NOW & THEN
15 MAY
1567: Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots and James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, at Holyroodhouse.
1571: Moscow was burned by the Tartars.
1718: The world’s first machinegun was patented by James Puckle, a London lawyer.
1800: George III had two escapes from assassination in one day in London. The first was in Hyde Park when a bullet intended for him hit a man standing alongside. The second was at Drury Lane Theatre when, as the audience cheered him, two bullets missed his head and hit the panel behind. The assailant was James Hatfield, who was found to be insane.
1903: Edward VII inaugurated the first London electric tram.
1928: The Flying Doctor service began in Queensland, Australia.
1929: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave its first awards in Los Angeles for outstanding achievement by actors, directors, writers, etc. These later became the Oscars.
1936: Amy Johnson arrived in England after a record-breaking 12-day, 15-hour flight from London to Cape Town and back.
1940: Nylon stockings went on sale in America. In the first eight hours, 72,000 pairs were sold in New York City alone.
1940: The Netherlands surrendered to Germany.
1941: Britain’s first jet-propelled aircraft, designed by Frank Whittle, flew for the first time at RAF Cranwell.
1948: The new state of Israel was attacked by Egyptian planes and invaded in the north and east by troops from Lebanon and Transjordan.
1957: Britain dropped its first hydrogen bomb, over Christmas Island in the South Pacific.
1960: Doctor Theodore Maiman flashed a beam of pure light out of a solid ruby crystal in a research laboratory in Malibu and discovered the laser.
1976: Iran approved friendship treaty with Iraq.
1982: SAS commandos raided Pebble Island base on edge of Falklands archipelago, destroying Argentine aircraft.
1988: Ethiopian government declared state of emergency in war-torn northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigre.
1988: Soviet Union began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after more than eight years of occupation.
After a six-year ban for English football in Europe, Manchester United beat Barcelona to win the European Cup Winners Cup.
1991: Edith Cresson became France’s first female prime minister.
1993: Siege at a Paris nursery school ended when commandos shot dead a gunman holding six children and a teacher hostage.
1997: The United States government acknowledged the existence of the “Secret War” in Laos and dedicated the Laos Memorial in honour of Hmong and other “Secret War” veterans.
2010: Jessica Watson became the youngest person to sail, nonstop around the world solo.
2011: Rangers gave departing manager Walter Smith the perfect send-off as they wrapped up a third consecutive Scottish Premier League.