On this day: Nelson Mandela at Wembley Stadium

On this day in 1990 Nelson Mandela, pictured with his then wife Winnie, was hailed by a crowd of 70,000 at Wembley Stadium. Picture: Getty

1746: The Jacobites were defeated by the Duke of Cumberland’s forces at the battle of Culloden, terminating attempts by the Stuarts to regain the throne.

1906: Pacific cable between US and China was completed.

1912: American pilot Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel, from Dover to Hardelot.

1917: A large crowd in Petrograd welcomed Lenin back from exile in Switzerland.

1924: The Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio was formed – a merger between Metro-Goldwyn and the Louis B Mayer Company.

1929: The first machine for making tea bags was patented by Paul von Korosy.

1941: The Blitz reached climax as 500 German aircraft dropped 100,000 bombs in all-night attack on London.

1942: India’s Congress rejected terms of self-government offered by Britain.

1943: Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).

1945: American troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.

1948: The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (EEC) was set up.

1951: The British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel with the loss of 75 lives.

1953: The Royal yacht Britannia was launched by the Queen from John Brown’s yard on the Clyde.

1964: Twelve members of the Great Train Robbery gang were sentenced to a total of 307 years in jail.

1972: Apollo 16 was launched with John Young, Charles Duke and Thomas Mattingley; Young and Duke made the fifth Moon landing.

1979: Seven killed, 63 injured, in head-on collision between trains at Wellneuk Junction, Paisley.

1990: Nelson Mandela was hailed by a 70,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium.

1992: President Mohammad Najibullah of Afghanistan was deposed in an army coup.

1993: The year’s second national rail strike kept thousands of commuters at home for a second Friday in two weeks.

1994: A British Sea Harrier was shot down over Gorazde in Bosnia, as UN jets tried to halt a Serbian assault on the town.

2003: Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens admitting ten new member states to the EU.

2004: The super liner RMS Queen Mary 2 embarked on her first trans-Atlantic crossing.

BIRTHDAYS

Dame Joan Bakewell, Baroness DBE, broadcaster and writer, 81; Ellen Barkin, actress, 60; Pope Benedict XVI, 87; Nick Berry, actor, 51; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, 74; Paul di Resta, Scottish racing driver, 28; Lynne Franks, PR consultant, 66; Martin Lawrence, actor, 49; Jimmy Osmond, pop singer, 51; Sir Frank Williams, managing director, Williams motor racing team, 72; Gordon Wilson, MP 1974-87, 76.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1800 William Chambers, author and publisher; 1889 Sir Charles Chaplin, actor, producer and director; 1911 Guy Burgess, civil servant, traitor; 1918 Spike Milligan KBE, comedian; 1921 Sir Peter Ustinov, actor, director; 1922 Sir Kingsley Amis, novelist; 1924 Henry Mancini, composer; 1939 Dusty Springfield, singer; 1939 Donald MacCormick, Scottish broadcaster; 1947 Gerry Rafferty, Paisley-born singer and songwriter.

Deaths: 1828 Francesco de Goya, painter; 1850 Madame Tussaud, founder of the wax museum; 1998 Sir Ronald Millar, playwright and screenwriter.