NOW & THEN
25 MAY
1768: Captain Cook set off on his first voyage, to explore the Antipodes.
1869: After Emperor Franz Josef, opening the Opera House in Vienna, said he was not keen on the Gothic style, one architect committed suicide and the other had a heart attack.
1871: The House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act, creating public holidays on Easter Monday, Whit Monday and Christmas Day.
1878: In a London fog, ‘ gentleman burglar’ Adam Worth climbed through a window of the London art dealers Agnew & Agnew and stole a Gainsborough painting, The Duchess.
1878: During that same fog, Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore was being premiered at Opera Comique, London. A critic wrote that it was “a frothy production destined soon to subside to nothingness”.
1904: The first Spirella corset was made.
1914: The House of Commons passed Irish Home Rule Bill.
1915: Second Battle of Ypres ended.
1935: Jesse Owens, American athlete, set six world records within 45 minutes at Ann Arbor in Michigan.
1951: The spies Burgess and Mclean escaped from Britain en route to Moscow.
1953: Chris Chataway set a twomile run record of eight minutes and 49.6 seconds.
1955: A British expedition, led by Charles Evans, became first to climb Himalayan peak Kangchenjunga, third highest summit in world.
1962: Coventry’s new cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was consecrated, after six years of building.
1967: Celtic, managed by Jock Stein, became the first British football club to win the European Cup, beating Inter Milan 2- 1 in Lisbon.
1979: American Airlines DC- 10 lost an engine and nose- dived into ground at Chicago’s O’hare Airport, killing all 272 people aboard.
1982: Destroyer HMS Coventry was sunk by Argentine Exocet missiles in Falklands war.
1990: Prime minister Margaret Thatcher pledged to stabilise UK carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2000, and called for tough international efforts to save the earth from global warming. 1994: Camelot, a consortium including Cadbury Schweppes, security printer De La Rue and communication group Racal, won the contract to run the National Lottery.
1995: The Scottish Nationalists captured the late Sir Nicholas Fairbairn’s parliamentary seat of Perth and Kinross in an 11.5 per cent swing from the Tories.
1996: A woman swam for four hours to try to get help when a clam dredger sank in the Firth of Clyde. She survived, but her four companions drowned.
2009: Gordon Strachan resigned as manager of Celtic a day after his team lost the Scottish Premier League title to Rangers.
2011: As part of his state visit to the UK, American president Barack Obama addressed MPS and peers in Westminster Hall.