ON THIS DAY

■ 1880: The distinctive Salvation Army ladies’ bonnets were worn for the first time in a procession in Hackney, 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 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.

■ 1961: Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West at Paris airport.

■ 1963: The first woman 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.

■ 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: Waitrose changed the name of its Kaffir lime leaves, over customer concerns that the word was historically used as a racial slur in South Africa.

■ BIRTHDAYS: Eileen Atkins, actress, 88; Joyce Carol Oates, novelist, 84; James Bolam, actor, 87; Simon Williams, actor, 76; Ian Buchanan, actor, 65; Simon Khan, golfer, 50; Eddie Cibrian, actor, 49; Joe McElderry, singer/former X Factor winner, 31, above.