NOW & THEN
28 APRIL
1398: Dukedom of Rothesay conferred on David Stuart, eldest son of King Robert III of Scotland.
1558: Walter Mylne burned at the stake at St Andrews for heresy, the last Protestant martyr in Scotland.
1603: The funeral of Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey.
1770: Captain Cook in the Endeavour reached Australia, at a point in New South Wales they named Sting Ray Bay. Found to be a botanist’s paradise, it was later renamed Botany Bay.
1789: The mutiny on the Bounty took place in the South Seas, led by Fletcher Christian.
1876: Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India.
1919: Two crew members were lost from Fraserburgh lifeboat at harbour entrance.
1919: League of Nations was founded.
1923: The first FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium was staged, Bolton Wanderers defeating West Ham 2-0.
1945: Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, and his mistress Claretta Petacci were executed by partisans and their bodies were hung, head down, in the Piazza Loretto, Milan.
1952: Japan regained sovereignty after the Second World War.
1955: Ruth Ellis was sent for trial accused of the murder of her lover. She later became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
1967: World Boxing authorities took away Muhammad Ali’s title for refusing to serve in United States forces.
1969: Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of France.
1985: Dennis Taylor won the Embassy snooker championship after a spectacular final frame with Steve Davis.
1991: G-7 members meeting in Washington refused to lower global interest rates in spite of pleas from George Bush amidst American recession.
1992: Rebel leaders arrived in Kabul in a huge motor convoy to set up a provisional Islamic government, marking the end of the 14-year civil war against communism in Afghanistan.
1993: A major health inquiry was launched in Scotland after an unknown number of women were wrongly given the “allclear” on smear tests for cervical cancer.
1994: Britain accused Iran of planning to supply weapons and
money to the IRA.
1995: Less than a year after it opened, Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre faced a cash crisis over debts of £3.1 million.
1996: A deranged gunman shot dead 32 people when he went on the rampage in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
2001: Millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist.
2010: Prime minister Gordon Brown was forced to apologise after being caught on tape describing a 65-year-old grandmother as a “bigot” during the general election campaign.
2014: Ann Maguire, a 61-yearold schoolteacher, was stabbed to death by one of her pupils in front of her class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds. It was the first time in the UK that a teacher had been killed in a classroom.
BIRTHDAYS
Jessica Alba, American actress, 40; Ann-margret, Swedishamerican actress, 80; Mike Brearley OBE, cricketer and psychoanalyst, 79; Penélope Cruz, film actress, 47; John Daly, American golfer, 55; Grenville Davey, British sculptor, 60; Kim Gordon, American rock guitarist (Sonic Youth), 68; Doctor Kenneth Kaunda, president of Zambia 1964-91, 97; Lauren Laverne, British disc jockey and television presenter, 43; Professor Nicola Lefanu, British composer, 74; Jay Leno, American TV host, 71; Mary Mcdonnell, American actress, 69; Sir Bradley Wiggins CBE, cyclist, 41.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1442 King Edward IV; 1878 Lionel Barrymore, actor; 1916 Harper Lee, novelist (notably To Kill a Mockingbird); 1937 Jean Redpath MBE, Edinburghborn folk singer; 1948 Sir Terence Pratchett OBE, British fantasy author.
Deaths: 1842 Sir Charles Bell, anatomist; 1865 Sir Samuel Cunard, ship-owner; 1935 Sir Alexander Mackenzie, composer; 1945 Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator (executed by partisans); 1992 Francis Bacon, artist; 1999 Sir Alf Ramsay, footballer and manager.