NOW & THEN
MAY 9
1671: Colonel Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, tried to steal the crown jewels.
1788: Britain passed parliamentary motion for abolishing slave trade.
1901: Australia’s first federal parliament met in Melbourne.
1911: The Great Lafayette, illusionist, nine members of his company, a lion and a horse were burned to death on stage at the Empire Palace Theatre, Edinburgh. An illusion went wrong and scenery was set alight, but the safety curtain was lowered and the audience escaped.
1918: John Maclean, schoolmaster, labour leader and first Soviet Consul in Britain, tried in the High Court in Edinburgh for sedition.
1932: Piccadilly Circus, London, was first lit by electricity.
1933: Hitler ordered the burning of more than 25,000 books; “un-german” books were thrown on to a bonfire outside Berlin University.
1949: Prince Rainier III succeeded his grandfather Prince Louis II as head of state in Monaco.
1949: The first self-service launderette was opened in Britain, in Queensway, London.
1955: West Germany was admitted as a member of Nato.
1957: A blaze at Bell’s Brae, Edinburgh, destroyed the threestorey premises of William Mutrie & Sons, one of Britain’s biggest theatrical costumiers; about 90,000 costumes were lost.
1967: India’s vice-president Zakir Hussain was named president of India, becoming the first Muslim to hold that office.
1974: Impeachment proceedings began in the United States against president Richard Nixon.
1978: Bullet-riddled body of Italy’s former prime minister Aldo Moro was found in a parked car in central Rome, 54 days after his abduction.
1991: English Heritage and National Trust unveiled a £10 million plan for 1,400-acre archaeological park around Stonehenge involving road closure and development of military land.
1992: The first of nine IRA firebombs was found at the Metrocentre shopping complex in Gateshead.
1995: The Scottish Rugby Union banned Murrayfield forward Bill Blyth for five years for breaking an opponent’s jaw in two places.
2001: In Ghana 129 football fans died in what became known as the Accra Sports Stadium Disaster. The deaths are caused by a stampede (caused by the firing of tear gas by police personnel at the stadium) that followed a controversial decision by the referee.
2002: The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem came to an end when the Palestinians inside agreed to have 13 suspected terrorists among them deported to several different countries.
2004: Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed in a land mine blast under a VIP stage during a Second World War memorial victory parade in Grozny, Chechnya.
2012: A Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed in Indonesia on a demonstration flight killing all 45 people on board.
BIRTHDAYS
Alan Bennett, British playwright, 88; Candice Bergen, US actress, 76; James L Brooks, US writer/ director, 82; Dave Gahan, singer (Depeche Mode), 60; Paul Heaton, British pop singer/ guitarist (The Housemartins, Beautiful South), 60; Glenda Jackson CBE, British actress and MP, 86; Billy Joel, US singer, 73; Matthew Kelly, actor, 72; Ruth Kelly, ex-labour Cabinet minister and MP, 54; Paul Mcguigan, rock musician (Oasis), 51; Tommy Roe, US singer, 80; Patrick Ryecart, British actor, 70; Marc Sinden, British actor, 68; Lord (John) Wheatley, former Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 81.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1920 Richard Adams, British author; 1930 Joan Sims, actress; 1932 Geraldine Mcewan, British actress; 1932 Gavin Lyall, thriller writer; 1936 Terry Downes, British boxer; 1936 Albert Finney, British actor. Deaths: 1985 Edmond O’brien, actor; 1986 Sherpa Tensing Norgay, mountaineer; 2010 Lena Horne, US singer; 2012 Vidal Sassoon CBE, hairdresser; 2014 Mary Stewart, novelist; 2019 Freddie Starr, comic; 2019 Brian Walden, MP 1964-74 and broadcaster; 2020 Little Richard, US rock’n’roll singer/pianist.