On this day: Ian Woosnam won Masters at Augusta

Ian Woosnam receives the famous green jacket from fellow British golfer Nick Faldo after winning the US Masters in 1991. Picture: Getty

AD73: On this day, the Jews in the fortress of Masada decided to die rather than face slavery at the hands of the Romans, who had besieged the fortress for two years. Some 967 died by killing each other until the last man committed suicide. Two women and five children survived, hidden in a cistern, and on seeing the carnage, the Romans allowed them to live.

1685: Dramatist Thomas Otway, penniless and reduced to begging, received a guinea from a sympathetic passer-by. He rushed off to buy bread, and choked to death on the first bite.

1752: Colin Campbell of Glenure, the “Red Fox”, was shot in Appin. He was a notorious persecutor of Jacobites after Culloden.

1865: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US president, was shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, dying the next day.

1914: Driver and fireman of Edinburgh to Aberdeen express were killed in collision with the engine of a goods train at Burntisland station. Twelve passengers were injured.

1929: Monaco Grand Prix was first staged, 78 laps round the narrow streets of Monte Carlo, at an average 49.83mph.

1931: The Highway Code was first issued, as safety guide for pedestrians.

1931: King Alfonso XIII of Spain abdicated as anti-monarchists won local elections and set up Second Republic, whose instability contributed to Spanish civil war.

1970: US Apollo 13 spacecraft headed back to Earth after Moon mission that was aborted because of mechanical problems.

1972: First quintuplets in Scotland, born to Linda Bostock, of Armadale, West Lothian.

1983: Cordless telephones went on sale in Britain.

1985: Robin Knox-Johnston and four crew arrived at Plymouth after a record crossing of the Atlantic in catamaran British Airways I, in ten days, 18 minutes and 40 seconds.

1988: Soviet Union signed accord to end its intervention in Afghanistan and to allow Red Army to start troop withdrawal.

1990: President Vytautas Landsbergis said Lithuania would not revoke its declaration of independence, despite Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev’s threat of an economic embargo.

1991: Ian Woosnam won US Masters golf tournament at Augusta, giving Britain a fourth successive win.

2003: The Human Genome Project is completed with 99 per cent of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99 per cent.

BIRTHDAYS

Peter Capaldi, Glasgow-born actor, film director, screenwriter, 56; Ritchie Blackmore, rock guitarist (Deep Purple), 69; Barbara Bonney, soprano, 58; Abigail Breslin, actress, 18; Robert Carlyle, Glasgow-born actor, 53; Julie Christie, actress, 73; Bradford Dillman, actor, 84; Sarah Michelle Gellar, actress, 37; Anthony Michael Hall, actor, 46; Paddy Hopkirk, rally driver, 81; Julian Lloyd Webber, cellist, 63; Loretta Lynn, country singer, 82; Roberto de Vicenzo, golfer, 91; Baroness Warnock, 90, philosopher and writer.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1889 Arnold Toynbee, historian; 1904 Sir John Gielgud, actor and director; 1907 Francois (Papa Doc) Duvalier, Haitian dictator; 1925 Rod Steiger, actor.

Deaths: 1575 James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, third husband of Mary, Queen of Scots; 1779 John MacCodrum, Gaelic satirical poet of North Uist; 1983 Agnes Lutyens, composer; 1985 Noele Gordon, actress; 1986 Simone de Beauvoir, existentialist writer; 2001 Jim Baxter, footballer.