The Scotsman

NOW & THEN

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1191: Richard I, the Lionheart, married Berengaria, reputed to be extremely ugly. Although Queen, she never set foot on English soil.

1686: League of Augsburg was formed by Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Sweden, Saxony, the Palatinate and Brandenbur­g against France’s King Louis XIV.

1745: En route from France to Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie looked on anxiously from his ship, Doutelle, as his other ship, Elisabeth, engaged in a fivehour battle with HMS Lion. Badly damaged and with a number of crewmen killed, both vessels finally withdrew.

1755: French troops defeated the British at the Battle of Duquesne (Pittsburgh).

1776: The American Declaratio­n of Idependenc­e was read on the parade ground at Lower Manhattan to thousands of George Washington’s troops who had moved up from Boston to help defend New York against the British.

1807: Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia signed the treaties of Tilsit to end the War of the Fourth Coalition

1867: Queen’s Park Football Club was formed, the first senior club in Scotland.

1872: The first doughnut cutter was patented in America by John Blondel. A sea captain, he is said to have invented the hole so he could slip the doughnut over the handle of the ship’s wheel and eat while steering.

1877: Wimbledon staged its first lawn tennis championsh­ip at its original site in Worple Road, London.

1882: The Royal Navy bombarded Alexandria, Egypt.

1893: Chicago surgeon Daniel Williams performed the first open heart surgery – without anaestheti­c.

1900: The commonweal­th of Australia was establishe­d in the British parliament.

1910: A stone tablet describing the fall of Jerusalem was discovered by archaeolog­ists in Egypt.

1916: The first cargo submarine to cross the Atlantic arrived in the USA from Germany.

1917: HMS Vanguard blew up in Scapa Flow with the loss of more than 800men.

1922: Johnny Weissmulle­r became the first man to swim 100 metres in less than a minute.

1938: Gas masks were first issued to the civilian population of Britain in anticipati­on of the Second World War.

1955: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets topped the Billboard chart.

1977: Tom Watson won the Open Championsh­ip at Turnberry, following the classic “Duel in the Sun” with Jack Nicklaus.

1984: York Minster was struck by lightning and the roof destroyed.

1990: Four were killed and hundreds injured when celebratio­ns of Germany’s victory over Argentina in the World Cup final turned violent.

1992: The space shuttle Columbus 13 landed.

1997: Mike Tyson was banned from boxing for biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear.

2007: The BBC was fined £50,000 for faking the winner of a phone-in competitio­n on a Blue Peter programme. Marc Almond, singer, 62; Steve Coppell, former football player and manager, 63; Richard Demarco CBE, Portobello-born artist and gallery director, 88; Tom Hanks, actor, director and writer, 62; David Hockney, artist, 81; Courtney Love, singer and actress, 54; Richard Wilson OBE, Greenock-born actor director, 82; John Frieda, hairdresse­r, 67; Kelly Mcgillis, US actress, 61; Dean Koontz, US author, 73; Richard Roundtree, US actor (Shaft), 76; Paolo Di Canio, football manager and former player, 50; Brian Dennehy, US actor, 80 Births: 1819 Elias Howe, inventor of first practical sewing machine; 1888 Simon Marks, 1st Baron Marks of Broughton, founder of Marks & Spencer; 1901 Barbara Cartland, novelist; 1916 Sir Edward Heath, prime minister 1970-74; 1946 Mitch Mitchell, English drummer (Jimi Hendrix Experience). Deaths: 1441 Jan van Eyck, Flemish painter; 1746 Philip V, king of Spain; 1797 Edmund Burke, statesman, writer; 1932 King Camp Gillette, safety razor inventor; 1988 Barbara Woodhouse, animal trainer; 2002 Rod Steiger, US actor; 2016 Jackie Mcinally, Scottish footballer.

 ??  ?? 0 On this day in 1922 future Tarzan Johnny Weissmulle­r was the first man to swim 100m in less than a minute
0 On this day in 1922 future Tarzan Johnny Weissmulle­r was the first man to swim 100m in less than a minute
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