On this day: General Pinochet survived assassination attempt

On this day in 1986 the president of Chile General Augusto Pinochet survived an attempt on his life. Picture: Getty

23BC: The first recorded ritual Sumo wrestling bout took place. Each year a priest still officiates for the Ceremony of the Crows at the Kamo Shrine, Kyoto, Japan.

1504: Michelangelo’s statue of David was unveiled in Florence.

1565: The siege of Malta by Turkish forces was broken by the Maltese and the Knights of St John.

1760: The French Army surrendered Montreal to British General Jeffrey Amherst.

1820: John Baird and Andrew Hardie, prominent members of “The Radicals” who were on strike from the weaving communities in Scotland in outrage over reduced wages, were hanged for treason following the Battle of Bonnymuir.

1847: US troops defeated the Mexicans at the Battle of Molino del Rey, during the Mexican-American War.

1888: The first Football League matches were played in England.

1893: William Gladstone’s Government of Ireland Bill 1893 (known as the second Home Rule Bill) was vetoed in the House of Lords by 419 votes to 41, having previously been passed in the House of Commons.

1914: HMS Oceanic, sister to the Titanic and the largest ship in the world of her time, sank off the coast of Scotland.

1914: Private Thomas Highgate became the first British soldier to be executed for desertion during the First World War.

1926: Germany was admitted to League of Nations.

1934: Fred Perry defeated Wilmer Allison 6-4, 6-3, 1-6, 8-6 to win the US Open.

1941: Germany began its blockade of Leningrad during the Second World War.

1944: The first German V2 rockets fell in Britain.

1948: A British De Havilland 08 fighter plane flew faster than sound.

1952: Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea was published.

1954: South-east Asia Defence Treaty and Pacific Charter was signed in Manila by Britain, France, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines.

1960: Penguin Books charged with public obscenity for publishing DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

1960: The German Democratic Republic limited access to East Berlin for West Berliners.

1966: Star Trek premiered on NBC TV.

1967: Uganda abolished its traditional tribal kingdoms and became a republic.

1968: Virginia Wade beat Billie Jean King to win US Open Tennis Championship.

1986: The president of Chile General Augusto Pinochet survived an attempt on his life when his motorcade was ambushed by rebels.

1990: European finance ministers, meeting in Rome, agreed to prime minister John Major’s plan for monetary union.

2008: British tennis No1 Andy Murray played in his first ever Grand Slam final. He faced the Swiss player Roger Federer at the US Open and lost in straight sets.

BIRTHDAYS

Martin Freeman, actor, 44; Jeannette Altwegg, Olympic ice-skating champion, 85; David Arquette, actor, 44; Anne Diamond, television presenter, 60; Michael Frayn, playwright and novelist, 82; Judith Hann, television writer and presenter, 73; Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE, composer, Master of the Queen’s Music, 81; Geoff Miller OBE, cricketer, 63; Pink, pop singer, 36; Victor Ubogu, rugby player, 51; Louise Minchin, journalist and TV presenter, 47; Ruby Bridges, civil rights activist, 61; Aimee Mann, rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, 55; Morten Gamst Pederesen, footballer, 34; Richard Hughes, drummer (Keane), 40; Markus Babbel, footballer, 43; Tom Gullikson, tennis coach and former player, 64.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1157 King Richard I (the Lionheart); 1775 John Leyden, Denholm-born physician and poet; 1830 Frederick Mistral, French writer, lexicographer and Nobel prize winner for literature; 1841 Antonin Dvorák, composer; 1886 Siegfried Sassoon, war poet, novelist and critic; 1897 Jimmie Rodgers, singer; 1921 Sir Harry Secombe, comedian and singer; 1922 Sid Caesar, comedian; 1923 Alan Weeks, sports reporter and commentator; 1925 Peter Sellers, comedian and actor; 1929 Roger Byrne, Manchester United captain who died in Munich air disaster; 1932 Patsy Cline, country music singer; 1951 Tim Gullikson, tennis player.

Deaths: 1539 John Stokesley, English church leader; 1784 Ann Lee, founder of American Shakers sect; 1831 John Aitken, Scottish music publisher; 1933 Faisal I, King of Syria and Iraq; 1949 Richard Strauss, composer; 1954 André Derain, painter; 1965 Dorothy Dandridge, actress, singer and dancer; 1970 Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven; 1985 John Franklin Enders, scientist and Nobel laureate (“The Father of Modern Vaccines”).