NOW & THEN
11 MARCH
1618: Margaret and Philippa Flower were burned at the stake in Lincoln for witchcraft. They put a curse on the man who convicted them, Judge Charles Holiment, who, when he heard about it, could not stop laughing and died in a hysterical fit.
1669: In one of the most violent of Mount Etna’s 250 recorded eruptions, a two-mile-wide river of lava poured towards Catania, 18 miles away. Citizens built a 60ft high wall to check the flow, but molten lava poured over the top, killing 20,000 people.
1682: The Royal Chelsea Hospital for Soldiers (Chelsea Pensioners) was founded by King Charles II. It was built by Sir Christopher Wren and opened in 1692.
1794: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, opened.
1801: Paul I, Tsar of Russia, was strangled in a scuffle with his own officers who were conspiring to force his abdication.
1845: Maoris staged further uprisings against British rule in New Zealand.
1917: British forces captured Baghdad.
1920: Emir Feisal proclaimed King of an independent Syria.
1925: The musical comedy No No Nanette was premiered at the Palace Theatre, London, with Binnie Hale playing Nanette.
1935: The German air force, the Luftwaffe, was created by proclamation of Hermann Goering.
1938: German forces entered Austria.
1941: The United States Lendlease Bill was signed by President Franklin D Roosevelt. It enabled Britain to borrow millions of dollars to buy food and arms needed for the Second World War.
1942: General Douglas Macarthur pulled out of the Philippines as Japanese advanced, uttering the immortal words: “I shall return.”
1943: British Eighth Army repulsed heavy German counterattacks in Tunisia.
1945: The huge Krupps factory in Germany was destroyed in a daylight raid.
1969: Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel after death of Levi Eshkol. She resigned in 1974.
1985: The Al-fayed brothers won control of the House of Fraser Group to become owners of Harrods.
1988: The Bank of England pound note, first introduced on
12 March, 1797, ceased to be legal tender in Britain at midnight. When the deadline for returning old notes was reached, it was estimated that some 70 million were still outstanding.
1989: An East German and his wife died trying to cross the Berlin Wall in a hot air balloon.
1990: Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to seek secession from the Soviet Union after declaring itself a sovereign state.
1990: Chile’s General Augusto Pinochet bowed out as president after 16 years of dictatorship.
2004: Two hundred people died when a series of bombs ripped through rush-hour trains at stations in Madrid. Al-qaeda later claimed responsibility.
2006: Michelle Bachelet was inaugurated as first female president of Chile.