NOW & THEN
6 MARCH
1457: Act of Parliament of James II decreed regular target practice and military parades and “that the futball and the golf be utterly cryit doune and nocht usyt”. It was the first mention in Scottish history of those games.
1776: Adam Smith’s influential Wealth of Nations was first published.
1836: The Siege of the Alamo ended after 13 days – the garrison included Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis, who died with 183 others defending the Texas fort against Mexican forces.
1899: Chemist Felix Hoffmann patented the pain-relief drug aspirin.
1902: British soldiers were given the right to wear spectacles.
1926: The Shakespeare Memorial theatre at Stratfordupon-avon burned out.
1930: Clarence Birdseye marketed the first frozen foods, in Massachusetts. He discovered the rapid-freeze method on a trip to Labrador when he threw a cabbage into a butt of water, watched it freeze instantly, and recovered it weeks later in prime condition.
1957: Former British colony of Gold Coast formed independent West African nation of Ghana, with Kwame Nkrumah as its premier.
1957: Israeli troops handed over Gaza Strip to United Nations force.
1961: Mini-cabs were introduced in London.
1965: United States Defence Department announced that 3,500 marines were being sent to South Vietnam – first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas.
1987: The Channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized with her bow door open leaving Zeebrugge harbour, with 193 drowned.
1988: Three IRA terrorists were shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar.
1988: Thousands of Tibetans demanding independence started fires throughout capital city of Lhasa.
1990: Prestwick lost its monopoly as Scotland’s transatlantic gateway.
1991: Doctor George Carey was formally elected Archbishop of Canterbury.
1992: The Conservatives said they would introduce a national lottery if they won the next election.
1996: The IRA said it was prepared for another 25 years of war if progress was not made in the Northern Ireland peace process.
1997: The House of Commons standards and privileges committee cleared the Conservative Home Secretary, Michael Howard, of an allegation that he accepted £1.5 million in bribes to order a government investigation into Mohamed al-fayed’s takeover of Harrods.
2008: A Palestinian gunman shot and killed eight students and critically injured 11 in a library in Jerusalem, Israel.
2009: An environmental campaigner threw green custard at Lord Mandelson, the business secretary.
2014: Crimea’s parliament votes to join Russia and schedules a referendum for 16 March.