IT HAPPENED TODAY
1580:
Sir Francis Drake arrived back in Plymouth in the Golden Hind after 33 months, to make him the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world.
1687:
The Parthenon in Athens was severely damaged during the Great Turkish War when a mortar bomb — fired by the Venetian army — set off its gunpowder supplies.
1887:
The first gramophone, invented by Emile Berliner, a German immigrant living in Washington DC, was patented.
1934:
The British liner Queen Mary was launched at John Brown’s Yard in Clydebank.
1937:
‘The Empress of the Blues’ Bessie Smith died in a car crash in Mississippi, amid rumours that she had bled to death while a white person had been given preferential treatment.
1953:
Sugar rationing ended in Britain.
West Side Story, the musical based on Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, by composer Leonard Bernstein opened in New York.
1977:
Sir Freddie Laker’s first Skytrain service began between Gatwick and New York.
1988:
Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson flew home from the Seoul Olympics in disgrace, stripped of his 100m gold medal after failing a drugs test.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
There was outrage from fans after a box of Jaffa Cakes shrunk in size from 12 to 10 biscuits per pack.
BIRTHDAYS:
Ricky Tomlinson, actor, 79; Ian Chappell, former cricketer, 75; Anne Robinson, TV presenter, 74;BryanFerry( singer, 73; Olivia Newton-John, singer, 70; Linda Hamilton, actress, 62; Tracey Thorn, singer (Everything But The Girl), 56; Lysette Anthony, actress, 55; Serena Williams, tennis player, 37.