Now & Then The Scotsman Sessions
The Scotsman Sessions are short video performances, recorded by artists all around the country & introduced by our critics. To explore the first 400 in the series, visit www.scotsman.com/ arts-and-culture
◆ 9 MARCH
1562: Kissing in public was banned in Naples, contravention being punishable by death.
1776: Foundation of modern economics, with publication of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, written in Kirkcaldy by Adam Smith.
1796: Napoleon married Josephine. Both parties gave their ages as 28, although Napoleon was only 27 and Josephine was nudging 33.
1802: The upright piano was patented by Thomas Loud.
1831: The French Foreign Legion was founded by King Louis Philippe, with headquarters at Sidibel-abbes in Algeria.
1846: Treaty of Lahore ended the first Sikh War in India, whereby Britain gained additional territory. 1876: Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent for the first telephone – only three hours ahead of a similar one by Elisha Gray.
1891: Hurricane winds with snow swept across Britain, particularly in south-west regions, felling trees and sinking 14 ships. The storms continued for four days and there were 60 deaths.
1915: Defence of the Realm Act was passed.
1932: Eamon de Valera was elected president of the Irish Free State.
1946: Thirty-three football fans died and more than 400 were injured when crash barriers collapsed at Burnden Park, before an FA Cup match between Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City.
1956: Archbishop Makarios, implicated in terrorism in Cyprus, was deported by Britain to the Seychelle islands.
1959: A doll named Barbara Millicent Roberts – Barbie – was exhibited at the New York toy fair. 1974: Britain returned to a fiveday working week, having been on three days since December, 1973, to conserve fuel restricted by Arab-israeli war.
1976: Cable car plunged to ground near the northern Italian city of Trento, killing 42 skiers.
1990: The two Germanies begin preliminary reunification talks. 1991: Yugoslav military moved into Belgrade with dozens of tanks after thousands of anti-communist rebels clashed with police, leaving at least two people dead.
1994: IRA terrorists launched mortar bomb attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.
1995: The Queen visited Northern Ireland for the first time since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires were announced.
2007: The Common Riding event in the Borders town of Hawick was named as one of the top annual celebrations in the world by a party guide.
2008: Police in China revealed that they had thwarted an attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympics. 2009: Youtube owner Google began to pull music videos from the video-sharing website due to a row over licensing.
2009: A policeman was shot dead in Northern Ireland, sparking fears that the province would descend into violence.
2010: The Northern Ireland Assembly agreed to devolved policing and justice powers. 2012: Labour MP Eric Joyce was fined £3,000 and banned from pubs for three months after he admitted assaulting politicians in a House of Commons bar.
BIRTHDAYS
Sir Bill Beaumont CBE, English rugby player and broadcaster, 72; Juliette Binoche, French actress, 60; John Cale OBE, British rock musician, 82; Linda Fiorentino, US actress, 66; Martin Fry, British singer (ABC), 66; Martin Johnson CBE, English rugby player and coach, 54; David Matthews, British composer, 81; Howard Shelley OBE, British pianist and conductor, 74; Brittany Snow, American actress, 38; Robin Trower, British rock guitarist (Procul Harum), 79
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1892 Vita Sackville-west, novelist; 1918 Mickey Spillane, US crime novelist; 1930 Ornette Coleman, US jazz saxophonist; 1934 Yuri Gagarin, Russian astronaut, first man in space; 1943 Bobby Fischer, world chess champion 1972-75; 1946 Alexandra Bastedo, British actress. Deaths: 1979 Barbara Mullen, actress; 1988 Richard C Adams, inventor of paint roller; 1992 Menachim Begin, ex-israeli prime minister; 1996 George Burns, US comic actor; 2017 Ann Beach, British actress; 2017 Sir Howard Hodgkin CBE, British artist.