On this day: Simon Le Bon rescued after his yacht capsized

On this day in 1985 Pop singer Simon Le Bon was rescued after his yacht Drum capsized off Cornwall during the Fastnet race. Picture: PA

National day of Ecuador.

1675: Greenwich Observatory was established by King Charles II, and its foundation stone laid.

1792: The French monarchy was abolished.

1842: The Mines Act was passed by parliament, forbidding women and children in Britain to work underground.

1846: The Smithsonian Institution was established in Washington, DC, by the bequest of the British scientist James Smithson.

1872: Education (Scotland) Act, passed. It provided for a state elementary education for all children, and amended previous provisions in the acts of 1696, 1793, 1839 and 1861.

1895: The first London Promenade Concert took place, founded by Henry Wood (later Sir) and Robert Newman, and played by an orchestra of 80, conducted by Henry Wood in the Queen’s Hall. Standing tickets cost one shilling.

1897: The Royal Automobile Club was founded, under the name of “The Automobile Club of Great Britain”.

1911: Members of Parliament were granted salaries for the first time. Figure was set at £400 per annum.

1911: House of Lords finally relinquished supremacy over Commons by passing Parliament Bill, which limited the power of peers to delay legislation proposed by lower chamber.

1913: Peace ending Balkan War was signed in Bucharest.

1920: The GPO issued the first airmail stickers.

1921: Within days of taking a dip in the waters of Fundy Bay after fighting a forest fire, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 39-year old future president of the United States had poliomyelitis and was paralysed from the waist down.

1954: Sir Gordon Richards, champion jockey, retired after 4,870 wins.

1961: Britain applied for membership of the EEC.

1966: America’s first Moon satellite, Orbiter 1, was launched.

1985: Pop singer Simon Le Bon was rescued after his yacht Drum capsized off Cornwall during the Fastnet race.

1989: A Soviet freighter left for Canada after she was refused permission to unload PCB toxic waste at Tilbury.

1990: Washington mayor Marion Barry was found guilty of possessing cocaine.

1990: Saddam Hussein called on Arabs everywhere to “rise up and defend Mecca, which has fallen captive to the spears of the Americans and the Zionists”.

1992: The paramilitary Ulster Defence Association was outlawed by the Northern Ireland Office.

2006: Britain went on “critical” security alert after the arrests of 24 British nationals about an alleged plot to detonate suicide bombs on airliners bound for the United States. Hundreds of flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled.

2008: Nicole Cooke, from Wales, claimed Britain’s first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in a thrilling women’s cycling race.

BIRTHDAYS

Antonio Banderas, actor, 55; Ian Anderson MBE, Dunfermline-born rock singer-musician (Jethro Tull), 68; Rosanna Arquette, actress, 56; Baroness Butler-Sloss GBE, president of the Family Division 1999-2005, 82; Lawrence Dallaglio OBE, rugby player, 43; Charlie Dimmock, television gardener, 49; Julia Fordham, British singer, 53; Professor Alexander Goehr, German composer, Professor of Music, Cambridge University 1976-99, 83; Roy Keane, Irish footballer, manager and television pundit, 44; Anita Lonsbrough-Porter MBE, 1960 Olympic swimming champion, journalist, 74; Lorraine Pearson, singer (Five Star), 48; Justin Theroux, actor/director/screenwriter, 44; Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia since 2010, 64; Javier Zanetti, Argentine footballer, 42; Emily Symons, actress (Emmerdale), 46; Suzanne Collins, TV writer and novelist (The Hunger Games), 53; Philippe Albert, Belgian footballer, 48; Riddick Bowe, world heavyweight boxing champion, 48; Patti Austin, American R&B, pop and jazz singer, 64; Ronnie Spector, singer (the Ronettes), 72.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1740 Samuel Arnold, organist and composer; 1874 Herbert Hoover, 31st United States president;1902 Norma Shearer, actress; 1909 Leo Fender, pioneer of the electric guitar; 1910 Cardinal Gordon Gray, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh; 1925 Alastair Webster Mackie, Aberdeen-born poet; 1933 Keith Duckworth, mechanical engineer; 1939 Kate O’Mara, actress; 1940 Bobby Hatfield, singer, one half of the Righteous Brothers; 1940 Sid Waddell, darts commentator; 1963 Phoolan Devi, India’s Bandit Queen and MP; 2014 Kate O’Mara, actress, star of TV series Dynasty; Ian Stewart, Baron Stewartby, Conservative politician, 79.

Deaths: 258 Saint Lawrence, martyr; 1806 Johann Haydn, composer; 1896 Otto Lilienthal, gliding pioneer; 1932 Rin Tin Tin, German Shepherd Dog and movie star; 1949 John Haigh, acid bath murderer (hanged); 1960 Oswald Veblen, mathematician; 1969 Sharon Tate, actress (murdered); 1976 Bert Oldfield, wicket-keeper and Test cricketer; 2007 Tony Wilson, record producer, TV presenter and journalist; 2008 Isaac Hayes, soul musician; 2013 Eydie Gormé, singer.