NOW & THEN
MAY5
1641: England’s Star Chamber was abolished by the Long Parliament.
1824: British troops took over Rangoon, Burma.
1881: Louis Pasteur carried out successful inoculations against anthrax on an ox, cows and sheep.
1912: First issue of Communist Party newspaper Pravda was published.
1930: Amy Johnson left Croydon in the Gypsy Moth Jason to become the first female to fly solo to Australia, arriving on 24 May.
1941: Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia from exile in Britain after the liberation of his country by British forces.
1949: The Council of Europe was set up in London.
1961: Alan Shepard became the first American spaceman, in a Mercury capsule Freedom VII.
1975: The Scottish Daily News, the first workers’ co-operative national newspaper, was published. It closed after seven months.
1978: Red Brigades in Italy announced they were carrying out a death sentence against former premier Aldo Moro, whose body was found two days later.
1980: SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy in Knightsbridge, London, killing four of the five gunmen who took over the building, and rescuing 19 hostages.
1981: Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker, died in jail. He had been elected MP in Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election on 11 April.
1988: The first live television broadcast from the summit of Mount Everest was transmitted by Japanese television.
1988: French assault team stormed a cave in French Pacific territory of Nouméa, New Caledonia, and freed 22 gendarmes and prosecutors held hostage by Melanesian separatists.
1989: The first two-man flight in a microlight aircraft was made by Steve Mangan and Graham Jones of Hampshire, when they went from Cherbourg to Southampton for charity.
1990: So-called “Two-plusfour” talks on German unification, involving Britain, France, Soviet Union, United States and the two Germanies, opened in Bonn.
1992: Twelve football supporters died and 527 were injured when a temporary stand col
lapsed at Bastia, Corsica.
1995: The Queen paid tribute to the Second World War dead at the start of three days of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day.
2005: Tony Blair secured an historic third term in government for Labour, with a majority down from 161 to 66.
2010: Three people were killed in Athens in riots over austerity measures .
2011: Voting took place in the Scottish election. A day later, the Scottish National Party emerged triumphant as it formed Scotland’s first ever majority government by taking 69 seats in the 129-seat parliament.
2016: For the first time, 16and 17-year-olds were able to vote at the Scottish Parliamentary election. The SNP were returned with a reduced majority, having won 63 of 129 seats.
BIRTHDAYS
Chris Brown, US singer and actor, 32; Jessie Cave, British actress, 34; James Cracknell OBE, British rower, 49; Craig David, singersongwriter, 40; Richard E Grant, actor, 64; Lance Henriksen, American actor, 81; Brooke Hogan, pop singer and US TV personality, 33; Ian Mcculloch, rock guitarist and singer (Echo & the Bunnymen), 62; Lord (John) Maxton, MP 1979-2001, 85; Sir Michael Palin CBE, British actor and author, 78; John Rhysdavies, British actor, 77; Dilys Watling, British actress, 78; Yossi Benayoun, Israeli-born footballer, 41; Menna Fitzpatrick MBE, British Paralympic alpine skier, 23.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1904 Sir Gordon Richards, champion jockey 26 times; 1913 Tyrone Power, film actor; 1924 Joy Beverley, singer (Beverley Sisters); 1942 Tammy Wynette, US singer-songwriter; 1944 Roger Rees, British actor. Deaths: 1672 Samuel Cooper, miniaturist painter; 1821 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France; 1936 Beatrice Harraden, novelist; 1945 René Lalique, glassmaker;1998 Syd Lawrence, bandleader; 1998 Wolf Mankowitz, English playwright; 2016 Joe Temperley, Lochgelly-born jazz saxophonist.