On this day: First party political broadcast

A lorry lies overturned in the Greek city of Volos after a 2006 storm which resulted in one of the worst floods recorded there. Picture: AFP/Getty

10 October

1802: The Edinburgh Review was published. Its first editor was Sydney Smith and its aim was “to erect a higher standard of merit, and secure a bolder and a purer taste in literature, and to apply philosophical principles and the maxims of truth and humanity to politics”.

1839: The first Bradshaw’s Railway Timetable was issued. It continued publication until 10 March, 1961.

1842: Britain proclaimed victory as first Afghan War ended.

1881: The Savoy Theatre, London, first public building to be lit by electricity, opened with a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience.

1903: Mrs Emmeline Pankhurst formed the Women’s Social and Political Union to fight for female emancipation in Britain.

1913: Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were linked by the blowing up of the Gamboa Dam of Panama Canal.

1938: Nazi Germany completed occupation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

1943: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek took oath of office as president of China.

1951: First party political broadcast put out, by Lord Samuel on behalf of the Liberal Party.

1961: A volcano erupted on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha and the whole population was brought to Britain.

1970: Fiji became an independent member of the Commonwealth, having been a British colony since 1874.

1974: Labour won the general election by an overall majority of three seats, and Harold Wilson became prime minister.

1981: An IRA bomb outside the Guards’ barracks, Chelsea, killed one and injured 40, including 25 Irish guardsmen.

1988: Sandy Lyle won the World Matchplay Golf Championship at Wentworth.

1988: Suspected Tamil militants attacked village in northern Sri Lanka, killing at least 47 people as they slept.

1990: Left-wing guerrillas bolted door of a passenger train carriage in southern India and set it on fire, killing at least 47.

1997: An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashed and exploded near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.

2006: The Greek city of Volos flooded in one of the prefecture’s worst recorded floods.

2010: The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved.

BIRTHDAYS

Midge Ure, rock singer, 60; Amanda Burton, actress, 57; Judith Chalmers OBE, television presenter, 77; Charles Dance OBE, actor and director, 67; Fiona Fullerton, actress and singer, 57; Martin Kemp, actor and rock musician, 52; Nicholas Parsons OBE, broadcaster, 85; Rebecca Pidgeon, actress, 48; Sir Matthew Pinsent, four times Olympic gold medallist oarsman, 43; Dizzee Rascal, rapper, 28; Paul Sturrock, footballer and manager, 57; Chris Tarrant OBE, broadcaster, 67; Sir Willard White CBE, operatic singer, 67.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 11813 Giuseppe Verdi, composer; 1877 William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, car manufacturer and philanthropist; 1880 Sir Jacob Epstein, sculptor; 1900 Helen Hayes, actress; 1917 Thelonious Monk, pianist; ; 1933 Daniel Massey, actor; 1959 Kirsty MacColl, singer and songwriter.

Deaths: 1964 Eddie Cantor, film actor and entertainer; 1983 Sir Ralph Richardson, actor; 1985 Yul Brynner, film actor; 2004 Christopher Reeve, actor; 2009 Stephen Gately, pop singer (Boyzone); 2010 Dame Joan Sutherland DBE, soprano.