May 9 in History

1870 — Harry Vardon, British golfer, is born in Grouville, Jersey, Channel Islands. He is a member of the Great Triumvirate, the three leading British golfers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For 21 years (1894-1914), they alternatively win The

Open Championship 16 times: Vardon six times (1896, 1898, 1899, 1903, 1911, 1914); John Henry Taylor (1894, 1895, 1900, 1909, 1913) and James Braid (1901, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910) five times each. Their run comes to an end when the tournament is cancelled from 1915-19 during World War 1.

1873 — Howard Carter, archaeologist and Egyptologist who becomes world-famous after discovering the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in November 1922, is born in Kensington, England.

1932 — Conrad Hunte, West Indies cricketer (195867: 44 Tests, 3,245 runs, average 45.06) and SA national development coach from 1991 to 1998, is born at Greenland Plantation, Shorey’s Village, St Andrew, Barbados.

1936 — Glenda Jackson, actress (“Women in Love”, “A Touch of Class”) and Labour MP (1992-2015), is born in Cheshire, England.

1936 — Albert Finney, actor (Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” and the title role in “Tom Jones”), is born in Salford, England.

1946 — Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III, who reigned since July 29 1900, abdicates in favour of his son Umberto II in an effort to avert a plebiscite to decide whether Italy should remain a monarchy or become a republic. Umberto rules for just 34 days (until June 12) before the monarchy is abolished in a referendum. They both go into exile: Victor Emmanuel in Alexandria, Egypt, Umberto in Cascais, Portugal.

1958 — Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, premieres in San Francisco (having been shot in the SF Bay area).

1960 — The US Food and Drug Administration approves Enovid — commissioned by Margaret Sanger (who opened the first birth control clinic in 1916), funded by heiress Katharine McCormick and developed by Gregory Pincus at GD Searle & Co of Chicago — as the first pill safe for birth control use. 1971 — The UK branch of Friends of the Earth International return 1,500 non-returnable bottles to the Schweppes headquarters in Connaught House, London. Friends of Earth became an international network this year with a meeting of representatives from France, Sweden, the UK and the US.

2004 — Brenda Fassie, 39, singer-songwriter, dies in the Sunninghill Hospital, Sandton, after collapsing at her home on April 26 and slipping into a coma.