On this day: Iain Duncan Smith elected Tory leader

On this day in 2001, Iain Duncan Smith was elected leader of the Conservative Party to succeed William Hague. Picture: Getty Images

Battle of Britain day.

National day of Costa Rica.

1595: Edinburgh High School riot, in which John MacMorrane, a bailie, was shot and killed by William Sinclair, one of the pupils occupying the school.

1830: The opening of Liverpool and Manchester Railway was marred by the first railway fatality when William Huskisson, MP, was run down by Stephenson’s locomotive Rocket.

1890: Augustin le Prince, motion picture film pioneer, packed up his film and projector ready to take them to the Paris Opera next day for a demonstration. Early on the 16th he boarded the Dijon-Paris train and was never seen again.

1916: Tanks were first used in battle by the British Army at Flers in the Somme offensive.

1917: Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky.

1931: Twelve-thousand Royal Navy sailors on 15 ships in the Atlantic Fleet went on strike at Invergordon in protest over cuts in servicemen’s pay.

1935: Nuremberg laws were set up, under which Jews were outlawed and the Swastika became the flag of Germany.

1938: Prime minister Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden over Czechoslovak crisis.

1940: The Battle of Britain ended with a reported victory for Britain: 1,733 German planes were said to have been destroyed, against 915 declared lost by the RAF.

1949: Konrad Adenauer was elected West German Chancellor.

1959: Nikita Khrushchev began a 12-day visit to US.

1960: Traffic wardens were introduced in London.

1972: Former White House aides, Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt, were charged with conspiracy over the Watergate break-in.

1978: Muhammad Ali regained the world heavyweight boxing title for a second time, by beating Leon Spinks in New Orleans.

1985: Europe defeated America’s golfers at The Belfry, to win the Ryder Cup.

1992: The European Parliament celebrated its 40th anniversary.

1993: Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II disbanded parliament.

1994: United States warships gathered off the coast of Haiti, as president Bill Clinton warned that the US would invade unless the island’s military rulers quit.

2001: Ian Duncan Smith elected leader of the Conservative Party to succeed William Hague.

2008: Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest US investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection, amid the collapse of the US mortgage market.

2008: The last episode of BBC school drama Grange Hill was broadcast on BBC1. The show had run since 1978.

2013: Japan switched off its last working nuclear reactor.

2013: 12 Years a Slave, directed by Steve McQueen, won the People’s Choice Award at the38th Toronto International Film Festival.

2014: Barack Obama announced that the US would send 3,000 troops to Africa help combat spread of the Ebola virus.

BIRTHDAYS

Sophie Dahl, actress and model and writer, 38; Prince Henry of Wales, 31; Tom Hardy, actor, 38; Tommy Lee Jones, actor, 69; Jessye Norman, soprano, 70; Oliver Stone, actor, screenwriter and film director, 69; Graham Taylor OBE, football manager, 71; Jimmy Carr, comedian and TV presenter, 43; Brendan O’Carroll, writer, producer, comedian, actor, director (Mrs Brown’s Boys), 60; Queen Letizia of Spain, 43; Ashley Cooper, former world champion amateur tennis player, 79; Paul Thomson, Glasgow-born drummer (Franz Ferdinand), 39; Tom Dolan, double Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, 40; Wayne Ferreira, tennis player, 44; Maggie Reilly, Scottish singer, 59.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1254 Marco Polo, merchant traveller; 1881 Ettore Bugatti, automotive designer and manufacturer; 1857 William Howard Taft, 27th president of USA 1909 to 1913; 1879 Joseph Lyons, prime minister of Australia, 1932 to 1939; 1891 Agatha Christie, writer of detective stories; 1894 Jean Renoir, film director; 1913 Roger 1915 Helmut Schoen, World Cup-winning football manager; 1922 Jackie Cooper, actor, TV director, producer and studio executive; 1923 Hank Williams, country music singer; 1929 General Eva Burrows, general of the Salvation Army 1986-93.

Deaths: 1716 Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, soldier, essayist; 1750 Charles Theodore Pachelbel, composer; 1827 Robert Pollol, Scottish poet; 1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer; 1978 Willy Messerschmitt, aircraft designer and manufacturer; 1995 Sam McCluskie, Leith-born treasurer of the Labour Party and general secretary of the National Union of Seamen; 2004 Johnny Ramone, guitarist and songwriter of the Ramones; 2005, 2006 Raymond Baxter OBE, TV presenter and commentator; 2007 Colin McRae MBE, rally driver (helicopter crash); 2008 Rick Wright, musician (Pink Floyd)