NOW & THEN
FEBRUARY 27
The Scots under the Earl of Angus defeated English under Sir Ralph Eure at Battle of Ancrum.
Southwest Pacific island of New Britain was discovered by English navigator William Dampier.
Warsaw Massacre occurred when crowd was fired upon by Russian troops during demonstration against Russian rule.
Boers defeated British force at Majuba Hill in South Africa.
Labour Party was formed with Ramsay Macdonald as secretary.
The Central Criminal Court, on the site of Newgate Prison, and commonly called the Old Bailey, was opened.
British hospital ship Glenart Castle was sunk by U-boat in the Bristol Channel.
Reichstag, German parliament building in Berlin, was burned, and Nazis blamed Communists.
Britain and France recognised General Francisco Franco’s government in Spain.
United Nations held first meeting in New York headquarters.
Goldie the eagle escaped from London Zoo and settled in Regent’s Park. His freedom flights were followed by television and newspapers until his capture on 10 March.
Eskimo leaders in Canada presented government with claim to quarter of a million square miles of land.
Egypt restricted special privileges of Palestinians living in that country, and said they would be treated as any other Arab aliens.
A “Save the Doctor” campaign was started in Britain when the BBC left Doctor Who out of plans for BBC1.
Ferdinand Marcos started life in exile in Hawaii after hurried departure from Philippines.
Allies pinned down Iraqi Republican Guards near Basra in biggest tank battle since Second World War.
Nine Orkney children from four families on South Ronaldsay were taken into care after allegations of child sex abuse. They were returned home on 4 April.
A bomb exploded at London Bridge train station, injuring 28 people. IRA claimed responsibility as part of threatened preelection bombing campaign.
Three shoppers badly
hurt in an IRA bomb blast in Camden Town, north London.
Appeal judges ordered eight Ayrshire children, victims of alleged abuse, to be reunited with their parents nearly five years after they had been taken from them.
Ryanair Flight 296 caught fire at London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticised Ryanair’s handling of the evacuation.
A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines’ worst terrorist attack killed 116.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange fell 9 per cent – the largest drop in a decade.
Central Chile was hit by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake which left more than 700 people dead and two million affected.