On this day: “Rogues’ Gallery” started
2 November
1619: Patent granted to Nathaniel Udwart of Edinburgh for a monopoly in the manufacture of soap.
1785: First unsinkable lifeboat patented by Lionel Lukin, a London coachbuilder.
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Hide Ad1853: First public meeting of the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights was held in Edinburgh.
1871: All prisoners in Britain were photographed, thereby starting the “Rogues’ Gallery”.
1896: The first motor insurance policies were issued in Britain. They excluded damage caused by frightened horses.
1903: First edition of the Daily Mirror published.
1917: Balfour Declaration written by British Foreign Secretary AJ Balfour to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild declared support for the idea of a Jewish national home in Palestine provided safeguards were established to protect the rights of “existing non-Jewish communities”.
1930: Haile Selassie crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia.
1936: First high-definition television broadcast from Alexandra Palace, London.
1944: Erwin Rommel, German military commander known as the “Desert Fox”, died by self-administered poison.
1954: Comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour began on BBC radio.
1959: £22 million M1 between London and Birmingham opened in Luton by minister of transport Ernest Marples.
1960: The Lady Chatterley trial ended with publisher Penguin Books cleared of obscenity.
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Hide Ad1962: Greville Wynne, businessman, was arrested by KGB in Prague and charged with spying in Moscow.
1964: King Faisal succeeded his brother to the throne of Saudi Arabia.
1967: Winifred “Winnie” Ewing won Hamilton by-election for the Scottish National Party.
1981: Citizens’ Band radio became legal in Britain.
1986: Britain’s first artificial heart transplant operation was performed at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire.
1990: Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television forced merger with rival British Satellite Broadcasting.
2005: David Blunkett resigned from the Cabinet, for the second time in a year, over his business dealings.
2008: Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history after a nail-biting Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton took the title by one point from Felipe Massa.
BIRTHDAYS
Kd lang, singer, 52; Keith Emerson, rock musician (The Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer), 69; Samantha Womack, singer and actress (ex-EastEnders), 41; Paul Johnson, author and columnist, 85; Graham Mitchell, footballer, 51; Nelly, American rapper, 39; Said Ouita, athlete and world record breaker, 53; Stefanie Powers, actress, 71; Ken Rosewall MBE, tennis player, 79; David Schwimmer, actor (Ross in Friends), 47; Bruce Welch OBE, guitarist (The Shadows) 72.
ANNIVERSARIES
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Hide AdBirths: 1734 Daniel Boone, US frontiersman; 1755 Marie Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI of France; 1906 Luchino Visconti, film director; 1913 Burt Lancaster, film actor.
Deaths: 1887 Jenny Lind, operatic soprano known as “Swedish nightingale”; 1950 George Bernard Shaw, author and dramatist; 1961 James Thurber, cartoonist and writer; 1992 Hal Roach, comedy film-maker; 2000 Baroness Ryder of Warsaw (Sue Ryder), charity worker.