NOW & THEN
14 APRIL
1752: Colin Campbell of Glenure, the “Red Fox”, was shot in Appin. Campbell had been a notorious persecutor of Jacobites after Culloden.
1865: Abraham Lincoln, America’s 16th president, was shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, dying the next day. Andrew Johnson became president for the remainder of the term of office.
1914: The Driver and fireman of Edinburgh to Aberdeen express were killed in collision with the engine of a goods train at Burntisland station. Twelve passengers were injured.
1929: Monaco Grand Prix was first staged, 78 laps round the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, at an average 49.83mph.
1931: The Highway Code was first issued, as safety guide for pedestrians.
1931: King Alfonso XIII of Spain abdicated as anti-monarchists won local elections and set up Second Republic, whose instability contributed to Spanish Civil War.
1972: First quintuplets in Scotland, born to Mrs Linda Bostock, of Armadale, West Lothian.
1983: Cordless telephones went on sale in Britain.
1985: Robin Knox-johnston and four crew arrived at Plymouth after a record crossing of the Atlantic in catamaran British Airways I, in ten days, 18 minutes and 40 seconds.
1991: United States, British and French aircraft dropped tons of supplies to Kurdish refugees stranded on the Turkish and Iranian borders.
1991: Ian Woosnam won US Masters golf tournament at Augusta, giving Britain a fourth successive win.
1994: United States fighter jets shot down two of their own helicopters by mistake over northern Iraq, killing 26 people, including two British officers.
1996: Nick Faldo staged one of golf’s great comebacks to win his third US Masters title at Augusta, making up a six-shot deficit against Greg Norman.
1999: Nato mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees – Yugoslav officials said 75 people were killed.
1999: A severe hailstorm struck Sydney, Australia causing A$2.3 billion in insured damages – the most costly natural disaster in Australian history.
2002: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez returned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country’s military.
2003: The Human Genome Project was completed with 99 per cent of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99 per cent.
2003: US troops in Baghdad captured Abu Abbas, leader of the Palestinian group that killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner the MS Achille Lauro in 1985.
2007: At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protested against the possible candidacy of incumbent prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
2010: More than 2,500 people were killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Yushu, Qinghai, China.
2014: Almost 300 schoolgirls were abducted by the militant group Boko Haram in the village of Chibok in Nigeria.
BIRTHDAYS
Ian “Mighty Mouse” Mclaughlan OBE, Scottish rugby player,
79; Ritchie Blackmore, British rock guitarist (Deep Purple), 76; Barbara Bonney, American soprano, 65; Abigail Breslin, actress, 25; Adrien Brody, American actor, 48; Robert Carlyle OBE, Glasgow-born actor, 60; Julie Christie, British actress, 81; Sarah Michelle Gellar, American actress, 44; Anthony Michael Hall, actor, 53; Paddy Hopkirk MBE, British rally driver, 88; Julian Lloyd Webber, British cellist, 70; Loretta Lynn, American country singer, 89; Georgina Chapman, fashion designer and actress, 45.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1917 Valerie Hobson (Mrs John Profumo), actress; 1924 Baroness Warnock DBE, British philosopher and writer; 1925 Rod Steiger, actor; 1930 Bradford Dillman, US actor. Deaths: 1985 Noele Gordon, actress; 1986 Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist writer; 1995 Burl Ives, singer; 1998 Dorothy Squires, singer; 1999 Anthony Newley, actor, singer and composer; 2001 Jim Baxter, footballer; 2010 Greville Starkey, British jockey; 2011 Trevor Bannister, British actor; 2015 Percy Sledge, singer.