of Michelangelo and Raphael, dies.

… (1472) Orkney and Shetland were handed to Scotland in place of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark, who married King James III.

… (1437) ‘King of Scotland murdered in sleep’: Scotland’s King James I has been assassinated by a group of nobles seeking to place a rival on the throne. He was 42. James was staying at the Dominican friary at Perth. His assassins, led by Sir Robert Graham, have failed in their plans since James’s son is to succeed him. As a boy the late King sought safety in France, but was captured by the English en route and imprisoned for 18 years. While a prisoner he married Joan, a cousin of England’s King Henry V. After assuming Scotland’s throne in 1424 James executed many of the powerful nobility to establish control.

…Outer Space is no place for a person of good breeding. [Violet Bonham Carter, English writer and politician.]

19^th, (2008) Fidel Castro resigned as Cuban president after nearly a half-century in power.

… (1991) The USSR’s two most powerful men are locked in a head to head power struggle. Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Federation, today called on Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev to resign. Speaking on television, Yeltsin said Gorbachev “has brought the country to dictatorship”. As was to be expected Yeltsin’s speech has provoked a furious backlash from his rival.

… (1976) ‘Cod war: chips are down’: Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain today in a further episode of the “cod war” that soured relations between the two countries four years ago. Conflict with Britain broke out in 1958 when Iceland extended its territorial waters from 3 to 12 nautical miles (4.8 to 19.2 nautical km) to protect its cod-fishing grounds. Britain finally recognised the 12-mile limit in 1961. In 1972 Iceland extended the limit to 50 miles (80 km). British fishermen took no notice until an Icelandic gunboat sank two British trawlers, starting a sporadic “war” which lasted a year. Last month an Icelandic gunboat rammed the Royal Navy frigate Andromeda, which was protecting British trawlers within the 50-mile limit. Following today’s breakdown in relations, Britain is sending a fourth warship to the area.

… (1959) Britain, Greece and Turkey guarantee the independence of the island of Cyprus.

… (1951) Nobel prize-winning French writer Andre Gide, author of The Immoralist and The Vatican Cellars, dies.

… (1942) The Japanese air force bombs the Australian city of Darwin.

… (1937) Italian forces begin the pillage of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.

… (1921) ‘Spinning Rotors Lift New Craft’: Etienne Oehmichen, a French engineer, has built a helicopter with two huge rotors powered by a mere 25-horsepower motor – and today it made a successful test flight in Paris. Oehmichen’s secret is the craft’s lightweight construction – it weighs only 220 pounds (100 kg). Helicopters built by other pioneers have been much too heavy. Though Oehmichen’s helicopter takes off successfully, he admits he does not yet know how to keep it stable, nor can he control its direction.

… (1915) ‘Vital Dardanelles under attack’: A Franco-British fleet today began shelling Turkish fortifications along the strategic Dardanelles waterway in a bid to defeat Turkey and reopen the critical Black Sea supply route to Russia. The Russians desperately need war supplies from Britain and France, who in turn need the Ukraine’s grain. Sixteen allied battleships are bombarding the Turkish forts at long range, for fear of mines. The big guns are being directed by spotter aircraft from the new aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

… (1914) British explorer Campbell Besley announces in New York his discovery of lost Inca cities.

… (1913) Pedro Lascurain became President of Mexico, but resigned after 45 minutes.

… (1909) Keen big-game hunter US president Theodore Roosevelt calls for a world conference on conservation.

… (1906) ‘Corn “flakes” for breakfast’: A new kind of “instant” breakfast went on sale in the US today, backed by an expensive advertising campaign. The Battle Creek Toasted Cornflake Company of Michigan is selling boxes of twice-baked wheat flakes – just add milk and sugar, and they’re ready to eat. The company’s founder, Will K. Kellogg, helped to develop the “new” flakes 30 years ago with his elder brother, Dr John H. Kellogg, at Dr Kellogg’s sanatorium at Battle Creek. Dr Kellogg, a Seventh Day Adventist, used the flake cereals as a vegetarian health food for patients with mental illnesses. He also claimed the flakes would help to curb the sex drive – but the advertisements his brother Will launched today failed to mention that.

… (1897) Mrs. Hoodless of Ontario, Canada, founds the Women’s Institute.

… (1897) Charles Blondin, the Frenchman who tightrope-walked his way across the Niagara Falls, dies.

… (1878) Thomas Edison was granted a patent for his phonograph.

… (1861) Tsar Alexander II today signed a proclamation setting free 20 million serfs – almost a third of Russia’s population. But the emancipation has strings attached: to become owners of the land they till, serfs must pay a redemption tax to the government and a fee to their former landlords. Very few have the means to do so.

… (1855) Bread riots break out in the British city of Liverpool.

… (1800) Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims himself First Consul of the newly established French dictatorship.

18^th, (1991) The US assault ship Tripoli and the guided missile cruiser Princeton are damaged by mines in the Persian Gulf during the Gulf War.

… (1990) Queen’s Freddie Mercury made his last public appearance, to get a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music.

… (1990) Demonstrators storm the headquarters of Romania’s provisional government and demand the resignation of President lon liescu and Prime Minister Petre Roman.

… (1986) ‘South Africa tries to curb TV crews’: In a bid to muzzle international outrage over the brutal tactics it is using to suppress black rebellion, South Africa’s white government has barred foreign television crews from filming “disturbances” in the black townships. The police say last weekend’s bout of violence in Alexandra Township near Johannesburg left 19 blacks killed in battles against the security forces. However protestors say four times as many were killed and hundreds were wounded. The new press curbs do not yet affect foreign newspapermen, but correspondents fear they may soon have to face military censorship.

… (1967) The father of the A-bomb, American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, dies.

… (1948) The Fianna Fail party under Eamon de Valera is defeated in the Irish election.

… (1933) Death of James “Gentlemen Jim” Corbett, US prize-fighter and world champion from 1892 and 1897.

… (1930) An American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh, today discovered a new planet, to be named Pluto after the Lord of Hades in Greek myth. Pluto is the Sun’s ninth planet, and the smallest of them – it is so faint it can hardly be seen even with the most powerful telescopes. It is 3.7 billion miles from the Sun, 40 times as far as the Earth – a cold, dark, lifeless place.

… (1876) A direct telegraph link is established between Britain and New Zealand.

… (1855) Russian autocrat and precipitator of the Crimean War, Tsar Nicholas I, dies.

… (1678) ‘Unknown preacher writes masterpiece’: An itinerant English tinker and preacher with hardly any formal education has written a book that is being hailed as a masterpiece of English prose and human insight. John Bunyan, a 50-year-old Baptist, published the first part of his Pilgrim’s Progress today. It is both an allegory of the inner journey from sin to salvation and a satire on life. Bunyan writes with a strength and direct simplicity that tells of experience more than mere theory; he is a field preacher who knows little of pulpits, charming simple folk face-to-face with his message of salvation for Everyman. Bunyan has spent 12 years in jail for preaching without a licence and for nonconformism, and has written 10 books in his cell.

… (1564) ‘A Life of Genius’: Michelangelo Buonarotti, the artistic paragon of the Renaissance Age and Italy’s first creative genius, has died in Rome at the advanced age of 89. He was still working at the end. Michelangelo was equally at ease with sculpture, painting, architecture, even poetry, but his first love was for marble and the chisel. The Pietà and the colossal David, both carved when he was in his twenties, are masterpieces, although the extraordinary frescoes of the Book of Genesis that adorn the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are arguably his greatest work. They were commissioned by Pope Julius II, and took four years to complete. Twenty years later he returned to the Sistine Chapel to paint the famous Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar for Pope Clement VII. The sack of Rome and the destruction of the Florentine Republic left Michelangelo disillusioned, and his later works show a deeply spiritual sorrow. His last sculpture, a second Pietà, was intended for his own tomb. He mutilated it in a fit of dejection, and never finished it. The figures are as powerful as ever, but filled with suffering – and with a passionate faith. It is an inspired portrait of the dead Christ, yet to rise again.

… (1546) ‘Too much work kills Luther’: Martin Luther, the father of the reformation, has died at his birthplace in Eisleben, Germany, at the age of 63, worn out by overwork. When he was 22 Luther was almost killed by lightning, and joined an Augustinian monastery. In 1511 he was appointed professor of scripture at Wittenberg. Luther’s dedication to the common man brought his teachings into increasing conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, and in 1521 he was excommunicated. He refused to recant, and sought refuge at Wittenberg. The elector Frederick III of Saxony refused to send him to Rome for execution. Luther set about reforming the church in the German states, abolishing confession and private mass, abandoning monasteries and allowing priests to marry. He married a former nun, and they raised six children. He also brought the Bible within reach of ordinary people, translating it into everyday German. He lived to see most of northern Europe abandon Rome for the new Protestant churches.

See also: The Reformation and Religious Enlightenment…

… (1478) George, Duke of Clarence, is drowned in a butt of wine in the Tower of London.

… (1455) Death of Fra Angelico (Giovanni de Fiesole), Florentine painter and Dominican friar.

17^th, (1982) Crackdown in Poland as General Jaruzelski imposes martial law and thousands are arrested.

… (1982) Death of Jazz pianist and composer Thelonius Monk, who was influential in the development of “bop”.

… (1982) Death of Lee Strasburg, founder of the New York Actors’ Studio where he developed Stanislavsky’s theory of acting as the “method” approach.

… (1979) ‘Chinese attack allies in Vietnam’: Months of border skirmishes erupted into war today as Chinese forces poured into Vietnam. China had backed North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, but since Hanoi’s victory in 1975 Vietnam has turned to the Soviet Union, causing tensions with China. Last month Vietnam invaded Cambodia and drove out Pol Pot’s murderous Khmer Rouge regime – which China supports. There is rising panic among Vietnam’s ethnic Chinese population as rumours of anti-Chinese purges spread, and thousands of refugees are fleeing to China or taking to small, crowded boats for a perilous voyage to freedom.

… (1972) The German Volkswagen Beetle outsells the US Ford Model-T with over 15 million cars sold.

…(1968) The great French Alpine skier Jean-Claude Killy has won all three men’s gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France. He is only the second man to do so, following Austrian skier Toni Sailer’s triple gold win in Italy in 1956. Jean-Claude Killy won the World Championship combined titles in 1965 and 1966 and the World Championship last year, proving him to be one of the greatest downhill skiers of all time.

… (1962) After the longest murder trial in British legal history, James Hanratty is found guilty of the murder of Michael Gregston in a lay-by on the A6 and is sentenced to hang.

… (1958) ‘CND Aims to Ban the Bomb’: Spurred by the threat of American nuclear weapons on British soil, a new pressure group was formed in London today to demand that Britain “Ban the Bomb”. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chose veteran peace campaigner Bertrand Russell as its president. CND is demanding that Britain take the initiative in stopping the arms race and abandon nuclear weapons – unilaterally if need be.

… (1909) ‘Geronimo dies with honour’: Geronimo, the legendary Apache warrior chief, died today at his ranch on an Oklahoma reservation, far from the homeland he fought to defend. He was 80. He cleverly and fiercely resisted white settler incursions in the Chiricahua Apache lands in Arizona and New Mexico. After the Chiricahua were forced on to a bleak desert reservation in 1876, Geronimo repeatedly broke out on hit-and-run guerrilla raids, and in 1881 led the last Apache uprising after US troops slew an Apache holy man. He finally surrendered in 1886 and took to ranching. The great warrior was selling Apache souvenirs at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition five years ago, and a year later he rode in President Roosevelt’s inaugural procession.

… (1880) Tsar Alexander II narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Russian Nihilists as a bomb explodes in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

… (1856) Death of Heinrich Heine, German poet, writer and revolutionary sympathiser, author of Buch der Lieder and Romanzero.

… (1855) The imperial Chinese army finally ousts the Small Sword Triad gang from Shanghai with the help of French forces.

… (1405) ‘Mongol leader was ruthless but loved art’: Timur the Lame, the Mongol conqueror who built pyramids of skulls all over Central Asia, is dead – laid low by disease during an expedition to conquer China. He was 68. Timur (called Tamerlane in Europe) carved out a vast empire by the sword, stretching from Mongolia to India, from Baghdad to Egypt – although he was crippled in his youth and often had to be carried into battle on a litter. Claiming direct descent from Genghis Khan, he conquered his native Transoxiana (Uzbekistan) 35 years ago, and made Samarkand his capital. Then he attacked all his neighbours in turn. His terms were simple: surrender or death – and hesitation meant mass beheadings. A brilliant tactician, Timur routed the Golden Horde, conquered the Turks, Anatolians, Mamelukes, Arabs and Persians, and sacked Delhi, Damascus and Baghdad. He filled Samarkand with looted art treasures – for Timur loved art, and was a philosopher who impressed the great minds of his time, even though he was illiterate. His four sons now inherit the empire.

16^th, (1991) ‘Should Gulf War Go Nuclear?’: One in three people in a poll of seven of Europe’s largest cities, published today, wants the allies to use nuclear weapons if Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons in the Gulf War over Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. It is well known that Iraq has chemical weapons, and Saddam says he will use them in the ground war that now seems imminent. Iraq is also thought to have nuclear capabilities, but nuclear installations were an early target for the allied bombers. However, two more Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel today, despite continuing allied raids on the Scud launching sites. One fell in the Negev desert near Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor. A broadcast from Baghdad announced that Scuds are targeted on the reactor.

… (1991) During the Gulf War, two scud missiles hit Israel.

… (1989) The police announce that the Pan Am plane crash at Lockerbie in Scotland is the result of a bomb.

… (1989) Harley Street specialist Dr. Raymond Crockett resigns after allegations of his involvement in a “kidneys-for-sale” racket in which organs were transplanted from needy Turks to wealthy patients.

… (1987) ‘“Ivan the Terrible” finally faces Israeli court’: John Demanjanuk, or “Ivan the Terrible”, a former car worker who lived for 40 years in the US, has gone on trial in Jerusalem accused of the murder of hundreds of Jews at the Nazi death camp of Treblinka. Demanjanuk insists he is not guilty. “I’m not a human monster,” he told the jury. Prosecution witnesses told how he strangled their relatives with his bare hands. He was extradited from the US, and is the second Nazi to be tried in Israel after Adolph Eichmann.

… (1983) Arson is suspected as fire devastates South Australia, leaving 8500 homeless.

… (1977) ‘Amin secret police murder Archbishop’: Ugandan dictator Idi Amin has murdered the country’s Archbishop, the Most Reverend Janani Luwum. The Archbishop and two cabinet ministers were arrested at an opposition rally in Kampala by troops. Amin announced today that they had died in a car crash, but there is no doubt that he was murdered by Amin’s notorious State Research Bureau secret police. Tens of thousands of people are known to have been murdered and many terribly tortured since Amin’s coup in 1971.

… (1972) A miners’ strike plunges Britain into darkness as electricity supplies are cut.

… (1960) USS Triton begins her epic underwater voyage around the world, the first nuclear submarine to undertake such a journey.

… (1959) Fidel Castro, 32, has been sworn in as the youngest-ever leader of Cuba just weeks after his rebel guerrilla army drove the hated dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Cuba’s constitution was amended to allow such a young leader to take office. Castro’s administration has been well received internationally.

… (1945) US forces capture Bataan in the Philippines.

… (1940) Hundreds of British merchant seamen are freed as the German auxiliary cruiser Altmark runs aground in a Norwegian fjord after being stalked by HMS Cossack.

… (1932) Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fail party sweeps to power in the Irish general election.

… (1923) ‘Coco kills the corset’: Let women rejoice – the corset is dead. That is the clear message of the new haute couture collection shown in Paris today by the High Priestess of Style, Coco Chanel. Coco’s New Woman of the Twenties is young and free, and will have no truck with the fussy fashions still lingering from the last century. Gone forever are the corsets, ruffles and cloying drapes, giving way to bobbed hair, low heels, shorter skirts and sweaters – and freedom. Coco Chanel opened a milliner’s shop in Paris in 1909, and five years later she added clothes to her line. She sees fashion as architecture: “It’s a matter of proportions,” she says. Her new clothes are classics – simple and chaste, with an austere, youthful look.

… (1887) The jubilee of British queen Victoria is celebrated in India with the freeing of 25,000 prisoners.

… (1834) Lionel Lukin, the British inventor of the lifeboat, dies.

… (1659) A new way of paying money without using either coinage or a letter of credit was used in England today when Mr Nicholas Vanacker signed a “cheque” to a creditor, noting the sum owed. Creditors can present such notes at a goldsmith’s or bank for payment. British bankers hope this will help England to catch up with the more sophisticated techniques used in Italy.

15^th, (1986) ‘Police and pickets clash at Wapping’: — London police in riot gear fought violently tonight with 5000 angry union pickets trying to stop distribution of the Sunday Times and News of the World newspapers. Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch moved the papers to the new computerised plant at Wapping in London’s docklands to outflank the 2000 print union strikers who had brought production to a halt. The papers are now being produced by managers and journalists, and Wapping is virtually under siege.

… (1982) Eighty-four die as a storm wrecks an oil rig off the coast of Newfoundland.

… (1978) ‘Ageing Ali Loses Title’: — Muhammad Ali lost his world heavyweight title to Leon Spinks in a 15-round decision at Las Vegas tonight. Ali first won the title in 1964, but was stripped of it for refusing to fight in Vietnam. He started fighting again in 1970 and won the title a second time when he beat the fearsome George Foreman in a sensational upset in 1974. Ali is 36, and after tonight’s defeat punters are saying he is past it – but he is a superb athlete with enormous staying power. Spinks is only the third fighter ever to beat Ali. Joe Frazier did it in 1971, but Ali later beat him twice. Ken Norton defeated Ali in 1973, but Ali won the return bout. Now Ali wants a return match against Spinks. If Ali wins, he’ll be the only man to hold the title three times.

… (1974) A battle rages on the Golan Heights between Israeli and Syrian forces.

… (1971) ‘Farewell to Bobs and Tanners’: — Britain has gone decimal, leaving millions of older citizens brought up with pennies, tanners, bobs, florins and half-crowns to fumble with unfamiliar coins inelegantly known as “p”, which equals 12 old pennies (or one old shilling). If this all sounds confusing, that’s because it is. New pence are more than twice the value of old pennies and critics say the awkward conversion scale will mean higher prices and hidden inflation. But the government claims the changeover is going very smoothly.

… (1970) Death of Lord Dowding, the architect of British Fighter Command’s victory over the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

… (1965) U.S. musician Nat King Cole died, aged 45, of lung cancer.

… (1952) ‘Britain remembers wartime courage of George VI’: — England’s King George VI was buried today at Windsor after a state funeral. More than 300,000 silently paid their respects as his coffin lay in state at Westminster Hall in London. His brother Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936 forced him to take the throne he had never wanted. Wartime leadership was thrust upon him, but he won wide affection and tremendous respect for his dedication, often risking his life on morale-building visits to troops in the war zones. The eldest of his two daughters is the new queen of England, Elizabeth II.

… (1945) British forces reach the River Rhine in their advance to Berlin.

… (1944) The Allies begin to bomb the German-held strategic position of Monte Cassino in Italy.

… (1942) Singapore falls to Japanese forces who capture thousands of British troops.

… (1933) US president Franklin D. Roosevelt escapes an assassination attempt by Italian-born anarchist Giuseppe Zangara.

… (1922) The Permanent Court of International Justice holds its first session in The Hague.

… (1903) The first teddy bear went on sale, after President Theodore Roosevelt gave permission for his nickname to be used.

… (1898) ‘Battleship blast edges US and Cuba close to war’: — The US battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbour today with the loss of 260 lives. She had been sent to Havana to protect American citizens during the current Cuban rebellion against Spanish rule. The US says today’s tragic explosion was caused by a floating mine, but Spanish authorities say the ship’s bunkers caught fire. The incident has brought the two countries to the brink of war. The American press is holding Spain responsible and demanding revenge. William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal is deliberately whipping up pro-war feelings: Hearst has agitated for US intervention in the brutal Spanish suppression of Cuba’s peasant rebellion, and last week published a stolen letter in which Spain’s envoy criticised President McKinley. In a now-famous cable to a cameraman sent to Havana, he promised to provide the war himself. Spain, meanwhile, is hastily trying to withdraw from Cuba without loss of face.

… (1882) New Zealand cargo ship Dunedin sails with the first consignment of frozen meat for the British market.

… (399 BC) Greek philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens.

14^th, (1989) Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini has condemned the Anglo-Indian writer Salman Rushdie to death for blasphemy in his book The Satanic Verses. All those involved in its publication who were aware of its contents are sentenced to death also. The book has provoked uproar in the Islamic world. In London, Rushdie today cancelled an American tour and went into hiding under police guard, while publishers Viking Penguin have stepped up security. Ironically more people will now want to read the book.

… (1984) British ice dance partners Torvill and Dean win the gold at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

… (1979) The US ambassador to Afghanistan is kidnapped in Kabul.

… (1975) Death of P.G. Wodehouse, creator of the incompetent Bertie Wooster and his exceedingly knowing butler, Jeeves.

… (1973) An Israeli fighter shoots down a Libyan passenger plane over the Sinai Desert, killing 74 passengers and crew.

… (1944) ‘Elegant Dresden destroyed by bombs’: Dresden, one of Germany’s most graceful cities, has been destroyed in a firestorm by the most destructive bombing raid of the war. Nearly 2000 RAF and US bombers laden with high explosives and incendiaries pounded the city mercilessly in three waves over 14 hours. Dresden was considered safe since it was not a war target, and was crammed with refugees. At least 130,000 civilians died in the raid, and many more were injured. Most of Dresden’s public buildings were themselves art treasures, including superb examples of 17^th– and 18^th-century baroque and rococo architecture; while the city’s famous galleries housed major collections of the Italian, Flemish and Dutch masters. Today Dresden is a pile of smoking rubble. Air Chief Marshall Arthur “Bomber” Harris, head of RAF Bomber Command, is facing a storm of criticism over the raid, both on humane grounds and strategically – senior Allied planners wanted to attack military attacks. But Harris claims his “terror bombing” tactics will destroy the German will to fight.

… (1933) Oxford students declare that they would not fight for “King and Country”.

… (1929) ‘No love lost’: “Bugs” Moran’s men were setting up an illicit beerhall on North Side this morning – the police in Moran’s pay had not warned them of any plans for a raid. Five men, three in police uniform, burst into the garage, lined the seven gangsters up against the wall and opened fire. The five “police” were rival mobsters, probably from “Scarface” Al Capone’s gang. Hundreds of mobsters have died in Chicago’s gangland wars as Capone bids for control of the bootlegging trade, prostitution and protection rackets said to earn him $100 million a year. Almost half of Chicago’s police force is now under investigation for corruption.

… (1906) Fifty-four people are arrested as suffragettes fight a pitched battle with police outside the British parliament.

… (1876) American inventor Elisha Gray files a caveat with the US patent office announcing his intention to file a patent for a telephone – just a few hours after Alexander Graham Bell files just such a patent.

… (1852) Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital opens in London.

… (1822) ‘Love notes pose postal problem’: Britain’s postal services have had to employ extra mail sorters to make sure that the thousands of St Valentine’s Day messages lovers have sent to each other arrive on time today. The quaint fashion is growing more popular by the year: today is the day to affirm your love, perhaps with an anonymous note, or written in the secret language lovers share. Nobody knows how the custom arose. It may have started in 1477, when a Norfolk woman sent a note to her lover saying: “To my right wellbeloved Voluntyne.” There seem to have been two St Valentines, both third-century Italian priests, both martyred; before that came a pagan fertility festival the Romans celebrated in mid-February. Or it could simply be that love is in the air today – it’s an old English belief that this is the day birds choose their mates.

… (1797) British naval forces under Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson defeat the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent.

… (1779) ‘Hawaiian Spear Kills Captain Cook’: The explorer Captain James Cook is dead, killed by a native spear in Hawaii. Cook was a peaceful man, not given to brutalising the native peoples he encountered on his epic voyages – but some of his men had started trouble with a local chief. The villages retaliated by stealing the ship’s cutter. Cook took 12 armed marines ashore to take a hostage to swap for the cutter. But the villagers had never seen guns and were not afraid of Cook’s men. They attacked, felling the Captain.

… (1477) The oldest-known Valentine’s message, was sent to John Paston by his fiancée Margery Brews.

… (1400) Mystery surrounds the death of English monarch Richard II at Pontefract Castle.

13^th, (2004) Astronomers said they had found the largest-known diamond in the galaxy, a white dwarf star they named Lucy.

… (2002) ’Milosevic trial begins in The Hague’: The trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president accused of genocide and war crimes over a period of 10 years in the Balkans, has begun in The Hague. Milosevic is the first former president to be charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the fighting which followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia. The trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is seen as the most important since Nazi war leaders went on trial after World War II. Mr. Milosevic is charged with presiding over the killings of nearly 250,000 non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. “Today as never before we see international justice in action,” said the chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, at the opening of the case. Milosevic refuses to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal or the charges against him, and has not appointed any lawyers to defend him. However, one of his legal advisers, who met him for three hours, said he thought Mr. Milosevic would make a statement.

… (1991) Germany’s Red Army Faction carry out a gun attack on the US Embassy in Bonn, claiming a link with the Gulf War.

… (1990) ‘Tyson loses crown in shock ko’: Boxer James “Buster” Douglas was today recognised as the new world heavyweight champion after knocking out Mike Tyson in Tokyo two nights ago in one of boxing’s biggest-ever upsets. Douglas floored Tyson for the count in the 10^th round, but Tyson had knocked Douglas down two rounds earlier – for a count of eight, Douglas said; but others claimed it was 12, and the title was frozen. Today both the world authorities ruled that Douglas had been down for only eight, and he gets the crown. Tyson was only 20 when he won the title in 1986, the youngest world heavyweight champion ever.

… (1989) Model Sam Fox and rock star Mick Fleetwood hosted a calamitous Brit awards. They were handed the wrong cue cards, the autocue broke down and singer Boy George walked on when the pair introduced Motown’s The Four Tops.

… (1971) US President Spiro Agnew hits three spectators with his golf ball during the Bob Hope Desert Classic tournament.

… (1971) South Vietnamese troops aided by US aircraft and artillery enters Laos.

… (1969) Human eggs removed from women volunteers have been fertilised in a test-tube at Cambridge University in England. Scientists R.G. Edwards and B.D. Bavister, working with specialist obstetrician P. Steptoe, found that when the eggs were mixed with male sperm in a nutrient solution, almost a third of them were fertilised. There is still a long way to go before such fertilised eggs could be reimplanted in a woman’s womb for a normal birth. The scientists warn that the technique could produce deformities but the discovery will doubtless bring hope to many childless couples.

… (1960) The French test their atomic bomb in the Sahara.

… (1958) British suffragette Dame Christabel Pankhurst dies.

… (1943) British motor manufacturer and philanthropist William Nuffield establishes a charitable institution called the Nuffield Foundation.

… (1941) The wonder drug penicillin is used on a human for the first time – a policeman from Oxford, England.

… (1920) The League of Nations recognised the permanent neutrality of Switzerland.

… (1917) Dutch spy and femme fatale Mata Hari is arrested by the French.

… (1883) Death of Richard Wagner, German composer whose masterpiece is Der Ring des Nibelungen.

… (1866) The James Younger gang robs a Missouri bank of $60,000.

… (1826) A rise in liquor sales is forecast as the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance is formed.

… (1692) The chief of the Macdonald clan and 36 of his warriors were murdered in a treacherous pre-dawn attack at their Glencoe stronghold today – by their guests. Robert Campbell of Glenlyon and his 128 men were acting under English orders. They sought shelter at Glencoe two weeks ago and, following the strict code of hospitality in the Scottish Highlands, were accepted. Last night Campbell received his orders from England’s Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir Robert Dalrymple of Stair: “Fall upon the Rebels the McDonalds of Glencoe and put all to the sword under 70.” At 5 am the Campbell’s turned on their sleeping hosts. Clan chief MacIain was slain in his bed; 36 of his men and a number of women and children were killed. The rest of the clan escaped into the hills. The Macdonald chief’s supposed crime was that he had not signed allegiance to the new king, William of Orange. In fact he had signed, though late, having been delayed by blizzards. Dalrymple deliberately suppressed the fact, wanting to make an example of a Jacobite clan for supporting the exiled King James II. It is suspected that King William knew about the unjust and murderous plot.

• Music, MD’s Blog (Anniversary 13 Feb) —  Scotland: ‘The Massacre of Glencoe’…

… (1542) The faithless wife of English king Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, is beheaded for treason.

12^th, (2002) An Iranian airline crashes, killing 117 passengers on board.

… (1999) American president Bill Clinton has been cleared of all charges in his impeachment trial. Prosecutors failed to secure either vote against him in the Senate trial for perjury and obstruction of justice, despite very close voting.

… (1990) Dr Cameron Lawrence becomes Premier of Western Australia, the first woman premier of an Australian state.

… (1948) The ashes of Mahatma Gandhi are placed in the Holy waters of the Ganges at Allahabad.

… (1947) Christian Dior presented his first collection in Paris. Harper’s Bazaar praised the “new look”, featuring long skirts and nipped-in waists – a name that stuck.

… (1935) The airship Macon crashes in America.

… (1929) Lillie Langtry, “The Jersey Lily”, British actress, socialite and one-time mistress of King Edward VII while he was Prince of Wales, dies aged 76.

… (1912) ‘Child emperor gives up dynasty’: China’s five-year-old boy-emperor Pu Yi listened in his court in Peking today as his weeping aunt read out a letter. He could not have understood that it was his abdication, marking the end of the 267-year rule of the Qing dynasty and 3000 years of monarchy. The Manchurian Qing tribe conquered China during the chaos following the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Their rule has declined through 70 years of foreign wars and insurrection, with 16 rebellions in the last decade. The current uprising began on October 10 when an army revolt in the south became a full-scale nationalist rebellion. The revolutionary leader Dr Sun Yat-sen was made president of the new republic last month but, to avoid civil war, he has given up the presidency to General Yuan Shih-k’ai – suspected of planning to usurp the throne.

… (1898) A Brighton resident becomes the first British motorist to die in a car crash.

… (1894) Death of Hans von Bulow, outstanding conductor and one-time champion of Richard Wagner.

… (1861) British teams Sheffield and Hallam play the first inter-club football match.

… (1851) ‘Australia tastes gold fever’: Fortune-hunters are rushing to the town of Bathurst in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia in search of gold. Veteran prospector Edward Hargraves started it when he planned some earth on a piece of land at Summerhill Creek that looked similar to what he’d seen in California – and found gold. The greedy and the gullible are swarming in like moths to a flame, lured by the myth that you can dig up a lifetime’s wealth in a day. It is true that some are earning good money. The news has reached the world and boatloads of would-be prospectors are leaving from Britain and the United States. It’s every man for himself when it comes to staking a claim, and the government is to impose a licensing system to prevent conflict and disorder.

… (1831) J.W. Goodrich of Boston invents the rubber galosh.

… (1804) German philosopher Immanuel Kant, author of the doctrine of transcendental idealism, dies.

… (1688) A “Glorious Revolution” brings the Protestant champion William of Orange and his wife Mary to the throne of England after the Catholic king James II flees to France.

… (1631) ‘Donne defies death to preach’: Poet and preacher Dr John Donne, the dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, rose from his sickbed today to deliver the last of his famous sermons. A packed congregation listened enthralled as he read “Death’s Duel”, a brilliant discourse on death and resurrection. Later today Donne posed for a portrait at his home, wearing a funeral shroud. Donne, who is mortally ill, has long been prepared for death. “Death be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so,” he once wrote. His sermons and poetry rank him as an expert on the subject of death – and on that of life, and of love both sacred and profane.

… (1554) The “nine days queen”, Lady Jane Grey, lost her head today at the Tower of London. She was 16. The execution was ordered by her cousin Mary Tudor, the present queen. The protestant King Edward VI had proclaimed his cousin Jane, fifth in line to the throne, as his successor above his half-sister Mary, a Catholic, since Jane would keep England beyond the reach of Catholic Spain. Jane ascended the throne in July last year with her husband Lord Guildford Dudley. Mary deposed them nine days later and condemned them to death for treason. The new queen delayed the execution, but changed her mind when Jane’s father was involved in an attempted rebellion. Dudley was beheaded first, and Jane was led past his body on her way to the block. Lady Jane was beautiful and intelligent, and had ambitious plans to restore the English economy and return land to farmers dispossessed by Henry VIII.

11^th, (2011) Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak announced his resignation, after 18 days of protests that became known as the Arab Spring.

… (2001) British yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur crosses the finishing line in second place in the Vendees Globe round-the-world race after 94 days alone at sea.

… (1991) Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev today sent a letter to government leaders of the Warsaw Pact nations proposing that the military structure disbands by April 1. The Warsaw Pact military alliance was formed one week after a rearmed West Germany joined NATO in 1955. The Western NATO allies are celebrating the end of the Cold War.

… (1990) James “Buster” Douglas knocks out world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson in Tokyo after a controversial late count in round eight when Douglas was floored.

… (1990) ‘Mandela free – at last’: Nelson Mandela was freed today after 26 years in jail for his opposition to South Africa’s white racist regime. President F W de Klerk unconditionally revoked the 72-year-old black leader’s life sentence for treason and sabotage. Met at the prison by his wife Winnie and a crowd of supporters, Mandela set off to address a jubilant crowd in front of Cape Town’s city hall. His message was one of “peace, democracy and freedom”- but he also endorsed the African National Congress’s “armed struggle”. In jail, he had refused offers of freedom in exchange for renouncing violence. Mandela, a lawyer, became an ANC leader in 1949, working under Nobel Peace Prize-Winner Albert Luthuli. The ANC, founded in 1912, was committed to peaceful resistance for 48 years, in spite of the brutal official response to black protest. But when white police massacred black protestors at Sharpeville in 1960, Mandela started a sabotage campaign. In jail he became the symbol of freedom in the black struggle that has now forced de Klerk’s government to renounce apartheid.

… (1976) Ice Skater John Curry wins Britain’s first-ever gold medal for figure skating.

… (1975) ‘Thatcher lifts torch of Tory crusade’: For the first time in its 300-year history, Britain’s Conservative Party has a woman leader. Margaret Thatcher defeated four rivals to succeed ex-leader Edward Heath, who lost the last election to the Labour Party. Satirists had dubbed Heath “the Grocer”; Margaret Thatcher is the daughter of a grocer, and the wife of a wealthy businessman. Mrs. Thatcher, 49, has two children. She has been in parliament since 1959, and was secretary for education in the last Conservative government. A woman of strong convictions, Mrs. Thatcher is deeply committed to her vision of England’s future. Cutting back the socialist welfare state is a personal crusade.

… (1963) American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath took her own life in London, aged 30.

… (1949) Swedish physician Axel Munthe, famed for his best-selling autobiography The Story of San Michele, dies.

… (1945) ‘Allied victors carve up post-war Europe’: With victory in the war against Germany virtually assured, the three allied leaders, Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, have mapped out Europe’s future at a secret meeting in the Black Sea resort of Yalta. The three leaders agreed that Adolf Hitler’s Nazi forces must accept an unconditional surrender. Post-war Germany will be split into four occupied zones, with Russia in control of the whole of eastern Germany. A deadlock over Berlin – which will be in the Russian zone – is still to be resolved. They also planned the invasion of Japan, and Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan once Germany surrenders. After the war the old League of Nations will be replaced by a new organisation to be called the United Nations. The “Big Three” leaders will meet again later this year to complete their plans for the new world body.

… (1929) Pope Pius XI and the Italian government of Benito Mussolini sign the Lateran Treaty which gives the Vatican City the status of an independent sovereign state.

… (1858) Benito Juarez is declared constitutional President of Mexico by an assembly at Vera Cruz.

… (1810) French emperor Napoleon I marries Marie Louise, daughter of the first emperor of Austria, Francis I.

…I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities … if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die. [Nelson Mandela echoes the words he spoke at his trial in 1964 on his release from jail 26 years later, 1990.]

10^th, (1988) Octogenarian English actor Sir John Gielgud plays the longest role for a man of his years: Sydney Cockerell in The Best of Friends by Hugh Whitmore.

… (1962) ‘Powers freed in Berlin bridge swop’: In an exchange worthy of a thriller, captured US spy-plane pilot Gary Powers tonight started walking from the Communist side of a Berlin bridge, while the highest-ranking Russian spy ever caught, KGB Colonel Rudolf Abel, set off from the American side. The two men passed in silence in the middle of the bridge, and walked on to freedom. Powers thus escaped the 10-year prison sentence imposed on him two years ago by a Soviet court following his high-altitude spying mission on Soviet military installations. His U-2 spy-plane could fly higher than the Russian jet fighters, but a Soviet surface-to-air missile brought it down near Sverdlovsk. The incident soured relations between the two superpowers and wrecked the “Big Four” summit meeting in Paris a few days later between Eisenhower, Khrushchev, Macmillan and De Gaulle. The US was finally forced to admit it had been spying. Colonel Abel was captured in New York five years ago and sentenced to 30 years for spying.

… (1955) ‘Johannesburg police drive 60,000 blacks out of homes’: Thousands of armed South African police have begun evicting 60,000 blacks from their homes in Sophiatown near Johannesburg, with bulldozers flattening the township in their wake. They are forcing the angry Africans to move to a new settlement called Meadowlands, where there are no land rights – most of the residents owned their land. The African National Congress is staging a series of protests against the all-white government’s latest imposition of its racist apartheid policies.

… (1942) American bandleader Glenn Miller was today presented with a special pressing of his hugely popular record “Chattanooga Choo Choo” – the pressing was made of solid gold. The swing hit has officially sold a million copies, the first record ever to do so.

… (1932) Death of Edgar Wallace, British novelist who wrote highly successful detective stories and film scripts.

… (1923) Death of William Röntgen, German physicist who invented the X-ray.

… (1913) ‘Scott died just 11 miles from safety’: Thirteen months after British polar explorer Captain Robert Scott and his men disappeared on their expedition to the South Pole, a relief party has found a snow-covered tent containing the bodies of Scott and two of his companions. Photographic plates and diaries tell the harrowing story of how Scott, Wilson, Bowers, Evans and Oates died on the journey homeward, having lost the race against Norwegian Roald Amundsen’s team to be first at the pole. Evans fell from a glacier and was killed; Oates, crippled by frostbite, stumbled out into the blizzard to give the others a better chance of reaching their ship, the Discovery. The last three died of starvation and cold, trapped by the storm 11 miles from a food cache and survival.

… (1889) The use of the revised Bible is authorised by the Church of England.

… (1840) French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada are reunited again, 50 years after their division into separate British colonies.

… (1840) Britain’s Queen Victoria marries her first cousin, Prince Albert.

… (1837) Aleksandr Pushkin, Russian author of Eugene Onegin and Boris Godunov, is killed in a duel.

… (1763) The ‘Treaty of Paris’ signed today has ended seven years of worldwide war. Britain emerges as the leading world power, gaining both Canada and Florida and establishing its dominance in the East. France has lost all its North American possessions except two colonies along the St Lawrence, while Spain regains Louisiana, Cuba and the Philippines. Meanwhile Russia has withdrawn from the war in Europe, leaving Austria no choice but to seek peace terms with the victorious Frederick the Great of Prussia.

… (1567) ‘Riccio’s killer meets own untimely end’: Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, has been murdered. His house at Kirk o’ Field was blown up with gunpowder and he was found in the grounds, strangled. He was 22. He and Mary, his first cousin, were married only 18 months ago. Mary, who inherited the throne when she was six days old, wed the French Dauphin in her teens, but he died when she was 18. The marriage to her young cousin came after negotiations failed for a political match with Don Carlos, son of the King of Spain. But the new marriage quickly soured and Mary sought comfort with her Italian secretary, David Riccio. Last year the jealous Darnley had Riccio murdered in front of the distraught Mary, who was six months pregnant with her son James, born last June. Mary then turned to the unpopular Earl of Bothwell. Scottish nobles have now accused Bothwell of Darnley’s murder, and some say the beautiful young queen knew of the plan to kill her husband and may now be planning to marry the Earl.

… (1482) The Florentine king of terracotta sculpture, Luca della Robbia, dies.

… (1354) Students in Oxford cause death and mayhem in a running street battle with locals.

9^th, (1996) The IRA admits planting a bomb in the Docklands area of London, ending a 17-month ceasefire. British Prime Minister John Major said there is now “a dark shadow of doubt” where optimism had been.

… (1981) Musician Bill Haley, whose “Rock Around the Clock” was one of the first ever rock ‘n’ roll records, dies.

… (1981) Poland’s defence minister, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, has taken over today as prime minister and chief of the Communist Party. His promotion threatens a crackdown on the rapidly-growing Solidarity labour movement. General Jaruzelski has close links with the Soviet Union, where years ago he was trained as an army officer. He favours a strong hand in government – not surprisingly his relationship with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa is somewhat tense.

… (1972) The third month of the miners’ strike causes Britain’s prime minister Edward Heath to declare a state of emergency.

… (1971) The first British soldier is killed in Ulster as the current troubles mount.

… (1958) ‘Blasphemy ban on Beckett’: A play by the Irish author Samuel Beckett has been banned from the London stage – because of blasphemy. The Lord Chamberlain has invoked ancient religious laws against Endgame, an extremely modern play. It is an existential drama of despair in an end-of-the-world setting during which almost nothing happens. It features a slave, his tyrannical master, and the tyrant’s old parents (who live in dustbins). They talk, to little avail. It is even bleaker than Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which brought him worldwide acclaim. Yet, far from being a gloomy non-event, Endgame is brilliant, a potent image of bewilderment in the face of an indifferent universe. London’s critics have not been much kinder to Beckett than has the Lord Chamberlain – the London premier of Waiting for Godot saw a mass walkout. But in Paris he is a leading light in the pitiless “theatre of the absurd”, along with Jean Genet and Eugene Ionesco. French critics see him as a strong candidate for a Nobel Prize for Literature.

… (1949) Actor Robert Mitchum is jailed for two months for smoking marijuana.

… (1899) ‘Chinese rebels blame hardship on Christians’: A new tide of rebellion is sweeping through China. The Boxer rebellion is aimed at Westerners, especially Christians. The movement has gained a grip on China’s peasants, whose crops were wrecked last year. “If the rain does not fall and the land dries up, it is because the churches stand in the way of Heaven, and the gods are angry,” says a Boxer pamphlet. “To be converted to Christianity is to disobey Heaven, to abandon our gods, and to forget our ancestors … To be convinced of this, one only has to look at the barbarians’ eyes, which are completely blue. The railways must be destroyed, the electric wires cut, and the ships demolished. This will frighten France and demoralise Britain and Russia.” All three countries, as well as Germany, have forced China to relinquish land.

… (1881) Fyodor Dostoevsky, the Great Russian novelist who wrote Crime and Punishment, dies at the age of 60.

… (1830) Explorer Charles Sturt discovers the source of Australia’s longest river, the Murray.

… (1825) John Quincy Adams is elected US president, defeating Andrew Jackson, and ending a two-month impasse.

… (1801) The signing of the Peace of Luneville between France and Austria dissolves the Holy Roman Empire.

… (1799) The US Navy draws first blood in a war with France.

… (1775) ‘Massachusetts on verge of armed rising’: Hostilities are imminent between Britain and the American colony of Massachusetts. In London today parliament announced that there is a rebellion, and approved new laws to control the situation. Dissatisfaction over British rule has been mounting for the last 10 years, and now it threatens to spill into war. The situation has deteriorated rapidly in the 14 months since American rebels disguised as Indians destroyed cargoes of British tea in Boston Harbour in protest against British taxes. The hated Tea Tax was imposed to save the British East India Company, which had built up a crippling surplus of tea in London. Settlers swore to pay no further taxes to Britain, and there has been sullen opposition to the laws Britain imposed to restore order – oppressive measures the colonists are calling the Intolerable Acts. Since late last year an illegal assembly known as the First Continental Congress has urged Americans to boycott British goods and to arm themselves.

8^th, (2017) English socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson died, aged 45.

… (1983) Irish bandits have kidnapped a top race horse from a stable in County Kildare and are demanding a £2 million ($3.7 million) ransom. The horse is Shergar, winner of the 1981 Derby by a record 10 lengths, the biggest margin ever. Shergar, owned by the Aga Khan, is probably the world’s finest horse. In the rarefied world of thoroughbred breeding, he is priceless. Whether the Aga Khan pays the ransom or not, rumour is that Shergar is destined to be catfood.

… (1980) David and Angie Bowie divorced after nearly ten years of marriage.

… (1974) Skylab space station astronauts return safely to earth after 85 days in space.

… (1972) Fans demonstrate outside the Albert Hall after Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention have their concert there cancelled due to the obscenity of one of their songs.

… (1965) British health minister Kenneth Robinson announces that cigarette ads are to be banned from British television.

… (1929) ‘Irish leader kept quiet by jail’: Irish Free State leader Eamon de Valera has been sentenced to a month’s imprisonment in a Belfast jail for entering Northern Ireland illegally. De Valera is the leading Irish nationalist and the head of Fianna Fail, the largest party in Dublin’s Dail parliament. He narrowly escaped execution for his part in the Easter Uprising of 1916 and, as leader of the revolutionary Sinn Fein, he repudiated the treaty that established the Irish Free State in 1922. He is also a devout Roman Catholic. The British authorities do not want him spreading his message in the largely Protestant North. De Valera is a fiery mixture; he was born in New York, his mother Irish and his father Spanish.

… (1924) The gas chamber as a method of execution is used for the first time in Carson City, Nevada on Chinese gang-member Gee Jon.

… (1910) ‘Scout’s honour for young Americans’: The Boy Scout’s of America organisation was inaugurated today, a cousin to the movement founded by Sir Robert Baden-Powell in Britain two years ago. Open to boys of eight and upward, it aims to develop good character and fitness of body and mind. It will be run on military lines, with uniforms and ranks, patrols and troops, countryside camps and community service. Baden-Powell is a British soldier who won fame during the Boer War in South Africa, holding the besieged town of Mafeking against Boer forces for seven months. After the war he wrote a manual on field reconnaissance for officers, but so many young people bought the book that he rewrote it as Scouting for Boys and founded his youth movement. Baden-Powell’s wife, Lady Agnes, is planning a similar movement for girls.

… (1906) A typhoon hits Tahiti, killing 10,000 people.

… (1904) ‘Japanese catch Russians offguard’: The Russian imperial fleet anchored at Port Arthur in Manchuria has been crippled by a surprise night attack by Japanese warships, plunging the two countries into war. The Japanese sunk two Russian battleships and a cruiser in the port, trapping the rest of the fleet. Tokyo now claims it has captured seven warships. Only after the battle did the Japanese emperor inform the Russians they were at war. Hostilities were sparked by mounting Russian ambition in Korea and Manchuria – areas that rapidly-industrialising Japan sees as its spheres of interest.

… (1886) Unemployed people demonstrate in Trafalgar Square and looting and rioting break out along Oxford Street and Pall Mall.

… (1884) Cetewayo, nephew of Shaka, the last king of independent Zululand who routed the British at the Battle of Isandhlwana in 1879, dies a fugitive.

… (1872) Indian viceroy Lord Mayo is assassinated by nationalists.

… (1740) London sees the end of the Great Frost which started on Christmas Eve 1739.

… (1725) Peter the Great of Russia dies and is succeeded by his wife Catherine.

… (1587) ‘Mary Queen of Scots Beheaded’: Mary Queen of Scots (born, 8 December, 1542) was beheaded today on the orders of her cousin, England’s Queen Elizabeth I. She had been found guilty of plotting to assassinate the queen and restore England to Catholicism, believing that Henry VIII’s marriage to Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn was illegal. Mary inherited the throne of Scotland at the age of six. In her teens she married the French Dauphin*, and was Queen of France for a year until he died. Later she married Lord Darnley. After Darnley’s murder – in which Mary may have been implicated – the Earl of Bothwell became her third husband. In 1568, defeated in battle in Scotland, Mary fled to England, but the jealous Elizabeth had her jailed for nearly 19 years. Witnesses at her execution told of Mary’s fortitude in the face of death. It took the axeman two blows, and Mary’s lips continued to move for 15 minutes afterwards. Her pet dog was found hiding in her skirts.

– * crown prince of France: in former times, the eldest son of the king of France and the direct heir to the throne.

– Mary I was Queen of Scots from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V.

7^th, (2013) Mississippi became the last U.S. state to officially abolish slavery.

… (2008) Any Whitehouse was told she could not sing live at the Grammys as her U.S. visa application had been rejected.

… (2001) Ariel Sharon is elected Prime Minister of Israel.

… (1999) Death of King Hussein of Jordon, a symbol of stability in the Middle East, aged 64.

… (1991) ‘IRA strikes at No. 10’: In its most daring daylight raid yet, the IRA today fired three mortar bombs at the British Prime Minister’s residence at No. 10 Downing Street. One bomb landed in the garden and a second shattered the windows of the room where John Major and his war cabinet were discussing the Gulf crisis, but nobody was seriously hurt. The mortars were hidden inside a commercial van parked nearby and fired through its roof by remote control. Prime Minister John Major said such terror tactics would not change Britain’s Northern Ireland policy “one iota”.

… (1990) The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party votes to a package of reforms that will end its monopoly of power.

… (1989) A violent storm causing updraughts results in a rain of sardines over Ipswich, Australia.

… (1986) ‘“Baby Doc” takes money and runs’: Haiti is celebrating the end of the bloodthirsty 28-year rule of the Duvalier dynasty. In the face of a national uprising, the self-styled “president for life” Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, fled the island late last night, bound for exile in France. With the celebrations came vengeance as angry crowds in Port-au-Prince, the capital, lynched members of the Tontons Macoute secret police force. Both Duvalier and his father, know as Papa Doc, used the Tontons Macoutes to maintain a reign of terror. Though Haiti is one of the world’s poorest countries, Duvalier has reportedly accumulated a huge fortune of over £100 million – at his people’s expense. It will be no surprise for Haitians that “Baby Doc” has taken the money with him to France.

… (1974) Grenada gains its independence and Eric Gairy becomes its first prime minister.

… (1971) Switzerland finally allows women to vote.

… (1964) Twenty-five thousand fans mass at Kennedy airport as the Beatles arrive for their first-ever visit to the US.

… (1960) Israeli archaeologists unearth a number of Dead Sea Scrolls.

… (1959) Death of Daniel F. Malan, prime minister of South Africa 1948-54 and architect of apartheid.

… (1950) ‘Vietnam heads for war’: East and West have backed rival factions in the French colony of Vietnam in Indochina, fanning the flames of civil war. Last week the Soviet Union granted formal recognition to the provisional government of Marxist guerrilla leader Ho Chi Minh. Today the United States and Britain endorsed the French-backed government of Emperor Bao Dai. This is no surprise: the US has been discreetly funding Paris in its battle against Ho’s Viet Minh communists since fighting broke out in 1947. Ho declared Vietnam’s independence from France at the end of World War II. He is a founder member of both the French Communist Party and the Comintern.

… (1886) ‘Gold struck in South Africa’s Transvaal’: An English carpenter, George Walker, struck gold today in the Transvaal in South Africa while building a cottage for a prospector. Walker’s shovel uncovered a clear gold streak when he started digging the foundations. His discovery has geologists looking at the Boer republic’s Witwatersrand ridge with growing excitement. Specks of the coveted metal have been found in nearby rivers for the last 30 years, but it is now thought the whole ridge may be one massive field of gold. The Boers fear the strike will bring hordes of troublesome, money-seeking foreigners to the area.

… (1863) One hundred and eighty-five people die as HMS Orpheus is wrecked on the coast of New Zealand.

… (1845) A drunken visitor to the British Museum has smashed one of its greatest treasures. William Lloyd blundered into the Portland Vase, which fell to the floor, shattering into more than 200 pieces. The famous cameo-glass vase, dated 25 BC, belonged to the Roman Emperor Augustus. The museum’s experts are painstakingly examining the pieces and are confident the vase can be rebuilt. Though no substitute, excellent copies of the Portland Vase have been produced in the factory of English master potter Josiah Wedgwood.

… (1816) Italian missionary Giovanni Lantrua of Triora is executed by the Chinese.

… (1792) Austria and Prussia sign a military pact against France.

… (1685) ‘Merry Monarch’s Mystery Death’: England is in mourning today for the “merry monarch” King Charles II – though nobody knows quite how he died. Some say he was poisoned, others that he died of apoplexy following days and nights of revelry with his mistresses and concubines. Charles loved women, horses, gambling and good times. He was much loved by his people in return, following the dreary years of Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell. He was less popular with the politicians – he took bribes and had no compunction about lying and cheating to get his way. He even secretly took money from France to restore the Catholic religion to England. Following the execution of his father, Charles I, he spent 16 years in exile in France, constantly plotting – and failing – to win back the throne. Restored to the monarchy in 1660 after Cromwell’s death, he was always at odds with parliament, and finally dissolved it in 1681. At least two duchesses were his mistresses, but his favourite was the popular comic actress Nell Gwynne, who bore him two sons. His last words to his brother James were, “Don’t let poor Nelly starve.” James, a Catholic, is now king.

… (1301 AD) The son of King Edward I of England becomes the first English Prince of Wales.

6^th, (2000) The city of Grozny, Chechnya, falls to Russian troops.

… (1983) ‘”Butcher” Barbie brought to trial’: Nazi fugitive Klaus Barbie was charged in Lyon, France, today with crimes against humanity. Barbie was known as “the Butcher of Lyon” during World War II, when he headed the local Gestapo. He is alleged to have deported hundreds of French resistance fighters and Jews to the Nazi death camps; he is also alleged to have tortured and murdered resistance leader Jean Moulin. Barbie was tracked down in Bolivia by the French Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld in 1971, but was not extradited to France until this week. His lawyer claims that US intelligence agents protected Barbie after the war. He is also threatening to expose during Barbie’s trial the hitherto concealed extent of wartime French collaboration with Nazi rule.

… (1958) ‘Busby’s Babes die in tragic case’: British sports fans are in mourning tonight for the Manchester United football team, which has been virtually wiped out in an air crash at Munich. The team had just qualified for the European Cup semi-finals in a match at Belgrade, and was returning home via Munich when the plane crashed on its second attempt to take off from the snowbound runway. Seven players were killed, including four full British internationals. Other players and officials are gravely injured, among them Matt Busby, the Scottish manager who forged his “Babes” into one of the best teams in Europe.

… (1952) Britain’s King George VI died peacefully at Sandringham tonight. Princess Elizabeth, the elder of his two daughters, will succeed him. The sad news is being rushed to the new Queen in Kenya, where she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, are on official tour.

… (1926) Child prodigy Yehudi Menuhin makes his violin-playing debut in Paris.

… (1917) British women over 30 get the vote.

… (1865) Robert E. Lee becomes commander of the Confederate Armies.

… (1840) ‘Maoris under British rule’: Rather reluctantly, Britain today annexed New Zealand. Fifty Maori chiefs accepted British sovereignty in a treaty signed by Captain William Hobson, the governor, at Waitangi. The British move is for the protection of all concerned, but nobody is happy about it. Two factors forced Britain’s hand: the need to forestall French settlement in South Island, and to protect the fierce but unsophisticated Maori tribes from unscrupulous Western land sharks, gun runners and liquor peddlers, many of them escaped English convicts from Australia. The Waitangi treaty gives the Maoris full rights and protects their land ownership: to prevent their being cheated, Maoris wanting to sell their land must now offer it to the British government first. But settlers, prevented from buying land, are refusing to accept the treaty, while Maoris are expressing doubt that the British government itself can be trusted.

… (1838) Boer leader Piet Retief is executed by Zulu chief Dingaan.

… (1804) The discoverer of oxygen, English clergyman Joseph Priestly, dies.

… (1804) The first locomotive converted from a steam-hammer power source runs on a line near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

… (1788) Massachusetts becomes the sixth state in the Union of American States.

… (1783) The great English landscape gardener Capability Brown dies.

… (1685) King Charles II died aged 54.

… (1515) Death of Manutius Aldus, the first publisher of paperbacks and the inventor of italics.

… (1493) Maximilian I of Germany takes the title Holy Roman Emperor.

…Vienna: a raddled old city where one is surfeited with the music of Brahms and Puccini, with officers with woman’s bosoms and women with officers’ chests. [Composer Claude Debussy writes in his diary today, 1911.]

5^th, (1994) A mortar bomb explodes in the main market square in Sarajevo, killing 70 people.

… (1989) Media mogul Rupert Murdoch launches satellite Sky TV.

… (1983) Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is flown to France to face a war crimes trial.

… (1974) Nineteen-year-old heiress Patti Hearst, granddaughter of multi-millionaire William Randolph Hearst, is kidnapped.

… (1971) Actors Judi Dench and Michael Williams married in London.

… (1967) ‘Stones gagged’: The Rolling Stones appeared on British ITV’s Eamonn Andrews Show tonight and showed why the group is falling foul of the establishment – and delighting the younger generation. The group’s current hit “Let’s Spend the Night Together” is soaring to No. 1, but they weren’t allowed to play it tonight because of a Musician’s Union ban. They had a similar problem on the Ed Sullivan Show in the US last month, and had to change the lyrics to “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. Since they first hit the big time in 1963 the Stones have created chaos in the sanitised world of pop, where teenage love is “Sealed with a Kiss”. It’s not just their loutish behaviour and their lyrics: singer Mick Jagger’s uninhibited stage act is outrageously sexy. The howling mobs that storm the stage have had to be subdued with teargas. Parents are appalled, but to a generation clamouring for under-age access to the Pill it’s a breath of fresh air. Meanwhile, Jagger announced on the show that he will sue a Sunday newspaper for an article connecting him with drug-taking pop stars.

… (1958) ‘Meters hit town’: London’s exclusive Mayfair is no place for squatters – or their cars. From today motorists had to pay for the privilege of parking in a Mayfair street. In a trial scheme to ease the city’s endemic traffic congestion, each kerbside space now has a parking meter. Feeding coins into the slot buys parking time, registered on a dial. When the dial runs out, the car is illegally parked, and its owner liable to a fine. Drivers greeted the new arrangement with suspicion today and many metered spaces stayed empty while cars jostled for parking in unmetered streets nearby. The meters were first used in America in 1935. The fines are nothing new, however – Mr. William Marshall earned the first parking summons in 1896 after leaving his car awkwardly parked in a street in London’s City.

… (1945) General MacArthur and US troops enter Manila.

… (1935) Boxing authorities in New York rule that no fight can exceed 15 rounds.

… (1924) The BBC began broadcasting the Greenwich Time Signal, or the BBC “pips”.

… (1922) ‘Wit and wisdom in bite-sized chunks’: A new monthly magazine was launched in New York today with an appealing formula – the Reader’s Digest offers 31 condensed articles from the leading magazines, each one “of enduring value and interest.” It is the brainchild of DeWitt Wallace, a former book salesman. Unable to find backers for his idea in his native Minnesota, Wallace finally published the magazine himself, on a shoestring budget. He already has 1500 subscribers and promises the magazine will entertain and inspire them. Wallace, the son of a Presbyterian minister, has struck just the right note with the readership: the first issue reflects the puritan, conservative tone still prevalent in America, while recognising that few today have enough time for reading and reflection.

… (1782) Spain captures Minorca from British troops.

4^th, (2016) Singer Van Morrison was knighted.

(1987) American pianist and entertainer Liberace dies, officially of a brain tumour, although the real cause of death is rumoured to be AIDS.

… (1987) ‘America gets its Cup back’: After an embarrassing four-year sojourn in Australia, the America’s Cup is finally back in America – in the trophy room of the San Diego Yacht club. The US catamaran Stars & Stripes, skippered by Dennis Connor, has beaten the New Zealand, a 133-ft (40.5 m) monohull, in races off Perth. But what the New Zealanders lost in the water, they plan to win back in court – they are claiming that the rules require competing yachts to be of similar design, and the catamaran’s twin hull therefore disqualifies it.

… (1983) American singer Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia nervosa.

… (1980) ‘President for post-Shah Iran’: Revolutionary Iran today installed its first elected president. However, President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr will follow the line of the country’s de facto ruler, religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Bani-Sadr is a moderate economist who, like Khomeini, spent a long exile in Paris. Though he was elected president last month with as much as 75 per cent of the popular vote, Bani-Sadr does not command a majority in the Iranian parliament, where fundamentalist Shi’ite Muslim clerics are in control. However, Khomeini is now planning to strengthen Bani-Sadr’s powers in order to deal with the crisis of the US hostages held captive in the Tehran embassy by Revolutionary Guards. Meanwhile, in New York, the United Nations is preparing to mount a commission of inquiry into the exiled Shah of Iran’s affairs.

… (1976) An earthquake in Guatemala kills over 22,000.

… (1948) Ceylon gains independence from Britain.

… (1939) Frank Sinatra married Nancy Barbato, the first of his four wives.

… (1938) Joachim von Ribbentrop becomes foreign minister of Germany while Hitler takes control of the army.

… (1926) Malcolm Campbell tops 174 mph (280 kph) in Wales to break the world land speed record.

… (1925) Death of Robert Koldewey, the German archaeologist who excavated Babylon.

… (1920) South African aviators Pierre van Ryneveld and C.J. Quinton take off from Brooklands on the first flight from England to Cape Town, South Africa.

… (1911) Rolls-Royce commissions their famous figurehead The Spirit of Ecstasy from Charles Sykes.

… (1899) ‘Philippines take on USA’: Fighting broke out today in America’s newest colony, the Philippines, which declared itself a republic last month. The US had supported the Filipino nationalist revolutionary General Emilio Aguinaldo against the islands’ Spanish colonial masters during the Spanish-American war. Aguinaldo had thought the US would back Filipino independence after the war, and last month he declared the Philippines a republic, with himself its first president. But the rebels had won their freedom only to lose it again – the US annexed the islands as a prize of war. Aguinaldo and his army have risen up against their new colonial masters, so now Aguinaldo is fighting his former’ allies.

… (1861) ‘Lincoln’s Union Loses Southern States’: In an atmosphere of looming conflict with American President Abraham Lincoln and his Northern Republicans, delegates from seven Southern states met today in Montgomery, Alabama, to draft a separate constitution for what they are now calling the Confederate States of America. Led by South Carolina, which seceded from the Union last year, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas have all formally broken ties with Washington in the last three weeks. Lincoln’s convincing election victory in the rapidly industrialising North and his implacable opposition to slavery in the rural South tipped the scales towards secession. The South says it cannot survive without its slaves. The Confederates face the choice of abandoning their almost feudal way of life or fighting to defend it. Jefferson Davis is to be their first president.

… (1810) Tsar Alexander refuses to grant Napoleon his sister Anna’s hand in marriage.

… (1793) Slavery is abolished in all French territories.

3^rd, (1989) P.W. Botha quits as South Africa’s ruling party chief.

… (1989) ‘Nazi supporter Stroessner ousted’: Eight successive presidential terms and 35 years of rule for Generalissimo Alfredo Stroessner ended suddenly today in Paraguay as a military coup toppled the old dictator. General Andres Rodrigues, Stroessner’s former aide, took over the capital, Asuncion, after heavy fighting. He has announced that he has locked Stroessner in a military barracks. Meanwhile, Brazil is negotiating political asylum for the ousted dictator. Stroessner, the son of a German immigrant, was notorious for harbouring fugitive Nazis after World War II. Rodrigues has promised to bring democracy to Paraguay, but diplomats here do not expect the changeover to have much real effect on daily life.

… (1989) BT, the British telecommunications company, banned “chatlines” today because of the chatline junkie problem – people get hooked on the faceless chatter and run up huge telephone bills which they cannot pay. The company has been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12-year-old son landed her a chatline bill of £6,000.

… (1970) British police seize Andy Warhol’s film Flesh on the grounds that it is obscene.

… (1969) Yasser Arafat becomes the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

… (1969) English actor Boris Karloff, who made a speciality of horror parts, dies aged 82.

… (1966) A Soviet unmanned spacecraft, Luna IX, achieves the first landing on the moon.

… (1960) ‘Macmillan predicts “wind of change”’: A “wind of change” is blowing through Africa, bringing a new national consciousness. Britain’s prime minister warned South Africa’s whites-only parliament today. Harold Macmillan told the astonished white politicians in the Cape Town parliament they should accept racial equality throughout the Commonwealth, but Macmillan’s speech has raised a storm of criticism from white South Africans resentful of British meddling. Macmillan forecast that the coming challenge was whether the emergent nations of Africa and Asia would align themselves with the ex-colonial powers of the West or with the communist Eastern bloc.

… (1954) ‘”Pom” Queen still welcome’: Australia gave away a close-kept national secret today. Despite what Australians tend to say about the derisory shortcomings of the “Poms”, what looked like the whole of Sydney turned out today to welcome Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth, who is on a three-month Commonwealth tour, is the first reigning British monarch to visit Australia. Huge crowds cheered as she and Prince Philip stepped ashore: the “aussies” love their English queen.

… (1931) New Zealand is struck by an earthquake that kills 216.

… (1919) The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris, chaired by President Woodrow Wilson.

… (1877) ‘Chopsticks’, a piece of music composed by Arthur de Lull (in reality 16-year-old Euphemia Alten), is registered at the British Museum.

… (1762) English dandy and gambler Richard “Beau” Nash dies.

… (1730) The London Daily Advertiser publishes the first stock exchange quotations.

… (1488) Portuguese explorer Bartholomeu Diaz becomes the first European to land on African soil, putting ashore at Mossel Bay on the eastern side of the Cape.

… (1468) ‘Father of printing dies in poverty’: Johann Gutenberg, a blind, impoverished German goldsmith from Mainz, has died in obscurity. It was he who developed the letter-press printing method and oil-based inks that are now making a fortune for Johann Fust and his son-in-law, Peter Schoffer. They have used Gutenberg’s techniques to mass-produce copies of the Bible. Gutenberg had also transformed a wine press into a press capable of printing pages of his Gothic type. In 1450 he borrowed a large amount of money from Fust to develop his system of movable type cast in lead. Five years later Fust foreclosed on the mortgage and took possession of the type and presses, setting himself up as a printer. Despite Gutenberg’s personal failure, his cheap method of mass-producing printed pages has freed the written word from the jealous monopoly of the monasteries.

… (1399) Death of John of Gaunt, father of King Henry IV of England.

2^nd, (1989) ‘Soviet army finally quits Afghanistan’: The Soviet Union’s nine-year military occupation of Afghanistan ended today as the final armoured column of Red Army forces set off home from the capital, Kabul. The USSR agreed two years ago as part of the Geneva accords that the last of its forces would be gone by February 15 this year. These last 120,000 troops are now making their way up the Salang Highway, watchful for ambush by US-backed mujahedeen guerrillas. The Russians have left large amounts of arms behind for the government forces. Afghan President Najibullah, who continues to rule under emergency powers, said today that a life-or-death struggle with the guerrillas would now begin.

… (1986) Lichtenstein allows women to vote for the first time.

… (1979) ‘Vicious death’: Sid Vicious, punk bassist with the defunct Sex Pistols, died of a heroine overdose at a party in New York tonight. He was 21. Vicious (born John Ritchie) was arrested last October for murdering his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen in their New York hotel room. He was charged and sent to a prison drugs detoxification unit, where he tried to kill himself. Another member of the group eventually stood bail for him. Vicious had been trying to stay off heroin, and the shock of tonight’s dose was too much for him. He died in the flat of his current girlfriend Michelle Robinson.

… (1972) Protestors in Dublin burned down the British embassy in an act of revenge for the “Bloody Sunday” shootings in Londonderry last weekend, in which British troops killed 13 Catholic youths and wounded another 17. Angry crowds today would not let firemen approach the blazing embassy until the roof had fallen in.

… (1943) The German Army offers its surrender to the Soviet Army at Stalingrad.

… (1915) Germany begins U-boat blockades of British waters, while the US warns Germany against attacking American ships.

… (1914) The first pack of Cub Scouts is formed in Sussex, England.

… (1878) Greece declares war on Turkey.

… (1870) Press agencies Reuters, Havas and Wolff sign an agreement which enables them to cover the whole world.

… (1852) The first public convenience for men opens in Fleet Street, London.

… (1801) Ireland is represented for the first time in the British parliament.

… (1709) ‘Castaway Sailor Rescued After 4 Years on Desert Island’: A castaway sailor has been rescued after spending more than four years alone on a desert island. Alexander Selkirk could hardly speak English when Capt. Woodes Rogers found him on one of the uninhabited Juan Fernandez islands off the coast of Chile in South America. He had survived with the aid of a musket, a hatchet, a knife and a flint to strike a flame, improvising all his other needs. Selkirk had been left on the island after an argument with the master of his buccaneer ship, the Cinque-Ports. As Captain Rogers described it in his ship’s log today, the longboat brought on board “a man cloth’d in goat-skins, who look’d wider than the first owners of them. For the first eight months he had much ado to bear up against melancholy, and the terror of being left alone in such a desolate place”. Rogers has appointed him ship’s mate. He plans to help Selkirk publish a report of his solitary sojourn. The story could interest the London writer Daniel Defoe, who has been exploring the use of real events as the basis for his tales of fiction.

… (1665) ‘New Amsterdam gets yorked’: A British fleet today captured New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The British force outnumbered and outgunned the Dutch garrison, and Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, under pressure from anxious civilians not to open fire, finally surrendered without a fight. The flourishing trade settlement on the island of Manhattan is to be called New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor and the younger brother of England’s King Charles II. The Dutch bought the island from the Manhattan Indians in 1626 for a few dollars’ worth of trinkets, and made it a base for Dutch settlement. The colony thrived under Peter Stuyvesant’s iron rule, but the settlers are relived to see the last of their evil-tempered governor. Stuyvesant had lost a leg to a Portuguese cannonball, and replaced it with a wooden peg bound with silver. He was a puritanical tyrant, given to punishing offenders for such moral crimes as playing tennis while religious services were being held. The English style is rather different – last year the continent’s first race course opened at Newmarket in British held Long Island.

February 1^st, (2003) ‘Space shuttle disintegrates’: The US space shuttle Columbia broke up as it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board. This marks a major setback for the US space program and has left the nation stunned. This is the first time an accident has occurred on landing in the 42 years of space flight. The shuttle disintegrated 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. NASA spokesman Sean O’Keefe said: “This is indeed a tragic day for the NASA family, for the families of the astronauts and likewise, tragic for the nation.”

… (1990) ‘De Klerk takes Apartheid apart’: South African President F.W. de Klerk today knocked out the main props of the racist apartheid system that has held the white minority in power for the last 42 years. In an epoch-making speech to parliament in Cape Town today he said it was now time to get rid of the cornerstones on which the apartheid system is based. He also announced the end of the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and other anti-apartheid organisations, and promised that Nelson Mandela, a political prisoner for 27 years, would be free within a fortnight. In the Johannesburg townships blacks demonstrated joyfully at the news, but white conservative groups are accusing De Klerk of betraying his people.

… (1989) Millions of Kenyan Luo tribesmen mourn the death of Omiuri, a 16 ft (7.6 m) python believed to have magical powers.

… (1985) Twenty-six alleged killers of Filipino opposition leader Benigno Aquino, gunned down as he stepped down from the plane on his return from exile, go on trial in Manila.

… (1981) Norway elects its first woman prime minister, Gro Harlem Bruntland.

… (1979) Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini ended 16 years of exile today, returning to a frenzied welcome at Tehran airport. A huge crowd of supporters hailed the old man who has forced the Shah of Iran to flee. Much of Khomeini’s success was due to his command of the media – when international radio stations denied him airtime, his supporters flooded Iran with audio cassette tapes of his speeches. Today the 79-year-old Ayatollah promised to intensify the struggle against the enemies of his radical Shi’ite Islamic sect. He announced, “I will strike with my fists at the mouths of this government. From now on it is I who will name the government.” Prime Minister Shahpur Bakhitar’s authority is dwindling hourly.

… (1977) The Pompidou Centre, designed by English architect Richard Rogers and Italian Renzo Piano, opens in Paris.

… (1966) The great silent screen actor Buster Keaton dies.

… (1958) The first US Satellite, Vanguard, is launched.

… (1944) Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian, most famous for his use of geometric design in painting, dies in New York.

… (1942) Vidkun Quisling is made Norwegian Premier under German occupation.

… (1924) Britain’s first Labour government recognises the Soviet government.

… (1908) Portuguese King Carlos I and Prince Luiz are killed by soldiers after a failed revolution.

… (1903) ‘Caruso goes mass-market’: Those unable to afford a seat at New York’s Metropolitan Opera to see Enrico Caruso in person can still hear the great Italian tenor sing. His new 10-inch phonograph recording of “La Donna e Mobile” was released today, a sequel to his hugely popular English recording of “Vesti la Giubba” from I Pagliacci. The 30-year-old Caruso, currently starring in L’Elisir d’Amore made his debut only nine years ago, but his beautiful voice soon took the public by storm. After first hearing him sing, the famous conductor Arturo Toscanini said, “This Neapolitan will make the whole world talk about him.” His prophecy has certainly been fulfilled.

… (1901) ‘Long Did She Reign Over Us’: As guns fired in salute from a phalanx of British and foreign battleships, a naval escort this afternoon led the royal yacht Alberta and its precious cargo of the body of Queen Victoria into Portsmouth harbour en route to her funeral in London tomorrow. In the sunset scene the cortège was hardly visible through the pall cast by the smoke from the guns, which kept booming out on the minute until the Alberta reached harbour. The Queen died at Osborne on the Isle of Wight on January 22, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She was 82, and had lived and reigned longer than any other British monarch; her descendants have occupied seven thrones. Queen Victoria was only 18 when she ascended the throne 63 years ago. She had left it immeasurably strengthened, her empire circling the globe.

… (1896) Puccini’s opera La Bohème is premiered in Turin.

… (1893) In New Jersey, Thomas Edison opens the first film studio.

… (1884) The first instalment of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was published. It was 44 years before the first edition came out.

… (1790) The US Supreme Court meets for the first time.

… (1650) Death of René Descartes, the “father of French philosophy”.

… (1587) Queen Elizabeth I signed a death warrant for cousin Mary, Queen of Scots.

…Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. [G.K. Chesterton, iconoclastic English writer, 1931.]

..

JANUARY

31^st, (2000) Family GP Dr Harold Shipman has been sentenced to life for murdering 15 of his female patients, making him Britain’s worst convicted serial killer. He is also suspected of killing more than 100 other patients. The judge, Mr Justice Thayne Forbes, said: “You brought them death, disguised by the attentiveness of a good doctor.”

… (1974) American film producer Sam Goldwyn dies.

… (1968) ‘Viet Tet offensive may turn war’: Strategic buildings in Saigon, including the US embassy, came under surprise attack during a religious holiday today as Viet Cong troops broke a truce and launched a major offensive. The so-called Tet Offensive shows the determination and audacity of North Vietnam’s generals, and is sowing doubts among US congressmen about the wisdom of prosecuting this ever more unpopular war. Although the Communists are losing large numbers of men, they have proved their ability to strike even at supposedly secure cities. With American casualties now exceeding 1000 per day, domestic American hostility to the war is burgeoning. Tet could prove the turning-point in the war.

… (1961) The first chimp in space, Ham, was rescued from his craft off the coast of Florida. His only injury was a bruised nose.

… (1958) The first satellite to orbit the earth, Explorer I, is launched from Cape Canaveral.

… (1956) The creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne, dies.

… (1955) RCA introduces the first musical synthesiser.

… (1950) US President Truman today gave the go-ahead for the development of a hydrogen bomb, which scientists say could prove to be 1000 times more powerful than the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. The hydrogen bomb is based on the atom bomb, which is then surrounded by a layer of hydrogenous material. Tests are likely to take place within two years.

… (1943) ‘More than a million die in bloody Stalingrad’: The Red Army has captured Stalingrad in the greatest – and bloodiest – land battle of this war. The German army is believed to have lost 850,000 troops and the Soviets almost as many in the seven-month struggle that has destroyed most of this strategic city on the Volga. The capture of German commander Von Paulus – who twice rejected Russian General Zhukov’s surrender terms – came as he was promoted to Field Marshal by Hitler in a desperate attempt to stop him capitulating. But Hitler failed to live up to a promise to relieve the city with air drops and thousands of German soldiers starved to death in the bitter cold.

… (1917) The US enters World War I after Germany torpedoes American ships.

… (1876) All American Indians are ordered to move on to reservations.

… (1858) Brunel’s steamship The Great Eastern is finally launched at Millwall after a three-month-delay.

… (1835) ‘Assassin’s guns jam: President’s life saved’: US President Andrew Jackson was saved by the lucky double misfire of a would-be assassin’s pistols as he was attacked at close range on Capitol Hill today. His assailant, a house painter called Richard Lawrence who claims to be the rightful heir to the English throne, was quickly disarmed. He appears to represent no political faction. This is the first attempt on the life of a president of the United States, but President Jackson, a man of strong convictions, an iron will and fiery temperament is no stranger to violence. Earlier gunfights over gambling debts have left two bullets lodged in his body.

… (1788) Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Jacobite pretender to the English throne, dies in exile in Rome.

… (1747) The first clinic for the treatment of venereal diseases is opened at the London Lock Hospital.

…A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy. [Guy Fawkes, justifying his Gunpowder Plot. He was executed today, 1605.]

30^th, (2003) British-born ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid was sentenced to life in prison after he tried to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami.

… (1989) Five black Pharaonic figures dating from 1470 BC are found in Luxor in Egypt.

… (1983) A massive African exodus begins as Nigeria expels Ghanaians living within Nigerian borders.

… (1973) Watergate conspirators Gordon Liddy and James McCord are convicted of spying on Democratic headquarters.

… (1969) The Beatles make their last live performance on the roof of the Apple building in London – singing “Get Back”.

… (1965) Sir Winston Churchill received a state funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, after more than 300,000 people had paid their respects during three days of lying-in-state.

… (1963) The French composer and pianist Francis Poulenc dies.

… (1961) The contraceptive pill goes on sale in the UK, although it is not available on the National Health Service.

… (1958) ‘New genius of Paris fashion has first show’: The young genius of Paris fashion, Yves Saint Laurent, held his first major show in Paris today – at the age of 22. He was apprenticed to Christian Dior at 18, and on the latter’s death last year became the head designer of the Dior fashion house. Dior’s romantic New Look, which he introduced after the war, revitalised Paris fashion with its long, full skirts and narrow waists. His young successor is looking to the future; Saint Laurent sees the end coming for the one-off individual creation and a new wider market for couture fashion emerging, particularly in the United States. He plans to open boutiques offering high fashion at reasonable prices.

… (1948) Mahatma Gandhi, India’s “Great Soul” and prophet of non-violence, has been assassinated. Still weakened from a lengthy fast to urge peace between Muslims and Hindus, Gandhi was walking through a New Delhi garden on his way to prayer when a Hindu fanatic stepped from the crowd and fired three shots into his emaciated body. Gandhi’s last words were “Ram, Ram”, meaning “Oh God, Oh God”. His killer, Nathuram Godse, made no attempt to flee and was saved from a lynching at the hands of the furious crowd by air force officers. It was Gandhi’s fervent opposition to the painful partition of India on independence in 1947 that brought about his death: his Hindu killer thought Gandhi’s anti-partition sentiment was pro-Muslim and pro-Pakistan. Tomorrow his body will be cremated and its ashes cast into the Jumna River. Exactly 40 years ago today General Jan Smuts ordered Gandhi’s release from a South African prison following a sentence for civil disobedience.

… (1948) Orville Wright, one of the Wright brothers who made the first powered flight, dies.

… (1945) The Duke of Gloucester becomes the first member of the British royal family to be appointed Governor General of Australia.

… (1933) ‘Hitler becomes Chancellor’: Adolf Hitler today became Chancellor of Germany, turning the tables on Paul von Hindenburg, the 85-year-old President who months ago rejected the charismatic leader out of hand. Last year Hitler narrowly lost the presidential election to Hindenburg. Virtual street warfare between Communists and Hitler’s supporters, as well as the intrigues of army officers and bankers, has forced Hindenburg to send for the 43-year-old Hitler, a former painter. The cabinet is chiefly composed of right-wing Nationalists who are confident they will be able to control the man who has roused the people after the humiliations imposed as a result of the Great War.

… (1889) ‘Suicide pact at Mayerling may be murder’: Tragedy visited the royal Austrian hunting lodge of Mayerling today when Archduke Rudolf, the Crown Prince, and his 17-year-old mistress Baroness Marie Vetsara, were found dead. Rudolf was unhappy with his arranged marriage to Stephanie, daughter of the Belgian king. Officially the tragedy has been pronounced a double suicide. Rumour, however, maintains that Rudolf was murdered because of his sympathies with Hungarian nationalism, and to prevent his accession to the throne.

… (1858) The Hallé Orchestra is founded in Manchester by Charles Hallé.

… (1649) ‘”Traitor” Charles Beheaded’: King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland stepped on to the scaffold in front of the Banqueting House in Whitehall to deliver his final words. Liberty and freedom, said the monarch who had levied taxes without parliamentary consent, ruled for 11 years without any parliament, and had refused to recognise the court that condemned him, consisted of having a monarch like a loving father to run the government, not in having any share of that government. A subject and sovereign were “clear different things”, he said. Then he placed his head on the block and the axe came down. Since his army’s defeat at Naseby by Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads three years ago, Charles had manoeuvred desperately to escape this fatal day, offering Ireland, Rome, and even Scotland incentives to aid him. But the courts deemed him a “tyrant, traitor, murderer and enemy of the people”.

… (1606) Four conspirators involved in Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot are hanged, drawn and quartered in London.

29^th, (1988) Unsuccessful opera singer Bantcho Bantchevsky commits suicide by hurling himself from the balcony of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York during a performance of Verdi’s Macbeth.

… (1987) ‘Marcos supporters thwarted by Aquino’: President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines put down another attempted coup against her two-year-old administration today, forcing rebels to abandon the Manila television station they seized two days ago. Loyal troops stopped the rebels broadcasting to the nation by cutting off power to the transmitters, but another rebel force attacked the Villamor air base near the capital. Once again, supporters of exiled and ailing ex-dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda are behind the troubles.

… (1987) ‘Gorbachev calls for democracy’: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has taken his policy of Glasnost – “openness” – right to the heart of the Communist Party. He told the party’s Central Committee today that the time had come for greater “control from below”, which means free elections for local councils. He also said the Party bears a heavy responsibility for the USSR’s crippling economic and social problems. In line with the new openness in the media and tolerance of criticism, Gorbachev is expected to announce the freeing of imprisoned dissidents. Glasnost is the first political step in Gorbachev’s wider plan of perestroika – restructuring and economic reforms. Western analysts say he may face greater difficulties here because of entrenched and corrupt Party interests.

… (1980) American comedian Jimmy Durante dies at the age of 87.

… (1979) ‘Patty Hearst Goes Free’: US President Jimmy Carter today commuted Patricia Hearst’s prison sentence. The millionaire kidnap victim had joined her symbionese Liberation Army captors in armed bank robberies and half-baked plots to overthrow American capitalism. A year after the granddaughter of the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was kidnapped, the FBI tracked her down and she was sentenced to seven years for criminal activities with the Los Angeles-based terror group. Miss Hearst is to be released, having served just three years of her term. She will be watched closely by a guard.

… (1978) Sweden bans the use of ozone-depleting aerosol sprays.

… (1964) American actor Alan Ladd, who specialised in cowboys and tough guy roles, dies.

… (1960) President de Gaulle of France makes a TV address attacking Algerian rebels planning civil war.

… (1947) Buckingham Palace is lit by candles as lowest-ever temperatures cause nationwide power cuts.

… (1916) German Zeppelins bomb Paris for the first time.

… (1916) Britain begins military tank trials at Hatfield.

… (1899) Alfred Sisley, Impressionist painter born in Paris to English parents, dies in poverty.

… (1892) The charter permitting the creation of the Coca-Cola Company was granted by a court in Georgia in the United States.

… (1886) ‘Karl Benz Patents First Petrol-Driven Carriage’: Three German engineers are vying to perfect a horseless carriage driven by petroleum spirit. Nikolaus August Otto has just patented his “Silent Otto” gas engine, with four cycles: intake, compression, stroke, and exhaust. His design is a considerable improvement on Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir’s noisy two-cycle engine introduced in 1862. But the new motor needs something to drive, and Karl Benz today patented his design for an automobile to be powered by Otto’s engine. Gottlieb Daimler, a young engineer, is meanwhile working on a high-speed internal-combustion engine.

… (1861) Kansas becomes the 34^th US state.

… (1856) Britain’s highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross (VC) is instituted by Queen Victoria.

… (1820) King George III, remembered for his insanity, died at Windsor Castle.

… (1853) Napoleon III marries Eugenie de Montijo in Paris.

… (1596) ‘Sailor hero Francis Drake buried at sea’: A national hero to the English and a bloodthirsty pirate to the Spanish, Sir Francis Drake has been buried at sea off the coast of Panama after suffering weeks of dysentery. The most famous English seaman of the Elizabethan Age, Drake first put to sea in 1566. Eleven years later, when the Queen gave him command of five ships, he became the second commander after Magellan to sail around the world, returning laden with treasure and spice. From his native Plymouth Drake went to defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588 and was acclaimed as England’s hero. His final voyages to the West Indies, however, were unsuccessful.

28^th, (1989) Death of Sir Thomas Octave Sopwith, British aircraft designer best known for the World War I biplane the Sopwith Camel.

… (1980) Robert Mugabe, the leader of Rhodesia’s guerrilla army, has returned to Salisbury after five years of exile to take part in forthcoming elections that will transfer the country to majority rule. Mugabe is tipped to win the election, which is the result of last month’s Lancaster House settlement. The country will be renamed Zimbabwe.

… (1973) US military action in Vietnam comes to an end as the ceasefire is signed.

… (1967) ‘Launch pad fire kills astronaut’: — US astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee died on the ground today of asphyxiation when the fire broke out in their Apollo I Command Module during a flight simulation on the launch pad. The fire was caused by a short circuit in the cabin. Plastics which are normally fire-resistant ignited in the pure oxygen used by astronauts. The tragedy is a serious setback for the Apollo programme, which is geared to put a man on the moon by 1970, fulfilling John F. Kennedy’s dream.

… (1958) Lego filed a patent for its plastic brick. Since then, the Danish company has sold more than 400 billion Lego pieces.

… (1943) The US Air Force bombs Germany for the first time.

… (1939) ‘German physicist discovers how to split the atom’: The German chemist and Nobel Prizewinner Otto Hahn is reported to have discovered a means of unleashing the immense power stored inside the atom. In Stockholm, his scientific colleague of many years’ standing, Lise Meitner, has just announced that in Germany Hahn recently succeeded in transforming uranium-92 by means of nuclear fission. Bombarding the uranium with neutrons produced barium – contrary to all theoretical expectations. Nuclear fission could unlock a massive amount of energy and has enormous military potential.

… (1932) ‘Japan occupies Shanghai in China invasion’: Japanese troops have occupied Shanghai. This follows Japan’s seizure last year of Manchuria, the former Chinese province, as the first step in its drive to create a new Asian empire. Fighting continues on the northern front in Manchuria, as well as close to Nanking, in a full-scale invasion of China. Attempts to bring peace have been fruitless: Tokyo has paid no attention either to the League of Nations or to the overtures of US Secretary of State, Henry Stimson. In Japan it is known that army officers acted without government authorisation last year in precipitating the Mukden incident that has sparked off the current troubles, but the power of the militarist faction and public hunger for new territories now seems to have overwhelmed the more liberal instincts of Japan’s emperor himself.

… (1926) ‘Flickering threat to silver screen’: — Members of the Royal Instruction in London today peered at crude and flickering images of a ventriloquist’s doll as electrical engineer and inventor John Logie Baird unveiled his new “television” machine. Baird’s home-made equipment successfully transmitted a radio signal from a camera that is partly mechanical and partly electrical. The resulting image was sent electrically to a small screen. Two years ago Baird was able to transmit the outline of shapes, and he has progressed from there. The Scottish inventor’s far-fetched idea is that his device could one day provide every home with a substitute for the cinema.

… (1923) Former German army corporal Adolf Hitler holds the first congress of the Nationalist Socialist Party in Munich.

… (1913) The US athlete Jim Thorpe has lost his Olympic titles. Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon events, but he was disqualified today after it was discovered he had received $50 a week to play baseball, making him a professional. The Olympics are strictly an amateur contest.

… (1901) King Edward VII makes his cousin Kaiser William II of Germany a field-marshal in the British Army.

… (1868) The missing explorer and missionary Dr Livingstone is found in Africa by Sir Henry Morton Stanley.

… (1822) Greece declares independence following the war against Turkey.

… (1807) London’s Pall Mall became the first street in the world to be lit by gaslight.

… (1547) Henry VIII died, aged 55.

27^th, (1989) Death of Sir Thomas Octave Sopwith, British aircraft designer best known for the World War I biplane the Sopwith Camel.

…  (1981) ‘Murdoch takes over Times’: Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch has bought ‘The Thunderer’- the Times of London, Britain’s most venerated newspaper – and the Sunday Times. Murdoch first bought into the British press in 1969 when he acquired the News of the World – more in keeping with his sensationalist style than the august Times. He has overcome considerable British opposition to the takeover with the clearance of the purchase today by the Monopolies Commission.

… (1980) Robert Mugabe, the leader of Rhodesia’s guerrilla army, has returned to Salisbury after five years of exile to take part in forthcoming elections that will transfer the country to majority rule. Mugabe is tipped to win the election, which is the result of last month’s Lancaster House settlement. The country will be renamed Zimbabwe.

…It could never be a correct justification that, because the whites oppressed us yesterday when they had power, the blacks must oppress them today when they have power. [Robert Mugabe, guerrilla chief, on return from exile, 1980.]

… (1973) US military action in Vietnam comes to an end as the ceasefire is signed.

… (1969) Flooding in California leaves thousands homeless.

… (1967) Round-the-world yachtsman Francis Chichester is knighted on the quay at Greenwich by Queen Elizabeth II.

… (1967) ‘Launch pad fire kills astronaut’: US astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chafee died on the ground today of asphyxiation when the fire broke out in their Apollo I Command Module during a flight simulation on the launch pad. The fire was caused by a short circuit in the cabin. Plastics which are normally fire-resistant ignited in the pure oxygen used by astronauts. The tragedy is a serious setback for the Apollo programme, which is geared to put a man on the moon by 1970, fulfilling John F. Kennedy’s dream.

… (1952) The Shepheard Hotel in Cairo is burnt down during an anti-British riot, killing 17 people.

… (1943) The US Air Force bombs Germany for the first time.

… (1942) ‘Ace woman pilot arrives in a bomber’: Jacqueline Cochran, the American aviator, has brought a US bomber to Britain. She is the first woman to fly one of the big American planes here for action against Germany. She started her working life in a cotton mill, and gained her pilot’s licence after only three weeks’ training. The world’s leading aviatrix, in 1938 she won the Bendix transcontinental air race, and now holds more speed, altitude and distance records than any other pilot.

… (1926) ‘Flickering threat to silver screen’: Members of the Royal Instruction in London today peered at crude and flickering images of a ventriloquist’s doll as electrical engineer and inventor John Logie Baird unveiled his new “television” machine. Baird’s home-made equipment successfully transmitted a radio signal from a camera that is partly mechanical and partly electrical. The resulting image was sent electrically to a small screen. Two years ago Baird was able to transmit the outline of shapes, and he has progressed from there. The Scottish inventor’s far-fetched idea is that his device could one day provide every home with a substitute for the cinema.

… (1923) Former German army corporal Adolf Hitler holds the first congress of the Nationalist Socialist Party in Munich.

… (1913) The US athlete Jim Thorpe has lost his Olympic titles. Thorpe won gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon events, but he was disqualified today after it was discovered he had received $50 a week to play baseball, making him a professional. The Olympics are strictly an amateur contest.

… (1901) King Edward VII makes his cousin Kaiser William II of Germany a field-marshal in the British Army.

… (1901) Death of Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer whose operas include Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida and Otello.

… (1868) The missing explorer and missionary Dr Livingstone is found in Africa by Sir Henry Morton Stanley.

… (1851) ‘Wildlife artist dies’: John Audubon, the French-born naturalist who painted the birds and animals of America, has died. He originally made his living painting portraits and teaching art in New Orleans, but came to devote his life to his bird studies. Audubon concentrated on the character of his subjects, setting them in their natural context. A Scottish publisher printed his Birds of America between 1827 and 1838, by which time he had painted hundreds of birds. Five volumes of descriptive text followed. Audubon also experimented with bird-banding to study migration patterns.

… (1822) Greece declares independence following the war against Turkey.

26^th, (2001) Thousands die in a powerful earthquake which strikes Western Indian and parts of Pakistan. Nearly all the victims are from the Indian town of Bhuj in Gujarat.

… (1973) Death of Edward G. Robinson, American actor who was best-known for his gangster roles.

… (1960) Rioters greet British prime minister Harold Macmillan in Rhodesia.

… (1950) India becomes a democratic republic within the Commonwealth.

… (1947) Prince Gustav of Sweden is killed in an air crash near Copenhagen.

… (1942) ‘Over here again: US troops back in Europe’: For the first time since American “doughboys” left France soon after the 1918 Armistice, US ground troops arrived in Europe today to join the struggle against Adolf Hitler’s Nazis. Sir Archibald Sinclair, Britain’s Minister for Air, was in Northern Ireland to welcome the shipload of American soldiers as they stepped ashore to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner” – played by a British military band who hadn’t known to rehearse it because the arrival of the American troops was kept secret. But not everyone welcomed them: the Dublin government said the troop landings violated Eire’s neutrality.

… (1939) In Spain, General Franco’s rebel troops capture Barcelona from the Republicans.

… (1931) Mahatma Gandhi is released from prison to have talks with the British colonial government in India.

… (1926) The British Surgeon-General links cigarette-smoking with cancer.

… (1905) ‘Huge diamond found in South Africa’: A magnificent diamond has been discovered in South Africa, the largest rough stone ever found. Weighing nearly 1 ½ lb or 3106 carats (621.2g), the Cullinan diamond is also of high-quality. It is literally priceless – and far outweighs the previous record-holder, the 995.2-carat Excelsior, found in South Africa 12 years ago. The Cullinan is to be cut into a number of stones, some of which are destined for the British Crown Jewels.

… (1886) Karl Benz patents a three-wheel drive motor car and the internal combustion engine.

… (1885) ‘Gordon killed as Khartoum falls to Dervishes’: In a stunning reverse for the British, the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad is today master of Khartoum. The British commander General Charles Gordon is dead, killed by a dervish spear and decapitated, his forces overrun even as a British force speeds to relieve the beleaguered city. Disobeying Prime Minister Gladstone’s orders to evacuate, Gordon held the city for almost a year against the Mahdi’s army, showing himself to be almost as fanatical as his charismatic Muslim foe. Gordon fought in the Opium War in China, and helped to put down the Taiping anti-foreigner rebellion there, earning him the name “Chinese” Gordon. His pointless heroism at Khartoum will surely become a legend.

… (1871) The Rugby Football Union is formed in London.

… (1828) The Duke of Wellington becomes prime minister of Britain.

… (1827) Peru ends its union with Chile and declares independence.

… (1788) ‘Convict ships arrive in Sydney’: Captain Arthur Philip of the HMS Endeavour and his fleet of six transport ships today dropped anchor in what Captain Philip describes as “the finest harbour in the world” to begin the dismal task of establishing a penal settlement in the new Australian colony. His first landfall was Botany Bay, but he preferred to forge on to Port Jackson or Sydney. Aboard the ships were 570 men and 160 women, the survivors of a 36-week voyage from England during which the pox carried off 48 of the prisoners. A stern critic of the slave trade, Captain Philip preferred to take convicts to provide the manpower for his settlement, which is intended to deter French ambitions in the region. The new settlers have already encountered the indigenous dwellers of Australia, first seen by Captain Cook in 1770 when he claimed the territory for Britain. Captain Philip is to administer the colony.

… (1500) Explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinsón discovers Brazil and claims it for Portugal.

25^th, (1990) American actress Ava Gardner dies in London, aged 68.

… (1990) Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto became the first elected head of government to give birth while in office.

… (1985) ‘Big Apple’s subway vigilante gets lesser charge’: New York’s white “subway vigilante” Bernard Goetz will not stand trial for shooting four black youths at close range, a grand jury ruled today. But it accepted the prosecution’s demand that Goetz should stand trial for illegal possession of the handguns he used on his self-appointed mission to “clean up” the city’s crime-infested subway system. The case has divided New Yorkers: some see Goetz as a hero, others as a dangerous racist. The prosecution says it will still press for murder charges.

… (1981) ‘Mao widow sentenced to death’: Madame Chiang Ch’ing, Mao Tse-tung’s 67-year-old widow and former actress and a leader of China’s Cultural Revolution, has been given a suspended death sentence for “counter-revolutionary crimes” committed with the “Gang of Four” in the mid-1970s. She was dragged from the courtroom screaming abuse. The defendants insisted their actions had been at Mao’s behest.

… (1981) Roy Jenkins, Dr David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers break away from the British Labour Party to form the Social Democrats.

… (1980) Japan orders the deportation of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney after keeping him in prison for nine days following the discovery of marijuana in his luggage.

… (1971) ‘Manson guilty of Sharon Tate murders’: Macabre cult leader Charles Manson was found guilty today of murdering actress Sharon Tate and four others in a ritual slaughter in August 1969 that stunned America. Satanist Manson, who led a drug-ridden Californian commune or “family” of disturbed women, warned the judge, “You won’t outlive this, old man,” as the court took the next legal steps to have him and his accomplices sent to the gas chamber. The trial was punctuated by Manson’s outpourings about race war and Satan. As the death penalty has in fact been suspended in California, Manson and his co-convicts face life terms instead.

… (1957) The UN orders Israel to quit Aqaba and Gaza.

… (1952) Vincent Massey is appointed first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.

… (1947) ‘Few mourn penniless Capone’: “Scarface” Al Capone, America’s most feared mobster, is dead. An Italian-born New Yorker who made Prohibition-era Chicago his power-base, Capone’s bloody battles for control of the bootleg liquor smuggling business are legendary – more than 200 of his rivals met a violent end. “I’ve been accused of every death except the causality list of the World War,” he once said. It was estimated he made $105 million in 1927 alone. It was not murder or smuggling but income-tax invasion that finally tripped him up, and in 1931 he was fined $80,000 (£44,000) and sentenced to 11 years in jail. He was released from Alcatraz in 1939, old before his time and terminally ill with syphilis. He died today at his home in Florida of a massive brain haemorrhage, unmourned and virtually penniless. He was 48.

… (1944) In Macao, the Reverend Florence Tim-Oi Lee becomes the first woman Anglican priest.

… (1938) The aurora borealis (northern lights) are seen as far south as western Europe.

… (1934) Bank robber John Dillinger is captured in Tucson, Arizona.

… (1924) ‘First Winter Olympics under starter’s orders’: The first Winter Olympics are being held in the shadow of Mont Blanc at Chamonix in France, despite the reluctance of the International Olympics Committee to give them their full title. Competitors from 18 countries are taking part, and the Scandinavians are seizing the lion’s share of the medals. Ski-jumping, cross-country skiing and speed skating are among the new sporting categories being inaugurated this week, although it is still felt in some quarters that the traditional Nordic Games would be a more suitable recipient of the Olympic title.

… (1917) The USA buys the Virgin Islands from Holland for a sum of $25 million.

… (1895) Wales loses 3-0 to the Irish in the first-ever hockey international, held at Rhyl in Wales.

… (1882) The London Chamber of Commerce meets for the first time.

… (1878) A Russian boat fires the first torpedo used in war and sinks a Turkish steamer.

… (1832) The state of Virginia rejects the abolition of slavery.

… (1759) Birth of Robert Burns, Scottish poet and prodigy.

… (1533) ‘Secret wedding for Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn’: England’s King Henry VIII has married his lover, Anne Boleyn, in secret – and in some haste, since she is pregnant. The birth is expected in September. Last month Anne and the King visited King Francis of France at Calais, where they stayed in adjoining suites. Anne is Henry’s second wife, though he is not yet free of the first: His determination to divorce Catherine of Aragon, who has failed to bear him a son and heir, has brought him into collision with the Roman Church, which refuses to allow the divorce.

… (1327) Edward III accedes to the English throne.

…There’s no starvation in Uganda. If you get hungry you can go into the forest and pick a banana. [Idi Amin Dada, who seized power in Uganda today, 1971.]

24^th, (2001) Five million Hindus attend the Maha Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, India, in the largest ever gathering of humans. The crowds flock to bathe in the river Ganga at dawn.

… (1985) The prosecution gave its opening statement to OJ Simpson’s murder trial.

… (1987) ‘Waite mission ends in kidnap’: Terry Waite, the special representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been kidnapped in Beirut. Waite had hoped to negotiate the release of foreign hostages held by Islamic extremists. He left five days ago for a meeting with Shi’ite Muslims, followers of the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, who are believed to be holding hostages. Waite’s Druze bodyguards say he dismissed them and then vanished. Waite may have opted for silence because he is near to a breakthrough in releasing the captives. However, there are fears that the recent linking of his name with the Iran-Contra scandal in the US means he can expect little mercy from the Shi’ite “Hezbollah” militants.

… (1983) Death of George Cukor, American film director.

… (1976) A Russian satellite crashes near Yellowknife in north-west Canada.

… (1976) The Olympic Bravery, a 270,000 ton oil tanker, runs aground off France.

… (1965) ‘The lion lies down’: Sir Winston Churchill, dubbed the “last lion of British politics” and perhaps Britain’s greatest statesman since his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, died today aged 90, exactly 70 years after his father. He never recovered after suffering a stroke last week. His body is to lie in state in Westminster Hall. His career stretched back to the Victorian era and he left his stamp on many of the great theatres of modern history: India, Africa, Ireland, the Middle East and above all the Europe of two World Wars. The son of an American society beauty, Churchill pursued a second career as one of the world’s most successful journalists.

… (1962) Jeanne Moreau stars in the latest film by “nouvelle vague” director Francois Truffaut, premiered in Paris today. Jules et Jim is the romantic tale of two close friends with a shared mistress who end up fighting on separate sides in World War One.

… (1961) A US B-52 bomber breaks up in mid-air, killing three crew and releasing two 24-megaton nuclear bombs.

… (1935) Canned beer is sold for the first time in Richmond, Virginia.

… (1920) Italian painter Amadeo Modigliani dies from alcohol and drug abuse.

… (1916) Conscription is introduced in Britain.

… (1915) The British fleet defeats the Germans at the Battle of Dogger Bank.

… (1895) Death of Lord Randolph Churchill, leader of the British Conservative party.

… (1848) ‘Gold Strike in California’: What could turn out to be the greatest gold rush in the history of the United States began today when James Marshall made a rich strike at Sutter’s sawmill on the American River in northern California. It is several years since farmer Francisco Lopez found traces of gold on a freshly-dug onion nearby, but the stampede is now just beginning. The government of the Mexican-owned territory is spreading the news of the find in the hope of increasing the population of California, which now has just 14,000 inhabitants. A gold strike of this magnitude will bring fortune-hunters from all over the world.

… (1639) ‘New World settlers break with Britain’: American settlers meeting in Hartford have voted to adopt a new constitution called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This written body of laws is believed to be the first such constitution in the colonies: it is notable for the fact that it makes no mention at all of allegiance to the British Crown, and it allows colonists both to administer their own taxes and to summon their own legislature without the prior permission of the King’s appointed governor.

… (1616) The Dutch navigator Willem Schouten today rounded the perilous cape at the southern tip of the Americas. He has named it Cape Hoorn after his birthplace in Holland. The Cape was first sighted by Sir Walter Raleigh, while in 1520 Ferdinand Magellan passed through the straits to the north.

… (1236) King Henry III of England marries Eleanor of Provence.

… (41 AD) Roman emperor Caligula, renowned for his excesses, is murdered by a tribune of the guard. Claudius, a relative, then became Roman emperor.

…I could not understand from them why they made war upon each other, considering that they held no private property or sovereignty of empire and kingdoms. They said that this curse came upon them in ancient times and they sought to avenge the deaths of their forefathers. [Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer, reporting on a month with the natives of Brazil, 1502.]

23^rd, (1999) Princess Caroline of Monaco (Grace Kelly’s daughter) married Prince Ernst August of Hanover on her 42nd birthday.

… (1989) ‘Salvador Dali fails to live forever’: “Geniuses don’t die, I’m going to live forever,” the Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali is on record as saying. Nevertheless, he died today, at his Spanish castle in Figueras. He was 78. Famed for his varnished moustache, flowing capes and outrageous behaviour, Dali had been a recluse since the death in 1982 of his wife Gala. Dali was a technical virtuoso and his dreamlike scenes – melting watches and painstakingly detailed beauties supported by fantastical crutches – commanded huge prices. He once said his paintings were motivated by his megalomania. The art world was angered by recent confirmation that he had been signing blank canvases for others to paint.

… (1976) Paul Robeson, black American singer, actor and campaigner for civil rights, dies in Harlem aged 77.

… (1973) ‘The War in Vietnam is over, Says Nixon’: US President Richard Nixon tonight told American TV viewers his government has achieved an agreement that will bring “peace with honour” and an end to the war in Vietnam. Negotiators in Paris are hammering out the final text of a peace treaty to be signed in the next few days. Its central provision is a ceasefire that must hold long enough for the Americans to withdraw. Though Nixon, buoyed up by his massive election victory, claims the peace agreement will preserve the principle so many Americans and Vietnamese have died for – the right of the South Vietnamese to settle their own political future – the draft text does not actually say what will happen to South Vietnam’s President Thieu.  He is refusing to sign it because Viet Cong troops will remain inside his country, but US troops will get out and prisoners of war will be exchanged. Ominously, Hanoi’s chief negotiator Le Duc Tho concluded, “Right has triumphed over wrong.”

… (1971) George Harrison became the first Beatle to have a solo number one with My Sweet Lord.

… (1968) North Korean patrol boats attack and capture a US Navy intelligence ship in the Sea of Japan, killing several of its crew.

… (1963) ‘Third man Philby disappears’: Kim Philby is today considered missing after failing to meet his wife at a dinner party in Beirut. Now a foreign correspondent, Philby was formerly a high-ranking intelligence officer and in 1955 was accused in the British Parliament of being a Soviet spy. It took Britain’s security services four years to admit that former intelligence officers Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who fled to Moscow in 1951, were indeed spies. Philby received a clean bill of health from Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who said there was no “Third Man” inside MI5 (Britain’s military intelligence agency). Now doubts are resurfacing about the missing journalist.

… (1960) ‘Verne’s fantasy now a reality’: Two men have ventured down 35,800 ft into the world’s deepest ocean trench inside a bathyscaphe, challenging Jules Verne’s famous fiction with fact. French scientist Jacques Piccard and US Navy lieutenant Donald Walsh made their world-record dive for the purpose of deep-sea exploration into the Challenger Deep off the Marianas Trench near the Philippines. Their bathyscaphe, the Trieste, was built in 1953 by Jacques Piccard’s father, Auguste Piccard.

… (1955) Spanish dictator General Franco decides to reinstate the monarchy and Prince Juan Carlos is allowed to claim the crown.

… (1943) The British capture Tripoli from the Germans.

… (1908) A 7000-mile telegraph from London to India is introduced.

… (1849) British-born Elizabeth Blackwell qualifies in the USA as the first woman doctor.

… (1823) The USA recognises Argentina and Chile.

… (1806) William Pitt the Younger, twice British prime minister, dies aged 47, having first taken office at the age of only 24.

… (1793) Poland is partitioned by Russia, Austria and Prussia.

… (1713) ‘Treaty of Utrecht redraws Europe’: The map of Europe has been redrawn in a treaty to end the long and bloody War of Spanish Succession. The Peace of Utrecht, signed today in the Lowlands, preserves Europe’s fragile power balance by preventing either Bourbon France or Habsburg Austria from dominating the old territories of the Spanish Succession. It is a masterpiece of diplomacy: Philip V gets the Spanish throne and its overseas colonies but must renounce all claims to the French crown. Britain gets Minorca and Gibraltar as well as territory in the Americas and West Indies. Prussia gets Upper Gelderland, Neuchatel, and Valengin, while the Duke of Savoy wins Sicily. The truth is that everyone was thoroughly worn out by a senseless war which had dragged on for 12-years.

… (1571) Queen Elizabeth I opens the Royal Exchange in London.

… (1556) An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, kills 830,000 people.

22^nd, (1988) Schipol Airport in Amsterdam opens a departure lounge for cattle.

… (1984) A TV advert set in a dystopian world controlled by Big Brother and directed by Ridley Scott announced Apple Macintosh, its first personal computer with a built-in screen and a mouse.

… (1983) ‘Borg’s game, set and match’: Tennis star Bjorn Borg retired today at 26, a wealthy man with an unequalled record. Borg made his professional debut at 14. Two years later he earned £40,000 in prize money. By 1981, Borg had won six French Open titles and five consecutive Wimbledon championships – an all-time record. Borg is a powerful player with unbeatable speed and great concentration. Last year Borg was barred from the major championships because he had not entered the minimum number of tournaments. A request to reduce his commitments was turned down.

… (1973) Death of Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the United States after John F. Kennedy.

… (1972) As he prepares to sign the Treaty of Brussels securing British entry into the Common Market, British prime minister Edward Heath has ink thrown over him by protestors against the redevelopment of Covent Garden, London.

… (1972) The United Kingdom, Denmark and the Irish Republic join the EEC.

… (1964) Kenneth Kaunda is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.

… (1950) ‘Hiss case starts McCarthy’s Communist witch-hunt’: Alger Hiss, a former adviser to US President Franklin Roosevelt, has been convicted of perjury for denying contacts with a Soviet agent. Whittaker Chambers, an editor of Time magazine and a former agent for the USSR, had accused Hiss of having been a secret member of the Communist Party and of giving him State Department documents for the Soviets. Chambers took Republican congressman Richard M. Nixon to his farm, where he produced microfilms of the documents, allegedly typed on Hiss’s typewriter. The microfilms were hidden in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Hiss denied ever knowing Chambers and said the documents were forged. A first trial ended with a hung jury, but today he was jailed for five years. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy has now charged that the State Department is riddled with Communists.

… (1949) ‘Mao’s peasant army marches into Peking’: Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung marched into Peking today at the head of a battle-hardened guerrilla army to make the Communists virtual masters of China. The vanquished Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek appealed for immediate peace talks, but Mao contemptuously dismissed the appeal. The guerrillas crossed the Yangtze to defeat a huge Nationalist army at Huai Hai north of the capital, taking over 300,000 prisoners. Mao now plans to march on to Shanghai to mop up Chiang’s fleeing forces, completing the task he began by leading a ragged peasant army to freedom back in 1935.

… (1941) The British capture Tobruk from German forces.

… (1924) Ramsay MacDonald becomes Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister.

… (1905) ‘Blood of Massacre Stains Tsar’s Hands’: A mass march to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg today turned into a horrifying slaughter as Cossack troops fired salvo after salvo into the crowd at close range, leaving the snow red with the blood of at least 500 people. This “Red Sunday” massacre of strikers could ignite the long-simmering discontent with the rule of Tsar Nicholas II. His regime is weakened by the turmoil of military defeat at the hands of Japan, and today’s massacre could lead feuding liberal and radical groups to unite against the government. The outrage is all the greater because the peaceful march of 1000 demonstrators was led by a St. Petersburg priest – Father Gapon – while other marches carried crosses, icons, and even the Tsar’s portrait.

… (1901) Queen Victoria dies at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight at the age of 81, ending a 64-year reign.

… (1879) Zulus massacre British forces at Isandlwana.

… (1666) ‘Death of a Mogul Emperor’: Shah Jahan, the mighty Mogul emperor of India who built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal, died today in the fort where his son, Aurangzeb, imprisoned him eight years ago. He was 74. He is to be entombed in the Taj Mahal beside his wife. Aurangzeb had fought and killed his brothers to seize the throne, as Shah Jahan had done before him in 1628. Aurangzeb confined his father to his harem in the fort at Agra, from where the old man could gaze at the magnificent white marble mausoleum in which his empress lay. He was a direct descendant of both Genghis Khan and Timur.

21^st, (1998) ‘Clinton Denies Affair with Intern’: President Clinton has denied all allegations that he had a relationship with a 24-year-old former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. He also rejected claims that he asked her to lie under oath about the affair. The president made his statement after increasing media pressure amid rumours of the 18-month relationship in 1995. Miss Lewinsky has made no public statement although it is understood she has admitted to the affair on tape. She is currently in hiding. President Clinton made his denial at a news conference at the White House today saying: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time, never. These allegations are false and I need to get back to work for the American people.” Clinton then left the room without answering any questions.

… (1990) John McEnroe became the first tennis player in three decades to be disqualified from a Grand Slam event for misconduct when he was expelled from the Australian Open for swearing at an official. 

… (1988) Briton Brian Milton lands his microlight aircraft in Darwin after a 51-day flight from London.

… (1981) ‘America’s Tehran hostages go free’: America’s 444-day agony over the hostages held in Iran ended today as the 52 diplomats landed safely in Algiers. Looking exhausted but still smiling, the senior US diplomat Bruce Laingen stepped to freedom from the aircraft, flanked by the two women hostages, Kathryn Koob and Elizabeth Ann Swift. Iran’s ruler, Ayatollah Khomeini, at first insisted that the students who took over the US embassy in Tehran were beyond his control. He has now doubly humiliated US President Jimmy Carter by releasing the captives just hours after Carter handed over the presidency to Ronald Reagan. No one knows what concessions Reagan, who triumphantly announced the resolution of the crisis, has had to make. The crisis was sparked by the decision to allow the ailing and exiled Shah of Iran into the US for medical treatment.

… (1976) British and French Concordes make their inaugural commercial flights, from London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio de Janeiro.

… (1959) Death of Cecil B. de Mille, American film director, producer and screenwriter renowned for his biblical epics.

… (1954) The USA launches Nautilus, its first nuclear submarine.

… (1951) Atomic bombs are tested in Nevada for the first time.

… (1950) “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.” George Orwell who died today.

… (1941) The Daily Worker, Britain’s communist newspaper, is banned as a result of wartime restrictions.

… (1935) Snowdonia, Wales, is designated a national park.

… (1924) ‘Lenin Dies’: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the Father of the Russian Revolution, who started out as a country lawyer but went on to topple an emperor and shake the world with a new creed, has died at the age of 53. In the Communist pantheon he was second only to Karl Marx, and a special mausoleum is being built in Moscow’s Red Square where his embalmed body will be on display in a glass coffin. A triumvirate is expected to succeed him. Lenin’s political conversion came in 1887 when his brother was hanged after plotting against the Tsar. In 1917, after years of exile, he jumped at a German offer to return him to Russia aboard a sealed train. He quickly toppled the liberal provisional government and consolidated the Bolshevik hold on power by ruthless use of the Party, the secret police and the Red Army. Lenin’s agricultural policies caused a famine that claimed more than five million lives. According to Lenin’s theory, the nature of capitalism makes socialist revolution possible, and leaders of the working class from the proletariat and peasantry are able to overthrow the capitalist class that dominates the world.

… (1911) The first Monte Carlo car rally takes place.

… (1907) Taxi cabs are officially recognised in Britain.

… (1879) Zulus massacre British troops at Isandlwana in Natal.

… (1878) ‘Ruskin loses a farthing – and his reputation’: The American artist James Whistler has won damages of one farthing in a London libel action against critic John Ruskin. On seeing the 200-guinea price tag on Whistler’s painting Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket, Ruskin accused the American of “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”. Ruskin’s reaction is unexpected, for he has always championed the imagination against “mere realism”. He defended J.M.W. Turner at a time when the painter’s vivid colours and vague forms were bringing charges of madness. Ruskin can certainly afford the one farthing damages, but perhaps not the damage to his credibility.

… (1846) The first edition of the Daily News, edited by Charles Dickens, is published in London.

… (1793) France is today without a monarch and the Revolution has blood on its hands. At 10.30 this morning the head of Louis Capet – as Louis XVI is now known – rolled into a waiting basket as the guillotine claimed its most illustrious victim yet. He had been found guilty of treason. Crowds cheered as he died.

… (1790) In Paris, Dr Joseph Guillotin demonstrates a new device for performing executions whereby a heavy blade drops from a frame on the neck of his victim.

… (1648) The first woman lawyer in the American colonies has been denied the right to vote. Margaret Brent, a wealthy landowner, has challenged the ruling on the grounds that the proceedings were unlawfully conducted in her absence. All landowners vote in Maryland, and she is the first woman to hold land in her own right in the colony.

20^th, (1998) Palestinians begin the intifada (uprising) to protest against Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

… (1991) ‘Downed Allied Pilots on Iraqi TV’: Iraq today paraded a group of captured allied jet pilots in front of the television cameras. The men – Americans, Britons, an Italian and a Kuwaiti – have made confused statements saying they do not agree with the war. Meanwhile, new US Patriot anti-missiles are arriving in Tel Aviv to counteract Iraqi Scud missile attacks on Israel, which could carry biological warheads. Israel has already been hit by Scuds since the war started two days ago, but has not so far responded. Allied leaders say it is essential that Israel be kept from the conflict – to maintain US support by Saudi Arabian, Syrian and Egyptian forces.

… (1981) Fifty-two American hostages are released from Iran.

… (1981) Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as President of the USA, the oldest candidate to take office.

… (1971) The RAF Red Arrows aerial display team collide in mid-air, killing four.

… (1964) The Great Train Robbers go on trial in Britain.

… (1961) “We stand on the edge of a new frontier” – John F. Kennedy, on his inauguration as US President.

… (1958) Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole, the first explorer to do so since Captain Scott.

… (1944) The RAF drops 2300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

… (1943) ‘Vive l’existentialisme!’: Jean Paul Sartre has published a monumental work, Being and Nothingness, a treatise on his existentialism. The French thinker has explored the nature of existence, and, comes up with – basically, nothing. He rejects the supernatural and ideas of humanity and morality, concluding that existence is absurd – life is merely “contingent”. A thing simply is; objects crowd upon humans by sheer virtue of their abundance. What distinguishes humanity is consciousness – “being-for-itself” – and the ultimate freedom to build an identity. The use of this freedom is the basis of existential living. Being and Nothingness also probes responsibility, and the limits of freedom. “Man is a useless passion,” Sartre proclaims – though that doesn’t mean that all is futile, to judge from his own very active life.

… (1937) ‘Roosevelt does it again’: Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office today for a second presidential term after the most outstanding victory ever in an American election. Roosevelt took all the states except Maine and Vermont in a glittering referendum on the results of his “New Deal” programme of relief, recovery and reform after the Depression of the early 1930s. Although his schemes have brought agricultural recovery, Roosevelt still faces determined opposition from the Supreme Court to his Agricultural Adjustment Act that raises farm prices and pays farmers more for producing less. If the Court rules these government plans unconstitutional, Mr. Roosevelt has threatened to nominate another six judges to wrest majority control from the elderly conservatives blocking him. The election shows that the United States is solidly behind him.

… (1936) ‘Britain mourns George V’: Britain is today mourning the death of King George V after his 26-year reign. The grandson of Queen Victoria, he was responsible for changing the name of the Royal Family from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor during the Great War in order to emphasise the distance from his German cousins. He also initiated the tradition of the monarch’s Christmas radio broadcasts. George V had never expected to be king and was forced to give up a career in the Royal Navy to take the throne when his elder brother died. He steered Britain through the Great War, through the Irish Home Rule crisis, and through the reform of the House of Lords. A countryman at heart, King George V died at his beloved Sandringham estate in Gloucestershire. He always loathed foreign travel and once said, “I don’t like abroad, I’ve been there.” His last words were “How is the Empire?” King George V is succeeded by Edward VIII, his eldest son.

… (1900) Death of John Ruskin, British art critic and social reformer.

… (1892) The first baseball game is played in Springfield, Massachusetts.

… (1882) A draper’s shop in Newcastle-upon-Tyne becomes the first shop in the world to be lit by electric light.

… (1878) The 3500-year-old obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle arrives in London from Alexandria in Egypt.

… (1841) Hong Kong is ceded to Britain from China.

… (1779) Death of David Garrick, British actor.

… (1265) ‘England’s first Parliament to meet at Westminster’: A new era in relations between the English king and his people opened today with the summoning of a parliament in London that includes both gentry from the shires and burgesses from the towns. For the first time, the whole country is represented in a single chamber at Westminster Hall. The parliament was convened by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, the king’s troublesome brother-in-law. Since his return to this country in 1262, de Montfort has built a hegemony of power. His military victory over King Henry III at Lewes last year in the Barons’ War gives the tired king (Henry has been on the thrown since he was nine) no option but to acquiesce to the new parliament. But Henry’s son Edward has promised to seek revenge against the French-born Earl on the battlefield for these affronts to royal prerogative.

19^th, (1995) Russian troops seize the presidential palace in Grozny, Chechnya.

… (1990) ‘Free love guru dies’: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the Indian guru who owned nearly 100 Rolls-Royces, has died of a heart attack at his commune in Poona, barred from nearly 20 countries. He was 58. Rajneesh was the guru of free love: according to his teaching, celibacy was a crime, and a great obstacle on the path towards enlightenment. One of his books was entitled Meditation: The Art of Ecstasy. During the 1970s he had hundreds of thousands of ardent followers in the West, keenly practicing the guru’s principles. Known as the Orange People because, for no known reason, his disciples wore only orange clothing, those converted to his teaching lost their names, adopting Indian names Rajneesh gave them. Rajneesh was recently expelled from the US and his commune in Oregon was closed.

… (1989) ‘Palach remembered’: Police today used tear gas, water cannon and baton charges to break up a huge demonstration taking place in the centre of Prague. The demonstrators were commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach, the Czechoslovak student who burned himself to death in Jan Palach Square in violent protest against the Soviet invasion of 1968. The demonstration today was led by dissident writer Vaclav Havel of the Charter 77 human rights movement.

… (1988) Severely disabled Irish writer Christopher Nolan wins the Whitbread Book of the Year Award at the age of only 22 for his autobiography Under the Eye of the Clock.

… (1983) Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was arrested in Bolivia.

… (1969) Twenty-one-year-old student Jan Palach sets fire to himself in Wenceslaus Square in Prague as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

… (1966) Sir Robert Menzies resigns as Prime Minister of Australia.

… (1966) ‘Indira Gandhi is India’s first woman PM’: Indira Gandhi today became India’s first woman leader, following in the footsteps of her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. Mrs. Gandhi, a widow, is no relation of Mahatma Gandhi. She was sworn into power today following the sudden death last week of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri as he was signing a peace pact with Pakistan. She has been president of the ruling National Congress Party since 1959. She follows Sri Lanka’s Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, who took office as the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960.

… (1915) ‘Zeppelin bombs British towns’: A new and sinister form of destruction has been added to the already terrifying catalogue of modern warfare: aerial bombardment. For the first time since the war began last year German Zeppelin airships tonight crossed the eastern English coast to bombard towns in East Anglia. Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, brilliantly lit and unsuspecting, were hit, with more than 20 people killed. The attacks follow last month’s shelling of Whitby and Hartlepool, further to the north, by German warships, when more then 100 people lost their lives. Germany’s airship mastery could be ominous for Britain: the Zeppelins can patrol the North Sea at altitudes no British plane is able to reach. Steps are being taken with all possible speed to protect London from bombardment.

… (1942) The Japanese invade Burma.

… (1903) ‘Tour de France will test cyclists to limit’: Sports promoter and journalist Henri Desgrange today announced plans to hold a gruelling bicycle race across France this summer. It will be called the Tour de France, and will cover around 2500-3000 miles (4000-4800 km) of roads and mountain passes throughout the country and into parts of its five neighbours. About 60 top cyclists will follow a route from Paris to Marseilles and back again in six stages over three weeks. The new race reflects the recent increase in competitive cycling which has brought world cycling championships and an International Union of Cyclists.

… (1884) Massenet’s opera Manon receives its first performance in Paris.

… (1853) Verdi’s opera II Trovatore is premiered in Rome.

… (1793) King Louis XVI of France is sentenced to the guillotine.

… (1729) English Restoration playwright William Congreve is killed in a carriage accident.

… (1547) Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, is beheaded in the Tower of London for treason.

18th, (2016) An Oxfam report revealed that the world’s 62 richest people owned as much as the poorest half of the world’s population.

… (1996) Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson, after just over a year and a half of marriage.

… (1991) ‘Gulf War protests – and support’: Anti-Gulf War demonstrators across the US clashed violently with police today, and 1400 demonstrators were arrested – more than in any of the Vietnam War marches of the 1960s and 70s. After three days of war between the allied forces and Iraq, there were also massed anti-war demonstrations in most European capitals, with 300,000 gathering in Bonn and 50,000 in Paris. In Berlin, 10,000 children carried candles through the streets in protest. In spite of the riots, majority public opinion in the US is strongly behind military action. Current polls show 75 per cent of people favour the attack on Iraq – an increase from 50 per cent just before the war started. British polls show 80 per cent of respondents are in favour of Britain’s involvement. The Arab world is in a furore over the allied attack, with pro-Iraqi demonstrations in many Muslim countries. There have also been angry protests in many Third World Countries.

… (1990) Englishman Terry Marsh, former world welterweight boxing champion, was charged today with trying to kill his ex-manager, Frank Warren, last November. Warren was shot in the face.

… (1980) Sir Cecil Beaton, royal photographer and Oscar-winning costume designer, died aged 76.

… (1977) Eighty-two die in Australia when a Sydney-bound train is derailed.

… (1972) Former prime minister Garfield Todd and his daughter are placed under house arrest by Ian Smith’s government in Rhodesia.

… (1954) Death of Sydney Greensheet, British actor who appeared in Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The Woman in White among many other films.

… (1943) ‘Russian forces break siege of Leningrad’: The Red Army has broken the 890-day siege of Leningrad and re-established land communications with the city, which since September 1941 has been subject to terrible air and artillery bombardment from German forces. During the siege the city received only irregular supplies over the frozen Lake Ladoga and its inhabitants consumed everything near edible they could lay their hands on. The city’s relief is the high point of the current massive Soviet counter-offensive which moved into top gear as the roads and waterways froze. The Red Army is now moving toward Voroshilovsk and its divisions are threatening the main German invading force at Stalingrad, where a battle is expected.

… (1934) The first arrest is made in Britain by policemen using pocket radios.

… (1919) Twenty-seven nations convene the Paris Peace Conference following World War I – Germany is not allowed to attend. The conference would result in the Treaty of Versailles

… (1911) Eugene Ely is the first pilot to land his aircraft on a ship when his Curtis pusher bi-plane lands on the US cruiser Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.

… (1879) First edition of Boy’s Own Paper published 1879-1967, created by the Religious Tract Society.

… (1871) Wilhelm of Prussia is proclaimed the first German emperor.

… (1778) ‘Cook Discovers Hawaii’: The English navigator James Cook has discovered a new group of islands in the Pacific Ocean on his third voyage of discovery aboard his ship Resolution. The islands, inhabited by a powerful race of Polynesians, are called Hawaii in the local tongue, but Captain Cook today claimed the territory for the Crown and named them the Sandwich Islands. In his attempt to discover a northwest passage from Europe to the Orient from the Pacific side, Captain Cook sailed from the Cape of Good Hope in 1776 to meet the survey vessel Discovery, and then onward to the North American coast via the Pacific. His plan is to force a passage through the Bering Straits into the Arctic Ocean, and return to Europe this way. If no such passage exists, then the Resolution can return the way it came. Cook aims to use the newly discovered islands as ports of call. However, the island’s inhabitants have shown some animosity toward their first European visitors.

… (1485) The Houses of Lancaster and York are united by the marriage of Henry VII to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV.

17th, (1997) Ireland granted its first divorce, following a referendum in 1995.

… (1995) 5,000 people die in an earthquake which strikes Kobe, Japan, at dawn. It is the biggest Japan has seen for 47 years.

… (1991) Operation Desert Storm began when hundreds of U.S., British and allies’ aircraft launched bombing raids into Iraq.

… (1988) The Nicaraguan Sandinista leader Daniel Ortego offers a ceasefire to the Contras.

… (1983) The BBC pioneers breakfast television in Britain.

… (1979) ‘Shah of Iran out, Khomeini in’: In one of contemporary history’s most extraordinary reverses, the once-mighty Shah of Iran fled from his Peacock Throne at the command of an aged and still exiled priest. Jubilant Iranians danced for joy when Tehran Radio announced today that the Shah and his family had fled to Cairo, unable to resist the mounting opposition masterminded by Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, whose portrait is now omnipresent in the capital. In contrast, the crowds lost no time in toppling surviving statues of the Pahlavi dynasty began by the Shah’s father, a former mule-driver. The deposed ruler’s powerful armed forces, his grandiose plans to restore Persia’s former greatness, his modernisations using oil revenues and US support all counted for nothing in the face of discontent at his regime’s corruption and brutality. Now the way is open for a triumphal return of the exiled Ayatollah, still living on the outskirts of Paris.

… (1967) John Lennon read an article in the British press about potholes. It inspired a lyric in The Beatles song A Day in the Life: ‘Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.’

… (1966) A B-52 carrying four hydrogen bombs collides with a refuelling tanker, killing eight and releasing the weapons.

… (1961) Patricia Lumumba, first president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is assassinated.

… (1934) A “poor white” called Pohl finds a 500-carat diamond near Pretoria in South Africa.

… (1933) ‘Bodyline bowling just not cricket’: A row over cricket is threatening friendly relations between England and Australia. Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, home of England’s MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), has received an angry telegram from the Australian Cricket Board demanding that the English bowlers change their bowling tactics in the Third Test match now being played at Adelaide. The English fast bowling, led by Harold Larwood, has injured several players and dispatched the wicket-keeper with head injuries. These tough tactics are intended to counter Australian Donald Bradman’s incomparable batting. “Bodyline” bowling forces batsmen to play leg strokes into the waiting hands of slip fielders. However, when the popular Bert Oldfield was carried off unconscious it was feared the Australian crowds would riot. The MCC may have to recall its aggressive touring team, captained by Douglas Jardine.

… (1912) ‘Scott reaches South Pole but Norwegians were first’: Britain’s polar explorers completed a terrible overland journey to reach the South Pole today – only to find they were not the first. A Norwegian tent showed Roald Amundsen had beaten Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s party by a month. “Great God, this is an awful place,” wrote Scott in his diary as his party swallowed their disappointment. Poor logistics and unreliable equipment hampered the expedition, resulting in the ill-equipped party travelling far more slowly than Amundsen, whose men raced along behind dog-sleds.

… (1904) Anton Chekhov’s last play, The Cherry Orchard, opened in Moscow.

… (1852) The British recognise the independence of the Transvaal Boers.

… (1827) The Duke of Wellington is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army.

… (1781) American revolutionary troops rout a British force in South Carolina.

… (1773) Captain Cook’s Resolution crosses the Atlantic Circle, the first ship ever to do so.

16^th, (1991) ‘Desert Storm breaks with bombs on Baghdad’: Allied jets bombed Baghdad as war broke out early today. In spite of desperate last-minute peace efforts, the UN deadline for Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to withdraw his troops from Kuwait expired at midnight without an Iraqi response. The action started when US warships in the Gulf launched Cruise missiles at Iraqi targets. In the next four hours allied aircraft flew 400 missions against 60 targets in Iraq. UN Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, President Mubarak of Egypt and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia all sent urgent appeals to Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein yesterday. Perez de Cuellar promised that if the present crisis was averted concrete progress could immediately be made on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Palestinian question, which Saddam has consistently linked to his invasion of Kuwait. The appeals were fruitless.

… (1979) American actress and singer Cher files for divorce just nine days after her wedding to musician Greg Allman.

… (1979) The Shah of Iran dies in exile in Egypt.

… (1975) Angola gains its independence from Portugal.

… (1970) Colonel Gaddafi becomes Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council in Libya.

… (1957) The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool as a venue for rock groups. It hosted The Beatles four years later.

… (1957) The Sadler’s Wells Ballet is granted a royal charter and becomes the Royal Ballet.

… (1945) Adolf Hitler moved into his bunker, under Berlin. He died there 105 days later.

… (1944) General Eisenhower is appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.

… (1924) The BBC broadcasts the first play written specifically for radio – Danger, by Richard Hughes.

… (1920) ‘USA bans booze’: With heavy hearts, party-going Americans raised their glasses for the last time today in the final hours before the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution came into force, banning the consumption of alcohol in the United States. Many foresee trouble and lawlessness as the price of restraining individual liberty with the “Noble Experiment”. New York’s police chief says 250,000 extra officers will be needed to enforce the ban, though the provisions planned in the new Volstead Act should do much to stop contraband liquor entering the country. America is not going dry overnight: liquor has been banned in some states since before the Civil War and the Prohibition Party fielded a presidential candidate 50 years ago. Today’s legislation is the culmination of a long temperance battle.

… (1919) ‘Red Rosa Murdered’: “Red Rosa” Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, the two revolutionary leaders of last week’s abortive communist uprising in Berlin, have been murdered by army officers, it was reported today. Soldiers escorting the two captives to prison yesterday killed them instead, and threw their bodies into a canal. Two soldiers have been arrested. “Red Rosa” who spent years in prison for her attempts to mobilise German workers against the Great War, founded the Spartacist movement. Last week the movement tried to establish a Bolshevik republic in Berlin. Revolutionaries took over streets and seized public buildings, hoping that the workers would rally to their cause; the workers more or less ignored them. Loyal troops were called in and the revolt degenerated into confused street battles before the Spartacists were dislodged. Reports speak of hundreds of bodies littering the capital streets.

… (1794) Death of Edward Gibbon, British historian and author.

… (1780) British forces under Admiral Rodney defeat the Spanish at Cape St Vincent and relieve Gibraltar.

… (1547) Ivan the Terrible is crowned the first Tsar of Russia.

…An ally has to be watched just like an enemy. [Leon Trotsky, who was today removed from the leadership of the Communist Party by Joseph Stalin and placed under house arrest – 1925.]

15^th, (2009) Captain Chesley Sullenberger safely landed his plane on New York’s Hudson River after a bird strike almost led to catastrophe. He was played by Tom Hanks in the 2016 film Sully.

… (1997) Princess Diana was criticised by government ministers for calling for a ban on landmines. Junior defence minister Earl Howe called her “a loose cannon”.

… (1990) ‘Stasi secrets plundered’: Thousands of furious East Germans today tore apart the machinery of post-war communist repression when they invaded the Berlin headquarters of the Stasi, the old regime’s secret police. Offices were wrecked and police summoned as demonstrators from a rally in support of the New Forum opposition ran amok. No one was hurt.

… (1973) – ‘Nixon halts US bombing of Vietnam’: US President Nixon today ordered a halt to all bombing of Vietnam by American warplanes, less than a month after the massive US “Christmas bombing” raids hit North Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. This initiative comes as the Paris peace conference opens, with a cease-fire to end the conflict believed to be imminent. The Christmas bombing was planned by White House strategists as a means of forcing Viet Cong leaders to moderate their demands at the Paris negotiating table. Women and children were evacuated as Hanoi hospital was hit by bombs, and 1600 civilians killed when more than 36,000 tons of bombs fell on the city over 12 days, leaving Hanoi a virtual wasteland. In Washington a hostile congress had signalled its intention to limit Nixon’s power to wage war if bombing continued.

… (1971) The currency of Britain changes from pounds, shillings and pence to the decimal pound.

… (1971) President Sadat of Egypt officially opens the Aswan High Dam on the River Nile.

… (1922) – ‘Irish glimpse independence’: The Provisional Irish Parliament, Dail Eireann, is tonight passionately debating a new treaty proposal that could finally make Ireland an independent nation. The Irish Free State proposal has split Ireland’s nationalist politicians, as perhaps has been Britain’s intention: Foremost nationalist Eamon de Valera has refused to sit in the proposed new chamber because an oath to the British Crown is required. But, Michael Collins – reported to have been holding secret talks with British Home Secretary, Winston Churchill – insists Ireland must accept the flawed treaty.

… (1919) 21 people drowned in the ‘Great Molasses Flood’ in Boston in the U.S., when two million gallons of the stuff poured out of a ruptured storage tank.

… (1890) The first performance of Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Sleeping Beauty is given in St Petersburg.

… (1880) The first telephone directory is published in London.

… (1878) Women receive degrees for the first time at London University.

… (1877) Torrential rain causes the railway tunnel between Dover and Folkestone to collapse, but no lives are lost.

… (1867) Forty people drown in frozen Regent’s Park when ice gives way.

… (1815) Emma, Lady Hamilton, former mistress of Lord Nelson, dies in poverty at Calais.

… (1797) James Hetherington is fined £50 for wearing the first bowler hat.

… (1790) Fletcher Christian and other mutineers from the Bounty land on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.

… (1759) ‘Opening day at British Museum’: From today Londoners will be able to visit a “general repository for all arts and sciences” in Montague House, to be known as the British Museum. The museum, the first great public assembly of antiquities, is based on the famous collection of books, manuscripts, and objects of natural history amassed by the physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane, together with similar collections made by Edward and Robert Harley and Sir Robert Bruce Cotton. The museum was conceived when £300,000 was raised in a lottery. It will be administered by trustees, drawn from both church and state.

… (1559) Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England.

14^th, (2016) English actor Alan Rickman died, aged 69.

… (1994) The Duchess of Kent converted to Catholicism, the first member of the Royal Family to do so for more than 300 years.

… (1990) Forty-three people die as fire sweeps through a disco in Saragossa, Spain.

… (1989) ‘Bradford book burnings as Rushdie takes cover’: Angry British Muslims today burned copies of Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses in public. Rushdie has been catapulted to the centre of an international furore over the book, which has caused fury throughout the Islamic world for its alleged blasphemies against the Prophet Mohammed. Many of the Muslim community in Bradford publicly support Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini’s call for the author’s assassination. Rushdie has prudently  gone into hiding and is under British police protection. The issue has caused Muslim indignation that western blasphemy laws only apply in a Christian context.

… (1982) Mark Thatcher, son of the British Prime Minister, is found after being lost in the Sahara Desert while competing in the Paris-Dakar car rally.

… (1977) Death of Sir Anthony Eden, former Prime Minister of Britain.

… (1963) France today delivered a stunning rebuke to Britain for its years of hesitation over closer ties with Europe. Britain has now finally applied for membership of the European Economic Community, but President Charles de Gaulle virtually dismissed the plea with a single “non”. At a Paris news conference he said Britain would only be ready for membership when it started thinking like a Continental country and severed its ties with the Commonwealth. He also criticised Britain for its subservience to the US. De Gaulle had haughty words for the Americans: he rejected US offers to station Polaris missiles on French soil and said France would rather look after its own nuclear defence than be “swallowed” by Washington. In London the Prime Minister said de Gaulle is trying to dominate Europe. A forthcoming royal visit to Paris may be cancelled.

… (1953) Marshal Tito, Yugoslavia’s communist leader since the end of World War II, is elected president of his country.

… (1938) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney’s first full-length Technicolour cartoon, goes on general release in the USA.

… (1907) An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, destroys most of the capital and kills over 1000 people.

… (1900) Puccini’s opera Tosca is staged for the first time, in Rome.

… (1878) Queen Victoria is given a demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell’s new invention, the telephone.

… (1867) Death of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, French Romantic painter.

… (1814) Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden.

… (1742) Death of Sir Edmund Halley, British Astronomer Royal who gave his name to a comet.

13^th, (1991) At least 13 demonstrators were killed as Soviet troops cracked down on the Lithuanian pro-independence movement in Vilnius today. Soviet paratroopers tried to seize television broadcasting installations in the capital. Lithuania lost independence in 1939 because of a deal between Stalin and Hitler. The Lithuanian Communist party has separated itself from the Soviet Communist party, and in March 1990 Lithuania proclaimed its independence. Moscow responded with an economic blockade, and in June the Lithuanians agreed to suspend their independence declaration during negotiations. These have broken down, leading to today’s tragedy – in spite of a visit to Vilnius by Mikhail Gorbachev two days ago.

… (1990) Twenty-four people die in riots in Baku, Soviet Azerbaijan.

… (1988) Death of Chiang Ching-kuo, President of the Republic of China of Taiwan since 1978.

… (1982) An Air Florida jet plunges into the frozen Potomac River near the White House, killing 78 people.

… (1979) Concorde begins regular flights from Washington D.C. to Dallas.

… (1978) Death of Hubert Humphrey, Vice-President to Lyndon Johnson.

… (1974) The world’s largest airport is opened at Dallas, Texas.

… (1941) Irish author James Joyce, whose book Ulysses caused outrage because of its sexual frankness, dies after surgery in Zurich.

… (1898) ‘Dreyfus victim of racism says novelist Zola’: The distinguished novelist Emile Zola today stunned the Parisian literary and political world with an open letter on the front page of L’Aurore entitled “J’accuse”, which makes a blistering attack on the French army over the affair of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. His letter forces simmering conflicts between the republicans and right-wing pro-monarchists into the open, showing just how deeply rooted anti-Semitism is in French society. Officials are now examining the letter for a possible libel action, which could force Zola, one of France’s leading literary figures, to flee the country. Meanwhile Captain Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jewish officer on the French general staff, has been sent to prison charged with giving information to the German military attaché in Paris. However, there is new evidence – which is supported by Zola’s letter – which suggests the charges are false and Dreyfus should be pardoned.

… (1893) ‘Labour Party Born: Socialism Gets Serious’: James Keir Hardie, the new member of parliament for West Ham who last year arrived to take his seat at Westminster dressed in yellow trousers and to the tune of the Marseillaise, has fathered an organisation that could in time shock Britain’s frock-coated Tories even more deeply than his dress sense. It is called the Labour Party and results from an alliance of British trade union and socialist movement. The Fabian Society, the newly-formed Independent Labour Party, and Keir Hardie’s own Scottish Labour Party will all be united under the Labour Representation Committee. Hardie, who started work as a miner at the age of 10 and educated himself at night school, secured election as an independent socialist, but now he has a party to back him.

12^th, (1989) Former Ugandan leader Idi Amin is expelled from Zaire and takes refuge in Senegal.

… (1982) ‘Mark Thatcher “lost” in desert’: There was concern last night in Downing Street as Britain’s premier Margaret Thatcher fretted over an affair close to her heart – her son Mark is reported missing in the Sahara Desert, where he is taking part in a gruelling Paris-Dakar Motor Rally. Search planes have been sent out to look for young Thatcher and his team-mate, and the Prime Minister has been advised that there is little cause for alarm. This is not the first anxiety Mark has caused his mother: his misadventures on the racetrack and in the world of business have already raised eyebrows.

… (1981) The first episode of soap opera Dynasty aired in the U.S.

… (1977) France releases PLO terrorist Abu Davoud, leader of the Black September group who claimed responsibility for the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

… (1976) The queen of crime fiction breathed her last today at the age of 85, carrying her most enigmatic mystery to the grave unsolved. Dame Agatha Christie’s books have been translated into every major language since the first one appeared in 1920. She was the creator of the Belgian dandy martinet Hercule Poirot and the parochial, English Miss Jane Marple. Of nearly 100 novels, many were made into films, while the stage-play The Mousetrap has now run for 24 years in London’s West End. Agatha Christie never revealed the truth of her missing weekend in 1926, after which she reappeared in a Harrogate Hotel with no recollection of where she had been.

… (1970) A Boeing 747 (Jumbo) jet touches down at Heathrow Airport after its maiden transatlantic flight from New York.

… (1970) ‘Peace in Biafra but famine looms’: The secessionist Nigerian state of Biafra today surrendered to Nigerian federal troops after a disastrous three-year war likely to be even more catastrophic in its aftermath as starvation grips the population. As the last Biafran airstrip was taken by federal troops, reports began to emerge of rape and pillage by the victors on a horrifying scale. During its brief existence, the oil-rich state of Biafra covered 44,000 sq miles. It was created by the Ibo, the dominant ethnic group in Nigeria, and led by Lt. Col. Chukwuemaka Odumegwu Ojukwu. He is said to be demanding political asylum in nearby Ivory Coast.

… (1964) The Sultan of Zanzibar is banished and the country becomes a republic.

… (1959) A $400 million contract for the Mercury space programme is awarded to the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation of St Louis.

… (1959) British Boxer Henry Cooper becomes a British and European heavyweight boxing champion after defeating Jack London on points.

… (1957) President Eisenhower urges the Soviet Union to agree a ban on space warfare.

… (1954) Queen Elizabeth II opens the New Zealand parliament.

… (1948) The London Co-op opens the first British supermarket at Manor Park.

… (1904) Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37mph on the surface of Michigan’s frozen Lake St Clair.

… (1879) The British-Zulu War begins in South Africa.

… (1809) ‘Music to Ludwig’s ears’: Ludwig van Beethoven, Vienna’s musical genius, has been given a guaranteed yearly income by three Viennese noblemen – on the single condition that he stays in Vienna. Beethoven first came to Vienna from Bonn in 1892 to study under Josef Haydn, and has never left. He is now half-deaf, able still to hear his music, but not human speech. Over the years his music has reflected his struggle against loss of hearing. In 1802 he resolved to “seize fate by the throat” and emerged with a series of triumphant works, such as the Eroica Symphony (1803) that quite transcended his earlier work. In more recent compositions, however, such as the Violin Concerto of 1806 or last year’s Sixth Symphony, this heroic quality alternates with a new serenity. Beethoven has conquered his fate: although trapped in a muffled world, he has produced some of the finest music ever written. He is now working on his fifth piano concerto. The Viennese princes have bought a bargain.

… (1519) Death of Maximilian I, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493.

11^th, (2015) Anita Ekberg, Swedish star of La Dolce Vita, died, aged 83.

… (2013) The first official portrait of the Duchess of Cambridge was unveiled.

… (1990) ‘Hong Kong talks overshadowed by Tiananmen memories’: China today lifted martial law, seven months after the horrific military massacre of 2600 prodemocracy demonstrators in Peking’s Tiananmen Square. The troops withdrew from Tiananmen Square in honour of Hong Kong’s governor, Sir David Wilson, who arrived for talks with the Peking regime on the colony’s future. In 1997 the colony reverts to Chinese control as Britain’s 99-year lease runs out. Sir David is to meet Chinese premier Li Peng, who praised the withdrawing troops for their role in “crushing the emerging anarchy”, as he put it. “For this, the people will never forget them,” he added. There were huge turnouts in Hong Kong in support of the prodemocracy demonstrators. Confidence died, the economy stumbled, and an exodus began – led by the skilled professionals the colony will desperately need if Hong Kong is to survive into the future.

… (1989) President Ronald Reagan bids goodbye to the American people after two terms in office.

… (1971) The first ‘quickie’ divorce was granted in the UK. The Divorce Reform Act of 1971 significantly simplified the process.

… (1970) Rebel Biafran leader General Ojukwe flees the country as the Nigerian civil war reaches a bitter end.

… (1966) Death of Alberto Giacometti, Italian painter and sculptor.

… (1959) In Karachi, Pakistani cricketer Hanif Mohammad hits a record-breaking 499 runs in an innings lasting more than 10 hours.

… (1954) All comet aircraft are grounded following a mysterious crash off the island of Elba.

… (1928) Revolutionary Leon Trotsky was exiled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to Central Asia.

… (1928) ‘Hardy’s Heart Stays in Beloved Wessex’: Thomas Hardy, the chronicler of a rural England whose pulse is changing as the modern world bears down on the vanishing world of the yeoman, has died today, aged 87. His body will be buried in Westminster, besides Dickens, in the presence of his wife Florence. His heart, however, is to be buried in his native Wessex, at the country churchyard at Stinsfield – in the grave of his first wife, Emma, to whom he wrote a long series of impassioned love poems after her death. Hardy lived in Wessex for 40 years. “There was quite enough human nature in Wessex for one man’s literary purpose,” he once said. Hardy’s own domestic arrangements are perhaps a case in point. Certainly his dual burial, showing as it does the loyalties his heart held in life, must go down in legend. Hardy’s novels described a vanished way of life which he knew intimately, in which the fate of his characters was often circumscribed by the looming nature of the landscape they lived in.

… (1922) Insulin is first used with success in the treatment of diabetes.

… (1898) Major Esterhazy is wrongly acquitted in Paris of forging documents which had been used to establish the charge of treason against French army officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

… (1892) 44-year-old French painter Paul Gauguin married a 13-year-old Tahitian.

… (1891) Baron Georges-Eugène Haussman, architect who replanned Paris as a city of long boulevards, dies in poverty.

… (1867) Mexican president Benito Juarez returns to Mexico City following the defeat of French forces.

… (1864) Charing Cross railway station is opened in London.

… (1753) Sir Hans Sloane, British physician, naturalist and botanist, dies aged 93.

… (1569) The first state lottery is held in England, with tickets on sale at the West Door of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

10^th, (2017) Clare Hollingworth, the English journalist behind the “scoop of the century” – news that German troops were about to invade Poland and trigger World War II – died, aged 105.

… (1985) Clive Sinclair launches the C5, a battery-operated tricycle.

… (1984) General Zia of Pakistan frees Benazir Bhutto, daughter of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who was executed in 1979.

… (1981) John Lennon’s song Imagine went to number one in the UK charts for the first time, in the wake of his assassination the previous month.

… (1979) Britain’s “Winter of Discontent” finally caught up with Labour premier Jim Callaghan today when he returned to London from a comfortable four-day “sunshine summit” in the West Indies to face charges that he had let the country slip into chaos. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off as a rush of strikes sweeps the country. The Cabinet has refused to seek emergency powers to deal with industrial unrest because it fears a union backlash – but with disruptions in the distribution of food and fuel, few believe that Mr. Callaghan’s government can have many months of life left to it.

… (1958) Jerry Lee Lewis was at UK No 1 with Great Balls of Fire.

… (1957) Sir Harold Macmillan replaces Sir Anthony Eden as Prime Minister of Britain.

… (1946) The League of Nations is dissolved and replaced by the United Nations.

… (1937) ‘Government says Britons can’t join anti-Franco forces’: Britain has announced a ban on its nationals joining the International Brigades now gathering in Spain to defend the Constitutionalist Republican forces against General Franco’s Nationalists in the civil war that has erupted there. The US is to impose a ban on Americans joining the fighting. 59,000 idealists from all countries have flocked to Spain to join the “fight for liberty”. The eight-month-old conflict has gained international overtones with Nazi and fascist troops fighting for Franco, while the USSR has sent weapons and military advisers to the Republicans. The Comintern, the international communist brotherhood, has organised thousands of liberals and leftists from 53 countries into volunteer International Brigades to fight fascism.

… (1928) English aviators Hood and Moncrieff are lost over the Tasman Sea as they attempt to fly from Australia to New Zealand.

… (1920) The League of Nations, an international organisation for the prevention of war, is inaugurated in Geneva.

… (1918) Women’s rights on both sides of the Atlantic took a huge stride forward today when legislatures in London and Washington gave women the right to vote. In Britain, the House of Lords gave its approval to the Representation of the People Bill, which gives women over 30 the vote. Royal Assent is expected next month. In Washington the House of Representatives also voted in favour of suffrage for women.

… (1917) Buffalo Bill, Wild West showman and global celebrity, died aged 70.

… (1870) William and John D. Rockefeller found the Standard Oil Company of Ohio.

… (1863) London’s first underground railway, the Metropolitan, opened today, inaugurating a new era in city travel that could do much to help clear the congested roads of carriages and pedestrians. Passengers are delighted with the new service, but some foresee problems because of the smoke the trains spew from their chimneys.

… (1840) The Penny Post is introduced to Britain, ending the system whereby the recipient of the letter paid for its postage.

… (1839) Indian tea is auctioned for the first time in Britain.

… (1806) ‘British flag flying over strategic Cape’: The Cape of Good Hope is now a British colony. A British fleet today defeated the Dutch colonists at the Battle of Blaawberg, and the British flag is flying at the Fort. Control of the strategic Cape is a key factor in the European war, as it commands the route between the European powers and their rich Eastern dominions. This is the second time the Dutch colonists who founded the Cape Colony 150 years ago have had to surrender to British forces – the first was in 1795, after the Battle of Muizenberg. The British ruled the Cape for the next seven years. In 1803 the colony reverted to Napoleonic Holland under the treaty of Amiens, but again came under threat when the treaty broke down and the European war resumed.

… (1645) William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and supporter of King Charles I, is beheaded in London.

… (1615) Sir Thomas Roe, Britain’s first ambassador to an Indian court, presents his credentials at Agra.

9^th, (2001) Apple launched iTunes, a media player that revolutionised music sales.

… (1996) Rebels seize 3,000 hostages in Chechnya.

… (1995) Death of Peter Cook, comedian, broadcaster and writer.

… (1980) ‘Saudis execute invaders of Mecca’: Saudi Arabia announced today that 63 of the Shi’ite extremists who seized the Great Mosque in Mecca last November have been executed. This has inflamed already tense relations with nearby Iran and could complicate the three-month-old US hostage crisis in Tehran. Saudi troops captured the ringleaders of the Shi’ite invasion of Islam’s holiest place when they stormed the Great Mosque on November 23. Some 500 heavily-armed extremists were holding thousands of pilgrims hostage and blood was spilled close to the Kaaba, which houses the holy Black Stone. Their leader belonged to the same religious sect as Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini and Saudis fear Tehran is trying to subvert the right-wing kingdom’s Sunni Muslim rule.

… (1972) British miners strike for the first time since 1926.

… (1971) Dad’s Army star Clive Dunn enjoyed his 51st birthday with his song Grandad reaching No 1 in the charts.

… (1972) ‘Mystery fire sinks grand lady of luxury travel’: The Queen Elizabeth – once the greatest of the trans-Atlantic liners – was destroyed today by a mystery fire in Hong Kong harbour, where she has been berthed for some time as a floating university. There are no reports of deaths in the fire that scuttled the former pride of the Cunard fleet, but police are investigating allegations that the fire was started deliberately to recoup insurance cash from the flagging university project. The Queen Elizabeth was launched in 1938 and, with her sister ship the Queen Mary, operated as a troop ship during World War II. She returned to commercial service in 1946. Jet travel killed the trans-Atlantic sea voyage, and in 1969 the ship was sold to American investors who planned to use her as a tourist attraction – the same fate as that of the Queen Mary. Then Hong Kong shipping magnate C.Y. Tung bought her and she became the Seawise (C.Y.’s) University.

… (1957) ‘Eden resigns: Suez cited as real reason’: Sir Anthony Eden’s rash decision to go to war over the Suez Canal cost him his job as Britain’s prime minister today. He was said to be resigning for reasons of health, but few doubt that American rage over the Anglo-French occupation of Suez, in connivance with Israel, is really the cause. Before the troops were pulled out a month ago in response to a United Nations mandate, Britain had to plead with the US Treasury for funds to stop a run on the pound, which is at an all-time low. The price of US support was Britain’s withdrawal from Suez.

… (1955) A ship with 400 Jamaican immigrants aboard docked in Britain today – the latest in a growing influx of West Indians arriving to help in the reconstruction of Britain’s war-ravaged cities. Conservative politicians are pressing for legislation to control the numbers of immigrants.

… (1951) Life After Tomorrow, the first film to receive an ‘X’ rating in Britain, opens in London.

… (1923) Katherine Mansfield, New-Zealand born author renowned for her short stories, dies in France of tuberculosis.

… (1920) Alexander Fleming pioneers the use of penicillin at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

… (1909) Ernest Shackleton’s polar expedition is forced to turn back just 11 miles from the South Pole.

… (1878) Death of Victor Emmanuel, first King of Italy.

… (1811) The first woman’s golf tournament takes place in Scotland.

… (1806) Lord Nelson, naval commander and hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, is buried at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

… (1799) ‘Unwelcome cost of war with France’: William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax in Britain today, at two shillings in the pound (10 per cent). This unpopular move is to pay for the even more unpopular war against Napoleon’s France. Pitt, Prime Minister since he was 24, is a liberal reformer who revived Britain’s economy following the American Revolution, but the French Revolution has brought different pressures; radical groups inspired by France have found the ear of disgruntled workers and troops have been called out as mass meetings demanding change have turned into riot. War has turned Pitt the reformer into an oppressor: he has enforced summary trial for trade unionists, banning and arrest of radical workers, and total press censorship. The new income tax is being seen as part of the same unwelcome parcel.

…This vice brings in one hundred million francs in taxes every year. I will certainly forbid it at once – as soon as you can name a virtue that brings in as much revenue. [Napoleon III, upon being asked to ban smoking. The emperor died today in exile in Kent at the age of 65 – 1873.]

8^th, (1996) Death of French socialist president Francois Mitterrand who lost the fight against cancer at 80.

… (1989) ‘Boeing jet kills 44 in motorway crash’: A Boeing 737 crashed today on the M1 motorway in central England. At least 44 people died. The plane was carrying 117 passengers and eight crew on a flight to Ireland when the pilot reported engine trouble. Witnesses said they saw flames from the port wing, but in a radio message the pilot said he was shutting off the starboard engine – leaving the plane without any power.

… (1982) Armed barriers between Algeciras and the British colony of Gibraltar came down today as Spain ended its 12-year siege of “The Rock” in return for British agreement to Spanish membership of NATO and the EC.

… (1979) Vietnamese troops crush the Khmer Rouge and occupy Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia.

… (1978) All Creatures Great And Small was first broadcast on BBC One, starring Christopher Timothy, Robert Hardy, and Peter Davison.

… (1976) Zhou En-Lai dies, Chinese Communist premier 1949-76.

… (1971) ‘Our man in Uruguay kidnapped’: Britain’s ambassador in Uruguay, Geoffrey Jackson, has been kidnapped by left-wing Tupamaros guerrillas in the capital, Montevideo, it was reported today. The hijackers used five cars to seize 53-year-old Mr. Jackson on his way to work, while local police were distracted by a diversionary movement. This is the first time a British envoy has been kidnapped in the volatile Latin continent, and Britain is pressing hard for Uruguayan troops to be deployed in the search for Mr. Jackson, who suffers from heart disease. There are rumours that the Tupamaros would exchange Mr. Jackson for political prisoners held in Montevideo jail, and would like the authorities to arrange for them to “escape”.

… (1963) Fire damages seven floors of the Empire State Building in New York.

… (1948) Richard Tauber, the much-loved Austrian tenor, dies in Australia.

… (1948) Death of Kurt Schwitters, German painter and writer who spebt a major part of his life in the British Lake District.

… (1946) Elvis Presley received a $6.95 guitar for his 11th birthday in Tupelo, Mississippi.

… (1942) German troops begin the retreat from Leningrad, defeated by the Russian winter.

… (1941) Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, dies.

… (1940) ‘Lean times for wartime Britain’: Britain went back to food rationing today for the first time since 1918 as the U-boat war in the Atlantic starts to affect ordinary housewives. Consumption of most meat has not yet been limited but ration books have been issued for butter, sugar, bacon and ham. Tough new laws oblige every household to register with its local shop, while hotel guests will have to hand in ration books to get a meal. The British are facing the new wartime limitations stoically. A government campaign is encouraging the nation to “Dig for victory” to boost home-grown food production.

… (1921) Lloyd George becomes the first British Prime Minister to take up residence at Chequers, a Buckinghamshire mansion presented to the nation by Lord Lee of Fareham.

… (1895) French poet Paul Verlaine dies in poverty.

… (1889) New Yorker Dr Herman Hoperith patents the first computer.

… (1815) US forces led by Major General Andrew Jackson have crushed an invading British army at New Orleans in an engagement that could be the last of this war. Now English diplomats have begun to negotiate a peace settlement. It was British insistence on the right to commandeer US vessels and their men that originally sparked off the conflict in 1812.

… (1800) London sees the opening of its first soup kitchens for the poor.

… (1642) Galileo Galilei, the mathematician and astronomer, has died at Arcetri. Galileo rose to prominence as professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, where he challenged key assumptions in Aristotelian physics. He was the first to exploit the telescope to gaze on lunar mountains, the Milky Way, and the moons of Jupiter. Galileo became convinced that Copernicus had been right: the earth rotates around the sun, not vice-versa as the Bible teaches. The Holy Office at Rome issued and edict against Copernicanism and in 1632 Galileo was called to Rome by the Inquisition. He was condemned to life imprisonment for heresy and forced to recant. Even so, he said under his breath, “But it still goes round the sun.”

… (794) Danish Vikings attack Lindisfarne Island off the north-east coast of England and destroy its famous church.

7^th, (1990) The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public for the first time in 800 years as its rate of movement accelerates. Its top had moved 9.6in over a century. It reopened in 2001 after £200million of repairs.

… (1975) The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raises the price of crude oil by 10 per cent.

… (1945) Allied forces complete the construction of the new Burma Road, a vital supply line into China since the Old Burma Road was closed by Japanese troops.

… (1943) Death of Nikola Tesla, the Croatian-American electrical engineer who developed the alternating current.

… (1927) A transatlantic telephone link between London and New York is opened.

… (1927) The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team is founded.

… (1905) The US Senate approves the first government appointment of a black man, as head of South Carolina customs services.

… (1789) George Washington, hero of America’s revolutionary wars, has been unanimously elected as the first president of the United States. Members of the Electoral College in New York gave an overwhelming vote to the hero of Yorktown, who is expected to take office on April 30. Washington was closely involved in drafting the constitution two years ago. Despite his audacity and courage in the war against England, Washington is expected to move cautiously. He is acutely aware of the need to build an executive structure that can accommodate future presidents.

… (1785) Dr John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard cross the English Channel in a hot-air balloon, an American-French adventure.

… (1714) English engineer Henry Mill was granted the first patent for a typewriter.

… (1618) Francis Bacon, lawyer, philosopher and writer, becomes Lord Chancellor of England.

… (1610) Galilei Galileo, Italian mathematician, scientist and astronomer, announces his discovery of the four moons circling Jupiter.

… (1558) ‘Calais calamity’: France today fulfilled Joan of Arc’s ancient dream of ousting the English from her shores by seizing Calais, the first and last foothold of British invaders. Calais, which had fallen in 1346, was finally reclaimed by the Duke of Guise in an operation that begun on New Year’s Day. The English reverse should bring over 60 years of intermittent warfare between France, England and Spain to an end. In 1346, after almost a year of siege by the English armies, six Calais burghers surrendered themselves to avoid a massacre. Today’s loss is a major setback for the English Queen, Mary Tudor, whose unpopular marriage to a Spanish prince provoked the war with France that led to the defeat at Calais.

… (1536) Death of Catherine of Aragon, King Henry VIII of England’s first wife whom he divorced to marry Anne Boleyn.

6^th (1995) Death of South African communist leader Joe Slovo.… (1945) ‘Last-ditch Nazi assault fails’: Germany’s desperate attempt to break the advancing Allied line by thrusting through the Ardennes forest has been turned back, Field Marshal Montgomery said today. The Battle of the Bulge has resulted in 10 German armoured divisions being “written off”, according to the Allied commander. The attack, which began on December 16, was a last-ditch attempt by Germany to turn back the Allies. Forces under generals Gerd von Rundstedt and Hasso von Manteuffel drove their wedge of tanks (the Bulge) into Allied lines, but were finally halted mainly by the US 1^st and 3^rd armies (the latter under General George Patton) and forced to retreat.

… (1928) The River Thames bursts its banks, drowning four people.

… (1919) Theodore Roosevelt, the American President who occupied the White House for two terms died today at Oyster Bay after a life dedicated to politics, literature and adventure. He once said, “I wish to preach … the doctrine of the strenuous life.” He will be remembered as the president who restrained big business, pushing through anti-Trust legislation which discouraged market control and price rigging. In international affairs he won a Nobel Prize for mediating peace between Russia and Japan, and was responsible for widening America’s international influence; in the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, he also enshrined America’s right to interfere in Latin America. He began his career running the New York Police, and then became state governor. First taking power after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901, he was elected in his own right in 1904, serving until 1909.

… (1916) The British government institutes conscription to replace the many thousands of fighting men killed in the trenches in France.

… (1884) Gregor Mendel, the Austrian botanist who discovered the principles governing the inheritance of characteristics in living things, dies aged 62.

… (1838) Samuel Morse today demonstrated a revolutionary electromagnetic telegraph that promises to open up a new world in long-distance communications. The device sends a pulse of current down a line, energising an electromagnet at the receiving end which pulls an iron armature attached to a pencil. The pulses are short or long, producing “dots” or “dashes” which can be used as a code to represent the letters of the alphabet.

… (1540) ‘Henry VIII – fourth time lucky?’ King Henry VIII of England married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, today in an alliance that could secure the King both an heir and powerful friends – though it has deepened his rift with Rome. Anne’s brother, the Duke of Cleves, is a powerful German Protestant prince with whom Henry shares political interests. Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, negotiated the marriage, gaining Lutheran support to counter a Catholic alliance against England. The king’s marital affairs have so far been a catalogue of disaster: he divorced Catherine of Aragon and had Anne Boleyn executed, while Jane Seymour died. When Henry first saw his fourth wife at the wedding today, he bellowed: “You have sent me a Flanders mare!”

… (1066) Harold II of England is crowned.

…What progress are we making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books. [Sigmund Freud today after fleeing the Nazi persecution of Jews in Vienna, 1938.]

5^th, (2003) Death of Roy Jenkins, the former Labour chancellor and leader of the SDP.

… (1989) Two Libyan fighters were shot down over the Mediterranean today after approaching a US aircraft carrier with “hostile intent”, according to the US navy pilots. Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, described the incident as “premeditated aggression” and demanded a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss it. The clash comes just days after the US government claimed that Libya is building a chemical weapons plant and three years after the US attack on Benghazi that flattened Gaddafi’s house and killed relatives. The Pentagon is insisting its Tomcat F14 pilots fired in self-defence as the USS John F. Kennedy was cruising off Benghazi.

… (1975) ‘Khmer Rouge blitz Cambodian capital’: The Cambodian capital Phnom Penh today came under direct siege by Khmer Rouge communist rebels using heavy rocket and artillery attacks. The Khmer Rouge advance has been relentless, in spite of massive economic and military aid from the United States to Lon Nol’s government. Military experts predict the capital can hold out for no more than four months. North Vietnam and the Viet Cong have helped the Khmer Rouge in their war against the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk and Lon Nol. Their sanctuaries in the mountains of southern Cambodia have been the subject of massive bomb attacks by US planes, but by 1970 the Khmer Rouge already controlled about two-thirds of Cambodia. Their leader is Pol Pot, a shadowy figure who joined Ho Chi Minh’s Indochinese Communist party in the 1940s.

… (1971) England play Australia in the first-ever one-day cricket match in Melbourne.

… (1968) The first episode of Gardeners’ World was broadcast on BBC2.

… (1968) Alexander Dubcek becomes Secretary of the Czechoslovakian Communist Party.

… (1964) Pope Paul VI meets the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in Jerusalem, the first meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches in 500 years.

… (1941) Amy Johnson, the British aviator who flew solo from Britain to Australia, crashes and dies on a flight across the Thames estuary.

… (1930) Joseph Stalin collectivises Soviet farms, forcing wealthy peasants off their land.

… (1925) Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming becomes the first woman governor in the US.

… (1896) A German physicist, Wilhelm Roentgen, today demonstrated what he calls the X-ray. This is a form of high-energy radiation which allows him to see through solid objects. It is thought the technique may prove useful in medicine. Roentgen discovered the new ray last year, quite by accident.

… (1818) The first regular trans-Atlantic service begins between New York and Liverpool.

… (1531) Pope Clement VII wrote to Henry VIII forbidding him to remarry. The king ignored him and wed Anne Boleyn, leading to his excommunication from the Catholic Church.

… (1066) Death of Edward the Confessor, the English king renowned for his piety.

4^th, (2010) The 2,716ft-tall Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest building – opened in Dubai.

… (2004) Britney Spear’s record label stated the singer and her friend Jason Alexander “took a joke too far by getting married” a day earlier in Las Vegas. The marriage was annulled within 55 hours.

… (1990) President Gorbachev tells Lithuania’s communists they can leave the Soviet Communist party.

… (1974) U.S. President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tapes subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. He resigned seven months later.

… (1972) Rose Helibron becomes the first British female judge at the Old Bailey.

… (1965) ‘The Swan Song of T.S. Eliot’: Thomas Stearns Eliot, the Anglo-American poet and Nobel Prize-winner who took poetry into the modern era by renouncing the Romantic values of the Victorian age, has died in London. Eliot’s career spanned daring iconoclasm to High Church Anglicanism, and ranged across poetry, drama, criticism and journalism. His most revolutionary poem was The Waste Land, but critics found deepest meaning in his Four Quartets. The descendant of a distinguished New England family, Eliot studied at Harvard, the Sorbonne and Oxford. In 1914 he took up permanent residence in England, becoming a British subject in 1927. After eking a living as a teacher and bank clerk during his most creative period, Eliot finally found stability at the publishers Faber & Faber.

… (1958) Death of Ralph Vaughan Williams, British composer.

… (1948) Burma leaves the British Commonwealth to become fully independent.

… (1944) The increasingly desperate plight of Hitler’s military commanders became clear today when Berlin issued an order mobilising all children over the age of 10 to be ready to fight in the war. Boy soldiers as young as 15 have already been captured in the front lines by Allied troops. The Third Reich is suffering spectacular reverses on several fronts. Allied troops are known to be massing for an invasion somewhere in southern Europe. … In Berlin it is reported that the RAF, which began its raids last November, has dropped over 17,000 tons of bombs on the city in two months, and further mass raids are expected…On the Eastern front Hitler’s forces besieging Leningrad are reported to fear defeat as Stalin’s armoured columns race toward the city from the south and, for the first time, Russian troops have recrossed the old Polish border moving westward.

… (1912) The Scout Association was incorporated throughout the Commonwealth by a Royal Charter.

… (1896) Utah becomes the 45^th state of the Union.

… (1885) The first successful appendix operation is performed in Iowa by Dr Williams West Grant.

… (1884) The Fabian Society is formed in London to promote socialist ideals.

3^rd, (1987) Aretha Franklin became the first female artist inducted into the Rock & Roil Hall of Fame.

… (1981) Princess Alice, the largest surviving grandchild of Queen Victoria, died aged 97.

… (1977) Apple Computer Corporation was incorporated.

… (1961) The USA severs diplomatic links with Cuba.

… (1959) Alaska becomes the 49^th and largest state of the USA.

… (1958) British explorer Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole.

… (1947) The US House of Representatives is televised for the first time.

… (1946) Haw-Haw hangs – Nazi propagandist William Joyce (known to British wartime radio listeners as Lord Haw-Haw) was hanged today for treason. Speaking in a high nasal voice and using outdated jingoistic slang, he parodied the tones of BBC announcers as he broadcast reports from Germany, often false, of Hitler’s military advances. At the war’s end, he was captured by the British. Though born in the United States, he had a British passport and was sent for trial at a British military court.

… (1925) Benito Mussolini asserted his right to supreme power in the Italian parliament, effectively declaring himself dictator.

… (1918) New Zealand-born scientist Ernest Rutherford announces he has split the atom.

… (1777) George Washington defeats the British at the Battle of Princeton.

… (1521) ‘Luther Provokes Papal Wrath’: A Papal bull from Pope Leo X has ordered the excommunication of Martin Luther after a deadline for him to recant his heretical views expired. In 1520, Luther completed three celebrated works in which he stated his views: in his Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, he invited the German princes to take the reform of the church into their own hands; in A Prelude Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, he attacked the papacy and the current theology of sacraments; and in On the Freedom of a Christian Man, he stated his position on justification and good works. Luther’s dispute with Rome began when he challenged the doctrine of Indulgences (the remission of punishments for sins confessed) and their sale to raise funds for the church. The rift widened in 1517 when Luther posted his famous “95 Theses” on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg.

2^nd, (1980) US President Jimmy Carter tells the Senate it should not ratify the SALT nuclear arms treaty with the USSR until the Soviets withdraw from Afghanistan.

… (1978) BBC1 broadcast the first episode of ‘space opera’ Blake’s 7.

… (1976) Britain grants limited self-government to the Solomon Islands.

… (1971) ‘Ibrox disaster – soccer fans crushed’: Sixty-six people died today at the Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow in Britain’s worst-ever soccer disaster. Two hundred fans were crushed when metal barriers gave way and a mass of fans swept on to the terraces. By the time rescuers were able to reach the trampled and injured, many could not be revived.

… (1969) Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch took control of his first British national newspaper, the News of the World.

… (1965) Under President Sukamo, Indonesia quits the UN.

… (1959) The Soviets launch Luna I, the first unmanned space rocket to pass close to the moon.

… (1952) Pope Pius XII declares that television is a threat to family life.

… (1926) The first issue of The Melody Maker went on sale in the UK.

… (1882) ‘Cartel takes control of US oil’: John D. Rockefeller has become the most powerful American outside the White House by gaining a stranglehold on the fast-growing oil industry. A “Trust” agreement signed today in New York will give the Rockefeller brothers and seven others the power to create or dissolve corporations in any state and allocate funds of more than $70 million. In effect, nine men now control the oil industry in an atmosphere of secrecy and intrigue. In 1863 Rockefeller and his partners formed an oil business that absorbed many Cleveland refineries and expanded into the Pennsylvania oil fields, becoming the world’s largest refining concern. In 1870 Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. Today’s Standard Oil Trust, formed to avoid state controls, can expect opposition from Ohio’s legal authorities who regard it as a restraint of trade. In Washington, politicians are warning of the dangers of such Trusts and proposing legislation to break them.

… (1839) The first known photo of the Moon was taken by Frenchman Louis Daguerre.

… (1788) Georgia becomes the fourth state of the Union.

… (1769) The Royal Academy met for the first time. Portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds was its first president.

1st January, New Year’s Day, (1999) 11 nations adopted a new single currency, the euro.

… (1991) Albanian president Ramiz Alia promises that democratic elections will be held to bring an end to 43 years of communist dictatorship.

… (1973) The UK officially joined the European Economic Community (EEC).

… (1961) The British farthing ceases to be legal tender.

… (1958) The European Economic Community, an alliance between France, Italy, West Germany, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg, came into being.

… (1818) 20-year-old Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was published.

… (1804) After an 11-year slave rebellion against France, Haiti declares its independence, becoming the first Latin-American state to gain its freedom.

… (1538) German and Swiss states introduce the Gregorian calendar.

… (44 BC) Julius Caesar, founder of the Roman Empire, introduces the Julian calendar.