NOW & THEN
OCTOBER 23
1295: Treaty between King John Balliol of Scotland and King Philippe le Bel of France, made at Paris for mutual military help against the English – “the Auld Alliance.”
1707: The first Parliament of Great Britain met.
1822: The Caledonian Canal, 60 miles long, was opened.
1861: Prince Albert laid foundation stone of the Industrial Museum in Chambers Street, Edinburgh, later to become the Royal Museum of Scotland.
1897: First Post Office motor van, a Daimler, went into service in London.
1911: Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty.
1922: Andrew Bonar Law became British prime minister. Because of ill-health he was replaced by Stanley Baldwin after seven months.
1942: The Battle of El Alamein in Egypt began with a barrage of a thousand guns aimed on Italian and German troops. Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery’s forces outnumbered them by almost two to one in both men and tanks, and they also gained control in the air. Rommel was forced to ignore Hitler’s victory-or-death command and 20,000 German troops became prisoners of war.
1946: First meeting of United Nations General Assembly took place in New York.
1954: Britain, France, United States and Soviet Union agreed to end occupation of Germany.
1970: World record speed for rocket-engine car set at 631mph by American Gary Gabelich on Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
1972: Access credit cards were launched in Britain.
1983: Suicide terrorists blew up United States Marine headquarters building at Beirut Airport, Lebanon, and nearby French headquarters with bomb-laden trucks, killing 241 United States Marines and 58 Frenchmen.
1986: Britain broke diplomatic relations with Syria after jury convicted Arab man of trying to blow up an Israeli airliner.
1987: Lester Piggott, 11 times champion jockey and later a top trainer, was jailed for three years for tax evasion. He was later stripped of his OBE.
1990: Israel barred Palestinians living in occupied territories from travelling to Israel after series of attacks on Jews and Arabs in that country.
1991: The House of Lords ruled that husbands could legally be
convicted of raping their wives.
1997: A government watchdog bowed to pressure and agreed to re-examine childhood cancer clusters around Dounreay nuclear reactor.
1998: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat reached a “land for peace” agreement.
2001: Apple launched the ipod.
2002: Chechen terrorists seized the House of Culture theatre in Moscow and took 700 theatre-goers hostage.
2004: A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200 and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
2012: BBC Ceefax, the world’s first teletext service, was turned off as the UK’S digital switchover was completed.