IT HAPPENED TODAY
NOVEMBER 16
1724:
Highwayman Jack Sheppard was hanged in front of 200,000 people at Tyburn.
1824:
Explorers Hamilton Hume and William H Hovell discovered Australia’s Murray River.
1869:
The formal opening of the Suez Canal took place. It had taken 10 years to make the 100-mile canal devised by Ferdinand de Lesseps.
1896:
Oswald Mosley, English Fascist leader, was born.
1920:
The Bolsheviks defeated the White Russians in the Crimea, ending Russia’s Civil War.
1937:
MPs voted in favour of air raid shelters being erected in towns and cities. Winston Churchill (above) insisted they were “indispensable”. Labour opposed this, fearing it would mean a big rise in rates.
1959:
The Sound Of Music, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, opened on Broadway.
Clark Gable, (above) the “King of Hollywood” and Oscar winner, died after shooting the final scenes of The Misfits opposite Marilyn Monroe.
1989:
A pillar of South African apartheid crumbled when beach access restrictions were removed by president FW de Klerk.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
The Queen surprised workers at a stateof-the-art wind turbine blade factory with her interest in and knowledge of the huge structures she watched being made.
BIRTHDAYS:
Willie Carson, former jockey, 76; Marg Helgenberger, actress, 60; Frank Bruno, former boxer, 57; Steve Bould, coach and former Arsenal footballer, 56; Diana Krall, singer and pianist, 54; Paul Scholes, former footballer, 44; Danny Wallace, actor, filmmaker and writer, 42; Maggie Gyllenhaal, (above) actress, 41.