Now & Then
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7 MARCH
1820: Spain’s King Ferdinand II was forced to restore the Constitution of 1812 and end the Inquisition. 1866: The Albert Medal for Gallantry in saving life on sea or land was instituted.
1892: The Great Western Railway introduced the first corridor trains, on the London-birkenhead line. 1917: The first jazz record went on sale in America. It was The Dixie Jazz Band One-step recorded by Nick La Rocca’s Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
1926: First transatlantic radiotelephone was established.
1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird became the world’s fastest car when he drove it across the Utah Flats, United States, at 277mph.
1936: Germany violated Treaty of Versailles by occupying a demilitarised zone in the Rhineland.
1945: British 14th Army entered Mandalay in Burma.
1946: Doctors mounted a campaign to fight the introduction of a National Health Service.
1951: Premier Ali Razmara of Iran was assassinated.
1956: Unrest, fomented by Stalinist faction, broke out in Soviet Georgia.
1962: First major report on cigarette risks, Smoking and Health, was published by the Royal College of Physicians.
1963: The person with the world’s highest IQ – Kim, a Korean – was born. He could speak four languages and understand integral calculus when he was four. His IQ was recorded as 210.
1975: Teenage heiress Lesley Whittle’s body was found down a 60-foot drain shaft. She had been strangled by Donald Nielson, the “Black Panther”, after being kidnapped and held for 52 days. Nielson was later given four life sentences.
1977: Armed raiders stole £850,000 worth of diamonds and currency at Heathrow Airport, London.
1989: 25lb of Semtex explosive was found in woods near Scarborough nine days before the Conservative Party Central Council was due to meet.
1990: Department of Trade and Industry report on Harrods said al-fayed brothers lied to the Office of Fair Trading when they bought
House of Fraser.
1991: Ten Rochdale children held in care for nearly a year after allegations of Satanic ritual abuse were freed by a judge who criticised Rochdale council and social workers for serious errors of judgment.
1992: England’s rugby team beat Wales 24-0 at Twickenham to complete a second successive Grand Slam.
1994: The US Supreme Court ruled that parodies of an original work were generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.
2006: Terrorist group Lashkare-taiba coordinated a series of bombings in Varanasi, India. 2007: The House of Commons voted to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100 per cent elected.
2009: Two soldiers were shot dead and two soldiers and two civilians wounded when the Real IRA attacked the Massereene Barracks in Antrim.
2012: Six British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by an explosion.
BIRTHDAYS
William Boyd CBE, Scottish novelist, 72; Malcolm Chisholm, MSP, MP 1997-2001, 75; Ruthie Henshall, British actress, 57; Nicholas Kraemer, Edinburgh-born harpsichordist and conductor, 79; Ivan Lendl, tennis coach and former world No 1 player, 64; Professor Duncan Macmillan, Scotsman art critic, 85; Sir Vivian Richards OBE, West Indian cricketer, captain of West Indies 1985-91, 72; Tommy Sheridan, MSP 1999-2007, 60; Rachel Weisz, British actress, 54.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1802 Sir Edwin Landseer, artist; 1831 Henry Moore, painter; 1837 1872 Piet Mondrian, artist; 1875 Maurice Ravel, French composer; 1924 Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor; 1930 Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, photographer; 1956 Andrea Levy, British author; 1958 Rik Mayall, British actor and comedian.
Deaths: 1953 Herman Mankiewicz, screenwriter; 1957 Percy Wyndham Lewis, writer and artist; 1971 Stevie Smith, poet; 1999 Stanley Kubrick, film director; 2013 Kenny Ball, British jazz trumpeter.