On this day: BNP leader Griffin pelted with eggs

Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party abandon a press conference in London in 2009 after being pelted with eggs. Picture: Getty

1549: The Book of Common Prayer, compiled by Thomas Cranmer, was adopted in England.

1898: Hong Kong was leased by Britain from China for 99 years.

1904: The London Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert. It was formed by musicians who had left Henry Wood’s orchestra after a disagreement.

1915: British troops in France were first issued with hand-grenades.

1931: Submarine HMS Poseidon sank off Hong Kong after being rammed by a steamer. Six of the 20-man crew survived.

1934: Donald Duck was “born” – in Walt Disney’s cartoon The Wise Little Hen.

1942: Czechoslovak village of Lidice was razed, all its 199 male inhabitants shot and 285 women and children sent to concentration camps by Nazis in retaliation for the shooting in the previous month of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of Hitler’s “final solution”.

1958: Gatwick Airport, in Sussex, was officially opened by the Queen.

1959: The first Polaris submarine, George Washington, was launched at Groton in Connecticut.

1961: United Nations called on Portugal to cease repressive measures in Angola.

1967: Gamal Abdel Nasser resigned as president of Egypt after his country was defeated in war with Israel.

1972: United States planes raided perimeters of Hanoi and Haiphong in most concentrated bombing of North Vietnam’s military heartland in more than four years.

1975: Philippines established diplomatic relations with China, breaking its ties with nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan.

1975: Parliamentary broadcasting from the House of Commons began.

1982: The 20p coin entered circulation.

1984: Heavy damage and casualties on both sides were reported as Iran and Iraq made air raids on residential areas across their 1,180-kilometre border.

1988: The England cricket captain Mike Gatting was sacked for “irresponsibility”.

1989: Britain accepted the European common market’s tough pollution control on small cars sold in Europe from December, 1992.

1990: Liberian government and rebels agreed to peace talks.

1990: IRA bomb explosion injured 17 party-goers at the headquarters of the Honourable Artillery Company in London.

1991: Mount Pinatubo erupted in Philippines after 600 years of calm, hurling debris 15 miles into the sky and forcing the United States to evacuate 15,000 people from Clark air force base.

1991: The £100 million two-mile, four-lane Dartford Bridge in East London was completed.

1999: The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Nato signed a peace treaty.

2008: In the town of Lake Delton, Wisconsin, the lake was drained as a result of heavy flooding breaking the dam holding the lake back.

2009: British National Party leader Nick Griffin was pelted with eggs and forced to abandon a press conference in London.

2010: The SNP revealed plans to get households to separate food waste from other rubbish to be used to generate electricity.

BIRTHDAYS

James Kelman, writer, 68; Tony Britton, actor, 90; Patricia Cornwell, writer (Kay Scarpetta forensic science thrillers), 58; Johnny Depp, actor, 51; Michael J Fox, actor, 53; Giles Havergal CBE, director, Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre 1969-2002, 76; Sir Peter Heatly CBE, chairman, Commonwealth Games Federation 1982-90, 90; Rhoda Morrison, Glasgow-born humanitarian, 67; Natalie Portman, actress, 33; Gloria Reuben, actress, 50; Charles Saatchi, advertising executive and art collector, 71; David Troughton, actor, 64; Jackie Mason, comedian and actor, 83; Wesley Sneijder, Dutch international footballer, 30.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1672 Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia; 1781 George Stephenson, locomotive engineer; 1810 Otto Nicolai, German composer; 1836 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first woman doctor to qualify in Britain; 1854 Weedon Grossmith, author; 1865 Carl Nielsen, Danish composer; 1892 Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter; 1908 Robert Cummings, actor; Professor Eric Hobsbawm, British economic and social historian; 1941 Jon Lord, British rock musician and composer (Deep Purple); 1942 Ossie Clark, dress designer.

Deaths: AD68 Nero, Roman Emperor, aged 32 (suicide); 597 St Columba, on Iona; 1870 Charles Dickens, novelist; 1911 Carry Nation, American temperance campaigner; 1958 Robert Donat, film actor; 1964 Lord Beaverbrook, newspaper owner; 1976 Dame Sybil Thorndike, stage and film actress; 1990 Angus McBean, photographer; 1991 Claudio Arrau, pianist; 2001 Yaltah Menuhin, pianist sister of Yehudi Menuhin; 2003 Adam Faith, singer and actor.