On this day: Mount Pinatubo erupts in Philippines

On this day in 1991 the volcano, Mount Pinatubo, erupted in the Philippines, forcing the US to evacuate its Clark air force base. Picture: Getty

1549: The Book of Common Prayer, compiled by Thomas Cranmer, was adopted in England.

1898: Hong Kong was leased by Britain from China for 99 years.

1904: The London Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert. It was formed by musicians who had left Henry Wood’s orchestra after a disagreement.

1915: British troops in France were first issued with hand–grenades.

1931: Submarine HMS Poseidon sank off Hong Kong after being rammed by a steamer. Six of the 20-man crew survived.

1934: Donald Duck was “born” – in Walt Disney’s cartoon the Wise Little Hen.

1942: Czechoslovak village of Lidice razed, all its 199 male inhabitants shot and 285 women and children sent to concentration camps by Nazis in retaliation for shooting of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of Hitler’s “final solution”.

1958: Gatwick Airport, in Sussex, was opened by the Queen.

1959: The first Polaris submarine, George Washington, was launched at Groton in Connecticut.

1961: United Nations called on Portugal to cease repressive measures in Angola.

1967: Gamal Abdel Nasser resigned as president of Egypt after defeat in war with Israel.

1972: US planes raided outskirts of Hanoi and Haiphong in most concentrated bombing of North Vietnam’s military heartland in more than four years.

1975: Parliamentary broadcasting from the House of Commons began.

1982: The 20p coin entered circulation.

1988: The England cricket captain, Mike Gatting, was sacked for “irresponsibility”.

1990: IRA bomb explosion injured 17 party-goers at the HQ of the Honourable Artillery Company in London.

1991: Mount Pinatubo erupted in Philippines after 600 years of calm, hurling debris 15 miles into the sky and forcing the United States to evacuate 15,000 people from its Clark air force base.

2009: British National Party leader Nick Griffin was pelted with eggs and forced to abandon a press conference in London.

2010: The SNP revealed plans to get households to separate food waste from other rubbish so it can be used to generate electricity.

BIRTHDAYS

James Kelman, writer, 69; Michael J Fox, actor, 54; Tony Britton, actor, 91; Patricia Cornwell, writer (Kay Scarpetta forensic science thrillers), 59; Johnny Depp, actor, 52; Giles Havergal CBE, director, Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre 1969-2002, 77; Sir Peter Heatly CBE, chairman, Commonwealth Games Federation 1982-90, 91; Natalie Portman, actress, 34; Gloria Reuben, actress, 51; Charles Saatchi, advertising executive and art collector, 72; Mae Whitman, actress (Independence Day), 27; Jackie Mason, comedian and actor, 84.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1781 George Stephenson, locomotive engineer; 1836 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, first woman doctor to qualify in Britain; 1892 Cole Porter, composer and songwriter; 1908 Robert Cummings, actor; Professor Eric Hobsbawm, economic and social historian; 1941 Jon Lord, rock musician and composer (Deep Purple); 1942 Ossie Clark, dress designer.

Deaths: AD597 St Columba, on Iona; 1870 Charles Dickens, novelist; 1958 Robert Donat, film actor; 1990 Angus McBean, photographer; 2003 Adam Faith, singer and actor; 2013 Iain Banks, novelist; 2014 Rik Mayall, actor and comedian.

SHORTAGE OF FARM LABOUR IN EAST FIFE

9 June, 1915

The bulk of the young ploughmen in the East of Fife have now enlisted in the Army and the farmers are experiencing a great shortage of labour. At a meeting of the St Andrews and District Farmers’ Club yesterday it was agreed to apply to the military authorities in Scotland for “assistance at turnip thinning and haymaking and harvest”. It was also agreed to make representations to the Board of Agriculture and the Secretary for Scotland in regard to the agitation being carried on among ploughmen by Mr Robertson, secretary, Ploughmen’s Union. It was stated he had been telling the men that war broke all contracts, and that they had a right to leave their present employers if they did not get an increase in wages. It was pointed out that as farmers could not break their contracts with their landlords, neither could ploughmen break their contracts with farmers unless they were enlisting.

• archive.scotsman.com