NOW & THEN
11 MAY
AD868: The first printed book, known as the Diamond Sutra, was published in China. It was discovered in 1900.
1685: Two female Covenanters were executed by drowning at Wigtown.
1812: Spencer Perceval, Tory prime minister, was shot and killed by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons.
1940: Winston Churchill became head of the wartime coalition government.
1941: House of Commons chamber destroyed in blitz bombing which, on same night, damaged Westminster Abbey, the British Museum and four mainline stations. The death toll was 1,400.
1949: Israel was admitted to United Nations.
1949: Siam changed name to Thailand.
1962: Prince Charles became a pupil at Gordonstoun School.
1971: The Daily Sketch closed after 62 years.
1973: Lower House of West German legislature ratified treaty establishing formal relations between the two halves of divided Germany.
1983: Aberdeen FC won the European Cup- winners’ Cup by beating Real Madrid 2- 1 in Gothenburg.
1985: Fire broke out in the main stand of Bradford City football ground and 56 spectators died.
1989: New Official Secrets Act given Royal Assent.
1991: New proposals were made to avert a deadlock between Britain and its European partners over economic and monetary union.
1992: Judith Ward, jailed for life in 1974 for the M62 coach bombing in which 12 people died, was released on bail pending an Appeal Court hearing. Her conviction was later quashed.
1994: The late Marquess of Bute left an estate valued at
£ 144 million, the bulk of it in trust to his son and heir, racing driver Johnny Dumfries.
1995: The Nolan Committee recommended stringent restrictions on the freedom of MPS to make money from outside interests.
1997: IBM Deep Blue, a chessplaying supercomputer, defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world- champion chess player in a classic match format.
2004: Nine people died when an explosion destroyed the fourstorey Stockline Plastics factory in Maryhill, Glasgow. Seven people were pulled alive from the wreckage.
2010: Conservative leader David Cameron became the new UK prime minister after the resignation of Labour leader Gordon Brown.
2011: A magnitude 5.3 earthquake killed ten people and damaged several buildings near the town of Lorca in southern Spain.
2011: Scottish police mounted a crackdown on drivers not wearing their seatbelts which led to 428 drivers and 26 passengers being caught.
2014: The annual Sunday Times super- rich list revealed that the number of billionaires living in the UK rose to more than 100 for the first time.
BIRTHDAYS
Eric Burdon, pop singer ( The Animals), 78; Frances Fisher, British actress, 67; John Parrott MBE, snooker player and commentator, 55; Jeremy Paxman, British broadcaster, 69; Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer, 78; Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer, 36; Judith Weir CBE, British composer, 65
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1713 James Drummond, 3rd Duke of Perth, a noted Jacobite and Lieutenant General in the army of Prince Charles Edward Stuart; 1888 Irving Berlin, American song writer; 1889 Paul Nash, artist; 1892 Dame Margaret Rutherford, actress; 1904 Salvador Dali, Spanish artist; 1912 Phil Silvers, comedy actor; 1963 Natasha Richardson, stage and screen actress.
Deaths: 1778 William Pitt the Elder1812 Spencer Perceval, prime minister ( assassinated); 1871 Sir John Herschel, pioneer of celestial photography; 1848 Tom Cribb, prizefighter; 1981 Bob Marley, reggae musician; 1988 Harold ‘ Kim’ Philby, double agent; 2001 Douglas Adams, author ( The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy); 2006 Floyd Patterson, world boxing champion; 2008 Jeff Torrington, Gorbals- born writer ( Swing, Hammer, Swing).