ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR
1765:
English wig-makers petitioned George III for financial relief as the male fashion of wearing wigs came to an end.
1810:
French emperor Napoleon married Marie Louise of Austria, having rejected Josephine because of her inability to fill the royal nursery.
1847: 1852: 1858: 1929: 1940:
Inventor Thomas Edison was born in Ohio.
The first flushing lavatory for women opened in Bedford Street, London.
The ‘Miracle of Lourdes’ took place when St Bernadette (peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous) had her first vision of the Virgin Mary.
The 109 acres of the Vatican in Rome was made an independent sovereign state under the Lateran Treaty.
John Buchan, Scottish novelist who became Lord Tweedsmuir, died. He is best remembered for his creation Richard Hannay and the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps.
1975:
Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party, the Conservatives, at the age of 49.
1990:
South Africa’s black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela was freed from prison after 27 years.
2010:
The fashion world mourned the loss of a “modern-day genius” following the death of Alexander McQueen.
The Royal Horticultural Society announced that snowdrops, the blooms that signal the end of winter is coming, had appeared across the UK around a week earlier than usual.