NOW & THEN
29 MARCH
1461: England’s bloodiest battle raged for ten hours around the village of Towton in Yorkshire – it was fought in a blinding snowstorm, and 28,000 soldiers were said to have died. Henry VI was deposed, and Edward became Edward IV.
1783: The Royal Society of Edinburgh incorporated by charter.
1801: Britain seized Danish and Swedish islands in the West Indies.
1849: Britain annexed Punjab in India by treaty with Maharajah of Lahore.
1864: Ionian Islands were ceded by Britain to Greece.
1867: Independence of Canada began when parliament created the Dominion of Canada.
1871: The Royal Albert Hall, London, built in memory of Prince Albert, was opened by Queen Victoria. One of the prince’s own compositions was played at the opening.
1886: The first batch of Cocacola was brewed over a wood fire by graduate chemist John S Pemberton. Launched as an “Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage” it was recommended for headaches, hangovers and as a general pickme-up.
1928: The House of Commons overwhelmingly passed the Equal Franchise Bill, giving the vote to all women aged 21 or over.
1939: The Spanish Civil War was declared to have ended. Franco was named Caudillo, or leader of the nation.
1940: Metal strips were introduced into Bank of England £1 notes as an anti-forgery device.
1946: New constitution in Gold Coast, which became the first British African colony with majority of Africans in legislature.
1951: First performance of The King And I at St James’s Theatre, Broadway, with Yul Brynner as the King and Gertrude Lawrence as Anna.
1973: Last American troops left South Vietnam, ending the direct military role of the United States in the Vietnam war.
1981: The first London Marathon was run. It was won by American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen.
1986: World’s first test-tube quins were born in London.
1989: Two Czechoslovak teenagers hijacked a Hungarian airliner from Prague to Frankfurt in an attempt to reach the United States.
1990: Prime minister Bob Hawke claimed victory in Australian election, becoming the first Labour winner of four consecutive terms.
1990: Viscount Linley waived £30,000 of £35,000 libel damages against Today newspaper.
1993: The president of Hoover Europe was dismissed after a free-travel sales promotion, heavily oversubscribed, ended in chaos.
2004: The Republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined Nato as full members.
2008: Thirty-five countries and more than 370 cities joined the environmental Earth Hour event for the first time.
Holby City, BBC1, 7.50pm
This year is going to mark the end of a TV era in more ways than one. Not only has Channel 5 announced it’s pulling the plug on Neighbours, but tonight is the last-ever episode of Holby City. The Casualty spinoff has been a staple of the BBC schedules since 1999 and is also still popular with viewers, which made the announcement that it was being axed to make way for more dramas from across the UK all the more shocking. However, the BBC has promised that it will go out on a high, as the consequences of Jac’s surgery are felt around Darwin and beyond. Meanwhile, Dom feels as if Josh and Ange have shut him out of their family crises, and Donna and Hanssen are there to support Lexy after she receives bad news.
Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story, BBC2, 9pm
For many people, Mary Whitehouse, the Midlands teacher and housewife who ran a 30-year campaign to clean up TV, has long been viewed as either a figure of fun or a prude who appointed herself as the nation’s moral watchdog. It’s certainly true that many of her opinions, especially regarding homosexuality, are now massively out of step with prevailing attitudes. However, this two-part documentary sets out to take a more nuanced look at her legacy, asking whether we are still grappling with some of issues she raised about pornography and the impact of the sexual revolution. The programme revisits her campaigns and hears from some of the people who took her on.