NOW & THEN
14 SEPTEMBER
1066: The Battle of Hastings was fought at Senlac Hill, near Pevensey, in which King Harold was killed and the English army routed.
1322: Robert the Bruce defeated King Edward II of England at the Battle of Old Byland in Yorkshire, and important victory in the Wars of Scottish Independence.
1586: Mary Queen of Scots went on trial accused of conspiring against Queen Elizabeth I.
1773: The first recorded ministry of education (Komisja Edukacji Naradowej) was formed in Poland.
1788: First steamboat experiment held on Dalswinton Loch, Dumfriesshire, by Patrick Miller and William Symington.
1881: One in three of Eyemouth’s fishermen died in a sudden storm, which destroyed almost half the Berwickshire town’s fishing fleet of 45 boats. The death toll was 189, 129 of them from Eyemouth.
1884: George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak company, patented paper-strip photographic film.
1912: US president Theodore Roosevelt was shot and seriously wounded by a demented man while campaigning in Milwaukee.
1913: An explosion at Senghenydd Colliery, near Caerphilly, killed 439 miners and one rescuer. It remains Britain’s worst coal mining disaster.
1920: Degrees were first open to women at Oxford University, although they had previously been allowed to sit for examinations.
1926: Winnie-the-pooh, the first collection of children’s stories about the teddy-bear character, by AA Milne, was published.
1929: Britain’s largest airship, the 777ft R101, built at Cardington, flew on its first trial.
1933: Germany left the disarmament conference and League of Nations.
1939: The Royal Navy battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk in Scapa Flow with the loss of 810 lives.
1944: British and Greek troops liberated Athens from Germans.
1947: Man broke the sound barrier 42,000ft above California. The experimental rocket plane, a Bell XS-1, was released from the
underside of a Boeing B29 and accelerated to 670mph.
1957: Queen Elizabeth II became the first Canadian monarch to open the parliament of Canada with the Speech from the Throne.
1964: Martin Luther King was announced as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
1964: Nikita Kruschev was replaced by Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
1968: First live telecast from manned US spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7.
1968: The rebuilt Euston Station in London was opened.
1969: The 50p decimal coin was first issued in Britain, replacing the ten-shilling note.
1982: The largest mass wedding ceremony took place in Seoul, South Korea 5,837 couples were married simultaneously.
1996: The House of Commons standards and privileges committee ordered an urgent inquiry into the “cash for questions” allegations involving MPS.
BIRTHDAYS
Steve Coogan, actor, comedian, director and writer, 56; Steve Cram CBE, athlete and commentator, 61; Thomas Dolby, rock musician, 63; Justin Hayward, rock singer and musician (Moody Blues), 75; Ralph Lauren KBE, fashion designer, 82; Sir David Murray, chairman, Murray International Holdings and former chairman of Rangers FC, 70; Roger Taylor MBE, tennis player and coach, 81; Christopher Timothy, actor, 81; Ben Whishaw, actor, 41; Steven Thompson, Scottish footballer and TV analyst, 43; Dan Mccafferty, Dunfermline-born singer (Nazareth), 75.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1633 James II, second son of Charles I; 1873 Jules Rimet, president of Fifa 1921 to 1954; 1881 Éamon de Valera, president of Ireland 1959; 1893 Lillian Gish, actress (“The First Lady of American Cinema”); 1927 Sir Roger Moore KBE, actor and UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Deaths: 1687 Robert Simson, Scottish mathematician; 1959 Errol Flynn, film actor; 1977 Bing Crosby, singer and film actor; 1990 Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor and pianist; 1992 Willie Waddell, Rangers manager.