On this day: SNP election win | Madeleine McCann

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries for 3 May
Alex Salmond after an election victory in 2007. Picture: Neil HannaAlex Salmond after an election victory in 2007. Picture: Neil Hanna
Alex Salmond after an election victory in 2007. Picture: Neil Hanna

1788: The first daily evening newspaper, the Star and Evening Advertiser, was published in London.

1814: France’s King Louis XVIII returned to Paris after ascendancy of allies forced Napoleon Bonaparte into exile on the island of Elba.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1815: The metronome, an instrument which clicks at intervals to mark musical time, was patented by Johann Maelzel.

1841: New Zealand was formally proclaimed a British colony.

1898: Bread riots erupted in Milan, Italy, and were crushed with heavy loss of life.

1934: Author HG Wells predicted there would be a major world war by 1940.

1945: Allied troops entered Hamburg, Germany.

1951: The Festival of Britain was opened by King George VI; it was built on a bomb site near Waterloo Station and ended on 30 September.

1960: The European Free Trade Association came into force.

1963: Government crisis in Syria threatened recently agreed union of Syria, Iraq and United Arab Republic.

1968: The first heart transplant operation was carried out in Britain by a team led by Doctor Donald Ross on a 45-year-old man at the National Heart Hospital, in London.

1972: Turkish guerrillas hijacked Turkish plane and landed in Sofia, Bulgaria.

1979: Margaret Thatcher led the Conservative Party to victory in the general election with an overall majority of 43.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1990: Labour won 42 per cent of vote in the Scottish regional council elections.

1991: Hundreds of Iraqi troops withdrew from an expanded allied security zone in northern Iraq.

2003: SNP leader John Swinney was battling to save his political career after his party lost eight seats in the Scottish Parliament elections. The Scottish Socialists gained five seats.

2007: The SNP secured a historic victory in the Holyrood elections, ending Labour’s 50-year domination of Scotland’s political map. It gave the SNP 47 MSPs with Labour on 46.

2007: Madeleine McCann went missing from an apartment in the Algarve region of Portugal while on holiday with her parents and twin siblings. No trace has ever been found of her.

• 3 May is Poland Constitution Day.

BIRTHDAYS

Pete Seeger, American folk singer and songwriter, 94; Christopher Cross, American singer-songwriter, 62; Peter Duncan, Chief Scout 2004-09, actor and former Blue Peter presenter, 59; Ben Elton, comedian and writer, 54; Ken Hom OBE, television chef, 64; Mary Hopkin, singer, 63; Gordon Hunter, Scottish footballer, 45; Mats Lanner, Swedish golfer, 52; Peter Oosterhuis, golfer and commentator, 64; Sandi Toksvig, comedienne and writer, 55; Lawrence Tynes, Greenock-born American Football Super Bowl winner 2008, 35; Frankie Valli, Italian-American musician, 79; Allan Wells MBE, athlete, 61.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1469 Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian statesman; 1896 Dodie Smith, author (One Hundred and One Dalmatians); 1898 Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister; 1920 Sugar Ray Robinson, world middleweight boxing champion; 1928 James Brown “Godfather of Soul”; 1934 Sir Henry Cooper OBE, former British heavyweight boxing champion.

Deaths: 1679 Archbishop James Sharp, of St Andrews (murdered at Magus Muir); 1995 Sir Michael Hordern, actor; 1999 Oliver Reed, actor; 2002 Baroness Castle of Blackburn, politician.