On this day: Glasgow’s Grosvenor Hotel destroyed in fire

1451: Glasgow University was founded by a bull of Pope Nicholas V, at the suit of King James II and Bishop William Turnbull.

1598: Boris Godunov seized the Russian throne on death of Feodore I.

1610: Galileo discovered the four satellites of Jupiter and named them Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

1714: A “contrivance” called a typewriter was patented by Henry Mill, but it was a century before it caught on.

1789: The first national American elections elected George Washington as president.

1904: The CQD distress call was introduced. CQ meant “seek you” with D added for danger. This was replaced by SOS in 1906.

1953: President Harry S Truman announced that US had developed a hydrogen bomb.

1968: Government of Lebanon resigned after Israeli commando raid at Beirut airport.

1972: India resisted American pressure and granted full diplomatic recognition to China.

1978: Glasgow’s 100-bedroom Grosvenor Hotel was destroyed in six-hour blaze which could not be controlled by 60 servicemen standing in for firemen who were in the ninth week of strike. Earlier the same day, three members of a family died in a house fire at Linwood, Renfrewshire.

1989: Prince Charles pledged to devote his farm land to organic agriculture.

1990: Thousands of Romanians demonstrated nationwide to protest against the number of ex-Communists in country’s interim government.

1991: Russian Christians celebrated Orthodox Christmas as a public holiday for the first time in 73 years.

1999: The Senate trial in the impeachment of US president Bill Clinton began.

2006: Charles Kennedy resigned as leader of the Liberal Democrats two days after admitting to having a drink problem.

2008: After spending nearly 21 years on death row in Ohio, Scot Kenny Richey, 43, who won a long legal battle to have his murder conviction overturned, was set free. He had been sentenced to death on 1987, for killing his former girlfriend’s two-year-old child.

BIRTHDAYS

Lewis Hamilton MBE, racing driver, 30; Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and deputy prime minister, 48; Sir Richard Armstrong CBE, conductor, 72; Geoffrey Bayldon, actor, 91; Andy Burnham MP, shadow secretary of state for health, 45; Nicolas Cage, actor, 51; David Caruso, actor, 59; Hunter Davies OBE, Renfrew-born journalist and author, 79; Natalie Gulbis, golfer, 32; Kenny Loggins, musician, 67; Eden Hazard, footballer, 24; Christian Louboutin, footwear designer, 52; Mark Lamarr, DJ, comedian and TV presenter, 48; Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine, 69.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1827 Sir Sandford Fleming, Kirkcaldy-born railway engineer and scientist; 1873 Adolph Zukor, founder of Paramount Pictures; 1896 Arnold Ridley OBE, dramatist and actor (Dad’s Army); 1925 Gerald Durrell, zoologist and writer;

Deaths: 1758 Allan Ramsay, poet, anthologist, author and wig maker; 1935 Sir James Alfred Ewing, Scottish phusicist and engineer; 1943 Nikola Tesla, electrical engineer who invented the alternating current (AC) electrical supply system; 1990 Ian Charleson, actor; 2007 Magnus Magnusson, quizmaster of BBC’s Mastermind 1972-97.