ON THIS DAY
1453: The Hundred Years War ended when the French defeated the English at Castillon. 1717: George I, Hanoverian King of England, held a public concert on the Thames for Handel to conduct his hour-long Water Music. The King enjoyed it so much he asked for two complete encores. 1841: The first issue of the magazine Punch was published in London. 1889: Erle Stanley Gardner, US author and lawyer who created Perry Mason, was born. 1917: The British Royal Family adopted the name House of Windsor in place of House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 1945: The Potsdam Conference began with world leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill planning for the future peace at the end of the Second World War. 1955: Walt Disney’s Disneyland was opened in California.
1959: Billie Holiday, jazz singer - probably the greatest of them all - was arrested on her death bed in hospital for possession of narcotics. She died later that day. 1969: Oh Calcutta!, the sex revue devised by theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, opened in New York. Critic Clive Barnes said the show gave pornography a dirty name. 1975: An international space link-up between US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts took place when they crossed over from their docked spacecraft and shook hands 140 miles above Britain’s south coast. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR Scientists had discovered two genes linked to a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s, which could help in the hunt to find a cure for the disease, it was revealed.
BIRTHDAYS Tim Brooke-Taylor, comic actor, 78; Peter Sissons, newscaster, 76; Alun Armstrong, actor, 72; Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, 71; Wayne Sleep, dancer, 70; David Hasselhoff, actor and singer, 66; Darren Day, actor, singer and television presenter, 50; Jaap Stam, retired footballer, 45; Konnie Huq, TV presenter, 43.