ON THIS DAY
BURNS NIGHT AND FEAST OF CONVERSION OF ST PAUL 1327: Edward III acceded to the English throne. 1533: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (wife number two of six) were married secretly by the Bishop of Lichfield. 1759: Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, who used the Scottish dialect in his poems and many songs, including To A Mouse, was born in Alloway, Ayrshire. 1857: Lord Lonsdale (Henry Cecil Lowther), president of the National Sporting Club, who gave boxing its rules and Lonsdale Belts to its champions, was born in London. 1874: W Somerset Maugham, master of the short story, was born in Paris. 1924: The first Winter Olympics began at Chamonix, France. 1938: The aurora borealis (Northern Lights) were seen as far south as London’s West End and throughout western Europe. It was due to intense sunspot activity. 1947: Al Capone, Chicago gang boss in the Prohibition era, died of a heart attack, days after suffering a stroke, aged 48. 1981: The Gang of Four (Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Shirley Williams and Bill Rodgers) broke away from the Labour Party to set up the Social Democrats. 1990: A Boeing 707 jet crashed on Long Island after running out of fuel, killing 73 people including the pilot. More than 80 passengers survived. 2010: One of Saddam Hussein’s closest allies, Ali Hassan al-Majid, the man known as “Chemical Ali”, was executed in Iraq.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Casting off clothes as well as cares may be the key to happiness and wellbeing, research revealed. BIRTHDAYS: Angela Thorne, actress, 79; Tom Paulin, poet and critic, 69; Emma Freud, broadcaster, 56; David Ginola, former footballer, 51; Jennifer Lewis, actress, 61; Ana Ortiz, actress, 47; Alicia Keys, singer, 37; Francis Jeffers, footballer, 37.