NOW & THEN
11 FEBRUARY
1531: King Henry VIII was recognised as supreme head of the Church in England.
1810: Napoleon wed Princess Marie-louise of Austria, having rejected Josephine because of her inability to fill the imperial nursery.
1929: Lateran Treaty established an independent Vatican City.
1956: Traitors Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean appeared in Moscow after escaping from Britain.
1962: U2 spy pilot Captain Francis Gary Powers returned to United States after Soviets released him in exchange for Colonel Rudolf Abel.
1963: United States recognised new government in Iraq after revolt.
1967: Military rule was imposed in Peking during civil strife in China.
1968: Communist troops executed 300 civilians in South Vietnam and buried them in mass grave during fighting for the city of Hue.
1970: Japan launched its first earth satellite.
1971: Treaty banning nuclear weapons from ocean floor was signed by 63 nations in ceremonies in Washington, London and Moscow.
1975: Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party at the age of 49.
1986: Jewish dissident Nathan (then Anatoly) Shcharansky freed in Berlin after almost nine years in Soviet captivity on espionage charges.
1990: Mike Tyson knocked out by James Douglas in tenth round of fight in Japan, but Tyson’s camp accused referee of mistiming a count in the eighth round when Douglas should have lost. The bout was later declared void.
1990: Nelson Mandela freed in South Africa after 27 years in prison.
1991: British Rail gave as reason for chaos in the bad weather “the wrong kind of snow, like fine talcum powder”.
1991: Iraqi radio mocked United States defence chiefs’ visit to Middle East as a sign of defeatism.
1993: Former premier Bettino Craxi resigned as leader of Italian Socialist Party after allegations of corruption.
1993: John Major told the Commons that the Queen would pay income tax and capital gains tax on her private income.
1994: Spanish sea captain found guilty of smuggling £100 million of cocaine into Scotland.
1997: Space Shuttle Discovery was launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
2001: Ellen Mcarthur became the fastest woman and youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe in a single-handed race.
2008: Tolls ended on the Forth and Tay road bridges.
2011: The Egyptian revolution culminated in the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.
2013: Pope Benedict XVI made the surprise announcement that he was to retire at the end of the month. It was the first case of a retiring Pope in 600 years.
BIRTHDAYS
Jennifer Aniston, US actress, 51; Sheryl Crow, singer and songwriter, 58; Ross Finnie, former MSP and minister for environment and rural development, 73; Dame Mary Quant, British fashion designer, 86; Neil Archibald Primrose, 7th Earl of Rosebery & 3rd Earl of Midlothian, 91; Kelly Rowland, singer (Destiny’s Child), 39; Dennis Skinner, Labour MP, 88; Sarah Palin, US politician, 56
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1847 Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric light; 1908 Sir Vivian Fuchs, polar explorer; 1915 Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor OBE, British author; 1936 Burt Reynolds, American actor, director and producer. Deaths: 1650 Rene Descartes, philosopher; 1868 Jean Foucault, French physicist who invented gyroscope and measured speed of light; 1892 James Augustus Grant, explorer who traced the Nile to Lake Victoria (born Nairn); 1940 John Buchan, First Baron Tweedsmuir, novelist (notably The Thirty-nine Steps) and governor-general of Canada; 2006 Peter Benchley, author (Jaws); 2010 Alexander Mcqueen CBE, British fashion designer; 2012 Whitney Houston, American singer and actress.