Now & Then
◆ 6 MARCH
1457: Act of Parliament of James II decreed regular target practice and military parades and “that the futball and the golf be utterly cryit doune and nocht usyt”. It was the first mention in Scottish history of those games.
1776: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations was first published.
1836: The Siege of the Alamo ended after 13 days – the garrison included Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and William Travis, who died with 183 others defending the Texas fort against Mexican forces.
1899: Chemist Felix Hoffmann patented the pain-relief drug aspirin.
1902: British soldiers were given the right to wear spectacles. 1926: The Shakespeare Memorial theatre at Stratford-upon-avon burned out.
1930: Clarence Birdseye marketed the first frozen foods, in Massachusetts. He discovered the rapid-freeze method on a trip to Labrador when he threw a cabbage into a butt of water, watched it freeze instantly, and recovered it weeks later in prime condition. 1957: Former British colony of Gold Coast formed the independent West African nation of Ghana, with Kwame Nkrumah as its premier. 1957: Israeli troops handed over the Gaza Strip to United Nations forces.
1961: Mini-cabs were introduced in London.
1965: United States Defence Department announced that 3,500 marines were being sent to South Vietnam – first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas. 1987: The Channel ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsized with her bow door open leaving Zeebrugge harbour, with 193 drowned.
1988: Three IRA terrorists were shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar. 1988: Thousands of Tibetans demanding independence started fires throughout the capital city of Lhasa.
1989: At least 109 people died after drinking homemade liquor in India’s western city of Baroda. 1990: Prestwick lost its monopoly as Scotland’s transatlantic gateway.
1991: George Carey was formally elected Archbishop of Canterbury. 1991: Britain released 32 Iraqis held during the Gulf conflict at an army camp on Salisbury Plain; 33 more remained in custody at Full Sutton, Yorkshire.
1994: Police found a seventh body at a house in Cromwell Road, Gloucester, and said they planned to search other sites.
1997: The House of Commons standards and privileges committee cleared the Conservative Home Secretary, Michael Howard, of an allegation that he accepted £1.5 million in bribes to order a government investigation into Mohamed al-fayed’s takeover of Harrods. 2008: The Crown Office said it was to take no action against Wendy Alexander, the Scottish Labour leader, over her failure to register donations to her leadership campaign in 2007. 2008: A Palestinian gunman shot and killed eight students and critically injured 11 in the library, in Jerusalem, Israel.
2009: An environmental campaigner threw green custard at Lord Mandelson, the business secretary.
2014: Crimea’s parliament voted to join Russia.
◆ BIRTHDAYS
Tom Arnold, American actor, 65; Alan Davies, British comic and actor, 58; Kiki Dee, British singer, 77; Dave Gilmour CBE, British guitarist (Pink Floyd), 78; Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, opera singer, 80; Judy Loe, British actress, 77; Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space, 87; Richard Noble OBE, Scottish world land speed record holder 1983-97, 78; Shaquille O’neal, US basketball player, 52; Guy Garvey, British singer-songwriter (Elbow) and radio presenter, 50.
◆ ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1906 Lou Costello, comic actor; 1917 Frankie Howerd, comedian; 1927 Gabriel García Márquez, Colombian novelist; 1929 Lord Sheppard, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool 1975-97 and England cricket captain; 1934 John Noakes, British television presenter. Deaths: 1888 Louisa M Alcott, novelist; 1932 John Philip Sousa, composer; 1951 Ivor Novello, actor and composer; 1961 George Formby, comic actor; 1965 Herbert Morrison, Labour statesman; 1967 Nelson Eddy, singer; 2016 Nancy Reagan, film actress, former United States first lady