NOW & THEN
20 JUNE
1522: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visited England and signed Treaty of Windsor with King Henry VIII, calling for invasion of France.
1605: Russia’s Tsar Theodore II was assassinated in palace revolution.
1756: Night of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Some 156 British prisoners were put into a cell 20ft square on a hot June night when Suraja Dowla, Nawab of Bengal, captured Fort William. Only 23 survived.
1789: The French Revolution began and so the country entered a period of radical social and political upheaval that had a major impact on France and all of Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled for centuries collapsed in three years.
1841: Samuel Morse patented telegraph.
1862: Congress prohibited slavery in US territories.
1885: Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City from France.
1887: The second Tay Bridge, the longest railway bridge in Britain, was opened.
1911: The city of Leeds introduced Britain’s first trolleybus service.
1923: General “Pancho” Villa, Mexican guerrilla leader and revolutionary, was assassinated at Parral (Chihuahua).
1944: US troops took Saipan Island in Pacific from Japanese.
1949: “Gorgeous Gussie” Moran, American tennis player, caused a sensation at Wimbledon, wearing lacetrimmed panties under a short skirt, designed by Teddy Tinling.
1960: Nan Winton became the first woman to read the national news on BBC television.
1966: First black British police officer went on duty in Coventry.
1969: The discovery of highgrade crude oil deposits in the North Sea was announced, ten years after the first natural gas was found.
1973: Juan Peron returned as president of Argentina after almost 20 years of exile.
1975: United Nations secretarygeneral Kurt Waldheim opened first major world conference on status of women, in Mexico City.
1987: Basque separatists claimed responsibility after explosion in Barcelona department store garage killed 12 people.
1989: China’s premier, Li Peng, defended army’s attack on prodemocracy demonstrators.
1990: The Agra diamond was sold for a record £4,070,000 at Christie’s.
1990: Scotland bowed out of World Cup after 1-0 defeat by Brazil.
1995: Conservationists claimed a major victory as Shell abandoned plans to dump the disused Brent Spar oil rig in the Atlantic.
2000: Peter Houghton became the first patient to receive the Jarvik 2000, the first totally artificial heart that could maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse.
2003: The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, was founded in St Petersburg, Florida.
2008: An NHS region in Scotland announced plans to offer smokers cash incentives of £50 to quit the habit.
Births: 1819 Jacques Offenbach, composer; 1906 Dame Catherine Cookson, novelist; 1909 Errol Flynn, Australian film actor; 1916 Johnny Morris, naturalist and broadcaster; 1924 Audie Murphy, actor and much decorated Second World War soldier; 1928 Martin Landau, US actor; 1940 John Mahoney, English actor.
Deaths: 1597 Willem Barents, Arctic explorer; 1980 Gustav Pettersson, composer; 1992 Sir Charles Groves, conductor; 1992 John Bratby, artist; 2012 Alexander Charles Robert “Alistair” Vane-tempeststewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry; 2018 Peter Thomson CBE, golfer, five times Open champion; 2018 Doctor Norman Godman, MP 1983-2001.