NOW & THEN
24 JULY
1411: Battle of Harlaw in which Donald Macdonald, Lord of the Isles, was stayed by the Crown forces under the Earl of Mar.
1534: Jacques Cartier landed in Canada and claimed it for France.
1567: Abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Loch Leven in favour of her infant son, who became James VI.
1704: Admiral Sir George Rooke captured Gibraltar during War of Spanish Succession.
1790: A rain of meteorites in south-west France made holes in the landscape. People collected the hot rocks and sent them to the Academy of France, but scientists called the incident physically impossible.
1851: Window tax was abolished in Britain.
1911: Hiram Bingham discovered Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas.
1925: Six-year-old Patricia Cheeseman was the first person to be treated successfully with insulin, at Guy’s Hospital, London.
1927: The Menin Gate, a memorial at Ypres to the armies of the British Empire, was unveiled by Lord Plumer.
1935: Greetings telegrams were introduced by the GPO. In a gold envelope, they cost an extra 3d.
1936: Ethel Cain, the “Girl with the Golden Voice”, chosen from 15,000 applicants, began a 20-year spell as the voice heard telling the time on the telephone.
1946: US made first underwater test of an atomic bomb off Bikini atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1950: The first rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral.
1965: Bob Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone was released.
1969: US Apollo 11 astronauts, first men to walk on the Moon, splashed down in Pacific Ocean.
1969: Muhammad Ali lost his appeal, having been convicted of refusing induction into the US army.
1974: The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon must hand over the Watergate tapes.
1976: US spacecraft Viking 1 landed on Mars.
1982: Heavy rain caused a mudslide that destroyed a bridge at Nagasaki in Japan, killing 299 people.
1985: Two officers of DGSE, the French security service, were charged with murder over the bombing of Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand.
1987: Jeffrey Archer, former Tory Party deputy chairman and MP, won record £500,000 libel damages against Daily Star over an alleged pay-off to a prostitute. Four years later, he was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice and was jailed for four years.
2001: Tiger Woods, at 24 years, six months and 23 days, became the youngest man to win all four golf major championships.
2005: Lance Armstrong retired after winning a record seventh Tour de France. His titles were stripped for doping in 2012.
2008: The SNP pulled off a stunning by-election victory by winning Glasgow East, one of Labour’s safest seats, by 365 votes, a swing of 22.5 per cent.
2013: A high-speed train derailed at Santiago de Compostela, Spain, where 80 people were killed and 140 injured.
BIRTHDAYS
Danny Dyer, actor and TV presenter, 42; Jennifer Lopez, singer and actress, 50; Joe Mcgann, actor, 61; Doug Sanders, golfer, 86; Gus Van Sant, film director, 67; Chris Sarandon, actor, 77; Jay Mcguiness, singer (The Wanted), 29; Elisabeth Moss, actress, 37; John Partridge, actor (Eastenders), 48; Julia Bradbury, TV presenter, 49; Anna Paquin, actress, 37; Tiago Monteiro, Formula One racing driver, 43
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1725 John Newton, sea captain, evangelist and writer of hymns (Amazing Grace); 1783 Simon Bolivar, founder of Bolivia; 1802 Alexandre Dumas, author; 1895 Robert Graves, poet, novelist and critic; 1898 Amelia Earhart, aviator.
Deaths: 1739 Benedetto Marcello, composer; 1812 Joseph Schuster, composer; 1882 Matthew Webb, first person to swim English Channel (died in attempt to swim Niagara Falls rapids); 1965 Constance Bennet, american actress; 1974 Sir James Chadwick, Nobel Prize-winning physicist; 1980 Peter Sellers, film actor and entertainer; 1996 Jock Wallace, football manager; 1997 Brian Glover, actor; 2010 Alex Higgins, snooker player; 2012 Chad Everett, American actor.