NOW & THEN
NOVEMBER 25
1034: Donnchad mac Crinain crowned King of Scotland following King Malcolm II’S death. 1491: The Siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, began.
1681: Commission from Charles II to Sir Thomas Dalyell of the Binns to form a regiment of horse, the Royal Regiment of Scots Dragoons, later the Royal Scots Greys, originally for the suppression of the Covenanters. 1758: British forces captured Senegal during the Seven Years' War with France.
1823: The first pleasure pier, The Chain Pier, at Brighton, opened.
1839: The port city of Coringa in India was destroyed by a cyclone, which killed 300,000 people.
1875: Britain bought 176,602 shares in the Suez Canal from Khedive of Egypt.
1882: To beat copyright pirates, Iolanthe, by Gilbert and Sullivan, was premiered in London and the United States, the first show to open simultaneously in both countries.
1911: Britain’s first successful seaplane fight was made over Lake Windermere.
1920: Government announced plans for a Severn Barrage to generate electricity.
1923: The first transatlantic wireless broadcast to the United States was made.
1932: Actors’ union Equity decided to operate a closed shop.
1940: The cartoon character Woody Woodpecker made his debut in the short animated film Knock, Knock.
1941: The battleship HMS Barham was sunk by a U-boat off Sollum, with 868 lives lost.
1953: Hungary defeated England 6-3 at Wembley, the first time England had lost at home to an overseas nation.
1955: Race segregation was forbidden on trains and buses between states in the USA. 1963: The funeral of US president John F Kennedy took place in Washington DC.
1969: John Lennon returned his MBE in protest against Britain’s support of the USA in the Vietnam war.
1973: Greece’s president, George Papadopoulos, was ousted after a military coup and succeeded by General Phaidon Gizikis.
1975: Surinam, South American republic previously called Dutch Guiana, became fully independent.
1984: Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? was recorded by a galaxy of superstars brought together to raise money for the starving in Ethiopia.
1985: Habitat and British Home Stores announced a merger deal worth £1.5 billion.
1989: Entrepreneur Richard Branson’s attempt to balloon across the Pacific was scrapped 30 minutes before launch after damage was discovered in the balloon.
1991: Winston Silcott, one of the ‘Tottenham Three’ jailed for life after the murder of PC Keith Blakelock in 1985, was cleared by the Appeal Court after evidence that police fabricated part of a statement attributed to him.
1995: The Republic of Ireland voted in a referendum to end its constitutional ban on divorce.