NOW & THEN
7 MARCH
1820: Spain’s King Ferdinand II was forced to restore the Constitution of 1812 and end the Inquisition.
1866: The Albert Medal for Gallantry in saving life on sea or land was instituted.
1892: The Great Western Railway introduced the first corridor trains, on the London-birkenhead line.
1917: The first jazz record went on sale in America. It was The Dixie Jazz Band One-step recorded by Nick La Rocca’s Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
1926: First transatlantic radiotelephone was established.
1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird became the world’s fastest car when he drove it across the Utah Flats, United States, at 277mph.
1936: Germany violated the Treaty of Versailles by occupying demilitarised zone in the Rhineland.
1946: Doctors mounted a campaign to fight the introduction of a National Health Service.
1956: Unrest, fomented by Stalinist faction, broke out in Soviet Georgia.
1962: First major report on cigarette risks, Smoking and Health, was published by the Royal College of Physicians.
1963: The person with the world’s highest IQ – Kim, a Korean – was born. He could speak four languages and understand integral calculus when he was four. His IQ was recorded as 210.
1965: Round the Horne started on BBC radio, with Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. It ran for three years.
1968: United States and Soviet Union pledged to protect all weaker nations from nuclear blackmail and aggression.
1975: Teenager Lesley Whittle’s body was found down a 60-foot drain shaft. She had been strangled by Donald Nielson, the “Black Panther”, after being kidnapped and held for 52 days. Nielson was later given four life sentences.
1977: Armed raiders stole £850,000 worth of diamonds and currency at Heathrow Airport, London.
1989: 25lb of Semtex explosive was found in woods near Scarborough nine days before the Conservative Party Central Council was due to meet.
1990: Department of Trade and Industry report on Harrods said al-fayed brothers lied to the
Office of Fair Trading when they bought House of Fraser.
1991: Ten Rochdale children held in care for nearly a year after allegations of Satanic ritual abuse were freed by judge who criticised Rochdale council and social workers for serious errors of judgment.
1992: England’s rugby team beat Wales 24-0 at Twickenham to complete a second successive Grand Slam.
2007: The House of Commons voted to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100 per cent elected.
2009: Two soldiers were shot dead and two soldiers and two civilians wounded when the Real IRA attacked the Massereene Barracks in Antrim.
2012: Six British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by an explosion.
BIRTHDAYS
William Boyd CBE, Scottish novelist and screenwriter, 68; Malcolm Chisholm, MSP, MP 1997-2001, 71; Ruthie Henshall, British actress, 53; Nicholas Kraemer, Edinburgh-born harpsichordist and conductor, 75; Ivan Lendl, tennis coach and former world No 1 player, 60; Duncan Macmillan, critic, art historian, Emeritus Professor, the University of Edinburgh, and former curator of the Talbot Rice Gallery, 81; Sir Vivian Richards OBE, West Indian cricketer, captain of West Indies 1985-91, 68; Sir Ranulph Twisletonwykeham-fiennes, 3rd baronet OBE, explorer, 76
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1802 Sir Edwin Landseer, painter and sculptor; 1831 Henry Moore, painter; 1872 Piet Mondrian, artist; 1875 Maurice Ravel, French composer; Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor; 1958 Rik Mayall, British actor and comedian.
Deaths: 1274 St Thomas Aquinas, Dominican theologian; 1953 Herman Mankiewicz, screenwriter; 1957 Percy Wyndham Lewis, writer-artist; 1971 Stevie Smith, poet; 1999 Stanley Kubrick, film producer and director; 2013 Kenny Ball, British jazz trumpeter.