IT HAPPENED TODAY
1274:
Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland who defeated the English at Bannockburn, was born at Turnberry, Ayrshire.
1690:
William of Orange defeated the deposed Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
1754:
Shakespearean censor Thomas Bowdler was born. Though he loved the Bard’s works, he considered some to be vulgar and ‘unfit to be read by a gentleman in the company of ladies’. His solution was to cut lumps wholesale — and from this came the verb ‘to bowdlerise’.
1776:
Explorer Captain James Cook
set sail from Plymouth on his third voyage of discovery in search of a passage around the the northern coast of America from the Pacific side.
1937:
George Gershwin American composer, whose work included Rhapsody In Blue and Porgy And Bess, died aged 38 of a brain tumour.
1949:
The first film made specially for British television, A Dinner Date With Death, was shot at Marylebone Studios between July 11 and 14.
1950:
Puppets Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Loo first appeared on BBC Television. The episodes were repeated for more than 25 years, until the film began to wear out and Andy waved his last goodbye from the basket.
1975:
China’s great Terracotta Army was uncovered near the ancient capital of Xian. More than 6,000 lifesized warriors were made around 206BC to guard the tomb of the first emperor.
1979:
America’s Skylab I returned to Earth after 34,981 orbits in six years.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Flashman, the archetypal bully from the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays, is alive and well in the age of Facebook and Twitter, a study found.
BIRTHDAYS:
Giorgio Armani, fashion designer, 84; John Kettley, TV weatherman, 66; Richie Sambora, rock guitarist (Bon Jovi), 59; Craig Charles, actor, 54; Tony Cottee, ex-footballer, 53; Lil Kim rapper, 44.