ON THIS DAY
ST DAVID’S DAY NATIONAL DAY OF WALES
1498: Mozambique, on Africa’s southeastern coast, was discovered by Vasco da Gama. 1711: The first edition of The Spectator was published.
1810: Composer Frederic Chopin was born near Warsaw, Poland.
1904: Glenn Miller, US trombonist, bandleader, composer and arranger, was born.
1913: The International Lawn Tennis Federation, the world’s governing body for tennis, was founded in Paris with representatives from 13 countries.
1932: The baby son of US aviator Charles Lindbergh was kidnapped. He was found dead on May 12.
1940: Vivien Leigh won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.
1949: Joe Louis, US world heavyweight boxing champion known as the Brown Bomber, retired aged 35, after a record 25 successful defences of his title.
1957: Israel bowed to UN and US pressure and agreed to pull out of Gaza and Aqaba.
1966: Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan said Britain would switch to decimal currency from 1971.
1978: Charlie Chaplin’s coffin was stolen from a Swiss cemetery three months after burial. It was found 10 miles away on May 17.
1985: The Pentagon accepted the theory that nuclear war could lead to years of “nuclear winter”.
1992: Bosnian Serb snipers opened fire on civilians after a majority of Muslim and ethnic Croatian communities voted for Bosnia’s independence.