NOW & THEN
22 MAY
1455: In the War of the Roses, the Lancastrians defeated the Yorkists at the Battle of St Albans.
1897: London’s Blackwall Tunnel under the Thames was officially opened by the Prince of Wales. 1906: Wilbur Wright patented his aeroplane.
1915: 227 died in a train disaster at Quintinshill, near Gretna Green, Dumfriesshire. A troop train, carrying the Seventh Royal Scots from Leith to Liverpool, hit a stationary local train and the night express from Euston then ploughed into the wreckage. Two signalmen were jailed. 1921: Paavo Nurmi, athletics legend, broke the world 10,000 metre record by 18 seconds. 1923: Stanley Baldwin began the first of his three terms as Conservative prime minister. 1939: Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini signed “Pact of Steel,” a ten-year political and military alliance. 1970: The English cricket tour of South Africa was cancelled as a protest at apartheid policy. 1972: Ceylon became the Republic of Sri Lanka within the Commonwealth.
1975: White-ruled African nation of Rhodesia was expelled from Olympic competition because of its racial policies. 1979: After 11 years as prime minister, Pierre Trudeau lost Canadian general election to Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservative Party.
1981: Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe jailed for life for attacks on women, including 13 murders and seven assaults.
1989: India test-fired successfully its first medium-range surface-to-surface missile to cross threshold of ballistic missile capability.
1991: UK restored diplomatic ties with Albania after 40 years. 1991: Importation to Britain of American pit bull terriers and Japanese tosas was banned in clampdown on aggressive dogs. 1995: An SFA tribunal ordered Celtic owner Fergus Mccann to pay Kilmarnock £200,000 for taking Tommy Burns and Billy Stark from Rugby Park to be his club’s management team. 1998: A federal judge ruled that United States Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Monica Lewinsky scandal, involving President Bill Clinton.
2003: Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play
the PGA Tour in 58 years. 2004:The US town of Hallam, Nebraska, was wiped out by a powerful tornado that broke a width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide. One resident was killed.
2008: A nine-day outbreak of more than 200 tornadoes struck 19 US states and one Canadian province.
2014: Thailand’s army seized power in a bloodless military coup in the country, dissolving the government and suspending the constitution. A nationwide curfew from 10pm to 5am was imposed.
2017: Twenty-two people were killed at the hands of a suicide bomber during a terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena as they were leaving at the end of a concert by American singer Ariane Grande. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the atrocity.
BIRTHDAYS
Richard Benjamin, American actor and director, 83; Cheryl Campbell, British actress, 72; Walter Menzies Campbell, Baron Campbell of Pittenweem CBE, QC, MP, leader, Liberal Democratic Party 2006-7, and former athlete, 80; Naomi Campbell, model, 51; Ann Cusack, American actress, 60; Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis champion, 34; Alison Eastwood, actress and designer, 49; Anthony Holden, British journalist and broadcaster, 74; Morrissey, rock singer, 62; Katie Price (Jordan), model and television star, 43; Bernie Taupin, British songwriter, 71
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1813 Richard Wagner, German opera composer; 1859 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edinburgh-born creator of Sherlock Holmes; 1907 Lord Olivier, actor; 1924 Charles Aznavour, singer; 1930 Kenny Ball, British jazz trumpeter; 1955 Dale Winton, broadcaster.
Deaths: 1885 Victor Hugo, novelist;1972 Cecil Day Lewis, Poet Laureate 1967-1972; 1972 Dame Margaret Rutherford, actress; 1990 Max Wall, comedian; 1993 Denis Peploe, artist; 1998 John Derek, film producer; 2013 Mick Mcmanus, British wrestler