On this day: Flirting banned in New York

On this day in 1972, the Clyde-built Queen Elizabeth liner sank in Hong Kong harbour after being set alight by vandals. Picture: Getty

9 January

1492: The Diocese of Glasgow was elevated to an Archdiocese by Pope Innocent VIII.

1684: Puppet shows were performed and shopping stalls were set up on the Thames during the deep freeze.

1806: Lord Nelson was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

1811: The first women’s golf tournament took place in Scotland at Musselburgh.

1816: Sir Humphry Davy’s safety lamp was first used in a coal mine.

1902: New law in New York State banned flirting in public.

1927: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert shocked cinema-goers in New York by their lack of inhibition in the silent film Flesh and the Devil.

1939: Berlin’s Reichstag building, destroyed by fire in 1933, was opened by Hitler after rebuilding.

1945: American forces invaded Luzon in Philippines.

1957: Anthony Eden, in poor health, resigned as prime minister following the Suez fiasco. Harold Macmillan took over.

1959: Fishery cruiser Freya capsized near Wick, with the loss of three crew members.

1962: First de Havilland Trident made its maiden flight.

1968: United States Surveyer 7 spacecraft made soft landing on Moon.

1969: The first trial flight of Concorde, supersonic airliner, took place at Bristol.

1972: The Clyde-built Queen Elizabeth liner sank in Hong Kong harbour.

1972: The miners’ strike for improved pay and conditions began, their first national stoppage since 1926.

1989: MPs and war veterans protested at the announcement that the Duke of Edinburgh would attend the funeral of Emperor Hirohito of Japan in Tokyo.

1992: Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaimed their own state, raising fears of bloodshed in the multi-ethnic republic.

1996: A band of Chechen gunmen seized 3,000 civilians and held them hostage in the Russian town of Kizlyar.

1997: British round-the-world solo yachtsman Tony Bullimore was rescued in the Southern Ocean after being trapped in the overturned hull of his yacht for four days.

2005: Elections were held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He was succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.

2011: Parcels containing bullets were sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

BIRTHDAYS

Paolo Nutini, Scottish singer/songwriter, 27; Joan Baez, folk singer, 73; Ken Brown, Scottish golfer and television presenter, 57; Crystal Gayle, singer, 63; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton), wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, 32; Jimmy Page, rock guitarist and songwriter, 70; Joely Richardson, actress, 49; Sir Muir Russell, principal and vice-chancellor of Glasgow University, 64; Freddie Starr, comedian, 70.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1728 Thomas Warton, poet laureate; 1890 Karel Capek, Czech writer who introduced the word “robot”; 1898 Dame Gracie Fields, singer, comedienne and musical hall performer; 1902 Sir Rudolf Bing, founder of Edinburgh Festival; 1913 Richard Nixon, 37th US president and first to resign; 1920 Clive Dunn, comic actor.

Deaths: 1873 Napoleon III, Emperor of France and nephew of Bonaparte; 1980 Sir Charles Curran, BBC director-general; 1995 Peter Cook, satirist; 1999 Sir Alastair Blair, captain (1982-84), Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, Royal Company of Archers.