On this day: Three killed as riots hit Athens

Three people were killed as Athens was hit rioting in reaction to austerity measures introduced by the Greek government in 2010. Picture: Getty

1641: England’s Star Chamber was abolished by the Long Parliament.

1646: Charles I surrendered to Scots at Newark.

1762: Russia and Prussia signed Treaty of St Petersburg, under which Russia restored all conquests and formed defensive and offensive alliance.

1824: British troops took over Rangoon, Burma.

1862: Confederates were victorious at the Battle of Williamsburg.

1881: Louis Pasteur carried out successful inoculations against anthrax on an ox, cows and sheep.

1912: First issue of Pravda was published.

1930: Amy Johnson left Croydon in the Gypsy Moth Jason to become the first female to fly solo to Australia, arriving on 24 May.

1931: People’s National Convention in Nanking, China, adopted provisional constitution.

1936: Italian forces occupied Addis Ababa, ending Abyssinian (Ethiopian) War.

1941: Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Ethiopia from exile in Britain after the liberation of his country by British forces.

1942: British forces invaded Madagascar.

1949: The Council of Europe was set up in London.

1961: Alan Shepard became the first American spaceman, in a Mercury capsule Freedom VII.

1975: The Scottish Daily News, the first workers’ co-operative national newspaper, was published. It closed after seven months.

1978: Red Brigades in Italy announced they were carrying out death sentence against former premier Aldo Moro, whose body was found two days later.

1980: SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian embassy in Knightsbridge, London, killing four of the five gunmen who took over the building, and rescuing 19 hostages.

1981: Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker, died in jail. He had been elected as an MP in the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election on 11 April.

1988: The first live television broadcast from the summit of Mount Everest was transmitted by Japanese television.

1989: The first two-man flight in a microlight aircraft was made by Steve Mangan and Graham Jones of Hampshire, when they went from Cherbourg to Southampton for charity.

1990: So-called Two-Plus-Four talks on German unification, involving Britain, France, Soviet Union, United States and two Germanies, opened in Bonn.

1992: Twelve football supporters died and 527 were injured when a temporary stand collapsed at Bastia, Corsica.

1994: Despite United States protests, American Michael Fay, 18, received four strokes of the cane for spray-painting cars and other offences in Singapore.

1995: The Queen paid tribute to Second World War dead at the start of three days of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of VE Day.

2005: Tony Blair secured an historic third term in government for Labour, with a majority down from 161 to 66.

2006: The government of Sudan signed an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

2010: Three people, including a pregnant woman, were killed as riots over new austerity measures engulfed the streets of Athens.

2011: Voting took place in the Scottish election. A day later, the Scottish National Party formed Scotland’s first ever majority government by taking 69 seats in the 129-seat parliament.

BIRTHDAYS

Adele, MBE, singer-songwriter, 26; Chris Brown, singer and actor, 25; Jessie Cave, actress, 27; James Cracknell OBE, rower, 42; Craig David, singer-songwriter, 33; Richard E Grant, actor, 57; Lance Henriksen, actor, 74; Brooke Hogan, pop singer and television personality, 26; Ian McCulloch, rock guitarist and singer (Echo & the Bunnymen), 55; Lord (John) Maxton, MP 1979-2001, 78; Michael Palin CBE, actor and author, 71; Roger Rees, actor, 70; John Rhys-Davies, actor, 70; Dilys Watling, actress, 71; Yossi Benayoun, Israeli-born footballer, 34.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1813 Søren Aabye Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher; 1818 Karl Heinrich Marx, the Sage of Highgate and father of Communism;1826 Empress Eugenie of France; 1867 Nellie Bly, American journalist and campaigner for women’s rights; 1890 Christopher Morley, novelist and playwright; 1904 Sir Gordon Richards, champion jockey 26 times; 1913 Tyrone Power, film actor; 1942 Tammy Wynette, singer and songwriter.

Deaths: 1821 Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France (in exile on St Helena); 1921 William Friese-Greene, cinema pioneer; 1945 René Lalique, jeweller and glassmaker; 1985 Sir Donald Bailey, wartime bridge designer; 1995 Mikhail Botvinnik, world chess champion; 1998 Syd Lawrence, musician, arranger and bandleader; 1998 Wolf Mankowitz, author and playwright.