On this day: Spanish Inquisition | Bluebird became world’s fastest car

7 March

1820: Spain’s King Ferdinand II was forced to restore the Constitution of 1812 and end the Inquisition.

1866: The Albert Medal for Gallantry in saving life on sea or land was instituted.

1926: First transatlantic radio-telephone was established.

1935: Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird became the world’s fastest car when he drove it across the Utah Flats, United States, at 277mph.

1936: Germany violated Treaty of Versailles by occupying demilitarised zone in the Rhineland.

1941: British troops entered Italian-occupied Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1942: British forces withdrew from Rangoon.

1945: British 14th Army entered Mandalay in Burma.

1946: Doctors mounted a campaign to fight the introduction of a National Health Service.

1951: Premier Ali Razmara of Iran was assassinated.

1962: First major report on cigarette risks, Smoking and Health, was published by the Royal College of Physicians.

1965: Round the Horne started on BBC radio with Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams. It ran for three years.

1968: United States and Soviet Union pledged to protect all weaker nations from nuclear blackmail and aggression.

1977: Armed raiders stole £850,000 worth of diamonds and currency at Heathrow Airport.

1989: 25lb of Semtex explosive was found in woods near Scarborough nine days before the Conservative Party Central Council was due to meet.

1990: Department of Trade and Industry report on Harrods said al-Fayed brothers lied to the Office of Fair Trading when they bought House of Fraser.

1991: Ten Rochdale children held in care for nearly a year after allegations of Satanic ritual abuse were freed by judge who criticised Rochdale council and social workers for serious errors of judgment.

2007: The House of Commons voted to make the upper chamber, the House of Lords, 100 per cent elected.

2012: Six British soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by an explosion.

BIRTHDAYS

Rachel Weisz, actress, 42; William Boyd CBE, novelist and screenwriter, 61; Paul Cattermole, singer and actor, 36, Malcolm Chisholm, MSP, MP 1997-2001, 64; Ruthie Henshall, actress, 46; Nicholas Kraemer, Scottish conductor, 68; Ivan Lendl, coach to Andy Murray, 53; Prof Duncan Macmillan, critic, art historian, Emeritus Professor, the University of Edinburgh, and former curator of the Talbot Rice Gallery, 74; Rik Mayall, actor and comedian, 55; Sir Rohinton Mistry, novelist, 61; Sir Vivian Richards, cricketer, captain of West Indies 1985-91, 61; Tommy Sheridan, MSP 1999-2007, 49; Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes OBE, explorer, 69.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1792 Sir John Herschel, astronomer; 1802 Sir Edwin Landseer, painter, sculptor, designer of bronze lions at base of Nelson’s Column; 1831 Henry Moore, painter; 1872 Piet Mondrian, artist; 1875 Maurice Ravel, composer; 1924 Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor.

Deaths: 1274 St Thomas Aquinas, Dominican theologian; 1932 Aristide Briand, French prime minister and promoter of united Europe; 1957 Percy Wyndham Lewis, writer and artist; 1971 Stevie Smith, poet; 1999 Stanley Kubrick, film producer and director.