NOW & THEN
26 MARCH
1780: The first Sunday newspaper in Britain was published: the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
1793: Holy Roman Empire declared war on France.
1805: Herbal pills to alleviate rheumatism, leprosy and scurvy were patented by Richard Brandon.
1839: The Henley Rowing Regatta at Henley-on-thames, Oxfordshire, was inaugurated.
1885: The first cremation in Britain took place at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.
1913: More than 1,400 people died in floods in American states of Ohio, Indiana and Texas.
1923: Regular daily weather forecasting began on BBC radio.
1925: Paul von Hindenburg became president of Germany.
1926: Romania and Poland formed an alliance.
1927: Gaumont-british Film Corporation was founded.
1934: Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
1937: Popeye the Sailor became the first cartoon character to have a statue erected. The residents of Crystal City, Texas, raised one to him because the principal crop grown in the area was his favourite, spinach.
1942: Nazis began deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.
1945: Battle of Iwo Jima ended.
1953: In the United States, Dr Jonas E Salk announced vaccine to immunise against polio.
1972: Britain and Malta signed new seven-year agreement on use of strategic military facilities on the island.
1973: Mrs Susan Shaw became the first woman to set foot on the floor of the 171-year-old London Stock Exchange.
1981: The “Gang of Four” Labour dissidents started the Social Democratic Party with the Limehouse Declaration.
1986: Libyan radio called for Arab suicide squads to hit US embassies and other interests “wherever they may be.”
1988: Iran and Iraq battled for mastery over Kurdistan mountains, just east of Iraqi oil fields.
1990: Police fired on demonstrators in Sebokeng, South Africa, killing 11 people and wounding hundreds.
1992: The former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was jailed for six years for raping a beauty queen, Desiree Washington.
1996: Mel Gibson’s film about William Wallace, Braveheart, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the Oscars.
1997: Thirty-nine members of the Heavens Gate cult committed mass suicide near San Diego.
2006: A complete ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces came into effect in Scotland. Smokers breaking the law faced a £50 fine.
2009: Police in Scotland revealed that there were 74 domestic abuse attacks each day; or 270,000 a year.
2010: The Scottish island of Sanda, off the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, which has just one resident and its own pub, sold for £2.5 million to a Swiss businessman.
2010: ITV announced its decision to axe long-running police drama The Bill after 27 years.