Now & Then
17 FEBRUARY
1540: Scotland’s gypsies were given recognition by King James V. 1863: The International Red Cross was founded in Geneva by Swiss philanthropist Jean Henri Dunant. Its original title was The Committee for Aid to Wounded Soldiers. 1867: The first ship passed through the Suez Canal.
1868: Scottish Reform Bill introduced.
1882: The British League of Mothers was founded.
1904: Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly was first produced in Milan.
1916: British and French forces captured Germany’s African colony of Cameroon.
1923: The inner chamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun was opened at Luxor in the presence of officials of the Egyptian government and archaeologists led by Lord Carnarvon.
1936: British-irish trade pact ended tariff war.
1944: White Paper was issued outlining National Health Service for Britain.
1959: Queen Elizabeth gave Marlborough House to the nation for use as a Commonwealth Centre. 1962: James Hanratty was sentenced to death for killing Michael Gregsten in a lay-by on the A6. He protested his innocence to the end, but DNA tests proved his guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” in 2002, said the Court of Appeal. 1965: US spacecraft Ranger 8 launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and made crash-landing on Moon three days later after sending back over 7,000 pictures. 1972: House of Commons voted by a majority of eight in favour of Britain joining the European Common Market.
1972: Volkswagen cars broke the record held by the Model T Ford by selling the 15,007,034th production model of the Beetle.
1989: Frozen carcasses of apes, antelopes, monkeys, squirrels and aardvarks were seized by Dutch customs from a cargo vessel en route from Africa to supply restaurants in Belgium and Germany.
1989: Scientists stated that levels of ozone-depleting gases over the Arctic were 50 times higher than had been predicted by computer. 1990: East Germany announced it would take down a 600ft section of the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate, which would be the first section with no official controls.
1992: Four IRA men were killed in a security forces ambush in Northern Ireland.
1995: The Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ended on a ceasefire brokered by the UN. 1996: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, world champion Garry Kasparov beat the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match. 1996: Nasa’s Discovery Programme began as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifted off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros. 1998: Armenian troops killed 70–90 Azerbaijani civilians in the village of Qaradagli during the Nagorno-karabakh war.
2003: The London Congestion Charge scheme began.
2006: A massive mudslide occurred in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll was set at 1,126.
2008: Kosovo declared independence.
BIRTHDAYS
Rebecca Adlington OBE, Olympic swimmer, 35; Michael Bay, director, 59; Brenda Fricker, Irish actress, 79; Prunella Gee, British actress, 74; Michael Jordan, US basketball player, 61; Julia Mckenzie CBE, British actress, 83; Norman Pace, British comic, 71; Lou Diamond Phillips, US actor, 62; Denise Richards, US actress, 53; Dame Patricia Routledge, actress, 95; Renee Russo, US actress, 70; Ed Sheeran MBE, singer-songwriter, 33; Lucy Davis, actress, 51