ON THIS DAY
1492: The infamous and corrupt Roderigo Borgia bribed enough cardinals to become Pope Alexander VI. 1897: Enid Blyton, children’s author, was born in East Dulwich. In the mid-1930s she began writing her stories which featured Noddy, the Famous Five and the Secret Seven. 1919: Philanthropic American industrialist Andrew Carnegie died. Insisting he wanted to leave the world as a poor man, he gave away more than 308 million dollars. But he failed to achieve his ambition – he had 22 million dollars left. 1942: Barnes Wallis patented the bouncing bomb which was used against the German Mohne and Eder dams in 1943 by the RAF Dambusters Squadron. 1942: The new Waterloo Bridge over the Thames was opened. 1952: King Hussein succeeded to the throne of Jordan. 1956: Abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock died when his car hit a tree near East Hampton, New York. 1965: Violent race riots broke out in the Watts area of Los Angeles. 1975: The Government took ownership of British Leyland, the only major British-owned car company. 1988: Devastating floods brought chaos to the Sudan. After 13 hours of rain, 1.5 million people had been made homeless, and an unknown number died ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Figures showed major hospitals in England were failing to see almost one in seven patients within four hours, as medics warned that emergency staffing had reached crisis levels. BIRTHDAYS: Raymond Leppard, conductor, 90; Don Boyd, film director, 69; Eric Carmen, singer, 68; Hulk Hogan, wrestler and actor, 64; Joe Jackson, rock singer, 63; Nigel Martyn, former footballer, 51; Nigel Harman, actor, 44; Chris Hemsworth, actor, 34.