NOW & THEN

0 The rock musical Hair opened in London on this day in 1969, one day after the abolition of theatre censorship 1987: Europe’s golfers beat the United States on American soil for the first time to retain the Ryder Cup.

1990: The IRA claimed responsibility for a bomb found in St James’s, London. A conference on terrorism was due to be held there hours later.

1993: After 34 years, Tony Benn lost his seat on Labour’s national executive.

1995: Government circles reacted with anger and disbelief at a European Court of Human Rights ruling which condemned the SAS killing of three IRA terrorists in Gibraltar, in 1988.

2009: German Federal elections returned Angela Merkel for her second term as chancellor.

2015: A “supermoon” coincided with a lunar eclipse, creating a “blood moon” over much of the Earth.