NOW & THEN
APRIL 9
1747: Britain’s last execution by beheading took place on Tower Hill, London. Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, was executed for his part in the Jacobite rising. The Scots Magazine reported that as he mounted the steps to the scaffold, assisted by two warders, he looked round and, seeing so many people, declared: “God save us, why should there be such a bustle about taking off an old grey head that can’t get up three steps without two men to support it?”
1770: James Cook arrived at what would come to be known as Botany Bay.
1838: The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, was opened.
1865: Confederate Robert E Lee surrendered to General Grant in Virginia, effectively bringing the American Civil War to an end.
1869: The Hudson Bay Company ceded its territorial rights to Canada.
1917: Battles of Arras and Vimy Ridge began in First World War.
1918: Latvia proclaimed its independence from Russia.
1940: Germany invaded Norway and Denmark.
1949: United Nations International Court of Justice delivered its first decision, holding Albania responsible for incidents in Corfu Channel and awarding Britain damages.
1969: The British supersonic airliner, Concorde, made its maiden flight from Bristol to Fairford in Gloucestershire.
1970: Legal moves to dissolve Beatles’ business partnership were begun by Paul Mccartney.
1978: Loyal troops in Somalia crushed attempted coup by army officers.
1983: Jenny Pitman became the first woman to train a Grand National winner with Corbiere.
1986: West Berlin expelled two Libyan diplomats and said it had “several indications” Libya was behind bombing of Berlin discotheque.
1989: Sixteen people were reported killed as Soviet troops rushed crowd of protesters in a central square of Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
1990: Ford motor company cancelled a planned £225 million Welsh investment.
1990: Four members of Ulster Defence Regiment were killed by an IRA land mine at Downpatrick.
1991: Georgia voted to secede from Soviet Union.
1992: The Conservatives won a fourth successive term in office when they triumphed at the general election – but with a greatly reduced majority of 21.
2003: Baghdad fell to American forces; Saddam Hussein statue toppled as Iraqis turn on symbols of their former leader, pulling down the statue and tearing it to pieces.
2005: The Prince of Wales married Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles in Windsor.
2014: Scientists produced the UK’S first cloned dog, using DNA from a dachshund, after its owner, a London chef, won a competition to have her elderly pet replicated.
2015: Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia defeated Englishman Justin Rose in a play-off to win the Masters – his first victory in a major championship at the 74th attempt.
BIRTHDAYS
Jean-paul Belmondo, French actor, 88; Eric Clarke, MP 19922001, 88; Alan Knott MBE, English cricketer, 75; Tom Lehrer, American lecturer and satirical songwriter, 93; Gerard Way, US singer-songwriter and comic book writer, 44; Jerzy Maksymiuk, Polish chief conductor 1983-93, conductor laureate, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, 85; Cynthia Nixon, American actress (Sex and the City), 55; Dennis Quaid, actor, 67; Tony Sibson, British boxer, 63; Valerie Singleton OBE, British broadcaster, 84; Rachel Stevens, pop singer, 43; Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian racing driver, 50.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1898 Paul Robeson, American singer and actor; 1906 Hugh Gaitskell, leader of Labour Party and chancellor who in 1950 introduced National Health Service charges; 1932 Carl Perkins, rock singer and guitarist; 1957 Severiano Ballesteros, Spanish golfer.
Deaths: 1959 Frank Lloyd Wright, architect; 1961 Ex-king Zog of Albania; 1984 Sir Basil Blackwell, bookseller and publisher; 1988 Brook Benton, singer; 1996 Richard Condon, American writer; 2011 Sidney Lumet, American film director.