On this day: Grace Darling rowed to rescue

On this date in 1838 lighthouse keeper's daughter Grace Darling rowed to rescue the crew of a ship wrecked off the Farne Islands. Picture: Hulton/Getty

National day of Brazil

70AD: A Roman army, under General Titus, occupied and plundered Jerusalem.

1191: During the third Crusade, Richard I of England defeated the Kurdish-born Muslim leader Saladin at the Battle of Arsuf.

1701: England, Germany and Netherlands signed an anti-French covenant.

1838: Grace Darling, daughter of a lighthouse keeper, rescued the crew of the Forfarshire, shipwrecked near Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast.

1888: Weighing just 2lb 7oz, Edith Eleanor McLean was the first baby to be placed in an incubator, at State Emigrants Hospital, Ward’s Island, New York.

1902: In Australia, the nation observed a “day of humiliation” and prayed for rain during the Federation Drought in which 52 million sheep died and the wheat crop was all but lost. It rained three days later.

1923: Interpol was founded in Vienna.

1936: The last surviving member of the Thylacine species (also known as the Tasmanian wolf), died in Hobart Zoo.

1940: London blitz started when German aircraft bombed the docks.

1947: Battles took place between Muslims and Hindus in New Delhi, India.

1950: An area of sodden moss the size of a football pitch collapsed into Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery, Ayrshire, trapping 129 miners 720ft underground. In a huge rescue operation via old workings at Bank Colliery, 116 men were saved, but 13 miners and a rescue worker died.

1965: Hurricane Betsy struck Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, killing 74 people.

1986: Five bodyguards were killed and 11 other people wounded during a failed assassination attempt on Chilean dictator Augosto Pinochet.

1994: The prime minister, John Major, attacked the idea of a two-tier Europe which would see France and Germany in the driving seat and Britain in the slow lane.

1999: A 5.9 magnitude earthquake rocked Athens, killing 143, injuring more than 500, and leaving 50,000 people homeless.

2005: First presidential election was held in Egypt.

2008: The US government took over the two largest mortgage financing companies in the US, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

BIRTHDAYS

Gloria Gaynor, singer, 66; John Barnes MBE, Jamaica-born England footballer and coach, 52; Susan Blakely, Golden Globe-winning actress, 67; Peter Gill, theatre director, playwright and former actor, 76; Toby Jones, actor, 49; Julie Kavner, actress, comedian and voiceover actress (Marge Simpson), 65; Mark McCumber, golfer, 64; Sonny Rollins, musician, 85; Raymond Stewart, footballer, 56; Evan Rachel Wood, actress, 28; Lord Reed, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 59, Chrissie Hynde, singer, 64.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1533 Queen Elizabeth of England; 1887 Dame Edith Sitwell, poet and writer; 1917 Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, VC, OM), founder of Cheshire Homes; 1925 Laura Ashley, fashion designer; 1936 Buddy Holly, musician; 1959 Kevin Curran, Zimbabwean cricketer.

Deaths: 1362 Joan of the Tower (born in Tower of London), queen consort to David II of Scotland; 1910 William Holman Hunt, artist; 1978 Keith Moon, drummer (The Who); 1990 AJP Taylor, historian, journalist.

EDINBURGH PLATE-GLASS WORKERS

7 September, 1915

No settlement has yet been arrived at an connection with the strike of plate-glass workers in Edinburgh and Leith Flint Glass Works. We understand that a deputation of the men has interviewed Sir George Askwith on the subject of the award of a bonus made by him.

The men are willing to accept Sir George Askwith‘s award, and the deputation was in consultation as to the question of the acceptance of the award by the masters.

The deputation, we understand, was informed that the Industrial Deparment of the Board of Trade has no power to compel masters to accept an award. The Edinburgh Trades Council at a meeting on Saturday asked the British Trades Union Congress now in session at Bristol to take up the matter, with special reference to the question of any introduction of foreign labour to fill the places.

• archive.scotsman.com