NOW & THEN
1 SEPTEMBER
AD710: Death of St Giles, patron saint of Edinburgh and Elgin.
1644: The Marquis of Montrose defeated the Covenanters at the Battle of Tippermuir.
1689: Russia began taxing men’s beards.
1720: Prince James Frances Edward Stewart (the “Old Pretender”) married Polish princess Maria Clementine Sobieska.
1804: Professor Harding discovered Juno, a “minor planet” between Mars and Jupiter that takes four years to orbit the sun.
1858: The Crown took over the administration of India from the East India Company.
1879: Britain signed peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.
1893: The Government of Ireland Bill 1893 (known as the “second Home Rule Bill”) was vetoed by the House of Lords by 419 votes to 41, having been passed by the House of Commons.
1906: British New Guinea was placed under Australian administration.
1914: St Petersburg, Russia changed its name to Petrograd.
1923: An earthquake shook Japan, leaving Tokyo and Yokohama in ruins and causing nearly 200,000 deaths.
1938: Benito Mussolini cancelled the civil rights of Italian Jews.
1939: Germany’s Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Poland, provoking the Second World War.
1939: The BBC Home Service on the radio began.
1941: Jews living in Germany were required to wear the yellow Star of David.
1945: Japan formally surrendered aboard USS battleship Missouri to end the Second World War.
1969: Colonel Muammar al-gaddafi became head of state of Libya, after leading a military coup overthrowing King Idris.
1971: The only remaining gas street lamp in Glasgow was lit for the final time.
1971: The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender.
1972: North Sea cod war began as Iceland extended its fishing limits from 12 to 50 miles.
1973: George Foreman defeated Jose Roman to win the first world heavyweight title fight to be held in Japan. 1981: British garages started selling petrol by the litre.
1985: Freuchie, in Fife, won the Village Cricket Cup at Lord’s Cricket Ground, the first time a Scottish club side had played at the hallowed venue.
1990: Surgeons operated for the second time on the Prince of Wales’s right arm, broken when he fell from his horse during a polo match.
1997: It was reported in Paris that the driver of the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales died was three times over the drinkdrive limit and may have been driving at 120mph.
2004: Beslan school hostage crisis commenced when armed terrorists took children and adults hostage in North Ossetia, Russia.
2010: Financial services firm Standard Life announced the axing of 600 jobs.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1653 Johann Pachelbel, composer and organist; 1854 Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer; 1864
Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist; 1866 James “Gentleman Jim” Corbett, world heavyweight boxing champion; 1875 Edgar Rice Burroughs, author; 1922 Yvonne Decarlo, actress; 1923 Rocky Marciano, world heavyweight boxing champion; 1931 Boxcar Willie, country music singer; 1933 Conway Twitty, singer; 1951 David Bairstow, cricketer. Deaths: 1159 Adrian IV, the only Englishman (Nicholas Breakspear) elected Pope; 1557 Jacques Cartier, explorer who discovered Canada; 1963 Guy Burgess, spy; 1967 Siegfried Sassoon, war poet; 1977 Ethel Waters, blues, jazz and gospel singer and actress; 2001 Brian Moore, sports commentator; 2015 Dean Jones, actor; 2017 Cardinal Cormac MurphyO’connor, retired cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.