NOW & THEN
13 MAY
1568: Battle of Langside, in which a force raised by Mary, Queen of Scots, after her escape from Loch Leven Castle, was defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants. It was her last attempt to regain the throne from her son and his adherents.
1607: Captain John Smith and 105 Cavaliers in three ships landed on the Virginia coast and started the first permanent English settlement in the New World, in Jamestown.
1787: A fleet of 11 ships containing about 730 convicts set out from England to Australia, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, on a journey which lasted until the following January.
1871: Law of Guarantees in Italy declared Pope’s person inviolable and allowed him possession of the Vatican.
1891: Bogey score in golf introduced.
1949: The first British-designed jet bomber, English Electric Canberra B Mark One, was test flown at Warton, Lancashire, by Wing Commander RP Beaumont.
1957: The first regular schools programmes on television began on BBC.
1968: Peace negotiations officially opened in Paris between United States and North Vietnam.
1973: Nineteen nations began talks in Vienna aimed at cutting number of troops in Europe.
1981: An attempt was made on the life of Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square, Rome. He was shot at close range by a Turkish terrorist.
1988: Riot police stormed sacred Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem and fired rubber bullets at Muslim worshippers.
1990: Two American airmen slain near Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, in attack blamed on communist rebels.
1991: South African judge convicted Winnie Mandela of conspiracy in kidnap and assault of four youths in Soweto, including Stompie Moeketsi, later murdered.
1995: Alison Hargreaves, 33, a mother of two from Spean Bridge, became the first woman to climb Everest solo and without oxygen. She died three months later while descending K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.
2000: Donald Dewar was elected as First Minister of the Scottish Parliament.
The Andijan Massacre occurred in Uzbekistan.
A major rebellion occurred in several prisons in São Paulo, Brazil.
2009: Former golf Open champion Paul Lawrie vowed to never return to an exclusive golf club after it kicked him out over remarks he made about the state of its course.
2011: Network Rail was fined £3 million for safety failings over the Potters Bar train crash, which killed seven people.
2011: Sienna Miller agreed to accept £100,000 in damages from the News of the World, after the paper admitted liability over the hacking of the actress’s phone.
2014: More than 300 miners were killed following an explosion and fire at a coal mine in Manisa province, western Turkey.
BIRTHDAYS
FRANCES BARBER British actress, 62
Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, advocate, explorer, Rothesay Herald of Arms, 76; Joe Brown MBE, British actor and singer, 79; Jane Glover CBE, British conductor, 71; Harvey Keitel, US actor, 81; Richard Madeley, British TV presenter, 64; Samantha Morton, actress, 43; 59; Selina Scott, British TV presenter, 69; Zoë Wanamaker CBE, Americanenglish actress, 71; Stevie Wonder, singer and songwriter, 70; Robert Pattinson, British actor, 34; Jane Cox, British actress, 68; Casey Stoney MBE, England Women international footballer, 38
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1842 Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, composer; 1882 Georges Braque, French Cubist painter; 1907 Dame Daphne du Maurier, novelist; 1914 Joe Louis, “the Brown Bomber”, world heavyweight champion 1937-49; 1937 Trevor Baylis CBE, British inventor (wind-up radio). Deaths: 1835 John Nash, architect; 1907 Alexander Buchan, meteorologist, founder of the Ben Nevis Observatory; 1961 Gary Cooper, American film actor; 1997 Laurie Lee MBE, author and poet; 2019 Doris Day, American singer, film actress and animal welfare activist.