NOW & THEN
10 JUNE
1692: The first of the 14 Salem witches was hanged. Bridget Bishop was one of the 150 respectable citizens accused of witchcraft by a hysterical band of young girls who, for nearly 20 months, mesmerised the strict, isolated Puritan community in Massachusetts.
1719: The Battle of Glenshiel defeat of Scottish Jacobite and Spanish troops by Hanoverian forces.
1768: Forth and Clyde Canal construction started.
1829: The first Oxford and Cambridge University boat race took place, 2.25 miles from Hambledon Lock to Henley Bridge – and was won easily by Oxford.
1854: Queen Victoria opened Crystal Palace on its new site at Sydenham, south London.
1864: Over-arm bowling was legalised for cricket matches.
1909: SOS signal first used in an emergency as two steamers went to the rescue of the Cunard liner SS Slavonia, wrecked off the Azores.
1917: Sinn Fein riots broke out in Dublin.
1943: Ball-point pens, devised by Hungarian Laszlo Biro, were patented in the United States.
1946: Italy became a republic, replacing King Humbert II.
1967: Israel agreed to United Nations ceasefire with Egypt, with Israel holding conquered territory four times its own size.
1983: Margaret Thatcher won her second term as prime minister.
1988: Britain’s last lightship was towed from its position northwest of Guernsey to Harwich, ending an era of 157 years for such vessels, which have been replaced by technology.
1990: Former United States national security adviser John Poindexter sentenced to six months in prison for his role in the Iran-contra affair.
1990: BA pilot Captain Timothy Lancaster was sucked halfway out of his BAC 1-11 cockpit after the windscreen blew out at 23,000 feet. His legs were held by crew members until the plane landed.
1992: The IRA continued its renewed terror campaign in London with a bomb in Victoria Street, near the House of Commons. No-one was hurt.
1996: Peace talks began in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Fein.
1997: Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot ordered the killing
of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen’s family members.
1999: Nato suspends its air strikes after Slobodan Milosevic agreed to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
2002: The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans was carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
2003: The Spirit Rover was launched, beginning Nasa’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.
2009: At precisely 11:22am Stratford-upon-avon time, chosen to honour the birthplace of William Shakespeare, the phrase “Web 2.0” entered the English language as its official millionth word.
2014: More than 4,000 people took part in a midnight march in Glasgow to “reclaim their streets” after a series of rapes.