On this day: Kim Jong-un became leader of North Korea

On this day in 2012 Kim Jong-un, at the age of 29, became Supreme Leader of North Korea following his fathers death. Picture: Getty

AD64: The Great Fire of Rome occurred during the reign of Emperor Nero. He played the lyre, not the violin (which had not been invented), and was 50 miles away at his villa in Antium when he heard the news; the town was razed by the time he arrived.

1290: By the Treaty of Birgham, King Edward I guaranteed the survival of Scotland “separate, apart and free without subjection to the English nation”.

1536: Authority of Pope was declared void in England.

1593: King James VI of Scotland was taken prisoner by the Earl of Bothwell at Holyrood.

1872: Britain introduced voting by secret ballot.

1907: French troops occupied Casablanca.

1918: US and French troops launched the Aisne-Marne offensive in the First World War.

1919: The Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall was unveiled. The First World War memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and would later do double duty for the Second World War.

1923: Matrimonial Causes Act gave women equality in divorce suits.

1925: Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which Adolf Hitler wrote while in jail, was published.

1940: The first successful helicopter flight took place in Stratford, Connecticut.

1944: British Mosquito planes attacked Cologne and Berlin.

1947: King George VI signed the Indian Independence Bill.

1953: Elvis Presley made his first recording in Sun Studios, Memphis.

1955: The first electric power generated from atomic energy was sold commercially.

1966: Gemini X, America’s sixteenth manned space flight, splashed down with astronauts John Young and Michael Collins aboard.

1969: Senator Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappaquiddick River near Martha’s Vineyard on America’s east coast. Kennedy escaped but his companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. He did not report the incident for ten hours and was later found guilty of leaving the scene of the accident and given a two-month suspended sentence.

1972: President Anwar Sadat threw 20,000 Soviet military aides out of Egypt.

1976: Nadia Comaneci of Romania became the first competitor in Olympic history to score a perfect ten in gymnastics.

1980: Rohini I, the first Indian satellite, was launched into orbit.

1982: Tom Watson won the Open Championship at Royal Troon.

1986: Greg Norman won the Open Championship at Turnberry.

1988: Iran announced acceptance of UN resolution for ceasefire in Gulf war with Iraq.

1989: Tim Waterstone made about £8 million when he sold his chain of bookstores to WH Smith, the firm that had sacked him seven years previously.

1993: Afghanistan president Ishaq Khan and premier Nawaz Sharif resigned.

1995: A report by the Board of Banking Supervisors into the Barings Bank crash with £827m losses, heaped blame on jailed trader Nick Leeson and the failure of Barings’ internal controls.

1999: Scottish golfer Paul Lawrie won the Open Championship at Carnoustie.

2012: Kim Jong-un was appointed Supreme Leader of North Korea and given the rank of marshal in the Korean People’s Army.

2013: The city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy with debts of $18.5 billion.

BIRTHDAYS

Elizabeth McGovern, actress, 53; Edward Bond, playwright and director, 80; Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, 64; Sir Nick Faldo MBE, golfer, 57; John Glenn, astronaut and politician, 93; David Hemery CBE, Olympic 400 metres hurdles gold medallist 1968, 70; Martha Reeves, soul singer, 73; Jim Watt, former world lightweight boxing champion, 66; Vin Diesel, actor and director, 47; James Brolin, actor, producer and director, 74; Alan Pardew, football manager, 53; Burt Kwouk, actor, 84; Calvin Peete, golfer, 71; Robin MacDonald, Nairn-born guitarist (Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas) 71; Dennis Lillee MBE, former cricketer, 65; Elizabeth Gilbert, author, 45.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1635 Robert Hooke, physicist who discovered law of elasticity; 1918 Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa 1994-9; 1867 “The Unsinkable” Molly Brown, socialite, philanthropist and Titanic survivor; 1898 John Stuart, Edinburgh-born silent movie actor; 1938 Ian Stewart, Pittenweem-born musician (The Rolling Stones).

Deaths: 1610 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, artist; 1792 John Paul Jones, Kirkcudbrightshire-born naval hero of the American Revolution; 1817 Jane Austen, novelist; 1973 Jack Hawkins, actor; 1988 Nico, model and singer (Velvet Underground);1993 Jean Negulesco, film director (Three Coins In The Fountain); 2004 Paul Foot, journalist.