NOW & THEN
4 MARCH
1789: First meeting of United States Congress was held, at Federal Hall in New York City.
1824: Royal National Lifeboat Institution was founded by Sir William Hillary.
1857: Peace of Paris ended British-persian War, and Shah recognised independence of Afghanistan.
1882: The first electric tramcars ran in London, at Leytonstone.
1890: The Forth Bridge was officially opened by the Prince of Wales, who drove home the last rivet.
1909: The first electric fans went on sale at Selfridges in Oxford Street, London.
1917: German army began major withdrawal on Western Front.
1919: Communist International (the Comintern) was formed.
1924: The song Happy Birthday To You was published by Clayton F Summy.
1945: German radio reported that city of Dresden had been “wiped off the map” of Europe by Allied bombers.
1945: The Queen joined the ATS as Second Subaltern Windsor 230873.
1946: BBC Housewives’ Choice, presented by Robert Mcdermott, began.
1958: United States nuclear submarine Nautilus travelled under the ice cap at North Pole.
1964: Malta became fully independent.
1967: The first North Sea gas was pumped ashore at Easington, County Durham.
1970: French submarine Eurydice was lost in the Mediterranean off the Riviera, with the loss of crew of 57.
1973: Eight Black September terrorists ended occupation of Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, after killing three foreign diplomats.
1974: Edward Heath resigned as Conservative prime minister and a minority Labour government, led by Harold Wilson, took office.
1977: Earthquake devastated Bucharest and other towns in Romania, the death toll reaching more than 1,000.
1986: The first edition of Eddy Shah’s national newspaper, Today, was published.
1988: Sikh separatists slaughtered dozens of Hindus at religious festival in Kari Sari, India.
1990: ANC loyalists overthrew the government of South African homeland of Ciskei.
1991: Flight Lieutenant John
Peters, RAF pilot captured after his Tornado was shot down over Iraq on 17 January, was handed over to International Red Cross with two other British Pows.
1994: Control of Celtic passed from the White-kelly family dynasty, who had run the football club for 100 years, to tycoon Fergus Mccann.
2001: A massive car bomb exploded in front of BBC TV Centre in London, seriously injuring one person. The attack was attributed to the Real IRA.
2002: Canada banned human cloning, but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.
2007: Approximately 30,000 voters in Estonai took advantage of electronic voting in Estonia, the world’s first nationwide voting where part of the votecasting was allowed via internet.