NOW & THEN
6 APRIL
1320: Declaration of Independence sent to Pope John XXII from the Scottish Parliament at Arbroath Abbey.
1789: George Washington elected as first US president.
1793: Committee of Public Safety was established in France with dictatorial powers dominated by GJ Danton.
1830: The Mormon Movement (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was founded in New York State by Joseph Smith.
1843: William Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate.
1850: Koh-i-noor diamond was sent from India to become part of British Crown jewels.
1866: Civil Rights Act, giving full citizenship to American blacks after Civil War, was passed by United States Congress. 1868: Ku Klux Klan founded. 1886: Vancouver, British Columbia, was founded.
1896: Snowdon Mountain Railway opened.
1896: Modern Olympic Games revived by Pierre de Coubertin at Athens.
1909: The first man at the North Pole was Robert Peary, an American explorer who arrived with a servant and 246 dogs. It was his sixth attempt in 15 years.
1917: The United States declared war on Germany.
1943: British and United States armies linked up in North Africa after retreat of Rommel’s forces.
1944: Pay As You Earn income tax, devised by Sir Cornelius Gregg, came into operation.
1945: American naval forces victory over Japanese at Kyushu, sinking six warships.
1955: Sir Anthony Eden succeeded Sir Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.
1972: Scarman Report on 1969 outbreaks of violence and civil disturbances in Northern Ireland was published.
1978: The world’s largest hovercraft, the Princess Anne, weighing 300 tons, launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.
1984: South African barefoot runner Zola Budd, 17, brought by the Daily Mail to Britain, was granted British citizenship by Home Secretary Leon Brittan after a matter of weeks.
1985: Henrietta Shaw became first woman to cox Cambridge University in the boat race.
1990: Police opened fire on _ pro-democracy demonstrators in Nepal, killing at least 35 people.
1993: Labour dropped its last commitment to nationalisation when it published its new proposals for industrial strategy.
1995: The Conservatives were all but eliminated from Scottish local government as Labour dominated council elections.
1998: Pakistan tested mediumrange missiles capable of reaching India.
2000: MSPS voted 68-56 to go ahead with the Holyrood parliament building, but with a fixed price of £195 million.
2006: Almost 1,000 square miles of Scotland placed under quarantine after the first British case of the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a swan found dead at Cellardyke in Fife.
2009: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near L’aquila, Italy, killing 307 people.
2011: Almost 200 bodies were exhumed from mass graves in Mexico made by the violent criminal syndicate Los Zetas.