On this day: MPs vote to ban hunting with dogs

On this day in 1950, Roger Bannister ran the mile in a record four minutes 1.48 seconds. Picture: Getty

1291: Pope Gregory X issued a bull awarding clerical tithes of Scotland to Edward I of England for crusade.

1689: The Earl of Leven was commissioned to raise regiment of 800 in Border country to hold Edinburgh against Jacobites. It became The King’s Own Scottish Borderers.

1834: The Tolpuddle Martyrs, who set up society to stop decline of agricultural wages, were sentenced to seven years’ transportation to Tasmania. Public outcry had them released after two years.

On this day in 2002, MPs voted 386-175 to ban hunting with dogs in England and Wales. Picture: PA

1891: The opening of the London-Paris telephone system with communication between the Prince of Wales and President Carnot. The service did not become public until 1 April.

1922: Mahatma Gandhi was sentenced to six years in prison in India for civil disobedience.

1925: Madame Tussaud’s London wax museum burned down.

1930: The planet Pluto was discovered by the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh.

1931: World’s first electric razor was manufactured by American firm Schick Inc.

1958: The last debutantes were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

1961: First episode of fantasy detective series The Avengers was shown on television.

1962: Ceasefire in Algerian War was signed by French and Algerian delegations in Evian-les-Bains, France.

1965: Aleksei Leonov left Soviet spacecraft to make first space walk, lasting ten minutes.

1967: The oil tanker Torrey Canyon was wrecked on Pollard Rock between Isles of Scilly and Land’s End, spilling 120,000 gallons of crude into the sea.

1970: Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk was deposed as chief of state while on visit to Moscow.

1989: Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians in clashes with protesters in occupied Gaza Strip.

1992: Pat Clinton became the sixth Scot to hold a world boxing title when he dethroned the Mexican Isidro Perez for the World Boxing Organisation flyweight crown.

1994: Bosnia’s Muslim and Croat leaders signed accord to create a federation.

1995: England beat Scotland 24-12 at Twickenham to win rugby’s grand slam, Five Nations Championship and Calcutta Cup.

2002: MPs voted 386-175 to ban hunting with dogs in England and Wales. Alternative proposals to maintain the status quo and a licensing system were defeated.

2003: 139 Labour MPs rebelled in a Commons vote on war with Iraq and voted against the Labour government, the biggest act of defiance in British political history.

2003: Sign language was recognised as an official British language.

2009: Josef Fritzl, the Austrian accused of imprisoning his daughter and fathering seven children with her, changed his plea to guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Births: 1858 Rudolf Diesel, inventor of engine that bears his name; 1860 Andrew Kirkaldy, golfer; 1869 Neville Chamberlain, Conservative prime minister 1937-1940; 1893 Wilfred Owen, war poet; 1924 Pat Eddery, champion jockey 11 times; .

Deaths: AD978 King Edward the Martyr (murdered); 1455 Fra Angelico, artist; 1584 Ivan the Terrible, first to assume title of Tsar; 1745 Sir Robert Walpole, Whig statesman; 2008 Sir Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer; 2008 Anthony Minghella, scriptwriter and film director; 2009 Natasha Richardson, actress.