NOW & THEN
NOVEMBER 3
1493: Christopher Columbus, on his second expedition, sighted the island of Dominica in the West Indies.
1529: The English Reformation parliament sat for the first time in London
1534: The Act of Supremacy was passed, making the king head of the English Church.
1838: The Times of India published its first edition as the Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.
1839: The first Battle of Chuenpee was fought during the first Opium War, when two British frigates engaged Chinese war junks in the Pearl river Delta.
1843: The legs of Nelson were hoisted to the top of the column in Trafalgar Square, London. The 17ft statue had been carved in the square by EK Baily. The top half joined the legs on 4 November.
1918: Poland proclaimed independence from Russia following the First World War.
1928: Turkey switched from using Arabic to the Roman alphabet.
1942: Montgomery’s Eighth Army broke through Rommel’s front line in Africa. Within a day the Germans were in full retreat.
1948: President Harry S Truman won the United States election.
1957: USSR launched Sputnik 2, with a dog named Laika on board. It was a stray dog from the streets of Moscow and became the first animal to orbit the earth. But her oxygen ran out after ten days and she died in space.
1968: Graham Hill became world motor racing champion when he won the Mexico Grand Prix.
1988: Koo Stark was awarded £300,000 libel damages over allegations in the Sunday People that she had an adulterous affair with Prince Andrew after her marriage.
1989: Peter Brooke, Northern Ireland secretary, indicated that the government might enter negotiations with Sinn Fein if the IRA had a ceasefire.
1990: A World Climate Conference of 700 scientists issued warning of global warming catastrophe.
1991: In New York, Liz Mccolgan won her first marathon in record time.
1992: Bill Clinton was elected 42nd president of the United States.
1994: The government, under pressure from Conservative
backbenchers, ditched plans to privatise the Post Office.
1998: Shakespeare in Love, starring Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow, premiered in New York. It would win the Oscar for Best Picture in 1999.
2008: Donald Trump, the American tycoon, said he was “greatly honoured” after his £1 billion golf resort plan in Aberdeenshire was approved.
2011: Three Pakistan cricketers, including former captain Salman Butt, were jailed over the conspiracy to bowl deliberate no-balls in a Test match in 2010 against England.
2014: United Nations secretarygeneral Ban Ki-moon called for global action on climate change after warnings from scientists.
2014: New York’s 104-storey World Trade Centre opened, 13 years after the 11 September atrocity.