Now & Then
5 APRIL
1603: King James VI left Scotland for his new kingdom of England. 1614: The Addled Parliament began – and was dissolved on 7 June without having passed a bill – hence its name.
1794: French revolutionary leaders Georges-jacques Danton and Camille Desmoulins were guillotined.
1881: Britain concluded Treaty of Pretoria with Boers, recognising independence of South African Republic of Transvaal.
1902: The stand at Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow collapsed during an England versus Scotland match, killing 20 spectators and injuring more than 200.
1910: Kissing was banned on French railways.
1916: Military Medal introduced in the First World War for forces fighting on Western Front.
1939: All German children between ages of ten and 13 were ordered to serve in Hitler Youth Organisation.
1946: Billy Smart opened his first circus.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of New York City were sentenced to death as atomic spies for the Soviet Union.
1955: Sir Winston Churchill resigned as prime minister, aged 80.
1958: Fidel Castro began “total war” against the Batista government in Cuba.
1966: Corporation tax brought into force by Harold Wilson’s Labour government.
1968: Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth was sold to an American syndicate for $3,230,000.
1969: Four-man British expedition reached the North Pole after a 14-month, 1,300-mile trek by dog sled.
1971: Fran Phipps became the first woman to reach the North Pole. 1976: James Callaghan succeeded Harold Wilson as Labour prime minister, defeating Michael Foot in the final ballot for leadership of the Labour Party.
1986: Bomb, blamed on terrorists, killed two and injured 155 at crowded West Berlin discotheque popular with US soldiers.
1988: Arabic-speaking hijackers commandeered Kuwaiti Airways plane with 112 people aboard and forced it to land in Iran. 1989: The lighthouse at Fastnet, off County Cork, was computerised, ending almost 150 years of human habitation.
1990: King Baudouin I resumed the Belgian throne after a 36-hour abdication rather than sign a law legalising abortion.
1991: In Manchester, terrorists planted 12 fire bombs in the city’s main shopping precinct.
1994: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor George Carey, made an outspoken attack on the state of modern Britain, condemning “a pretty ordinary little nation”.
1997: IRA bomb threats stopped the Grand National and 70,000 spectators were evacuated from Aintree. The race was run two days later.
2004: The Sunday Post’s comic character Oor Wullie was named Scotland’s top icon, ahead of William Wallace and Sean Connery. 2010: 115 Chinese miners trapped in the flooded Wangjialing mine in Shanxi province for more than a week were rescued and brought to the surface.
BIRTHDAYS
Jane Asher, British actress, 78; Hayley Atwell, British-american actress, 42; Allan Clarke, British singer-songwriter (The Hollies), 82; Roger Corman, American film producer, 97; Agnetha Fältskog, Swedish singer (Abba), 74; Richard Gough, footballer, 62; Krishnan Guru-murthy, British television presenter, 54; John Hartson, Welsh footballer, 49; Michael Moriarty, American-canadian actor, 83; Pharrell (Williams), US singer, 51; Stan Ridgway, American singer, 70.
◆ ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1588 Thomas Hobbes, philosopher; 1900 Spencer Tracy, US actor; 1908 Herbert von Karajan, conductor; 1908 Bette Davis, US actress; 1916 Gregory Peck, film actor; 1929 Sir Nigel Hawthorne, actor.
Deaths: 1976 Howard Hughes, industrialist; 1997 Allen Ginsberg, beat generation poet; 1998 Cozy Powell, rock drummer (car crash); 2005 Saul Bellow, novelist; 2006 Gene Pitney, country singer; 2008 Charlton Heston, actor; 2014 Alan Davie CBE, Grangemouth-born artist; 2018 Eric Bristow MBE, British darts player.