IT HAPPENED TODAY
1880:
The distinctive Salvation Army ladies’ bonnets were worn for the first time in a procession in Hackney, in London’s East End.
1890:
Stan Laurel, 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 (above) is set on this day, now celebrated in Dublin — where the novel is based — as Bloomsday, after lead 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.
1961:
Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West at Paris airport.
1963:
The first woman astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova (above), blasted off in Russia’s 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.
1989:
The 16th-century Rose Theatre in London was covered with protective sand ready for a 10-storey office block to be built above it.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Scientists revealed they’d developed a hair-sized probe to help measure tissue damage deep in the lung.
BIRTHDAYS:
Eileen Atkins, actress, 86; Joyce Carol Oates, novelist, 82; James Bolam (above), actor, 85; Simon Williams, actor, 74; Ian Buchanan, actor, 63; Simon Khan, golfer, 48; Eddie Cibrian, actor, 47; Joe Mcelderry, singer, 29