Now & Then
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8 MARCH
1702: Queen Anne acceded to the throne on the death of William III of England – William II of Scotland – in a riding accident.
1765: House of Lords passed Stamp Act to tax American colonies.
1850: The first day nursery in Britain opened in Marylebone, London. It charged threepence a day for a cradle.
1910: JTC Moore Brabazon was awarded the first pilot’s licence in Britain.
1917: Riots and strikes broke out in St Petersburg, marking the start of the Russian Revolution.
1918: Leon Trotsky resigned as Russian foreign minister.
1921: French troops occupied the Ruhr after Germany failed to pay reparations.
1930: Civil disobedience campaign began in India under leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
1950: Marshal Voroshilov announced Soviet possession of atomic bomb.
1954: United States and Japan signed a mutual defence agreement.
1961: Commonwealth prime ministers’ conference opened in London, and South Africa announced it would leave the Commonwealth on 31 May.
1965: The United States landed 3,500 marines in South Vietnam. 1970: Cyprus president Makarios escaped assassination when terrorist snipers shot down his helicopter.
1971: Boxer Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali on points to become world champion. It was Ali’s first professional defeat. 1971: The Daily Sketch ceased publication after 62 years.
1974: The third Paris airport
– the Charles de Gaulle – was inaugurated.
1987: Sri Lankan troops started a major offensive, killing 11 Tamil militants in northern Jaffna peninsula.
1988: United Nations Security Council speakers condemned South Africa’s ban on antiapartheid organisations.
1990: Mounted police were called to break up a 5,000-strong poll tax demonstration in Hackney, London.
1991: Britain’s second biggest travel company, International
Leisure Group, went into receivership with debts of £480 million, leaving 25,000 holidaymakers stranded overseas. 1992: It was announced that at least 30 people had been killed in ethnic fighting in the Dniester region of Moldova.
1993: More than 40 Tory MPS defied prime minister John Major as the government was defeated in the Commons on a Labour amendment to Maastricht Treaty legislation.
1999: The United States Supreme Court upheld the murder convictions of Timothy Mcveigh for the Oklahoma City bombing. 2001: The speedboat Bluebird was raised, 34 years after it sank during a record attempt, killing Donald Campbell.
2010: The stolen body of Tassos Papadopoulos, the fifth president of Cyprus, was discovered in a cemetery near the capital.
2014: A Malaysian Airlines flight disappeared an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing, with 239 passengers on board. It was believed to have gone down in the Indian Ocean.
BIRTHDAYS
Cheryl Baker, singer, 70; Gyles Brandreth, MP 1992-7, author and broadcaster, 76; Micky Dolenz, US actor and singer (The Monkees), 79; Phil Edmonds, English cricketer, 73; Lord Hurd of Westwell CBE, foreign secretary 1989-95, 94; Gary Numan, pop singer, 66; Laura Main, Aberdeen-born actress, 43; Ann Packer MBE, Olympic 800 metres gold medallist, 82; James Van Der Beek, US actor, 47; David Wilkie MBE, Scottish Olympic and Commonwealth gold swimmer, 70.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1859 Kenneth Grahame, Edinburgh-born author of The Wind in the Willows; 1909 Claire Trevor, actress; 1918 Eileen Herlie, Glasgow-born actress; 1922 Cyd Charisse, actress; 1943 Lynne Redgrave OBE, British actress. Deaths: 1961 Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor; 1971 Harold Lloyd, US silent film star; 1983 Sir William Walton, composer; 2001 Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of Royal Ballet; 2007 John Inman, comic actor; 2016 Sir George Martin CBE, Beatles record producer; 2020 Max von Sydow, Swedish actor.