NOW & THEN
6 AUGUST
1497: Italian explorer John Cabot returned to Bristol from Newfoundland, the first European to come back from North America since the Vikings.
1623: Maffeo Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII.
1675: Russian Tsar Alexis banned foreign hairstyles worn by anyone other than nobility.
1825: Bolivia was proclaimed an independent republic, after nearly 300 years of Spanish rule.
1844: The first press telegram in Britain was sent to the Times, announcing the birth at 7:50am of Prince Alfred to Queen Victoria.
1856: The Great Bell, to become known as Big Ben, was cast in the Great clock at Westminster.
1859: “Worth a guinea a box” appeared on Beecham’s Powders’ packets to promote the patent medicine. It was one of the first advertising slogans.
1861: Lagos, Nigeria, was annexed by Britain.
1889: The Savoy Hotel in London was opened.
1890: Murderer Walter Kemmle was the first man to die in the electric chair, at Auburn Prison, New York. It took eight minutes to work.
1914: Austria-hungary declared war on Russia; Serbia declared war on Germany; French cavalry entered Belgium; Liege was bombed by German zeppelin. 1915: Allies landed at Gallipoli. 1926: American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, crossing from Cape Gris Nez to Deal in 14 hours 30 minutes, almost two hours faster than her five male predecessors.
1937: Franco’s artillery fired on Madrid.
1940: Estonia was annexed into the Soviet empire.
1945: With the approval of president Harry S Truman, the first atomic bomb was dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan, from a Boeing B29 bomber, Enola Gay.
1948: Fanny Blankers-koen of the Netherlands, known as the ‘Flying Housewife’, became the first woman to win four Olympic gold medals when she triumphed in the 100 metres, the 80m hurdles, 200m and 4x100m at Wembley Stadium, London.
1949: John Haigh, 39, acid bath murderer, was executed at Wandsworth Prison, London.
1951: Typhoon floods killed 4,800 people in Manchuria.
1962: Jamaica became independent after being a
British colony for more than 300 years.
1964: Prometheus, the world’s oldest tree, was cut down in Nevada, USA.
1965: The Beatles released their album Help! in the UK.
1970: Kevin Murphy became the first Briton to swim the English Channel both ways non-stop, taking 35 hours and 10 minutes.
1979: Marcus Hooper, 12, become the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
1990: Nearly 400 Britons and Americans were rounded up in Kuwait and taken to Iraq as first part of “human shield”.
1991: Serbia and Croatia proclaimed an “absolute and unconditional cease-fire” in the republic of Croatia, saying they would disengage their units.
2012: Mount Tongariro in New Zealand erupted for the first time.
BIRTHDAYS
Geri Halliwell, ex-spice Girl, 47; Sir Chris Bonington CBE, British mountaineer and author, 85; Gordon J Brand, golfer, 64; Reece Dinsdale, actor, 60; Romola Garai, actress, 37; M Night Shyamalan, director and screenwriter, 49; Oliver Tobias, Swiss actor, 72; Kirsty Wade, athlete, 57; Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian actress, 57; Melissa George, actress, 43; Chelsee Healey, actress, 31; Vera Farmiga, actress, 46; Billy Boston MBE, record-breaking rugby league player, 85; Sir James Hough OBE, British physicist, 74
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1809 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet; 1881 Sir Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin; 1911 Lucille Ball, actress; 1917 Robert Mitchum; 1923 Jack Parnell, bandleader; 1926 Frank Finlay CBE, actor; 1928 Andy Warhol, pop artist; 1932 Howard Hodgkin CBE, British artist.
Deaths: 1637 Ben Johnson, poet and dramatist; 1959 Preston Sturges, director and screenwriter; 1964 Sir Cedric Hardwicke, actor; 1978 Pope Paul VI; 2000 Sir Robin Day, broadcaster; 2001 Dame Dorothy Tutin DBE, actress; 2005 Robin Cook, foreign secretary 1999-2001; 2012 Marvin Hamlisch, US composer