Now & Then
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16 JANUARY
1412: The Medici family were appointed official bankers to the Papacy.
1547: Ivan the Terrible, first Russian to assume the title of Tsar, was crowned.
1581: Penalties of high treason imposed by law in England on converts to Roman Catholicism. 1707: The Act of Union of the parliaments of England and Scotland was ratified.
1778: France recognised United States independence.
1909: Scottish doctor Alistair Mackay, along with fellow British explorers Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson, were first men to reach the South Magnetic Pole. 1920: Prohibition started in the United States with the banning of manufacture, sale or involvement with alcohol.
1920: The League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris. 1928: Thomas Hardy was buried beside Charles Dickens in Westminster Abbey. His heart was buried in the grave of his first wife, Emma, in the churchyard at Stinsford in his beloved Wessex. 1938: Benny Goodman gave the first jazz concert in Carnegie Hall, New York.
1950: Listen With Mother started on radio, with Ann Driver setting nursery rhymes to music. The catchphrase, “Are you sitting comfortably?” originated in this series.
1957: The Cavern Club, venue of the Beatles' first appearance, opened in Matthew Street, Liverpool.
1962: Shooting began for the first James Bond movie, Dr No.
1964: Thirteen Arab nations, meeting in Cairo, agreed to set up a military command to strengthen the Arab position on problems related to Israel.
1967: Closure announced of Boys’ Own Paper after 88 years of supplying adventure stories and “things for idle hands to do”.
1970: Muammar Gaddafi became ruler of Libya, four months after leading a coup against the monarchy.
1973: United States and North Vietnam declared a ceasefire in the Vietnam War in hopes of a full peace pact.
1974: Jaws, by Peter Benchley, was published by Doubleday.
1980: Paul Mccartney was jailed in Tokyo for possession of marijuana. 1989: The home secretary, Douglas Hurd, ordered the Court of Appeal to re-examine convictions of Guildford Four, for pub bombings in 1974.
1991: United States planes bombed Baghdad as Operation Desert Storm began the liberation of Kuwait at midnight.
1996: Gunmen seized a ferry bound for Russia with 255 people on board in the Turkish port of Trabzon and threatened to blow it up unless Russia let Chechen rebels go free.
2001: Congolese president Laurent-désiré Kabila was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia took off for its final mission. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
2009: Singer Boy George, convicted of falsely imprisoning a male escort in his flat in London, was jailed for 15 months
2011: Marine Le Pen became leader of the National Front Party in Paris.
BIRTHDAYS
Kate Moss, model, 50; Caroline Munro, actress, 75; Sade (Helen Folasade Adu) CBE, singer, 65; Cliff Thorburn, snooker player, 76; Christine Janes (Christine Truman) MBE, tennis player, 74; Lady (Marina) Vaizey CBE, art critic, 86; Mickey Weir, Scottish footballer, 58; John Carpenter, film director, 76; James May OBE, TV presenter, 61; Debbie Allen, actress, 74; Ronnie Milsap, country music singer and pianist, 81; Jim Stafford, comedian, musician, singer-songwriter, 80
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1853 Andre Michelin, tyre manufacturer; 1908 Ethel Merman, singer; 1923 Keith Shackleton MBE, artist; 1930 Spike Robinson, jazz saxophonist; 1932 Diane Fossey, zoologist, primatologist. Deaths: 1794 Edward Gibbon, historian, author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire;1942 Carole Lombard, actress; 1967 Robert Van de Graaff, inventor of the particle accelerator; 1979 Ted Cassidy, actor; 1981 Bernard Lee, actor; 2001 Auberon Waugh, writer; 2009 Sir John Mortimer CBE QC, barrister, playwright and author; 2018 Bradford Dillman, US actor