IT HAPPENED TODAY
1880:
The distinctive Salvation Army ladies’ bonnets were worn for the first time during a procession in Hackney, London.
1890:
Stan Laurel (above), of the Laurel and Hardy comedy duo, was born in Ulverston, Lancashire (now Cumbria), as Arthur Stanley Jefferson.
1904:
The novel Ulysses by James Joyce is set on this day, now celebrated in Dublin — where the novel is based — as Bloomsday, after the leading character Leopold Bloom.
1930:
Mixed bathing was first allowed in the Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park.
1948:
The Cathay Pacific Airways Catalina flying boat Miss Macao, on a flight to Hong Kong, was the first aeroplane to be hijacked, by a gang of Chinese bandits.
1958:
The notorious yellow no-waiting lines were introduced to British streets.
Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (above) defected to the West at Paris airport.
1963:
The first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, blasted off in the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 6.
1976:
The people of the black township of Soweto near Johannesburg rebelled against enforced teaching of Afrikaans in their schools. More than 1,000 people died before security forces crushed the uprising.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A butterfly enthusiast who almost single-handedly saved a rare species from extinction in Sussex was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to nature conservation.
BIRTHDAYS:
Eileen Atkins, actress, 84; Joyce Carol Oates, novelist, 80; James Bolam, actor, 83; Simon Williams, actor, 72; Ian Buchanan, actor, 61; Simon Khan, golfer, 46; Eddie Cibrian, actor, 45; Joe McElderry (above), singer/former X Factor winner, 27