NOW & THEN
3 JULY
1582: James Crichton of Eliock, a graduate of St Andrews University, a tutor of King James VI and the original “Admirable Crichton”, died in a brawl in Mantua.
1608: Quebec was founded by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain.
1661: Portugal gave Tangier and Bombay to King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1720: Sweden and Denmark signed a peace treaty.
1806: The first cultivated strawberry was exhibited by Michael Keens of Isleworth at a Royal Horticultural Society show.
1844: The last known pair of great auks were killed on the island of Eldey, off Iceland, while incubating an egg.
1883: When the SS Daphne capsized after launch, 124 workers were drowned in the Clyde’s worst accident of its type.
1884: Dow Jones published its first stock average.
1886: Karl Benz drove his first car in Germany.
1900: Tsar Nicholas of Russia issued a decree abolishing the banishment of dissidents to Siberia.
1912: Board of Trade inquiry into the Titanic disaster found Captain Edward J Smith, who went down with the White Star liner after it hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage, guilty of negligence.
1928: The world’s first television transmission in colour was made by John Logie Baird, at the Baird Studios in London.
1936: Fred Perry defeated Gottfried von Cramm 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 to win the Wimbledon men’s singles title – the last British winner for 77 years.
1938: The LNER Mallard reached 126mph on the Stoke Bank stretch of line between Grantham and Peterborough, heading south – the world record for a steam locomotive.
1954: Food rationing ended in Britain. Smithfield market opened at midnight instead of 6am to cope with the demand for beef.
1967: News at Ten appeared on UK television for the first time.
1976: Israel launched the rescue of 103 Air France crew and passengers who had been held for a week at Entebbe Airport in Uganda by pro-palestinian hijackers.
1987: Richard Branson and Per
Lindstrand abandoned their hotair balloon Virgin Atlantic Flyer off Rathlin Island, having flown it from Maine, setting a world distance record.
1987: Klaus Barbie, the former SS officer known as the “Butcher of Lyon”, was jailed for life for war crimes against humanity in France.
1992: Thirty-one years after their expulsion, South Africa had its Fifa membership reinstated. 1996: John Major, the prime minister, announced that the Stone of Destiny would be returned to Scotland, seven centuries after it was taken to England by Edward I.
2002: The FTSE 100 went into freefall, plummeting 154.2 points to close at 4392.6, its lowest close in five years and wiping more than £37 billion off the value of the UK’S biggest companies.
BIRTHDAYS
SIAN LLOYD TV weather presenter, 62
Tom Cruise, actor, 58; Susan Penhaligon, British actress, 71; Sir Tom Stoppard CBE, British playwright, 83; Sebastian Vettel, German racing driver, 33; Tracey Emin CBE, artist, 57; Vince Clarke, musician, 60; Henry Olonga, Zimbabwe’s first black Test cricketer, 44; Joanne Harris MBE, British author, 56; Iain Macdonald-smith, British Olympic sailing champion in 1968, 75; Shane Lynch, pop singer (Boyzone), 44
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1728 Robert Adam, Kirkcaldy-born architect and designer; 1883 Franz Kafka, Austrian novelist; 1906 George Sanders, actor; 1923 Baroness Ryder of Warsaw (Sue Ryder), charity worker; 1926 Evelyn Anthony, British thriller writer; 1927 Ken Russell, British director; 1945 Michael Martin, Baron Martin of Springburn, speaker of House of Commons 2000-09.
Deaths: 1969 Brian Jones, Rolling Stone (drowned); 1971 Jim Morrison, singer; 1986 Rudy Vallée, singer, actor and bandleader; 1994 Lew Hoad, Austrlian tennis player; 1995 Pancho Gonzales, tennis player; 2001 Billy Liddell, Scottish footballer; 2011 Anna Massey CBE, British actress.