NOW & THEN
9 OCTOBER
768: Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I were crowned Kings of the Franks.
1779: The first Luddite riots broke out in a lace factory in Loughborough when workers protested against labour-saving machinery.
1804: Hobart in Tasmania was formed.
1824: Slavery was abolished in Costa Rica.
1870: The city of Rome was incorporated into Italy.
1874: The Universal Postal Union was established, with headquarters in Berne, Switzerland.
1888: The 555ft white marble Washington Monument, designed by Robert Mills, was opened in Washington, DC.
1905: Sarah Bernhardt, playing Floria in Tosca, jumped from a parapet but stage hands had forgotten to put down mattresses and she fell heavily on her right knee. She eventually lost her leg.
1921: The Laird Line Glasgowdublin ferry Rowan sank, with the loss of 34 passengers and crew after collisions with two ships off Wigtownshire.
1962: Uganda became independent after nearly 70 years of British rule, with Milton Obote as its first prime minister.
1967: Ernesto “Che” Guevara, guerrilla leader and revolutionary, was executed in Bolivia.
1968: Harold Wilson and Ian Smith met on HMS Fearless, off Gibraltar, for unsuccessful talks about Rhodesia’s independence.
1970: Following the overthrow of the government of Prince Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Khmer Republic was proclaimed.
1975: Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov won the Nobel Peace Prize.
1981: Capital punishment was abolished in France.
1986: The Phantom of the Opera, starring Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford, premiered at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London.
1988: The BBC announced a new radio network to be known as Radio 5, which would carry live sport and educational programmes.
1989: Penthouse magazine’s first Hebrew edition was published.
1991: The first sumo wrestling tournament in the sport’s 1500year history ever to take place outside Japan, began at the Royal Albert Hall in London. 1992: The IRA continued its mainland bombing campaign when two more devices exploded in central London. Nobody was hurt.
1994: A London protest march against the Criminal Justice Bill erupted into a riot as demonstrators clashed with police and then looted shops in Oxford Street.
1999: The last flight of the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird”.
2004: The Queen opened the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood, in Edinburgh. It was completed three years late and cost ten times the estimated price.
2006: North Korea tested its first nuclear device.
2011: German racing driver Sebastian Vettel won the Formula 1 title and became the youngest man to secure two World Drivers’ Championships.
BIRTHDAYS
David Cameron, Conservative Party leader and prime minister 1010-2016, 53; Brian Blessed OBE, actor and mountaineer, 83; Jackson Browne, singer and songwriter, 71; Sally Burgess, classical singer, 66; John Doubleday, painter, sculptor, 72; PJ (Polly Jean) Harvey MBE, singer and guitarist, 50; Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, 84; Sean Lennon, singer, 44; Steve Ovett OBE, athlete, 64; John Pilger, journalist, author and film-maker, 80; Sharon Osbourne, TV host and music promoter, 67; Scott Bakula, actor, 65; Nicky Byrne, singer-songwriter (Westlife), 41; Steve R Mcqueen CBE, film director (12 Years A Slave), 50.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1900 Alastair Sim, Edinburgh-born actor; 1907 Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone, Lord Chancellor 1970-74 and 1979-87; 1926 Ruth Ellis, murderer, last woman to be executed in UK; 1940 John Lennon, songwriter and Beatles member; 1944 John Entwistle, musician (The Who). Deaths: 1967 Che Guevara, revolutionary leader; 1974 Oskar Schindler, German industrialist who saved 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust; 1995 Alec Douglas Home, Lord Home of the Hirsel, Conservative prime minister, 1963-4.