NOW & THEN
BOXING DAY
1659: The Long Parliament was reformed at Westminster. 1860: The world’s oldest football fixture took place between Hallam FC and Sheffield at Sandygate Ground, Sheffield. The result was a 2- 0 victory for Sheffield.
1870: The 12.8km Fréjus Rail Tunnel through the Alps was completed.
1871: WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan worked together for the first time on their lost opera, Thespis. They did not collaborate again for a further four years.
1874: Boxing Day first officially recognised as a Bank Holiday. 1908: Jack Johnson became first black boxer to win world heavyweight title, defeating Tommy Burns on a technical knockout in round 14 in Sydney. 1912: SS Tripolitania driven by storms on to sandbank at Porthleven, Cornwall, where she broke up.
1924: Judy Garland, aged two and a half, and billed as “Baby Frances ( her real name was Frances Gumm), gave her first public performance, singing Jingle Bells.
1928: Johnny Weissmuller announced his retirement from amateur swimming.
1932: An earthquake in Kensu, China, killed more than 70,000 people.
1932: BBC transmitted the first television pantomime, Dick Whittington.
1941: Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the US Congress, warning that the Axis powers would “stop at nothing.”
1943: The last major German battleship, the Scharnhorst, was sunk by the Royal Navy off North Cape.
1956: Fidel Castro landed in Cuba, starting revolution against Batista regime.
1962: Eighteen died in a train crash near Crewe.
1962: Heavy snowfalls in southeast England heralded start of freezing conditions that persisted until mid- March.
1969: Labour prime minister Harold Wilson was voted “Man of the Decade”. Close second was Enoch Powell.
1971: Sixteen US veterans of Vietnam War seized Statue of Liberty in New York harbour to dramatise their anti- war stand. 1990: Garry Kasparov retained the world chess championship in 24- match final against Anatoly Karpov in Lyons.
1990: King Michael returned to Romania after 43 years in exile. He was deported again within 12 hours of his arrival.
1995: Blizzards and Arctic temperatures caused havoc across Britain and a state of emergency was declared on Shetland, where more than 2,000 homes were without electricity for the fourth successive day.
2004: Huge tidal waves swept thousands of people, including many British holidaymakers, to their deaths as tsunamis up to 30ft high swept the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and East Africa after the most powerful earthquake for 40 years devastated the region.
2009: Kauto Star created history by becoming the first horse to claim four consecutive victories in the King George VI Chase.