NOW & THEN
23 APRIL
1349: The Order of the Garter, Britain’s senior chivalric order limited to 24 knights, was founded by King Edward III.
1533: Catholic Church inquiry declared marriage of Catherine of Aragon to England’s King Henry VIII valid.
1795: Warren Hastings, former British governor-general of India, was acquitted of high treason.
1867: Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon III of France turned down proposals for a Channel Tunnel.
1879: The first Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened in Stratford-upon-avon. On the same day in 1932 the New Shakespeare Memorial Theatre was opened by the Prince of Wales.
1924: The Empire Exhibition opened at Wembley Stadium.
1935: Poland’s Constitution was adopted after nine years of discussions.
1945: Allied troops reached River Po in Italy.
1950: The first children’s newsreel was shown on television.
1965: The Pennine Way was opened, covering 250 miles from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm in the Borders.
1967: Russian Soyuz 1 was launched, and after completing 17 orbits crashed on re-entry on the steppes of Orenburg, killing Vladimir Komarov.
1968: The 5p and 10p decimal coins were issued in Britain.
1972: Two US Apollo 16 astronauts blasted off from Moon and rejoined command ship for journey back to Earth.
1975: South Vietnam’s cabinet resigned as panic gripped Saigon and US president Gerald Ford declared Vietnam war was over.
1983: Cliff Thorburn scored the first televised maximum break of 147 in the World Snooker Championships at the Crucible, Sheffield.
1984: The United States announced the discovery of the Aids virus.
1985: Princess Anne made her flat racing debut at Epsom.
1990: Great train robber Charles Wilson was shot dead at his Marbella home in Spain.
1991: Michael Heseltine, the environment secretary, announced successor to the poll tax – the council tax based on bands of property values.
1993: A public outcry forced the Isle of Man government to abandon plans to remove punishment by birching from the statute book.
1993: The World Health Organisation declared tuberculosis a global emergency, saying TB could kill 30 million people by 2003.
1995: Up to 8,000 refugees were reported dead in Rwanda, shot by government troops or trampled to death in the panic.
2003: Beijing closed all schools for two weeks because of the Sars virus.
2009: The gamma ray burst GRB 090423 was observed for ten seconds. The event signalled the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe.
2018: A third child, a boy, was born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at St Mary’s Hospital, London. Prince Louis Arthur Charles became fifth in line to the British throne.
BIRTHDAYS
JOHN HANNAH East Kilbrideborn actor, 58
Judy Davis, Australian actress, 65; Victoria Glendinning CBE, British biographer, novelist and literary critic, 83; Ross Ford, Scottish international rugby union player, 36; Richard Keys, British broadcaster, 63; Jaime King, American actress, 41; Lee Majors, American actor, 81; Michael Moore, Academy Award-winning filmmaker and author, 66; Dev Patel, actor (Slumdog Millionaire), 30; Tessa Wyatt, British actress, 72; Alistair Brownlee MBE, Olympic athlete, 32; Brendan Cole, ballroom dancer, 44.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: JMW Turner, land1775 scape and seascape painter; 1858 Max Planck, German scientist who originated the quantum theory; 1893 Billy Smart, circus proprietor; 1928 Sir William Cotton, managing director, BBC Television 1984-88; 1928 Shirley Temple Black, American child film star and diplomat; 1936 Roy Orbison, singer and composer. Deaths: 1616 William Shakespeare, playwright (on the same date as his traditional birthday in 1564); 1616 Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (creator of Don Quixote); 1850 William Wordsworth, poet; 1915 Rupert Brooke, poet; 2005 Sir John Mills, actor, producer and director.