NOW & THEN
28 NOVEMBER
1520: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the strait later named after him and into the Pacific Ocean.
1717: The pirate Blackbeard attacked the French merchant ship La Concorde, which he then captured and renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge.
1720: Irish pirate Anne Bonny and her English accomplice, Mary Read, were sentenced to death in Jamaica. They were subsequently given a stay of execution as they were both pregnant.
1814: The Times newspaper printed for the first time using automatic, steam-powered presses, heralding the beginning of newpapers being available to a mass readership.
1885: British forces occupied Mandalay in Burma.
1871: Trials of the Ku Klux Klan began at the Federal district Court, South Carolina.
1905: Sinn Fein founded in Dublin.
1912: Albania declared independence.
1916: London experienced its first air raid.
1918: The Kaiser abdicated the crown of Prussia and Germany.
1919: American-born Lady Astor became the first female to take her seat in the House of Commons.
1934: Winston Churchill gave warning that weak defences could leave Britain “tortured into absolute subjection” in a war with Germany.
1937: General Franco began naval blockade of Spanish coast.
1942: A fire that destroyed Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston resulted in 492 deaths.
1943: The “Big Three” – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin – met in Tehran to discuss postwar policy.
1948: “Hopalong” Cassidy made his first television appearance.
1960: Mauritania became independent Islamic republic.
1964: Nasa launched Mariner 4 to explore Mars.
1968: John Lennon was fined £150 for unauthorised possession of cannabis.
1971: Jordan’s prime minister, Wasfi Tell, was assassinated at an Arab conference in Cairo.
1977: Rhodesia announced at least 1,200 deaths in raids against black nationalist guerrillas across border in Mozambique.
1987: South African Airways jet with 159 people aboard crashed in Indian Ocean near Mauritius.
1989: West German chancellor Helmut Kohl proposed a plan for the confederation of East and West Germany.
1994: In Portage, Wisconsin, convicted serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was clubbed to death by a fellow inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution gymnasium.
2010: Abodyofukand international doctors voted antibiotics the most important medical development of the past 50 years.
BIRTHDAYS
Berry Gordy, founder of Tamla Motown, 90; Fiona Armstrong, Lady Macgregor of Macgregor, TV presenter and author, Lord Lieutenant of Dumfries, 63; Alistair Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, Labour politician, 66; Dervla Murphy, Irish author, 88; Randy Newman, singer and songwriter, 76; Karen Gillan, Scottish actress, 32; Martin Clunes OBE, actor, 58; Sian Williams, TV presenter, 55; Richard Osman, TV presenter and producer, 49; John Galliano CBE, British fashion designer, 59; Kriss Akabusi MBE, athlete, 61; Armando Iannucci OBE, Scottish writer, TV director and radio producer, 56; Barbara Morgan, astronaut, 68; Joe Dante, film director, 73; ; Laura Miller, Scottish broadcast journalist, 39
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1489 Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV of Scotland; 1628 John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress; 1757 William Blake, poet and artist; 1820 Friedrich Engels, German socialist; 1829 Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer; 1904 Nancy Mitford CBE, novelist and journalist; 1908 Claude Lévi-strauss, anthropologist.
Deaths: 1680 Gian Bernini, sculptor; 1859 Washington Irving, author; 1939 James Naismith, inventor of basketball; 1945 Dwight Davis, donor of the Davis Cup for tennis; 1968 Enid Blyton, writer of children’s books; 1993 Kenneth Connor MBE, “Carry On” actor; 1994 Buster Edwards, Great Train Robber; 2001 Bill Reid, Glasgow-born VC; 2010 Leslie Nielsen, actor.