Now & Then
23 FEBRUARY
◆ 1310: Declaration of the clergy and people in favour of King Robert Bruce from the Church of the Friars Minor in Dundee.
1573: Pacification of Perth ended fighting in Scotland between Regent and supporters of Mary Queen of Scots.
1820: The Cato Street conspiracy, an attempt to murder British Cabinet ministers, was uncovered in London.
1854: Britain agreed to leave territory north of Orange River in South Africa, allowing the establishment of a constitution for Orange Free State.
1863: Captain JH Speke discovered the source of the Nile. 1874: Lawn tennis was patented by an Englishman, Major Walter Wingfield.
1898: Emile Zola was imprisoned in France for writing J’accuse. 1901: Britain and Germany agreed on a boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland.
1905: The first Rotary Club was formed in Chicago.
1915: The French actress Sarah Bernhardt had her right leg amputated, but she was back on stage by November.
1919: Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party in Italy.
1920: The first regular broadcasting service in Britain started from Marconi’s studio in Chelmsford. The 30-minute programme was transmitted twice daily.
1934: Clark Gable exposed his bare chest in the film It Happened One Night, and millions of men stopped wearing vests.
1950: The first televised general election results. The Labour Party held on with the closest contest for 100 years – and Clement Attlee remained prime minister.
1953: An amnesty offered by the government to Second World War deserters brought in applications from more than 3,000 servicemen and 14 servicewomen.
1970: Republic of Guyana, formerly British Guiana, formally ended association with Britain but remained within the Commonwealth.
1990: Shell UK was fined £1 million for polluting the Mersey estuary in August 1989.
1996: Armed troops returned to the streets of Northern Ireland and royal security was stepped up as fears grew that the IRA was planning a series of terrorist attacks.
1997: A small fire occurred in the Russian Space station, Mir.
1999: An avalanche destroyed the Austrian village of Galtür, killing 31. 2007: A train derailed on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. This resulted in hundreds of points being checked over the country after similar accidents.
2008: The Suffolk Strangler, Steve Wright, 49, who murdered five Ipswich prostitutes in a six-week killing spree, was told by a judge that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.
2009: Hit British film Slumdog Millionaire won the top prize at the Academy Awards, winning eight Oscars including best director and best picture. In a great night for Britain, Kate Winslet won the best actress Oscar for The Reader, finally clinching the award on her sixth nomination.
2013: The United Kingdom lost its AAA credit rating, the first such downgrade since 1978.
BIRTHDAYS
Bill Alexander, British theatre director, 76; Emily Blunt, British actress, 41; Dakota Fanning, American actress, 30; Howard Jones, British singer-songwriter, 69; Sir Nicholas Kenyon CBE, controller, BBC Proms 1998-2007, 73; Kelly Macdonald, Glasgow-born actress, 48; Melinda Messenger, British model and television presenter, 53; Linda Nolan, singer, 65; Kristin Davis, actress, 59; David Sylvian, British singer and guitarist (Japan), 66.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1633 Samuel Pepys, diarist, MP and naval administrator; 1685 George Frederick Handel, composer; 1940 Peter Fonda, American actor; 1944 Johnny Winter, American blues guitarist. Deaths: 1468 Johan Gutenberg, inventor of movable type, and publisher of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455; 1792 Sir Joshua Reynolds, portrait painter and first president of the Royal Academy; 1821 John Keats, poet; 1934 Sir Edward Elgar, composer; 1965 Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson), Ulverston-born comedian of the Laurel and Hardy duo.