On this day: Queen Elizabeth crowned

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 2 June
The Queen arrives in Trafalgar Square on this day in 1953. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey later that afternoon. Picture: GettyThe Queen arrives in Trafalgar Square on this day in 1953. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey later that afternoon. Picture: Getty
The Queen arrives in Trafalgar Square on this day in 1953. She was crowned in Westminster Abbey later that afternoon. Picture: Getty

National day of Italy

1771: Russia completed its conquest of the Crimea.

1780: The Gordon Riots took place in London, when Lord George Gordon called his followers to St George’s Field and led them in protest against relaxation of restrictions on Roman Catholics.

1835: American showman Phineas T Barnum began his first circus tour.

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1868: The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester.

1896: Marconi was granted the first patent for a system of communication by means of electromagnetic waves.

1910: Charles Stewart Rolls, in a Short-Wright biplane, flew from Dover to Sangatte to become the first Briton to fly the Channel.

1916: Boy Cornwell died from wounds after the Battle of Jutland. The 16-year-old had stayed at his post by the forward gun on HMS Chester while all his fellows were killed around him. He was awarded the VC posthumously – the youngest to receive it.

1917: Brazil revoked its neutrality in First World War and seized German ships.

1924: United States Congress confirmed citizenship on all American Indians.

1932: First railway buffet car went into service, on LMS’s London-Nottingham route.

1938: Robert and Edward Kennedy, youngest sons of the United States ambassador to London, opened the children’s zoo in Regent’s Park, London.

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1941: Clothes rationing was introduced in Britain, and was not lifted until 1949. Sixty coupons were allowed each year for all except baby clothes. One dress needed 11 coupons, and a man’s suit, 26.

1941: Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini held meeting at Brenner Pass in the Alps.

1946: Britain and United States restored Azores base to Portugal.

1953: Queen Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey, on a dull, showery day, as it was for her father’s coronation in 1937.

1954: Lester Piggott, aged 18, became the youngest jockey to win the Derby when he rode Never Say Die, a 33-1 outsider, to victory at Epsom.

1962: Britain’s first legal casino, the Metropole in Brighton, opened.

1965: Almost 200 miners were killed in coal mine explosion near Fukuoka, Japan.

1966: First soft landing on Moon successfully completed by United States spacecraft, Surveyor.

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1989: Japan’s new prime minister, Sõsuke Uno, pledged “clean start” for Japanese politics, disrupted for almost a year by bribery scandal.

1990: Liberia’s president, Samuel Doe, appealed for international help to end a rebel invasion and promised not to seek re-election in an effort to appease rebels.

1992: Denmark rejected the Maastricht Treaty in a national referendum.

1994: Twenty-five senior intelligence officers in Northern Ireland died when their Chinook helicopter crashed on the Mull of Kintyre.

1997: Timothy McVeigh was found guilty of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, in which 168 people, including 19 children, died.

BIRTHDAYS

Jon Culshaw, impressionist and comedian, 46; Keith Allen, actor and comedian, 61; Cy Chadwick, actor, 45; Heather Couper CBE, astronomer, 65; Sir Mark Elder CBE, conductor, 67; Tony Hadley, singer (Spandau Ballet), 54; Lasse Hallström, film director, 68; Stacy Keach, actor, 73; Sally Kellerman, actress, 77; Lord Penrose, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland 1990-2005, 76; Craig Stadler, golfer, 61; Mark Walters, footballer, 50; Charlie Watts, Rolling Stones’ drummer, 73; Mark and Steve Waugh, Australian cricketers, 49; Sergio Aguero, Argentine footballer, 26; Katie Taylor, Irish olympic boxing champion, 28; John Kerr, British ice-dance champion with sister Sinead, 34.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1740 The Marquis de Sade, French aristocrat and writer whose sexual perversions gave rise to the word sadism; 1840 Thomas Hardy, novelist and poet; 1850 Jesse Boot, pharmacist and chemist; 1857 Sir Edward Elgar, composer; 1903 Johnny Weismuller, Olympic swimming champion and Tarzan in 19 films; 1920 Johnny Speight, playwright and scriptwriter (creator of “Alf Garnett”); 1929 Leonard Parkin, broadcaster; 1922 Carmen Silvera, actress.

Deaths: 1581 Earl of Morton, regent (executed for complicity in the murder of Darnley); 1786 Dugald Buchanan, Gaelic religious poet, translator of the Gaelic New Testament; 1882 Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian soldier and patriot; 1913 Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate; 1962 Vita Sackville-West, novelist and gardener; 1970 Bruce McLaren, racing driver; 1987 Andre Segovia, guitarist; 1990 Sir Rex Harrison, actor; 2008 Bo Diddley, rock’n’roll singer, songwriter and guitarist; 2012 Richard Dawson, actor.

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