NOW & THEN
21 SEPTEMBER
1327: Edward II was murdered in the dungeon of Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire, to ensure that his son, Edward III, could succeed to the throne.
1621: James I of England (James VI of Scotland) gave Sir Alexander Stirling a royal charter for the colonisation of Nova Scotia.
1677: John and Nicolaas van der Hayden patented the fire extinguisher.
1745: Battle of Prestonpans and defeat of the Hanoverian army under General John Cope by Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the Jacobites.
1776: A quarter of New York City burned down in a great fire, five days after the city was taken by British forces.
1802: France’s Napoleon Bonaparte annexed Piedmont.
1837: Charles Tiffany founded his gold and jewellery stores.
1860: In the second Opium War, British and French troops defeated the Chinese at the Battle of Baliqiao.
1893: The first petrol-powered car was demonstrated in the United States by Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts.
1896: General Kitchener’s army occupied Dongola, Sudan.
1913: Turkey and Bulgaria signed a peace treaty in Constantinople.
1917: Independence of Latvia was proclaimed.
1921: Pope Benedict XV donated 1 million lire to feed starving Russians.
1934: A typhoon struck Honshu island, Japan, killing 4,000.
1936: the Spanish fascist junta named Franco to be supreme commander.
1939: Premier Armand Calinescu of Romania was assassinated by the Iron Guard.
1947: An American Skymaster flew from Ohio to Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, without a crew, under automatic control and guided by radio impulses.
1949: West Germany came into existence as US, British and French occupation zones were transferred to German control.
1949: People’s Republic of China was proclaimed by its Communist leaders.
1964: Malta became independent, after 164 years of British rule.
1965: British Petroleum became the first company to strike oil in the North Sea.
1973: Jackson Pollock’s painting “Blue Poles” sold for $2,000,000.
1978: Leaders of Syria, Algeria, South Yemen, Libya and Palestine Liberation Organisation announced in Damascus they were severing relations with Egypt because of that nation’s accord with Israel.
1985: Mexico counted at least 2,000 dead from earthquake that devastated four states.
1988: British rower Sean Crowley, 25, became the youngest person to row the Atlantic solo.
1991: Boxing safety row erupted after Michael Watson was critically injured in middleweight title fight with champion Chris Eubank.
1994: Scientists announced that 4.4-million-year-old human remains found in Ethiopia represented the missing link between apes and early man.
1999: Chi-chi earthquake occurred in central Taiwan, leaving about 2,400 people dead.