On this day: Scotland bowed out of 1990 World Cup

On this day in 1990 Scotland bowed out of the World Cup after being beaten 1-0 by Brazil in Italy. Picture: Getty

1522: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visited England and signed Treaty of Windsor with King Henry VIII, calling for invasion of France.

1586: Colonists sailed from Roanoke Island, present-day North Caroline, ending first settlement by English in America.

1605: Russia’s Tsar Theodore II was assassinated in palace revolution.

1756: Night of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Some 156 British prisoners were put into a cell 20ft square on a hot June night when Suraja Dowla, Nawab of Bengal, captured Fort William. Only 23 survived.

1789: The French Revolution began and the country entered a period of radical social and political upheaval that had a major impact on France and indeed all of Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled the country for centuries collapsed in three years.

1841: Samuel Morse patented telegraph.

1862: Congress prohibited slavery in US territories.

1885: Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City from France.

1887: The second Tay Bridge, the longest railway bridge in Britain, was opened.

1923: General “Pancho” Villa, Mexican guerrilla leader and revolutionary, was assassinated at Parral (Chihuahua).

1944: US troops took Saipan Island in Pacific from Japanese.

1949: “Gorgeous Gussie” Moran, American tennis player, caused a sensation at Wimbledon, wearing lace-trimmed underwear under a short skirt, designed by Teddy Tinling.

1960: Nan Winton became the first woman to read the national news on BBC television.

1966: First black British police officer went on duty in Coventry.

1969: The discovery of high-grade crude oil deposits in the North Sea was announced, ten years after the first natural gas was found.

1970: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 9 landed in Kazakhstan, establishing record for longest manned space flight at 17 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes.

1973: Juan Peron returned as president of Argentina after almost 20 years of exile.

1987: Basque separatists claimed responsibility after explosion in Barcelona department store garage killed 12 people.

1988: Bomb planted by Sikh extremists exploded in middle of crowd outside television shop in Kurukshetra, India, killing 15 people.

1989: China’s premier, Li Peng, defended army’s attack on pro-democracy demonstrators.

1990: The Agra diamond was sold for a record £4,070,000 at Christie’s.

1990: Scotland bowed out of the World Cup after 1-0 defeat by Brazil.

1995: Conservationists claimed a major victory as Shell abandoned plans to dump the disused Brent Spar oil rig in the Atlantic.

1997: former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken faced criminal prosecution, a £2m legal bill and the ruin of his private and public life after dropping a High Court libel action against the Guardian newspaper and Granada TV.

2003: The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates several online collaborative wiki projects including Wikipedia, was founded in St Petersburg, Florida.

2008: An NHS region in Scotland announced plans to offer smokers cash incentives of £50 to quit the habit.

BIRTHDAYS

Nicole Kidman, actress, 47; Danny Aiello, actor, 81; Wendy Craig, actress, 80; Stafford Dean, opera singer, 77; Olympia Dukakis, actress, 83; Stephen Frears, film director, 73; Duchess of Gloucester, 68; John Goodman, actor, 62; Ronald Hines, actor, 85; Allan Lamb, cricketer, 60; Frank Lampard, English footballer, 36; Martin Landau, actor, 86; Raúl Ramirez, tennis player, 61; Lionel Richie, singer and songwriter, 65; Vikram Seth, novelist and poet, 62; Claire Tomalin, biographer, 81; Brian Wilson, musician (Beach Boys) and composer, 72; Anne Murray, singer, 69; John Mahoney, actor (Frasier), 74; Brian Duffy, astronaut, 61.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1723 Adam Ferguson, Logierait-born philosopher and pioneer of sociology; 1819 Jacques Offenbach, composer; 1905 Lillian Hellman, American playwright and screenwriter (The Little Foxes); 1906 Dame Catherine Cookson, novelist; 1909 Errol Flynn, American film actor; 1916 Johnny Morris, naturalist and broadcaster; 1924 Chet Atkins, guitarist; 1924 Audie Murphy, actor and much decorated Second World War soldier.

Deaths: 1597 Willem Barents, Arctic explorer; 1837 William IV, the “Sailor King”; 1870 Jules de Goncourt, French writer; 1980 Gustav Pettersson, composer; 1991 Gerald Priestland, broadcaster; 1992 Sir Charles Groves, conductor; 1992 John Bratby, artist; 2012 Alexander Charles Robert “Alistair” Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry.