On this day: Jack McConnell is elected Scottish FM

Jack McConnell, pictured with his family, was elected Scotlands First Minister on this day in 2001. Picture: PA

22 November

National day of Lebanon.

1497: Vasco da Gama, with a fleet of four ships, became first European navigator to round the Cape of Storms, later Cape of Good Hope.

1830: Container transport introduced by carriers Pickford’s.

1906: The international radio distress signal SOS was adopted.

1927: The first performance of George Gershwin’s Funny Face took place in New York, starring Fred and Adele Astaire.

1946: The first Biro ballpoint pen went on sale. It was invented by a Hungarian, Laslo Biro.

1963: US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on a visit to Dallas, Texas. His alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was later shot dead while in police custody.

1966: First US serviceman died in the Vietnam War.

1975: The monarchy was restored in Spain when Juan Carlos was sworn in as King in Madrid, two days after the death of General Franco.

1977: Concorde, British-French supersonic airliner, began service at New York’s Kennedy International Airport.

1986: Mike Tyson, at 20, became the youngest heavyweight boxing champion when he defeated Trevor Berbick in Las Vegas.

1986: Iranian missile hit residential area in Iraqi capital of Baghdad, wounding 20 civilians.

1987: Authorities accused Tamil rebels of attacking Indian troops in Sri Lanka and violating a truce.

1989: In Beirut, Lebanese president Rene Moawad was among 16 killed in a bomb attack, 17 days after he took power.

1990: Four crew of trawler Antares drowned when submarine HMS Trenchant snagged their nets in the Firth of Clyde.

1990: The Margaret Thatcher era ended when the prime minister told her Cabinet she would not fight on for the Tory leadership.

1995: Rosemary West was given multiple life sentences after being found guilty of murdering ten people in Gloucester.

2001: Jack McConnell was elected First Minister of Scotland to succeed Henry McLeish.

2002: In Nigeria, more than 100 people were killed at an attack aimed at the Miss World contest.

2004: The Orange Revolution began in Ukraine.

2005: Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

BIRTHDAYS

Scarlett Johansson, actress, model, singer, 30; Boris Becker, Wimbledon tennis champion, 47; John Bird, actor and writer, 78; Tom Conti, Scottish actor and writer, 73; Terry Gilliam, film director and animator, 74; Sir Peter Hall CBE, film and theatre director, 84; Stephen Hough CBE, pianist, 53; Billie-Jean King, winner of a record 20 Wimbledon titles, 71; Oscar Pistorius, six-time gold medal-winning Paralympic athlete convicted of culpable homicide, 28; Tina Weymouth, musician and singer (Talking Heads), 64; Steven Van Zandt, musician, singer, producer, DJ (Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band), 64; Frank McAvennie, Scottish footballer, 55; Nicholas Rowe, Scottish actor, 48.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1753 Dugald Stewart, Edinburgh-born philosopher; 1819 George Eliot, novelist; 1866 Wassily Kandinsky, abstract painter; 1890 Charles de Gaulle, French general-statesman; 1899 Hoagy Carmichael, pianist, singer, actor, bandleader; 1913 Lord (Benjamin) Britten, composer.

Deaths: 1916 Jack London, author; 1963 CS Lewis, writer; 1963 Aldous Huxley, author; 1993 Anthony Burgess, writer and composer.