◆ Now & Then
26 MARCH
1780: The first Sunday newspaper in Britain was published: the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
1839: The Henley Rowing Regatta at Henley-on-thames, Oxfordshire, was inaugurated.
1885: The first cremation in Britain took place at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.
1913: More than 1,400 people died in floods in American states of Ohio, Indiana and Texas.
1918: Allies appointed Marshal Foch as Allied commander-in-chief. 1923: Regular daily weather forecasting began on BBC radio. 1925: Paul von Hindenburg became president of Germany. 1926: Romania and Poland formed an alliance.
1927: Gaumont-british Film Corporation was founded.
1931: Treaty of friendship was signed between Iraq and Transjordan.
1934: Driving tests were introduced in Britain.
1937: Popeye the Sailor Man became the first cartoon character to have a statue erected. The residents of Crystal City, Texas, raised one to him because the principal crop grown in the area is his favourite spinach.
1942: Nazis began deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.
1945: Battle of Iwo Jima ended. 1953: In the United States, Doctor Jonas E Salk announced a new vaccine to immunise against polio. 1971: Pakistan was reported to be on verge of civil war as President Yahya Khan outlawed the rebellious Awami League.
1973: Mrs Susan Shaw became the first woman to set foot on the floor of the 171-year-old London Stock Exchange.
1975: South Vietnamese government announced the arrest of several people plotting to overthrow president Nguyen van Thieu.
1981: The “Gang of Four” Labour dissidents started the Social Democratic Party with the Limehouse Declaration.
1988: Iran and Iraq battled for mastery over Kurdistan mountains, just east of Iraqi oil fields.
1990: Police fired on demonstrators in Sebokeng, South Africa, killing 11 people and wounding hundreds. 1992: The former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was jailed for six years for raping a beauty queen, Desiree Washington.
1996: Mel Gibson’s film about William Wallace, Braveheart, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the Oscars in Hollywood.
1997: Thirty-nine members of the Heavens Gate cult committed mass suicide near San Diego. 2006: A complete ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces came into effect in Scotland. Smokers breaking the law faced a £50 fine. 2009: Police in Scotland revealed that there were 74 domestic abuse attacks each day; or 270,000 a year. 2010: The Scottish island of Sanda, off the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, which has just one resident and its own pub, sold for £2.5 million to a Swiss businessman. 2010: ITV axed police drama The Bill after 27 years.
2010: Forty-six were killed when a South Korean warship sank, allegedly after an attack by North Korea.
BIRTHDAYS
Kyung-wha Chung, Korean violinist, 76; Jennifer Grey, American actress, 64; William Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond, 63; Erica Jong, American writer, 82; Keira Knightley OBE, British actress, 39; Diana Ross, singer (The Supremes), 80; Martin Short, Canadian actor, 74; Ian Tough, Glasgow-born actor and entertainer (The Krankies), 77; Steven Tyler, rock musician (Aerosmith), 76; Bob Woodward, Watergate journalist, 81.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1874 Robert Frost, American poet; 1887 “Chico” Marx, film comedian; 1911 Tennessee Williams, American dramatist; 1925 Pierre Boulez, French conductor and composer; 1931 Leonard Nimoy, actor (Mr Spock in Star Trek) and directo.
Deaths: 1797 James Hutton, Edinburgh-born geologist; 1827 Ludwig van Beethoven, composer; 1945 David Lloyd George, first Earl Lloyd-george, Liberal prime minister; 1973 Sir Noel Coward, playwright, actor and songwriter; 2005 Lord Callaghan of Cardiff, Labour prime minister 1976-9.