Now & Then
11 MAY
868: The first printed book, known as the Diamond Sutra, was published in China. It was discovered in 1900.
1812: Spencer Perceval, Tory prime minister, was shot and killed by a bankrupt Liverpool broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons.
1940: Winston Churchill became head of the wartime coalition government.
1941: House of Commons chamber destroyed in blitz bombing which, on same night, damaged Westminster Abbey, the British Museum and four mainline stations. The death toll was 1,400. 1949: Israel was admitted to the United Nations.
1949: Siam changed name to Thailand.
1962: Prince Charles became a pupil at Gordonstoun School. 1971: The Daily Sketch closed after 62 years.
1973: Lower House of West German legislature ratified treaty establishing formal relations between the two halves of divided Germany.
1983: Aberdeen FC won the European Cup-winners’ Cup by beating Real Madrid 2-1 in Gothenburg.
1985: Fire broke out in the main stand of Bradford City football ground and 56 spectators died. 1987: Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government imposed direct federal control on Punjab State because of continued violence by Sikh separatists. 1989: New Official Secrets Act given Royal Assent.
1990: Inflation in Britain, at 9.4 per cent, was the highest for eight years.
1991: New proposals were made to avert a deadlock between Britain and its European partners over economic and monetary union. 1992: Judith Ward, jailed for life in 1974 for the M62 coach bombing in which 12 people died, was released on bail pending an Appeal Court hearing. Her conviction was later quashed.
1994: The late Marquess of Bute left estate valued at £144 million, the bulk of it in trust to his son and heir, racing driver Johnny Dumfries.
1995: The Nolan Committee on standards in public life recommended stringent restrictions on the freedom of MPS to make money from outside interests.
1997: IBM Deep Blue, a chessplaying supercomputer, defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a worldchampion chess player in a classic match format.
2004: Nine people died when an explosion destroyed the fourstorey Stockline Plastics factory in Maryhill, Glasgow.
2010: Conservative leader David Cameron became the new UK prime minister after the resignation of Labour leader Gordon Brown. 2011: A magnitude 5.3 earthquake killed ten people and damaged several buildings near the town of Lorca in southern Spain.
2011: Scottish police mounted a crackdown on drivers not wearing their seatbelts which led to 428 drivers and 26 passengers being caught with no belt on.
2014: The annual Sunday Times super-rich list revealed that the number of billionaires living in the UK rose to more than 100 for the first time.
BIRTHDAYS
Lady Rachel Billington OBE, British writer, 82; Eric Burdon, rock singer (The Animals), 83; Laetitia Casta, French model, 46; Frances Fisher, British actress, 72; Andrés Iniesta, Spanish football player, 40; John Parrott MBE, snooker player and commentator, 60; Jeremy Paxman, British television presenter, 74; Ian Redpath, Australian cricketer, 83; Holly Valance, Australian actress and singer, 41; Judith Weir CBE, British composer, 70; Pam Ferris, British actress, 76.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1888 Irving Berlin, US songwriter; 1892 Dame Margaret Rutherford, actress; 1894 Martha Graham, dancer-choreographer; 1904 Salvador Dali, Spanish artist; 1912 Phil Silvers, comedy actor; 1922 Eve Boswell, singer; 1963 Natasha Richardson, stage and screen actress.
Deaths: 1979 Barbara Hutton, heiress; 1981 Bob Marley, reggae musician; 1988 Harold “Kim” Philby, double agent; 2001 Douglas Adams, author; 2004 Alf Valentine, cricketer; 2006 Floyd Patterson, world boxing champion; 2008 Jeff Torrington, Gorbals-born writer.