On this day: Radio Caroline | Sir Walter Raleigh released | World Cup stolen

Published on 20/03/2013 00:00

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 20 March

20 March

Vernal equinox – the start of spring.

1602: The Dutch East India Company was founded by Netherlands government.

1616: Sir Walter Raleigh was released from Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana.

1815: Napoleon returned from banishment on Elba to regain power in France. It was his “Last 100 Days” and ended in his defeat at Waterloo.

1851: Marble Arch was unveiled at its present site in London after being moved from near Buckingham Palace.

1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was published. She said it was written at the dictation of God. The book sold a million copies in the first year.

1917: Hospital ship Asturias was torpedoed by German U-boat.

1933: The Nazis opened a concentration camp at Dachau, near Munich.

1935: The British Council was established.

1944: A major eruption of Vesuvius began.

1952: South Africa Supreme Court invalidated race legislation of DF Malan.

1966: World Cup football trophy was stolen from Central Hall, Westminster.

1974: An attempt was made to kidnap Princess Anne in the Mall in London.

1980: The pirate radio station Radio Caroline ceased broadcasting after 16 years, when its home, the ship Mi Amigo sank.

1981: Isabel Peron, former president of Argentina, was jailed for eight years for corruption.

1991: The knighthood conferred on Guinness trial defendant Jack Lyons was cancelled and annulled.

1993: A three-year-old boy died and 56 people were injured when an IRA bomb trap blasted shoppers in Warrington.

1993: Boris Yeltsin declared emergency rule in Russia.

1996: The government admitted for the first time a possible link between BSE or mad cow disease and the deaths of ten people.

2003: In the early hours of the morning, military operations began in Iraq.

2010: Pope Benedict XVI apologised to victims of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland. In a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, he acknowledged the sense of betrayal in the Church felt by victims and their families.

BIRTHDAYS

Dame Vera Lynn, singer, 96; Freema Agyeman, actress, 34; Baroness Ashton of Upholland, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, 57; Liz Burnley CBE, Chief Guide of Girlguiding UK 2006-11, 54; Yvette Cooper, Labour MP, 43; Holly Hunter, actress, 55; William Hurt, actor, 63; John Joubert, composer, 86; Spike Lee, actor, film director and producer, 56; Michael Rapaport, actor, 43; Theresa Russell, actress, 56; Ian Derek Francis Ogilvie-Grant, 13th Earl of Seafield, 74; Greg Searle MBE, Olympic oarsman, 41.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 43BC Ovid, poet; 1724 Duncan MacIntyre (Donnachadh Ban), Gaelic poet; 1828 Henrik Ibsen, playwright; 1873 Sergei Rachmaninov, composer; 1908 Sir Michael Redgrave, actor; 1911 Ginger Rogers, actress and dancer.

Deaths: AD687 St Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne; 1413 King Henry IV of England; 1586 Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, Lord Privy Seal, Senator of the College of Justice, poet and anthologist; 1727 Sir Isaac Newton, scientist and mathematician; 1937 Harry Vardon, six times Open golf champion; 2010 Harry Carpenter OBE, sports commentator.