NOW & THEN
19 SEPTEMBER
1796: George Washington made his farewell speech as US president.
1848: American George Phillips Bond and Englishman William Lassell, independently of each other, discovered Saturn’s moon, Hyperion.
1849: The first commercial laundry was established in Oakland, California.
1854: The Great North of Scotland Railway opened, from Aberdeen to Huntly.
1870: Prussian forces began the siege of Paris. It lasted until January 28, 1871.
1879: The Blackpool illuminations were switched on for the first time.
1888: The world’s first beauty contest was held in Spa, Belgium.
1893: New Zealand became the first nation to grant female citizens the right to vote.
1926: The San Siro stadium in Milan was inaugurated by a football match between AC Milan and Inter.
1928: Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in the movie Steamboat Willie – first shown at the Colony Theatre, New York. 1934: Bruno Richard Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with kidnapping baby of American aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.
1941: The Germans took Kiev in Soviet Union.
1945: William Joyce, known as “Lord Haw- Haw” for his wartime broadcasts for the Nazis, was sentenced to be hanged at the Old Bailey.
1955: Juan Peron, Argentine presidential dictator from 1946, resigned and went into exile after military revolt.
1958: Nasa was founded to co- ordinate non- military space flight and research.
1960: Chubby Checker’s The Twist – a cover of an original Hank Ballard song – entered the American charts and launched a dance craze.
1972: An Israeli diplomat was killed and another injured when letter bomb exploded at Israeli embassy in London.
1975: First of 12 episodes of BBC hotel comedy Fawlty Towers was broadcast.
1978: Egypt’s cabinet approved unanimously president Anwar Sadat’s Camp David agreement to sign peace treaty with Israel within three months.
1981: Black Friday on the Stock Exchange, the worst day for
share prices for five years. 1983: St Kitts & Nevis declared independence from UK.
1985: Two earthquakes hit Mexico City, killing more than 12,000. 1991: Ötzi the Iceman was discovered by German tourists. 1993: Nigel Mansell became only the third driver to claim both a Formula 1 and an Indycar title by winning the grand prix in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
2001: President George W Bush ordered 100 combat aircraft to the Persian Gulf in preparation for a possible strike against Afghanistan and the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. 2006: The Thai military staged a coup in Bangkok. The Constitution was revoked and martial law declared.
2015: Japan defeated South Africa 34- 32 in Brighton, causing the biggest upset in Rugby World Cup history.