On this day: Gaddafi became head of state of Libya

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 1 September
On this day in 1969 Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi  left, pictured with the President of Mauritania  became Libyas head of state. Picture: GettyOn this day in 1969 Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi  left, pictured with the President of Mauritania  became Libyas head of state. Picture: Getty
On this day in 1969 Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi  left, pictured with the President of Mauritania  became Libyas head of state. Picture: Getty

Partridge, woodcock and wild duck shooting season begins.

1804: Professor Harding discovered Juno, a “minor planet” between Mars and Jupiter that takes four years to orbit the Sun.

1853: The first triangular-shaped postage stamps were issued by the Cape of Good Hope.

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1858: The Crown took over the administration of India from the East India Company.

1879: Britain signed peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.

1891: Fingerprinting first adopted as an aid to crime-solving by police in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1923: An earthquake shook Japan, leaving Tokyo and Yokohama in ruins and causing nearly 200,000 deaths.

1939: Germany’s Fuhrer Adolf Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to invade Poland, provoking the Second World War.

1939: The BBC Home Service on the radio began.

1945: Japan formally surrendered aboard USS battleship Missouri to end the Second World War.

1950: North Korean troops attacked across the Maktong River.

1969: Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi became head of state of Libya, after leading a military coup overthrowing King Idris.

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1971: The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender.

1972: North Sea cod war began as Iceland extended its fishing limits from 12 to 50 miles.

1981: British garages started selling petrol by the litre.

1989: The ten England and Wales water authorities became public companies.

1990: Surgeons operated for the second time on the Prince of Wales’s right arm, broken when he fell from his horse during a polo match.

1997: It was reported in Paris that the driver of the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales died was three times over the drink-drive limit and may have been driving at 120mph.

2004: Beslan school hostage crisis commenced when armed terrorists took children and adults hostage in North Ossetia, Russia.

2006: Luxembourg became the first country to move to all digital television broadcasting.

2010: Financial services firm Standard Life announced it was cutting 600 jobs, with 480 to go at its Edinburgh headquarters.

BIRTHDAYS

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Barry Gibb CBE, pop singer (Bee Gees), 68; Gloria Estefan, singer, 57; Bruce Foxton, musician (The Jam), 59; Simon Geoghegan, rugby union player, 46; Ruud Gullit, Dutch football manager, 52; Allen Jones, artist and sculptor, 77; Baron Parkinson, politician, 83; Mary Jean “Lily” Tomlin, comedienne and actress, 75; Daniel Sturridge, footballer, 25; Claudette Rogers Robinson, singer songwriter, rock’n’roll Hall of Famer (original member of The Miracles), 72; Sebastian Rozenthal, Chilean former Rangers footballer, 38.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1653 Johann Pachelbel, composer and organist; 1732 Thomas Alexander Erskine, 6th Earl of Kelly; 1854 Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer; 1864 Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist; 1923 Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxing champion; 1951 David Bairstow, cricketer.

Deaths: 1557 Jacques Cartier, explorer; 1687 Henry More, philosopher; 1715 King Louis XIV of France; 1912 Samuel Coleridge Taylor, composer; 1963 Guy Burgess, spy; 1967 Siegfried Sassoon, war poet; 1998 Viscount Rothermere, newspaper proprietor (Daily Mail).

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