NOW & THEN
30 MARCH
1603: The Earl of Tyrone, the Irish rebel, submitted to Lord Mountjoy at Mellifort.
1772: Robert Clive defended his administration of Bengal, in India, at a hearing in the House of Commons.
1806: Joseph Bonaparte became King of Naples.
1820: Duc de Richelieu re-established censorship in France.
1842: Ether was used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by American surgeon Doctor Crawford Long, of Jefferson, Georgia, when he removed a cyst from the neck of James Venable after administering sulphuric ether on a towel.
1855: Treaty of Peshawar, whereby Britain and Afghanistan formed alliance against Persia.
1856: The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Crimean War.
1863: Poland was divided into provinces by Russia.
1867: Alaska was bought by America from Russia for $7.2million. The 375 acres worked out at less than 2 cents an acre, and included rights to fur, fish, timber, minerals and gold.
1885: Russian occupation of Penjeh, Afghanistan, provoked crisis in British-russian relations.
1912: Sultan of Morocco signed a treaty making Morocco a French protectorate.
1933: James Hertzog formed national coalition in South Africa and was joined by Jan Smuts.
1940: Japan established a puppet government in occupied China.
1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenburg found guilty in America’s first atom bomb spy trial.
1964: The seaside resort of Clacton was the scene of pitched battles by gangs of mods and rockers.
1966: United States embassy in Saigon was blown up by the Vietcong with the loss of 13 lives.
1967: The tanker Torrey Canyon, which had gone aground on the Pollard Rock between the Isles of Scilly and Land’s End on 18 March, was bombed and destroyed.
1972: William Whitelaw became secretary of state for Northern Ireland as the province came under direct rule from London.
1981: United States president Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination bid outside Washington’s Hilton Hotel.
1987: Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh, was sold at auction by Christie’s for £24,750,000.
1990: Estonia’s parliament declared the Soviet Union an occupying power and pledged to seek full independence.
1992: The United Nations voted to impose sanctions on Libya for failing to hand over two Lockerbie bombing suspects.
1994: The prime minister, John Major, dismissed the IRA’S announcement of a post-easter three-day ceasefire as “selfserving and cynical”.
2006: The UK Terrorism Act 2006 became law.
2010: Scotland was battered by severe storms that forced the closure of several main road and rail arteries.
2012: Two men were convicted of plotting to send parcel bombs designed to cause severe injury to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two other high-profile fans.
BIRTHDAYS
Warren Beatty, US actor, 83; Tracy Chapman, US singer and songwriter, 56; Eric Clapton CBE, British guitarist, 75; Sue Cook, British broadcaster, 71; Céline Dion, singer, 52; MC Hammer, rapper, 58; Norah Jones, singer and pianist, 41; Robbie Coltrane OBE, Scottish actor and director, 70; Stuart Armstrong, Scottish footballer, 28
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1746 Francisco de Goya, Spanish artist; 1820 Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty; 1853 Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter; 1880 Sean O’casey, Irish playwright; 1900 Ted Heath, bandleader; 1913 Frankie Laine, singer; 1928 Tom Sharpe, British novelist (Wilt).
Deaths: 1840 George Bryan (“Beau”) Brummell, dandy and fashion leader; 1914 Tito Mattei, pianist, composer; 1925 Rudolph Steiner, social philosopher; 1979 Airey Neave, MP and barrister (killed by car bomb); 1986 James Cagney, American film actor; 1987 Maria Von Trapp, whose story was basis for The Sound of Music; 2002 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; 2004 Alistair Cooke KBE, journalist and broadcaster of A Letter from America 1946-2004; 2014 Kate O’mara, actress.