The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
ON THIS DAY
1745: The Jacobites, under the Young Pretender, occupied Edinburgh.
1787: Some 39 delegates (out of 42), under the chairmanship of George Washington, approved the Constitution of the United States of America.
1827: Wides in cricket were first scored in the Sussex v Kent game at Brighton.
1894: A Gaiety Girl opened at Day’s Theatre, New York, the first British musical on Broadway.
1908: Lt Thomas Selfridge of the US Army Signal Corps was killed in a plane crash in Fort Meyer, Virginia. Pilot Orville Wright was also seriously injured. Selfridge was the world’s first military aviation fatality.
1931: Long-playing records (33rpm) were demonstrated in New York by Rca-victor, but the venture failed because of the high price of the players, and the first real microgroove records did not appear until 1948.
1944: The British airborne invasion of Arnhem and Eindhoven in the Netherlands began as part of Operation Market Garden. The objective was to secure a bridge over the Rhine to as part of an Allied invasion of Germany, but after a battle which lasted until September 27, the attempt failed.
1944: Blackout regulations were lifted to allow lights on buses, trains and at railway stations in Britain for the first time for five years.
1961: One of London’s biggest “ban the bomb” demos ended with 830 arrested, including actress Vanessa Redgrave and playwright John Osborne.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A giant George Michael mural was unveiled in Kingsbury, where the late-singer grew up.
BIRTHDAYS:
Des Lynam, broadcaster, 79; Billy Bonds, former footballer and football manager, 75; Damon Hill, former racing driver, 61; Doug E Fresh, rap singer, 55; Ken Doherty, snooker player, 52; Mike Catt, former rugby union player, 50.