NOW & THEN

0 The premiere of movie classic Gone With The Wind took place at Atlanta, Georgia, on this day in 1939

1967: University of Stirling was constituted by royal charter.

1969: The Jackson 5 made their TV debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1994: Axing of the London-fort William sleeper was announced. It led to The Scotsman’s Save Our Sleeper campaign, and the service was later guaranteed for at least seven years.

2009: Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi was taken to hospital after an assault left his face covered in blood following a rally in Milan.

2011: US President Barack Obama marked the end of the Iraq war with a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, telling troops: “Welcome home!”

2012: Twenty-year-old gunman Adam Lanza shot to death 20 children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. 1287: The Zuiderzee sea wall collapsed, causing more than 50,000 deaths, during St Lucia’s Flood in north-west Netherlands – the fifth-largest recorded flood in history.

1542: Princess Mary Stuart ascended to the Scottish throne at just six days old, following the death of her father, James V, and became Mary I (Mary, Queen of Scots).

1782: Charleston, South Carolina was evacuated by the British during the American Revolutionary War.

1896: The opening of Glasgow District Subway’s six-and-a-half mile system with 15 stations.

1911: Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, became the first man to reach the South Pole – 35 days ahead of Captain Robert Falcon Scott. His party of five travelled by dog-sled, starting with 52 dogs and eating 36 of them en route.

1918: Women over 30 voted in a British general election for the first time; David Lloyd George’s coalition won a clear majority; Sinn Fein won in 73 of 105 Irish constituencies but refused to take up any of their seats in parliament, instead meeting at a Dail Eireann in Dublin.

1920: Jack Dempsey retained his world heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Bill Brennan in round 12 of their bout at Madison Square Garden, New York.

1920: The first accident involving a scheduled airliner occurred when an aircraft bound for Paris crashed into a house in Golders Green, London, just after takeoff from Cricklewood Airport, killing the crew of two and two of the six passengers.

1922: JCW Reith, 33, was appointed general manager of the BBC, eventually becoming its director general. He also became 1st Baron Reith of Stonehaven.

1926: A nationwide police hunt ended for Agatha Christie, whose abandoned car had been found in Surrey, when she was identified at a Harrogate hotel.

1927: China and Soviet Union broke off relations.

1939: The premiere of Gone With The Wind took place at Atlanta, Georgia.

1941: United States Marines made stand in battle for Wake Island in Pacific.

1957: Nine miners died in explosion at Lindsay Colliery in Fife. The report on the disaster blamed “a match struck for the purposes of smoking”. Natascha Mcelhone, actress, 49; Sir Antony Beevor, author, 72; Jane Birkin OBE, actress, singer, model, 72; Linda Fabiani, SNP MSP, 62; Miranda Hart, comedian, 46; Barbara Leigh-hunt, actress, 83; Ron Nelson, composer, 89; Michael Owen, footballer, 39; Janettescott,actress,80; Stan Smith, tennis player, 72; Jackson Rathbone, actor, 34; Sam Burgess, rugby union inernationalist, 30; 69; Vicki Michelle MBE, actress, 68; Dee Wallace, actress, 70; Lex Gold CBE, civil servant and Scottish football administrator, 78. Births: 1503 Nostradamus, apothecary and author of book of prophecies; 1546 Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer; 1730 James Bruce, Larbert-born explorer and discoverer of the source of the Blue Nile; 1895 King George VI, second son of George V and Mary; 1935 Lee Remick, actress. Deaths :1542Jamesvofscotland, father of Mary, Queen of Scots (at Falkland); 1788 Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer; 1799 George Washington, first US president; 1861 Albert, consort and husband of Queen Victoria; 1947 Stanley, first Earl Baldwin, three times prime minister; 2013 Peter O’toole, actor.