NOW & THEN
9 SEPTEMBER
490BC: The Battle of Marathon was fought between the Athenian army and invading Persian forces.
1087: William Rufus (Red Rufus) came to the throne of England after the death of William the Conqueror in Rouen, France, from injuries received when his horse stumbled.
1513: The Battle of Flodden Field took place near Branxton in Northumberland, in which James IV was defeated and killed, with the flower of Scotland, by English troops under Thomas Howard, the Earl of Surrey.
1543: Mary Stuart, aged nine months, was crowned Queen of Scotland at Stirling Castle.
1813: San Sebastian, Spain, fell to British forces under Duke of Wellington.
1914: First Battle of Marne ended when Von Moltke’s advance on Paris was halted by the British Expeditionary Force and the French under Joffre and Foch.
1919: Alexander Graham Bell’s HD-4, a hydrofoil, set a world marine speed record of 70.86 mph.
1938: The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), the female branch of the army, was formed.
1950: Soap rationing ended in Britain.
1958: Race riots began in London’s Notting Hill Gate. TV crews were accused of encouraging the rioting by staging reconstructions of events in the streets.
1963: Jim Clark became the world’s youngest motor racing champion.
1965: French president Charles de Gaulle announced that France was withdrawing from Nato, to protest the US domination of the organisation.
1969: Canada’s House of Commons passed the Official Languages Act which gave French and English equal status.
1970: The first hijack of a British aircraft took place near Beirut.
1971: Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, was released after being held hostage by left-wing guerrillas for eight months.
1973: Jackie Stewart finished fourth in the Italian Grand Prix, which was enough to clinch the world drivers’ championship for the third time.
1985: US president Ronald Reagan ordered sanctions against South Africa.
1987: Iraq launched co-ordinated air raids on Iranian power plants, factories and oil centres.
1989: RSPCA announced introduction of food labels for “humanely produced” meat.
1992: Boxer Mike Tyson was indicted for the rape of Desiree Washington.
1993: Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation ended decades of hostility by agreeing terms for mutual recognition.
1994: The space shuttle Discovery was launched into orbit.
1995: Former champion jockey Lester Piggott retired aged 59, having won more than 5,000 races.
1997: Sinn Fein accepted the Mitchell Principles on para-military disarmament.
2001: Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was assassinated in Afghanistan.