NOW & THEN
24 MAY
1809: Dartmoor Prison was opened to house French prisoners of war – from 1850 it was used for convicts.
1830: The first passenger railroad was opened in America – the Baltimore and Ohio.
1844: The first telegraphic message in Morse code, “What hath God wrought”, was sent from Washington to Baltimore by its inventor, Samuel Morse.
1862: Westminster Bridge, London, was opened.
1883: New York’s Brooklyn Bridge was opened.
1895: The first stage knighthood was conferred on Sir Henry Irving.
1900: Britain annexed Orange Free State in Africa.
1902: Empire Day was first celebrated in Britain.
1916: Conscription began in Britain.
1941: Battle cruiser HMS Hood was sunk by the Bismarck 13 miles off the coast of Greenland. Only three of her 1,421 crew survived.
1956: The first Eurovision Song Contest was won by host country Switzerland.
1959: Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day.
1962: London conference of Barbados, Windward and Leeward Islands ended with proposals of “Little Eight” to form new West Indies federation.
1964: 301 spectators died at football stadium in Lima in panic after police used tear gas to stop a riot which broke out when referee disallowed a goal by Peru against Argentina.
1969: The Black And White Minstrel Show, at London’s Victoria Palace, closed after 4,354 performances in seven years.
1972: Spaghetti Junction, the most complex interchange on the British road system, was opened at Gravelly Hill, Birmingham.
1972: Rangers won the European Cup-winners’ Cup by beating Moscow Dynamo 3-2 in Barcelona.
1974: Giscard d’estaing became president of France.
1978: Princess Margaret’s 18-year marriage to Lord Snowdon was ended on the grounds of two years’ separation.
1981: Ecuador’s President Jaime Roldos Aguilera was killed in plane crash in Andes Mountains near Peru border.
1990: President Bush unconditionally renewed China’s mostfavoured-nation trade status
with the US for one year.
1990: Flotilla of 76 sailed to Dunkirk to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the British evacuation.
1992: Nigeria was clearing up after ethnic clashes left more than 200 dead.
1993: IRA bomb caused £5 million damage to the centre of Magherafelt, Co Londonderry.
1994: Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Centre in New York in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years.
2000: Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.
2001: Fifteen-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri became the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.
2004: North Korea banned mobile phones. The ban lasted until 2008
BIRTHDAYS
Jim Broadbent, British actor, 72; Eric Cantona, French footballer, 55; Liz Mccolgan-nuttall MBE, Scottish athlete, 57; Rosanne Cash, US country singer, 66; Bob Dylan, singer-songwriter, 80; Patti Labelle,us singer, 77; Paul Mccreesh, UK conductor, 61; Alfred Molina, British actor,
68; Adrian Moorhouse MBE, swimmer and journalist, 57; Dave Peacock, British musician (Chas and Dave), 76; Dame Kristin Scott Thomas DBE, UK actress, 61; Dermot O’leary, UK broadcaster, 48; Gary Burghoff, US actor, 78; Sean Kelly, Irish cyclist, 65; Jo Joyner, British actress, 44; Pat Bonner, footballer, 61.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1819 Queen Victoria (reigned 1837-1901); 1836 Joseph Rowntree, cocoa manufacturer and philanthropist; 1912 Dame Joan Hammond, operatic soprano; 1928 William Trevor KBE, Irish novelist; 1932 Sir Arnold Wesker, British playwright.
Deaths: 1974 Duke Ellington, jazz musician and bandleader; 1987 Hermione Gingold, actress; 1994 Forsyth Hardy, co-founder of Edinburgh Film Festival; 2000 David Tomlinson, actor; 2010 Ray Alan, British ventriloquist; 2016 Burt Kwouk, actor.