NOW & THEN
29 MAY
1453: Constantinople, capital of Byzantine Empire, was captured by Turks. Some historians list date as end of Middle Ages.
1660: After nearly nine years of exile, Charles II returned to London in triumph and was restored to the throne. 1871: Whit Monday became the first Bank Holiday in Britain. 1922: Horatio Bottomley, journalist, MP and founder of John Bull magazine, was jailed for seven years for selling fraudulent Victory Bonds after the First World War.
1923: Palestine Constitution was suspended by British because Arabs refused to co-operate.
1930: The BBC formed its own permanent Symphony Orchestra under the directorship of Sir Adrian Boult.
1943: Americans defeated Japanese in Battle of Attu in Aleutian Islands in Second World War.
1950: First episode of The Archers on BBC radio.
1951: Easington Colliery explosion in Co Durham killed 83 miners.
1953: Everest, the world’s highest mountain, was conquered by Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay. The news broke four days later on Coronation Day, 2 June.
1959: Charles de Gaulle formed a government of national safety in France.
1961: First TV interview with a member of the Royal Family. The Duke of Edinburgh spoke to Richard Dimbleby on BBC Panorama.
1966: Buddhist nun burned herself to death outside a pagoda in South Vietnamese city of Hue in protest against country’s military government.
1968: Manchester United became the first English football club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica of Portugal 4-1 at Wembley Stadium.
1984: Sikh terrorists killed seven people in new wave of hit-and-run attacks in India’s troubled Punjab State.
1985: At Heysel Stadium, Brussels, 38 football fans died when a wall collapsed as a result of crowd violence before the Liverpool versus Juventus match.
1990: Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russian Federation.
1992: Australian tycoon Alan Bond was jailed for 30 months for dishonesty.
1993: Rangers completed the treble when they beat Aberdeen 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final.
1995: A “state of the nation” opinion poll showed that the majority of Britons had lost faith in the system of government and were in favour of a bill of rights and a written constitution.
1999: Space Shuttle Discovery completed the first docking with the International Space Station.
2001: US Supreme Court ruled that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments.
2004: The Second World War Memorial is dedicated in Washington DC.
2014: Retired army field marshal Abdel Fattah al-sisi won 92 per cent of the votes in Egypt’s presidential election, held to bestow ‘legitimacy’ on his military ousting of predecessor Mohammed Morsi.