On this day: Prototype of Concorde, revealed

On this day in 1967 Concorde, the worlds first supersonic airliner, was officially unveiled in a ceremony in Toulouse. Picture: Getty

11 DECEMBER

1816: Britain restored Java, Indonesia, to the Netherlands.

1845: Sikhs crossed Sutlej River in India and surprised British, causing outbreak of war.

1878: French-British dual control in Egypt was suspended.

1903: The first wildlife preservation society in Britain was founded under the name Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire.

1914: Royal Flying Corps adopted the red, white and blue roundel for aircraft identification.

1931: Statute of Westminster, recognising independence of the Commonwealth, became law.

1936: Edward VIII abdicated as king, after a reign of 325 days, in favour of his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI.

1941: United States declared war against Germany and Italy.

1961: Two US helicopter companies arrived in Saigon on aircraft carrier in first direct American military support for South Vietnam’s battle against Communist guerrillas.

1967: Prototype of the world’s first supersonic airliner, Concorde, revealed.

1972: Two Apollo 17 astronauts, Captain Eugene Cernan and Doctor Harrison Schmitt, landed on the Moon in lunar module Challenger. They took three Moon walks in the Taurus-Littrow area.

1987: Charlie Chaplin’s famous cane and bowler were sold at Christie’s for £82,500, and his boots for £38,500.

1990: It was decided to place concrete puffins on the cliffs at Cardigan Island, west Wales, to try to lure real birds back.

1991: William Kennedy Smith, nephew of senator Edward Kennedy, was acquitted of raping a woman on his family’s Florida estate.

1994: President Boris Yeltsin sent Russian tanks and troops into the renegade region of Chechnya.

1996: The Conservative government’s paymaster-general, David Willetts, resigned after a damning report about his involvement in the Commons cash-for-questions affair.

2008: Bernard Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

2009: American golfer Tiger Woods announced that he was to take an indefinite leave from professional golf to try to work on “healing” his family after revelations surrounding infidelity.

2010: Two explosions occurred in a busy shopping district of Stockholm, Sweden, killing one and injuring two others.

BIRTHDAYS

Marco Pierre White, chef, 52; Anna Carteret, actress, 71; Teri Garr, actress, 64; Jermaine Jackson, singer, 59; Brenda Lee, singer, 69; Neil Mackie CBE, Scottish tenor, 67; Cliff Michelmore CBE, broadcaster, 94; Patrick Reyntiens OBE, designer and stained glass painter, 88; Raymond Robertson, MP 1992-97, chairman, Scottish Conservative Party 1997-2001, 54; Michaela Tabb, snooker and pool championship referee, 46.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1475 Giovanni de’ Medici, pope who excommunicated Martin Luther; 1707 Charles Wesley, Methodist and prolific hymn writer; 1781 Sir David Brewster, physicist and inventor of kaleidoscope; 1803 Hector Berlioz, composer; 1843 Robert Kock, bacteriologist.

Deaths: 1282 Llewelyn Ab Gruffydd, Prince of Wales; 1964 Sam Cooke, singer; 1965 Ed Murrow, journalist and broadcaster; 1996 William Rushton, actor, author, cartoonist and broadcaster; 2008 Bettie Page, model and pin-up; 2012 Pandit Ravi Shankar, sitar player.