The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Past times
On this day
HONOUR: Bella Garden shows off the Silver Cross in 1988 – the highest award in the Girl Guides – which she was given 61 years previously for saving a child’s life in 1927
OAK APPLE DAY: Commemorating King Charles II finding safety in an oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House, Shropshire, after the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
1660: On his 30th birthday, Charles II entered London to be restored to the throne as King of England.
1871: Whit Monday became the first bank holiday in Britain.
1874: GK Chesterton, author and poet, was born in Kensington, London. His detective Father Brown was based on Father John O’Connor, who received him into the Catholic Church.
1911: Sir William Gilbert, librettist of Gilbert and Sullivan operas, died after rescuing two women from a garden pond.
1942: Bing Crosby recorded the world’s top-selling disc, White Christmas, for the soundtrack of the film Holiday Inn.
1953: Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first two climbers to reach the summit of Everest. The news broke on Coronation Day, June 2.
1982: Pope John Paul II became the first Pope in 450 years to step on to British soil, and the first to pray side by side with the Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral.
1985: Some 39 football fans were killed when a wall collapsed during crowd violence at Heysel Stadium, Brussels, before the Liverpool v Juventus European Cup final.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Writer Simon Armitage formally took up his post as the nation’s Poet Laureate after meeting the Queen.
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