On this day: “Rogues’ Gallery” started

On this day in 1960 Penguin Books was cleared of obscenity for publishing Lady Chatterleys Lover. Pictured is the publishers founder Sir Allen Lane. Picture: Getty

2 November

1619: Patent granted to Nathaniel Udwart of Edinburgh for a monopoly in the manufacture of soap.

1785: First unsinkable lifeboat patented by Lionel Lukin, a London coachbuilder.

1853: First public meeting of the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights was held in Edinburgh.

1871: All prisoners in Britain were photographed, thereby starting the “Rogues’ Gallery”.

1896: The first motor insurance policies were issued in Britain. They excluded damage caused by frightened horses.

1903: First edition of the Daily Mirror published.

1917: Balfour Declaration written by British Foreign Secretary AJ Balfour to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild declared support for the idea of a Jewish national home in Palestine provided safeguards were established to protect the rights of “existing non-Jewish communities”.

1930: Haile Selassie crowned as Emperor of Ethiopia.

1936: First high-definition television broadcast from Alexandra Palace, London.

1944: Erwin Rommel, German military commander known as the “Desert Fox”, died by self-administered poison.

1954: Comedy series Hancock’s Half Hour began on BBC radio.

1959: £22 million M1 between London and Birmingham opened in Luton by minister of transport Ernest Marples.

1960: The Lady Chatterley trial ended with publisher Penguin Books cleared of obscenity.

1962: Greville Wynne, businessman, was arrested by KGB in Prague and charged with spying in Moscow.

1964: King Faisal succeeded his brother to the throne of Saudi Arabia.

1967: Winifred “Winnie” Ewing won Hamilton by-election for the Scottish National Party.

1981: Citizens’ Band radio became legal in Britain.

1986: Britain’s first artificial heart transplant operation was performed at Papworth Hospital, Cambridgeshire.

1990: Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Television forced merger with rival British Satellite Broadcasting.

2005: David Blunkett resigned from the Cabinet, for the second time in a year, over his business dealings.

2008: Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history after a nail-biting Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton took the title by one point from Felipe Massa.

BIRTHDAYS

Kd lang, singer, 52; Keith Emerson, rock musician (The Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer), 69; Samantha Womack, singer and actress (ex-EastEnders), 41; Paul Johnson, author and columnist, 85; Graham Mitchell, footballer, 51; Nelly, American rapper, 39; Said Ouita, athlete and world record breaker, 53; Stefanie Powers, actress, 71; Ken Rosewall MBE, tennis player, 79; David Schwimmer, actor (Ross in Friends), 47; Bruce Welch OBE, guitarist (The Shadows) 72.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1734 Daniel Boone, US frontiersman; 1755 Marie Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI of France; 1906 Luchino Visconti, film director; 1913 Burt Lancaster, film actor.

Deaths: 1887 Jenny Lind, operatic soprano known as “Swedish nightingale”; 1950 George Bernard Shaw, author and dramatist; 1961 James Thurber, cartoonist and writer; 1992 Hal Roach, comedy film-maker; 2000 Baroness Ryder of Warsaw (Sue Ryder), charity worker.