On this day: First Atlantic crossing| Earthquake in Colchester

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 22 April
Robin Knox-Johnson became the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop solo round the world on this day in 1969. Picture: GettyRobin Knox-Johnson became the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop solo round the world on this day in 1969. Picture: Getty
Robin Knox-Johnson became the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop solo round the world on this day in 1969. Picture: Getty

22 APRIL

1662: The Royal Society was constituted by Royal Charter from Charles II.

1838: The 703-tonne Sirius, built by R Menzies & Sons, Leith, and carrying 90 passengers, reached Sandy Hook, New York, to become the first to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam. Shortage of fuel forced the crew to burn spars and furniture to complete the 18-day voyage. Brunel’s steamship, Great Western, arrived a day later.

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1884: A major earthquake hit Colchester and East Anglia, damaging 1,200 buildings and killing four people.

1918: The Penny Post was abolished.

1931: Treaty of friendship between Egypt and Iraq – first pact between Egypt and an Arab state.

1943: The printing of £1,000 notes was discontinued.

1947: A photo-finish camera was used for the first time at Epsom.

1951: Aneurin Bevan resigned as minister of Labour over plan by Clement Attlee’s government to introduce health charges.

1956: China appointed Dalai Lama chairman of committee to prepare Tibet for regional autonomy within Chinese People’s Republic.

1969: Robin Knox-Johnston arrived at Falmouth to complete the first non-stop solo circumnavigation, in 312 days.

1972: John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook, in the 35ft Britannia II, arrived in Australia, to become the first to row across the Pacific, having left San Francisco on 26 April, 1971.

1986: An Arab was accused in London court of attempting to blow up Israeli airliner with bomb carried by his pregnant Irish girlfriend.

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1989: Archaeologists said they had unearthed a 2,000-year-old mummy in a gold-covered coffin in the Egyptian oasis Fayoum. She was wrapped in linen and had a child beside her.

1992: More than 200 died and 1,500 were injured when a gas blast ripped through underground sewers in Guadalajara, Mexico.

1994: Cabinet minister Michael Portillo pledged that Scotland’s water services would not be privatised.

1997: Chilean troops stormed the Japanese ambassador’s house in Lima and freed 72 hostages who had been held for 126 days by a Marxist rebel group. All 14 guerrillas died in the assault.

2005: Japan’s prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, apologised for Japan’s war records.

2008: The United States Air Force retired the remaining F-117 Nighthawk aircraft in service.

2009: As he unveiled his Budget, Chancellor Alistair Darling claimed the UK would have to borrow a record £175 billion as the economy faced its worst year since the Second World War.

BIRTHDAYS

Glen Campbell, singer, 75; Paul Carrack, rock musician, 62; George Cole OBE, actor, 88; Lloyd Honeyghan, Jamaican boxer, 53; Ronald Hynd, choreographer, 82; Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope, MP 1983-2005, 67; Mike Miller, golfer, 62; Jack Nicholson, actor, director and producer, 76; Gary Rhodes OBE, chef, 53; Jancis Robinson OBE, wine writer and broadcaster, 63; Michelle Ryan, actress, 29.

ANNIVERSARIES

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Births: 1724 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher; 1870 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), Russian revolutionary leader; 1904 Robert Oppenheimer, physicist who developed atomic bomb.

Deaths: 1592 Bartolomeo Ammenati, sculptor and architect of Florence; 1778 James Hargreaves, inventor of the spinning jenny; 1869 Rev Patrick Bell, of Carmyllie, Angus, inventor of the reaping machine 2005 Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor.

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