Now & Then
3 FEBRUARY
1660: General George Monck led his army into London.
1730: The first stock exchange quotations were published in the Daily Advertiser, London.
1807: British forces under
Sir Samuel Auchmuty took Montevideo.
1830: Greece was declared independent under protection of France, Russia and Britain at London conference.
1848: Britain’s Sir Harry Smith annexed the country between Orange and Vaal Rivers in South Africa.
1877: Chopsticks, the novelty piano piece, was registered at the British Museum. Arranged as a duet and solo for piano by Arthur de Lull (a pseudonym for “Euphemia Allen”, the music publisher’s sister who wrote it when she was 16).
1916: Parliamentary buildings in Ottawa were destroyed by fire.
1917: United States and Germany broke off diplomatic relations.
1919: The first meeting of the League of Nations was held in Paris, with American president Woodrow Wilson as chairman.
1935: The jingle “We are the Ovaltineys, little girls and boys” was first sung on radio. Listeners were invited to join the Ovaltiney Club (with badge and rule book) and a coded message was given out each week. Harry Hemsley and his imaginary family formed the nucleus of the series.
1945: United States forces recaptured Manila in the Philippines from the Japanese.
1945: Berlin was bombed by more than 1,000 Allied aircraft in a daylight raid.
1960: Harold Macmillan, speaking to the South African parliament in Cape Town, made the historic statement: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”
1962: The liner France, then the longest passenger ship ever built, made her maiden voyage from Le Havre to New York City.
1966: The first “soft” landing on the Moon was made by unmanned Soviet Luna IX, which began sending signals back to Earth.
1973: Fighting in Vietnam came to virtual halt after formal ceasefire went into effect.
1982: Kodak marketed the first disc film and camera.
1991: A government report on climate changes announced that Britain could face all-year hosepipe bans in the 21st century with drought being a permanent fact of life.
1991: Allied aircraft claimed complete air and sea supremacy over Iraq in Gulf war.
1993: The government made a U-turn on defence cuts, reprieving four historic regiments.
1993: The Netherlands parliament backed plans to allow euthanasia under controlled conditions.
1994: The Crown Office decided not to prosecute alleged war criminals living in Scotland.
1998: Twenty skiers died in the Italian Dolomites when a Nato jet cut through the wires of their cable-car.
2007: A Baghdad market bombing killed more than 130 people and injured a further 339.
2009: A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic.
BIRTHDAYS
Kirsty Wark, Scottish broadcaster, 69; Dave Davies, British rock singer (The Kinks), 77; Morgan Fairchild, US actress (Falcon Crest, Friends), 74; Isla Fisher, Scottish-australian actress, 48; Retief Goosen, South African Major-winning golfer, 55; Bobby Simpson, Australian cricketer, 88; Warwick Davis, actor and TV presenter (Willow, The Rise of Skywalker, Tenable), 54; Lizzie Borden, film director (Red Shoe Diaries), 66; Michael Dickinson, racehorse trainer, 74.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1809 Felix Mendelssohn, German composer; 1907 James A Michener, novelist; 1927 Val Doonican, Irish entertainer; 1928 Frankie Vaughan, singer; 1930 Gillian Ayres CBE, British artist; 1937 Alex Young, Scottish footballer.
Deaths: 1924 Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president; 1959 Buddy Holly, rock singer; 1969 Boris Karloff, British actor; 2010 John Mccallum CBE, actor and producer; 2011 Maria Schneider, French film actress; 2012 Ben Gazzara, US actor; 2014 Louise Brough, tennis champion