On this day: Nelson Mandela sworn in|Breathalyzers

Nelson Mandela was sworn in as president of South Africa. Picture: Peter Andrews

1655: Jamaica was taken by the British. It had been in Spanish hands for 161 years after its discovery by Columbus.

1857: Start, in Meerut, of the Indian Mutiny, or rebellion of Sepoy soldiers against British rule, sparked by orders to bite off the ends of cartridges for new Enfield rifles, greased with pork fat. The revolt ended in July 1858.

1869: The US transcontinental railroad was completed.

1908: Mother’s Day was first celebrated, in Philadelphia, by Anna May Jarvis, suffragist and temperance worker.

1915: The first Zeppelin raids took place over Britain. Nearly 100 bombs were dropped on Southend-on-Sea.

1919: Britain’s first airline started, flying 50 miles between Manchester and Blackpool in two-seater Avro biplane.

1929: Scottish Local Government Act came into force.

1937: First frozen food (asparagus) went on sale in UK.

1940: Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, and Winston Churchill formed a coalition government with Clement Attlee as his deputy.

1941: Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, parachuted on to the Duke of Hamilton’s estate at Floors Farm near Eaglesham, claiming to be on peace mission. He was arrested, found guilty of war crimes and imprisoned in Spandau Prison until his death in 1987.

1967: Breath tests for motorists suspected of drinking and driving introduced.

1973: Five miners died in roof fall at Seafield Colliery, Fife.

1976: Jeremy Thorpe resigned as leader of the Liberal Party.

1981: François Mitterrand defeated Giscard d’Estaing to become president of France.

1990: PanAm agreed £10m out-of-court settlement for Lockerbie disaster relatives.

1994: Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president, promising to build “a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world”.

2002: Six people died and more than 60 injured when a carriage derailed at 100mph at Potters Bar in north London.

2005: A grenade thrown by Vladimir Arutinian landed about 65ft from US president George W Bush in Tbilisi, Georgia, but failed to detonate.

2008: A tornado struck the Oklahoma-Kansas state line, killing 21 people.

2011: Ex-motorsports boss Max Mosley lost his European Court of Human Rights bid to force newspapers to warn people before exposing their private lives.

UNEMPLOYMENT BILL: THE MEANS TEST

10 May, 1934

THE Unemployment Bill was further considered at the report stage. The Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Labour (Mr Hudson), accepting an amendment moved by Lieutenant-Colonel Acland-Thoyte (U., Tiverton) said it was very desirable that the Public Assistance Authority should have the power to ask for a decision on scope even though the man himself did not make such an appeal. The Ministry would see that the rules made it clear that the Public Assistance Authority would have the right and power to obtain the decision.

Replying to Mr Lawson (Soc., Chester-Le-Street) he said that if there was any doubt, and the PAC were of the opinion that a particular man ought to be within the scope of the Board, even though he might not agree, they would have the right to go to the appeal tribunal and get a decision, which the Board would, of course, accept.

BIRTHDAYS

Linda Evangelista, model, 49; Bono (Paul Hewson), rock singer (U2) and poet, 54; Donovan, Glasgow-born pop-folk singer, 68; Sly Dunbar, Jamaican music producer, 62; Lady Lucinda Lambton, television presenter, 71; Maureen Lipman CBE, actress, 68; Sir William Lithgow, 2nd Baronet, Scottish industrialist and farmer, 80; Barbara Taylor Bradford OBE, novelist, 81; Debbie Wiseman MBE, film and television composer, 51; Dave Mason, singer-songwriter (Traffic), 68; Sally Phillips, actress, 44.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1760 Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, composer of La Marseillaise; 1899 Fred Astaire, actor and dancer; 1902 David Selznick, film producer; 1915 Monica Dickens, author; 1920 Bert Weedon OBE, guitarist.

Deaths: 1863 Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, Confederate general; 1904 Sir Henry Morton Stanley, journalist and explorer; 1914 Sir William Smith, founder of the Boys’ Brigade; 1977 Joan Crawford, film actress.