IT HAPPENED TODAY
1732:
Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn was born.
1837:
English landscape painter John Constable, who painted The Hay Wain, died.
1855:
Charlotte Bronte (above), eldest of the Bronte sisters and author of Jane Eyre, died.
1889:
The 985ft-high Eiffel Tower, costing £260,000, was opened by French premier Pierre Tirard.
1939:
Britain and France pledged to support Poland against any aggression from Hitler’s Germany.
1959:
The Dalai Lama was granted political asylum in India, fleeing Chinese repression after an uprising inTibet.
1973:
Red Rum won the Grand National in a record time — nine minutes, 1.9 seconds.
1980:
Jesse Owens (below), winner of four Olympic golds in Berlin in 1936, died.
The Greater London Council was abolished.
1990:
An anti-Poll Tax demonstration ended in a riot with looting and arson in London’s west end.
1993:
The United Nations Security Council authorised military intervention in Yugoslavia, allowing planes violating a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina to be shot down.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A massive fire caused a bridge on the Interstate 85 road to collapse in the US city of Atlanta, completely shutting down the busy highway.
BIRTHDAYS:
Richard Chamberlain, actor, 84; Herb Alpert, musician, 83; Lord (David) Steel, former Liberal leader, 80; Christopher Walken, actor, 75; Al Gore, former US vice president, 70; Angus Young, rock guitarist (AC/DC), 63; Roger Black, broadcaster and former athlete, 52; Ewan McGregor (above), actor, 47.