NOW & THEN
4 MAY
1328: Treaty of Northampton ratified. In part, it said: “… if we or our predecessors in past times have sought in any way any rights to the kingdom of Scotland, we renounce and abandon them by these presents to the King of Scots, his heirs and successors.”
1654: Proclamations at the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh, of the Protectorate and Union with England by General George Monck.
1780: The first Derby was run at Epsom. Lord Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury tossed a coin to determine the name of the race. 1809: Soda water was patented by William Hamilton. 1843: Natal in South Africa was proclaimed a British colony. 1896: The Daily Mail, founded by Lord Northcliffe, was first published. 1904: Construction started on Panama Canal. 1911: First plans for a national insurance scheme were unveiled by Chancellor David Lloyd George in his budget speech.
1917: British transport ship Transylvania was torpedoed in the Mediterranean with loss of 413 lives.
1926: The General Strike began at midnight, the first in British history. It was called off on 13 May.
1935: Leicester Square tube station opened, with the world’s longest escalator.
1949: Thirteen women and girls died in a fire which destroyed Grafton’s four- storey gown store in Argyle Street, Glasgow.
1974: Abba reached the top of the pop charts with Waterloo, the Eurovision song contest winner.
1979: Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman prime minister.
1982: HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet missile and destroyed during the Falklands conflict, with the loss of 20 men.
1989: Tens of thousands of Chinese students marched to Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, calling for freedom and democracy.
1990: Five hospitals were earmarked for closure in Lothian Health Board cuts.
1992: Stephen Hendry was crowned world snooker champion after beating Jimmy White 18- 14 in the final.
1993: Polly Peck founder Asil Nadir jumped £ 3.5million bail and flew to Cyprus.
1994: Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation signed a landmark accord giving Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip self- rule.
2001: The Bank of Scotland and Halifax merged as HBOS in a £ 28million deal, putting it in the top five UK banking groups.
2007: The SNP won the Scottish election and became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever.
2009: John Higgins MBE captured his third World Championship snooker title when he defeated Shaun Murphy 18- 9 at The Crucible, in Sheffield.
2014: Three female officers became the first women to serve as submariners in the Royal Navy.