Now & Then
◆ 2 APRIL
1699: Admiral John Benbow was sent to West Indies to gain reparations from Spain for destruction of ships at Darien. 1768: Zachary Macaulay, Scottish statistician and anti-slavery activist, born in Inveraray.
1801: Horatio Nelson, aboard the Elephant, said to have put his telescope to his blind eye at the Battle of Copenhagen, and so did not see the signal from Admiral Parker to cease fighting. The Danish fleet was destroyed. 1849: Britain annexed the Punjab. 1868: Frances Kidder was hanged outside Maidstone jail for murder, the last public execution of a woman.
1877: The first human cannonball circus act was performed at London’s Amphitheatre, when Zazel was shot by elastic springs into a safety net. She was “fired” every weekday for two years. 1903: Britain and France refused to support construction of Baghdad railway.
1905: The Simplon rail tunnel through the Alps was officially inaugurated in Switzerland.
1907: The first cinema, The Electric Theatre, opened in Los Angeles. The programme featured a four-minute drama entitled Ruined By Hard Drink.
1917: United States president Woodrow Wilson summoned a special session of Congress to declare war on Germany.
1946: The Royal Military Academy was established at Sandhurst, combining the Royal Military College there (established 1799) and Royal Military Academy, at Woolwich since 1741.
1951: United States General Dwight Eisenhower took over as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
1961: Forty Biblical scrolls found in a cave in Judea threw new light on the origin of Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish history.
1973: An ice meteor fell from the sky in Burton Road, Manchester. It contained 51 layers of ice.
1977: Charlotte Brew on Barony Fort became the first woman to ride in a Grand National. Her mount fell at the 27th fence. Red Rum became the only horse ever to win the race three times.
1982: Argentinian forces invaded and occupied the British Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
1990: An earthquake of 5.2 on the Richter scale affected much of England and Wales.
1992: In New York, Mafia boss John Gotti was convicted of murder and racketeering and was later sentenced to life in prison. 2004: Islamist terrorists involved in the 11 March 2004 Madrid attacks attempted to bomb the Spanish high-speed train AVE near Madrid. Their attack was thwarted. 2006: More than 60 tornadoes broke out in the United States, with Tennessee being the hardest hit as 29 people were killed.
2009: At the G20 summit, world leaders agreed a $1.1 trillion boost to reverse the credit crunch. 2014: President Michelle Bachelet declared an area of northern Chile a disaster zone following a tsunami triggered by an offshore earthquake of magnitude 8.2. 2014: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs issued a health warning after record levels of air pollution were recorded in England, partly due to dust blown over from the Sahara Desert.
BIRTHDAYS
Linford Christie OBE, Olympic gold medallist athlete and coach, 64; Paul Gambaccini, American-british broadcaster, 75; Emmylou Harris, US country singer, 77; Linda Hunt, US actress, 79; Dame Penelope Keith, British actress, 84; Camille Paglia, US academic, 77; Dermot Reeve OBE, English cricketer, 61; Denis Tuohy, British broadcaster, 87; Keren Woodward, British singer (Bananarama), 63; Michael Fassbender, actor, 47; Christopher Meloni, actor, 63.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1805 Hans Christian Andersen, writer; 1840 Emile Zola, novelist; 1891 Jack Buchanan, actor and singer; 1914 Sir Alec Guinness, actor; 1925 George Macdonald Fraser, novelist; 1934 Brian Glover, actor and writer; 1939 Marvin Gaye, singer; 1946 Sue Townsend, author. Deaths: 1872 Samuel Morse, inventor of Morse Code; 1966 CS Forester, novelist; 1974 Georges Pompidou, French prime minister and president; 2005 Pope John Paul II; 2018 Winnie Mandela, anti-apartheid activist and politician;2019 Eddie Large, Glasgow-born comedian.