On this day: George Mallory last seen on Mt Everest

George Mallory and Andrew Irvine were last seen on this day in 1924. They were about 800ft below the summit of Mt Everest. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

1723: The Honourable Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scotland was formed in Edinburgh by more than 300 landowners. It lapsed after the 1745 Jacobite rebellion.

1778: The Earl of Seaforth raised a regiment for the American War from the MacKenzies and MacRaes of Ross-shire and Sutherland. (In 1961, the Seaforth Highlanders amalgamated with the Camerons to form the Queen’s Own Highlanders).

1881: HM Hyndman, Old Etonian and former Conservative MP, founded Britain’s first socialist party, the Democratic Federation (later the Social Democratic Federation).

1915: Allied forces took Neuville in France from Germans.

1924: George Mallory, on his third attempt to climb Mount Everest, and Andrew Irvine, were last seen at a point about 800ft below the summit.

1925: Britain and France accepted in principle Germany’s proposals for security pact to guarantee Franco-German and Belgo-German boundaries.

1928: Charles Kingsford-Smith and Captain Charles Ulm became the first to fly across the Pacific when they landed in Brisbane, Australia. They had flown in Southern Cross from California via Hawaii and Fiji.

1929: Margaret Bondfield became the first British woman cabinet minister when she was appointed Minister of Labour.

1959: Liberace successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel.

1976: Large force of Syrian troops moved into Lebanon, where civil war was raging.

1978: Naomi James arrived back at Dartmouth in her Bermuda sloop Express Crusader after 267 days, fter becoming the first woman to sail solo around the world via Cape Horn.

1982: Bluff Cove disaster in Falklands conflict. Argentine jets attacked landing craft Sir Tristram and Sir Galahad, killing 53 people and injuring 46 others.

1990: In Czechoslovakia, the first free elections were held in 44 years. Václav Havel was elected president.

1992: Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, attacked press coverage of the marriage difficulties of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

1993: Rene Bousquet, head of police in France’s Vichy regime, was shot dead in his Paris apartment.

1994: Pierce Brosnan was named as the new James Bond. He would play the role in four films.

2004: The first Venus Transit in modern history took place, the previous one being in 1882.

2009: Labour suffered its worst post-war election result in the European elections, beaten into third place by Ukip. Labour’s share of the vote was just 15.3 per cent. Meanwhile, the BNP gain its first seats at Brussels.

2014: More than 80 people were left dead after a siege by Taleban fighters at Karachi airport, Pakistan. Militants disguised as police guards stormed the terminal, armed with automatic weapons, a rocket launcher, suicide vests and grenades, and were involved in a long firefight with commandos and police.

BIRTHDAYS

Shilpa Shetty, Bollywood actress, 40; Colin Baker, actor (sixth Doctor Who), 72; Barbara Bush, former US first lady, 90; Lindsay Davenport, tennis player, 39; Mick Hucknall, singer and songwriter, 55; Ray Illingworth CBE, cricketer and commentator, 83; Julianna Margulies, actress, 49; Millicent Martin, actress and singer, 81; Doug Mountjoy, snooker player, 73; Nick Rhodes, musician, 53; Boz Scaggs, singer, 71; Nancy Sinatra, singer, 75; Bonnie Tyler, singer, 64; Derek Underwood MBE, cricketer, 70; Kanye West, rapper, 38; Kim Klijsters, Belgian tennis player, 32; Harry “Butch” Reynolds, American Olympic gold medal-winning athlete, 51.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1724 John Smeaton, civil engineer and lighthouse builder; 1772 Robert Stevenson, Glasgow-born engineer and lighthouse builder (grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson); 1810 Robert Schumann, composer; 1821 Sir William White Baker, explorer; 1829 Sir John Millais, painter and member of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; 1869 Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect; 1913 Peter Diamand, director, Edinburgh Festival; 1916 Professor Francis Crick, biologist; 1933 Joan Rivers, actress and comic.

Deaths: AD632 The prophet Muhammad, founder of Islamic religion; 1376 Edward the Black Prince; 1405 Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York (beheaded); 1695 Christian Huygens, physicist and astronomer who invented the pendulum clock; 1809 Thomas Paine, radical and political reformer; 1831 Sarah Siddons, actress; 1845 Andrew Jackson, 7th US president; 1865 Sir Joseph Paxton, gardener and architect; 1889 Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet; 1965 Erik Chisholm, composer; 1969 Robert Taylor, film actor; 1972 Jimmy Rushing, blues singer; 1984 Gordon Jacob, composer; 1988 Russell Harty, broadcaster and writer; 2007 Nellie Lutcher, singer and pianist.