NOW & THEN
8 JULY
951: The city of Paris was founded.
1296: Abdication of King John Balliol at Montrose.
1497: Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama set out on his first voyage. He became the first European to reach India by sea.
1790: The Forth and Clyde Canal was opened after 22 years of construction.
1792: France declared war on Prussia.
1836: Charles Darwin reached St Helena aboad HMS Beagle.
1858: British proclaimed peace in India.
1884: The National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded.
1907: Florenz Ziegfeld staged the first of his Ziegfeld Follies shows on the rooftop of a Broadway theatre.
1918: National Savings stamps went on sale in Britain.
1941: All Jews living in the Baltic states were obligated to wear the Jewish star.
1947: Reports were received that a UFO had crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
1948: The Russian Orthodox Church celebrated its 500th anniversary.
1949: South Africa passed the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, banning the marriage or sexual relationship between white people and those of other race groups.
1957: Leaders of Sinn Fein were arrested by order of Irish premier Eamon de Valera.
1961: Freddie Trueman took five wickets for no runs in 24 balls for England against Australia.
1963: USA banned all monetary transactions with Cuba.
1965: Ronald Biggs, one of the Great Train robbers, scaled the wall of Wandsworth Prison with a rope ladder and landed on a furniture van outside. He had served 15 months of his sentence. He settled in Brazil but returned to Britain and gave himself up in 2001.
1967: Air and ground fighting broke out between Israel and Egypt along Suez Canal.
1969: Bishops and priests of Church of England defeated proposal for reunification with Methodist Church.
1969: USA began the withdrawl of troops from Vietnam.
1971: Riots erupted in Derry after British soldiers shot dead two Catholic civilians during street disturbances. Social Democrats and Labour party withdrew from Stormont in protest.
1973: Paul Getty III, grandson of John Paul Getty, the world’s richest man, was kidnapped. After having his right ear cut off, he was returned for a ransom of $2.9 million.
1989: Carlos Saul Menum became president of Argentina.
1994: A preliminary trial ruled that there was enough evidence to try OJ Simpson for the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and waiter Ronald Lyle Goldman.
1999: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published by Bloomsbury.
2010: Former Labour Party deputy leader John Prescott was introduced to the House of Lords as Baron Prescott of Kingston-upon-hull.
2014: Brazil suffered the humiliation of a 7-1 defeat by Germany in the World Cup semi-final, the host nation’s first competitive home loss for 39 years.
BIRTHDAYS
Beck (born Beck Hansen), pop musician, 49; Sophia Bush, actress, 37; Billy Crudup, actor, 51; Sourav Ganguly, cricketer, 47; Anjelica Huston, actress, 68; Robbie Keane, Irish footballer, 39; Sarah Kennedy MBE, television presenter, 69; Dame Ellen Macarthur DBE, round-the-world record-breaking sailor, 43; Pauline Quirke, actress, 60; Russell Taylor MBE, cartoonist, 59; Milo Ventimiglia, actor, 42; Jeffrey Tambor, American actor, 75.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1831 John Pemberton, American pharmacist, inventor of Coca-cola; 1836 1838 Count Zeppelin, German airship pioneer; 1839 John D Rockefeller, philanthropist; 1851 Sir Arthur Evans, archaeologist who excavated Knossos; 1885 Hugo Boss, fashion designer; 1 1936 Tony Warren MBE, creator of Coronation Street.
Deaths: 1726 John Ker, Scottish spy; 1822 Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet; 1822 Sir Henry Raeburn, portrait painter, King’s Limner; 1855 Sir William Parry, Arctic explorer; 1957 William Cadbury, chocolate maker; 1967 Vivien Leigh, actress; 2011 Betty Ford, former US first lady; 2018 Alan Gilzean, Scottish footballer.