NOW & THEN
1 AUGUST
1560: Scotland’s parliament abolished papal jurisdiction and approved a Calvinistic Confession of Faith, founding Presbyterian Church of Scotland under the leadership of John Knox.
1589: King Henry III of France was assassinated by friar Jacques Clément.
1714: George Louis of Brunswicklüneburg became King George I, the first Hanoverian king of Great Britian, following the death of Queen Anne.
1732: The foundations were laid for the Bank of England.
1747: The Proscription Act was passed, banning the wearing of tartan and carrying weapons. Penalty for a first offence was six months’ jail and, for a second, seven years’ transportation.
1793: The kilogram was introduced in France as the first metric weight.
1798: Horatio Nelson destroyed French fleet off Aboukir (Battle of the Nile).
1834: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire.
1870: The Irish Land Act gave rights to tenants of landlords.
1883: The inland postal service began in Geat Britain.
1907: The first Boy Scout camp opened in Dorset.
1914: German Emperor Willem II declared war on Russia and his nephew, Tsar Nicholas II.
1918: British troops entered Vladivostok.
1936: Adolf Hitler opened the 11th modern Olympic Games in Berlin, when the Olympic flame was carried from Greece for the first time.
1944: Anne Frank made her last diary entry. Three days later, she was arrested and transported to a Nazi concentration camp.
1951: David Ben Gurion’s Mapai party won the parliamentary election in Israel.
1953: Cuban rebel Fidel Castro, who had led an attack on the Moncada Army Barracks, was arrested. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment but released after two years.
1960: Aretha Franklin had her first recording session. Chubby Checker released his single The Twist.
1960: Islamabad was declared the federal capital of Pakistan.
1961: With England heading for victory in the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford, Australian bowler Richie Benaud embarked on a devastating spell of six wickets for 70 runs to rout the home side.
1963: Britain agreed to grant independence to Malta in 1964. 1964: The Beatles single A Hard Day’s Night went to No 1 in the music charts.
1967: University of Dundee, formerly University College, Dundee, incorporated in the University of St Andrews in 1890, became a separate university.
1971: US Defence Department announced pull-out of 3,000 American troops from Vietnam.
1971: George Harrison held his benefit concert for Bangladesh in New York.
1972: Carl Bernstein and
Bob Woodward’s first article exposing the Watergate Scandal was published in the Washington Post.
1991: Diego Maradona retired from playing professional football.
2002: Ban on hunting with dogs came into force in Scotland.
2013: Robert Mugabe won 142 of 210 seats to maintain power in Zimbabwe.