NOW & THEN
6 APRIL
1320: Declaration of Independence sent to Pope John XXII from the Scottish Parliament at Arbroath Abbey.
1789: George Washington was elected as first United States president.
1830: The Mormon Movement (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), was founded in New York State by Joseph Smith.
1843: William Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate.
1850: Koh-i-noor diamond was sent from India to become part of British Crown jewels.
1866: Civil Rights Act, giving full citizenship to US blacks after Civil War, was passed by United States Congress.
1896: Snowdon Mountain Railway opened.
1896: Modern Olympic Games revived by Pierre de Coubertin at Athens.
1909: The first man at the North Pole was Robert Peary, an US explorer who arrived with a servant and 246 dogs. It was his sixth attempt in 15 years to reach the Pole.
1917: The United States declared war on Germany.
1944: Pay As You Earn income tax, devised by Sir Cornelius Gregg, came into operation.
1955: Sir Anthony Eden succeeded Sir Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.
1984: The 17-year-old South African barefoot runner Zola Budd, who was brought by the Daily Mail to Britain, was granted British citizenship by home secretary Leon Brittan after a matter of weeks.
1985: Henrietta Shaw became the first woman to cox Cambridge University in the boat race.
1992: European Community foreign ministers agreed to scrap its oil embargo on South Africa.
1993: Labour dropped its last commitment to nationalisation when it published its new proposals for industrial strategy.
1994: English FA called off a match with Germany, planned for Berlin on Hitler’s birth date, because of feared clashes between neo-nazis and antifascists.
1995: The Conservatives were all but eliminated from Scottish local government as Labour dominated council elections.
1998: Pakistan tested mediumrange missiles capable of reaching India.
2000: MSPS voted 68-56 to go ahead with the Holyrood parliament building in Edinburgh, but with a fixed price of £195 million.
2004: Rolandas Paksas became the first president of Lithuania to be peacefully removed from office by impeachment.
2006: Almost 1,000 square miles of Scotland were placed under quarantine after the first British case of the deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a swan found dead at Cellardyke, Fife.
2009: A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near L’aquila, Italy, killing 307.
2011: In San Fernando, Tamaulipas, Mexico, almost 200 bodies were exhumed from several mass graves made by the powerful and violent criminal syndicate Los Zetas.
2012: Azawad Declaration of Independence was declared (from the Republic of Mali).
RORY BREMNER Scottish impressionist, 59