NOW & THEN
9 OCTOBER
1779: The first Luddite riots broke out in a lace factory in Loughborough when workers protested against labour-saving machinery.
1804: Hobart in Tasmania was formed.
1870: The city of Rome was incorporated into Italy.
1874: The Universal Postal Union established, with headquarters in Berne, Switzerland. 1888: The 555ft white marble Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, was opened in Washington, DC. 1905: Sarah Bernhardt, playing Floria in Tosca, jumped from a parapet but stage hands had forgotten to put down mattresses and she fell heavily on her right knee. She eventually lost her leg. 1921: The Laird Line Glasgowdublin ferry Rowan sank, with the loss of 34 passengers and crew after collisions with two ships off Wigtownshire. After the first collision, in dense fog, with the inward-bound American steamship West Chamak, the ferry’s captain sent out an SOS which was answered in ten minutes by the Clan Malcolm. The Clan Line ship, however, struck the Rowan amidships “with great violence” and she sank within a minute.
1962: Uganda became independent after nearly 70 years of British rule, with Milton Obote as its first prime minister.
1967: Ernesto “Che” Guevara, guerrilla leader and revolutionary, was executed in Bolivia. 1968: Harold Wilson and Ian Smith met on HMS Fearless, off Gibraltar, for unsuccessful talks about Rhodesia’s independence. 1970: Following the overthrow
of the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Khmer Republic was proclaimed.
1975: Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov won the Nobel Peace Prize.
1981: Capital punishment was abolished in France.
1986: The Phantom of the Opera, starring Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford, premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London.
1988: The BBC announced a new radio network to be known as Radio 5, which would carry live sport and educational programmes.
1989: Penthouse magazine’s first Hebrew edition was published.
1991: The first sumo wrestling tournament in the sport’s 1,500
year history ever to take place outside Japan began at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
1992: The IRA continued its mainland bombing campaign when two more devices exploded in central London. Nobody was hurt.
1994: A London protest march against the Criminal Justice Bill erupted into a riot as demonstrators clashed with police and then looted shops in Oxford Street. 1999: The last flight of the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird”.
2004: The Queen opened the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, in Edinburgh. It was completed three years late and cost ten times the estimated price.
2011: German racing driver Sebastian Vettel won the Formula 1 title and became the youngest man to secure two World Drivers’ Championships.
BIRTHDAYS
David Cameron, former prime minister 1010-2016, 55; Jackson Browne, singer and songwriter, 73; Sally Burgess, classical singer, 68; PJ (Polly Jean) Harvey MBE, singer and guitarist, 52; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, 86; Sean Lennon, singer, 46; Steve Ovett OBE, athlete, 66; John Pilger, journalist, 82; Guillermo del Toro Gomez, filmmaker, 57; Sharon Osbourne, TV host, 69; Scott Bakula, actor, 67; Jodelle Micah Ferland, actress, 27; Brandon Routh, actor, 42; Nicky Byrne, singer-songwriter (Westlife), 43;Sir Steve R Mcqueen CBE, film director, 52; Mark Viduka, footballer, 46
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1900 Alastair Sim, Edinburgh-born actor; 1907 Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Chancellor 1970-74 and 197987; 1908 Jacques Tati, actor and film director; 1923 Sir Donald Sinden CBE, actor; 1931 Tony Booth, actor; 1933 Bill Tidy MBE, cartoonist; 1940 John Lennon, Beatle; 1944 John Entwistle, musician (The Who).
Deaths: 1974 Oskar Schindler, German industrialist who saved 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust; 1990 Richard Murdoch, actor; 1995 Lord Alec Douglas Home, prime minister, 1963-64