Now & Then
◆ 22 JANUARY
1528: England and France declared war on Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
1720: Shares in South Sea Company, which had a monopoly of trade with South America, rose rapidly, speculation followed, and when the “South Sea bubble” burst, thousands of people were ruined. 1760: French were defeated by the British under Eyre Coote at Wandiwash, India.
1771: Spain agreed to cede Falkland Islands to Britain.
1879: About 4,000 Zulu warriors assaulted British troops in Battle of Rorke’s Drift (South Africa), in which 139 soldiers repelled attacks for almost 12 hours.
1905: “Bloody Sunday” in St Petersburg, Russia, when workers in revolt were massacred by Cossacks and Imperial Army troops.
1907: Music hall artists in London went on strike for more money. Halls were shut until the dispute was settled on 17 February.
1924: Ramsay Macdonald became Britain’s first Labour prime minister.
1927: Football League game between Arsenal and Sheffield United was the first match to be broadcast.
1941: Libyan harbour of Tobruk captured by Allied forces.
1944: The Allied army landings began at Anzio, Italy.
1947: Fresh meat ration was reduced from 1s 2d to 1s (5p) worth weekly.
1947: Fifty-five days of lying snow began in Britain.
1952: The Goon Show, with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, Spike Milligan and Michael Bentine, started on BBC radio – it ran until 1959.
1957: Israeli forces completed withdrawal from Sinai Peninsula, but remained in Gaza Strip.
1972: UK, Ireland and Denmark joined the European Community. 1986: Three Sikhs were convicted of 1984 assassination of India’s prime minister Indira Gandhi and were sentenced to death.
1990: The Metropolitan Police abolished height restriction to attract recruits from ethnic minorities.
1991: President Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew 50 and 100 rouble notes, wiping out the savings of Soviet citizens overnight. 1993: The government unveiled its plans for the privatisation of British Rail.
1996: Harriet Harman, Labour’s health spokesman, came under fire from all parties over her decision to send her son to a selective grammar school.
1997: Bahamas-based billionaire Joseph Lewis bought a 25 per cent, £40 million stake in Glasgow Rangers.
1999: Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2006: Evo Morales was inaugurated as president of Bolivia, becoming the country’s first indigenous president.
2007: More than 85 people were killed when two car bombs exploded in the Bab Al-sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq. 2009: In his first week as United States president, Barack Obama ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as well as all overseas CIA detention centres for terror suspects.
◆ BIRTHDAYS
Nigel Benn, British boxer, 60; Linda Blair, actress, 65; Stan Collymore, English footballer and commentator, 53; Olivia d’abo, actress, 54; Diane Lane, actress, 59; Jonathan Woodgate, footballer, 44; Francis Wheen, British author and journalist, 67; Steven Adler, drummer (Guns ‘N’ Roses), 59; Alize Cornet, tennis player, 34; Graham Kerr, celebrity chef (the “Galloping Gourmet”), 90; Ella Edmondson, singer-songwriter, 38; Fabricio Coloccini, footballer, 42.
◆ ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1554 Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer; 1788 Lord Byron, romantic poet; 1875 DW Griffith, US film director; 1920 Sir Alf Ramsay, footballer and manager; 1931 Sam Cooke, US singer; 1934 Bill Bixby, actor; 1940 Sir John Hurt CBE, British actor; 1940 Nyree Dawn Porter, actress; 1946 Malcolm Mclaren, musician; 1960 Michael Hutchence, rock singer (INXS).
Deaths: 1942 Walter Sickert, artist; 1973 Lyndon Johnson, 36th US president; 1994 Telly Savalas, actor; 2002 Peggy Lee, actress; 2008 Heath Ledger, actor; 2010 Jean Simmons OBE, actress