On this day: Pat Clinton became the sixth Scot to hold a world boxing title | Ivan the Terrible died

Published on 18/03/2013 00:00

Events, birthdays and anniversaries from 18 March

1291: Pope Gregory X issued a bull awarding clerical tithes of Scotland to Edward I of England for crusade.

1689: The Earl of Leven was commissioned to raise regiment of 800 in Border country to hold Edinburgh against Jacobites. It became The King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

1834: The Tolpuddle Martyrs, who set up society to stop decline of agricultural wages, were sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Tasmania. Public outcry had them released after two years.

1902: Enrico Caruso shouted ten operatic arias into a horn in a room in Hotel de Milano to make the first successful song recording. He was the only person able to produce enough volume to disguise the crackles.

1922: Mahatma Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison in India for civil disobedience.

1925: Madame Tussaud’s London wax museum burned down.

1930: The planet Pluto was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

1931: World’s first electric razor was manufactured by American firm Schick.

1950: Roger Bannister ran the mile in a record 4 minutes 1.48 seconds.

1958: The last debutantes were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

1961: First episode of fantasy detective series The Avengers was shown on television.

1965: Aleksei Leonov left Soviet spacecraft to make first space walk, lasting ten minutes.

1967: The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked on Pollard Rock between Isles of Scilly and Land’s End, spilling 120,000 gallons of crude into the sea.

1970: Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed as chief of state while on visit to Moscow.

1984: Oxford and Cambridge Boat race took place on a Sunday for the first time, having been postponed for a day because the Cambridge boat had been damaged in a collision.

1990: Conservative alliance won East German parliamentary elections with 48 per cent of vote and 193 of 400 seats.

1991: A Commons motion by 100 MPs urged the Queen to dismiss the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Lane, over the Birmingham Six affair.

1992: South Africa’s referendum on power-sharing with blacks resulted in a landslide Yes vote.

1992: Pat Clinton became the sixth Scot to hold a world boxing title, when he dethroned the Mexican Isidro Perez for the World Boxing Organisation flyweight crown.

1994: Bosnia’s Muslim and Croat leaders signed accord to create a federation.

BIRTHDAYS

Pat Eddery, champion jockey 11 times, 61; Patrick Barlow, actor, writer and director, 66; Luc Besson, film director, 54; Irene Cara, singer and actress, 54; Brad Dourif, actor, 63; Timo Glock, Formula 1 driver, 31; Queen Latifah, actress and rap singer, 43; Kenny Lynch OBE, singer/actor, 74; Sophia Myles, actress, 33; Courtney Pine CBE, jazz saxophonist, 49; Charley Pride, singer, 75.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1844 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composer; 1858 Rudolf Diesel, inventor of engine that bears his name; 1860 Andrew Kirkaldy, golfer; 1869 Neville Chamberlain, Conservative prime minister 1937-1940.

Deaths: 1584 Ivan the Terrible, first to assume title of Tsar; 1745 Sir Robert Walpole, Whig statesman; 1988 Percy Thrower, horticulturist and broadcaster; 2009 Natasha Richardson, stage and screen actress.