IT HAPPENED TODAY
1791:
The first performance of Mozart’s The Magic Flute took place in Vienna. Mozart (above) composed the opera in the spring and summer of that year, with the exception of the Overture and the March of the Priests at the beginning of Act II. These parts were completed only a few days before the premiere.
1888:
Jack the Ripper butchered two more women — Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Stride, found behind 40 Berner Street, and Catherine ‘Kate’ Eddowes, in Mitre Square, both in London.
1935:
George Gershwin’s Porgy And Bess was premiered in Boston.
1936:
Pinewood Studios opened near Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, to provide Britain with a film studio to compete with Hollywood.
1938:
On his return from Germany, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told a crowd at Heston Airport, Middlesex: ‘’I believe it is peace for our time’’, and waved the agreement he had signed with Hitler.
Identity cards were issued in Britain.
James Dean (above), eccentric young movie star of Rebel Without A Cause, Giant and East Of Eden, died in a car crash, aged 24.
1967:
BBC’s Radio 1 went on air for the first time, with Tony Blackburn introducing The Breakfast Show. His first record was Flowers In The Rain by The Move.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Sir Roger Moore paid tribute to the ‘’charm and warmth’’ of Pinewood Studios as it marked 80 years of film-making.
BIRTHDAYS:
Angie Dickinson, actress, 86; Barbara Knox, actress, 84; Johnny Mathis, singer, 82; Ian Ogilvy, actor, 74; Rula Lenska, actress, 70; Eric Stoltz, actor, 56; Jenna Elfman, actress, 46; Martina Hingis (below), former tennis player, 37.