On this day
1865: The Bill to abolish slavery in the US was signed.
1872: Dame Clara Butt was born. She was the contralto who first performed the song version of Land Of Hope And Glory.
1884: The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, was published. 1896: Mimi’s tiny hand was frozen for the first time as Puccini’s opera, La Boheme, opened in Turin.
1901: Actor Clark Gable was born in Ohio.
1930: The Times published its first crossword.
1949: The Government announced clothes rationing would end in Britain. 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 14 years’ exile in France.
1990: Bulgaria’s communist government resigned.
2003: Seven astronauts died as the
Columbia shuttle disintegrated upon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. 2013: The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union, was opened to the public.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The first ferry from Calais to arrive in post-Brexit Britain docked at the Port of Dover.