ON THIS DAY
1660: England’s Long Parliament was dissolved after sitting for 20 years.
1802: The United States Military Academy at West Point was established.
1872: The first English FA Cup Final took place. Wanderers, a team formed by university and ex-public school players, beat the
Royal Engineers 1-0 at The Oval in London.
1888: The first recorded sale of a manufactured motor car was to Emile Roger of Paris, who bought a petrol-driven Benz.
1900: Sir Arthur Evans uncovered the ancient city of Knossos in Crete.
1926: The first liquid-fuelled rocket was demonstrated in the USA, by Dr Robert H Goddard.
1935: Adolf Hitler renounced the Versailles Treaty and reintroduced conscription.
1947: Almost 600,000 acres of farming land were submerged by floodwater on the Fens as the River Ouse overflowed and a million sheep died. Storm damage came to more than £20m.
1971: Boxer Henry Cooper announced his retirement after losing his title to Joe Bugner.
1980: Alan Minter out-pointed Vito Antuofermo of the US to win boxing’s world middleweight title.
1988: A loyalist gunman opened fire indiscriminately and hurled grenades into a crowd of mourners at an IRA funeral for three people killed by the SAS in Gibraltar 10 days earlier.
1998: Beef exports from Northern Ireland were to resume after a three-year ban stemming from the BSE crisis.
On this day last year: Legal targets on air pollution and the abundance of wild species were among a series of proposed green goals set out by the government.
Birthdays
Erik Estrada, actor, 74; Graham Cole, actor, 71; Isabelle Huppert, actor, 70; Jimmy Nail, actor/singer, 69; Matthew Bannister, broadcaster and former Radio 1 controller, 66; Jenny Eclair, comedian, 63; Theo Walcott, footballer, 34.
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