NOW & THEN
19 MARCH
1641: Foundation stone of Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow, laid by philanthropist Thomas Hutcheson. It was established as a residential school for the poor of the city.
1707: Official copy of the Act of Union signed by the Scottish Chancellor.
1711: War was declared between Russia and Turkey.
1799: Napoleon Bonaparte began siege of Acre (Israel) which was defended by British and Turks.
1859: First production of Charles Gounod’s opera, Faust, at the Theatre Lyrique, Paris.
1861: Maori War in New Zealand ended.
1882: The City Temple, Holborn, London, became the first church to be lit by electricity.
1932: The opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge, the widest ever built with single-arch span.
1933: Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini proposed pact with Britain, France and Germany.
1938: Rugby was first seen on British television – the England versus Scotland Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham.
1962: Relative calm returned to Algeria after ceasefire, ending seven years of warfare between French and Algerian nationalists.
1970: Willy Brandt and Willi Stoph, heads of West and East Germany, met for the first time.
1976: Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced their separation after 15 years of marriage.
1982: An Argentine scrap-metal dealer landed on South Georgia and planted his country’s flag. The event was later seen as attempt by Argentina to test British resolve to defend the Falkland Islands.
1986: Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson.
1988: Iraq claimed its forces had overrun headquarters of Iranian-backed Kurdish guerrilla leader Jala Talabani amid heavy mountain fighting.
1990: President Mikhail Gorbachev ordered economic measures to be taken against Lithuania in response to the republic’s decision to seek independence from USSR.
1991: Kurdish guerrillas claimed to have captured Kirkuk, Iraq’s main northern oil city.
1992: Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of York were to separate after five and a half years of marriage.
1995: Twelve people died and thousands were injured in a sarin gas attack on Tokyo underground system.
2002: Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth on charges of human rights abuses and of electoral fraud, following a turbulent presidential election.
2003: President George W Bush ordered the start of war against Iraq.
2004: A truck and a bus crashed head-on in Finland. Twenty-four people were killed and 13 injured.
2008: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye was briefly observed.
2010: The government gave the go-ahead for the development of a £2.5 billion gasfield 90 miles off the west coast of Shetland.