ON THIS DAY
1882:
Robert MacLean tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor.
1949:
The first round-the-world non-stop flight was completed by Captain James Gallagher and his 13-man USAF crew. It took 94 hours, during which the plane, Lucky Lady II, was refuelled four times in flight.
1958:
A British team led by Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of the Antarctic, covering 2,158 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea in 99 days.
1969:
The French-built supersonic airliner Concorde made its maiden flight from Toulouse.
1970:
Southern Rhodesia broke away from Britain and became a republic under Ian Smith.
1986:
The Queen signed the Australia Bill in Canberra, formally severing any Australian constitutional ties with Britain.
1988:
A new political party was born when Liberals merged with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats. 1791: The optical telegraph (semaphore machine) was unveiled in Paris.
1836:
Texas was proclaimed a republic, independent of Mexico.
1930:
Novelist DH Lawrence died in France of tuberculosis.
1995:
Financial dealer Nick Leeson, whose multimillion-pound dealings on the high-risk derivatives market in Singapore bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt airport after a week-long manhunt.