IT HAPPENED TODAY
1916:
Lord Kitchener the British general, was lost at sea when his ship HMS Hampshire struck a mine off Orkney, en route to Russia. There were no survivors.
1944:
The Cafe Gondree was the first place to be liberated from the Germans on the eve of the D-Day landings.
1947:
US Secretary of State George Marshall announced that the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from near-bankruptcy following the war.
1963:
War minister John Profumo resigned, admitting he misled the House of Commons about his relationship with Christine Keeler.
1968:
Robert Kennedy American senator and younger brother of the late President John F Kennedy, was shot in the Hotel Ambassador in Los Angeles by a Jordanian Arab, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, and died the following day.
1975:
Egyptian president Sadat re-opened the Suez Canal to all but Israeli shipping, after eight years of closure.
1975:
In the United Kingdom’s first ever referendum, a large majority of the electorate voted to stay in the Common Market — more than 17 million voted Yes and almost 8.5 million voted No.
1989:
In Poland, Solidarity defeated the Communists in the first free elections since the end of the Second World War.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Brisk walking may cut the risk of dying from cancer, even in more advanced stages of the disease, research suggested.
BIRTHDAYS:
Margaret Drabble author, 79; Nigel Rees, broadcaster, 74; Laurie Anderson, musician, 71; Sir David Hare, playwright, 71; Ken Follett, writer, 69; Mark Wahlberg, actor, 47; David Weir, Paralympic athlete, 39.