NOW & THEN
1295: Treaty between King John Balliol of Scotland and King Philippe le Bel of France, made at Paris for mutual military help against the English – “the Auld Alliance.”
1707: The first Parliament of Great Britain met.
1822: The Caledonian Canal, 60 miles long, was opened.
1861: Prince Albert laid foundation stone of the Industrial Museum in Chambers Street, Edinburgh, later to become the Royal Museum of Scotland.
1897: First Post Office motor van, a Daimler, went into service in London.
1911: Winston Churchill became First Lord of the Admiralty.
1922: Andrew Bonar Law became British prime minister. Because of ill-health he was replaced by Stanley Baldwin after seven months.
1942: The Battle of El Alamein in Egypt began with a barrage of a thousand guns aimed at Italian and German troops. 20,000 German troops became prisoners of war.
1946: First meeting of United Nations General Assembly took place in New York.
1954: Britain, France, United States and Soviet Union agreed to end occupation of Germany.
1970: World record speed for rocket-engine car set at 631mph by American Gary Gabelich on Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
1972: Access credit cards were launched in Britain.
1983: Suicide terrorists blew up US Marines HQ at Beirut Airport, Lebanon, and nearby French headquarters with bomb-laden trucks, killing 241 Marines and 58 Frenchmen.
1986: Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Syria after jury convicted Arab man of trying to blow up an Israeli airliner.
1987: Lester Piggott, 11 times champion jockey and later a top trainer, was jailed for three years for tax evasion. He was later stripped of his OBE.
1990: Israel barred Palestinians living in occupied territories from travelling to Israel after series of attacks on Jews and Arabs in that country.
1991: The House of Lords ruled that husbands could legally be convicted of raping their wives.
1997: A government watchdog bowed to pressure and agreed to re-examine childhood cancer clusters around Dounreay nuclear reactor.
1998: Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat reached a “land for peace” agreement.
2001: Apple announced launch of the ipod.
2002: Chechen terrorists seized the House of Culture theatre in Moscow and took 700 theatre-goers hostage.
2004: A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200 and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.
2009: Due to strike action, the Royal Mail was forced to admit that it had a backlog of 30 million letters.
2012: BBC Ceefax, the world’s first teletext service, was turned off as the UK’S digital switchover was completed. A series of graphics on Ceefax’s front page marked its 38 years on the BBC.