ON THIS DAY
1618:
Sir Walter Raleigh, English seafarer, once a favourite of Elizabeth I, was beheaded at Whitehall, falsely accused of treason.
James Boswell, Scottish diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson, was born. He accompanied Johnson on a tour, retold in Journal Of A Tour To The Hebrides, before producing his Life Of Samuel Johnson in 1791.
Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was first performed, in
1740: 1787:
Prague.
“Black Tuesday” - so-called when Wall Street crashed, leading to the Great Depression.
Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal.
The final section of the M25 around London was opened.
Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns won the world middleweight title, making him the first boxer to win a world title at four different weights.
Experts
1929: 1956: 1986: 1987: ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
revealed that an intelligent computer programme that can pinpoint bowel cancer in less than a second could be used to diagnose patients.
Jack Shepherd, actor and playwright, 78; Denny Laine, rock musician (Wings), 74; Richard Dreyfuss, actor, 71; Kate Jackson, actress, 70; Yasmin Le Bon, model, 54; Greg Blewett, former cricketer and commentator, 47; Winona Ryder, actress, 47; Michael Vaughan, former cricketer, 44.
BIRTHDAYS: