On this day: The Three Tenors at Dodger Stadium

The Three Tenors from left, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti sing at LAs Dodger Stadium in 1994. Picture: AP

AD622: Traditional starting day of the Islamic Era, when a persecuted Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina.

1328: David II, the son of Robert the Bruce, married Joan, the sister of Edward III. He was four years old, she was seven.

1429: Joan of Arc and the French army marched into Reims.

1439: Kissing was banned in England to prevent the spread of germs.

1661: Europe’s first banknotes were issued by the Bank of Stockholm.

1832: Thirty-one Shetland “sixerns”, with a total of 105 crewmen, were lost in a storm. It is still remembered as “The Bad Day”.

1900: Russia launched an offensive against China in Manchuria.

1917: Lenin fled Russia disguised as a fireman after the provisional government put down Bolshevik uprising.

1918: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad at Ekaterinsburg, Siberia.

1936: The first X-ray photo of arterial circulation was taken in Rochester, New York state.

1945: First atomic bomb was exploded over desert in New Mexico.

1950: Uruguay defeated Brazil 2-1 to win the football World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.

1951: Belgium’s King Leopold III abdicated and was succeeded by his son Baudouin.

1951: Len Hutton scored his hundredth century for Yorkshire against Surrey at The Oval.

1951: JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye was published.

1965: The seven-mile Mont Blanc road tunnel was opened, linking France with Italy.

1969: US Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins, to attempt first manned landing on Moon.

1970: The 13th Commonwealth Games opened in Edinburgh.

1979: Saddam Hussein succeeded Al-Bakr as president of Iraq.

1985: A bill to abolish the Greater London Council was given Royal assent.

1990: Former Soviet state, Ukraine, declared independence.

1991: British Airways chairman Lord King stopped his annual £40,000 donation to the Conservative Party, saying government policy had harmed the airline.

1993: Stella Rimington, head of MI5, met the press and revealed details of her organisation’s work in a booklet, The Security Service.

1994: A fragment of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet caused a mark the size of the Earth when it collided with the planet Jupiter at 138,000mph.

1994: The Three Tenors – Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras – performed together in Los Angeles.

1996: Relatives of the 16 children killed in the Dunblane massacre appealed for tough gun controls when they met MPs at Westminster at the start of a campaign for early legislation.

1999: John F Kennedy jnr, piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, died when his plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were also killed.

2009: Nasa admitted it deleted the only high-resolution images of the first moonwalk in 1969.

BIRTHDAYS

Miguel Indurain, five-times Tour de France winner, 50; Stewart Copeland, rock musician (the Police), 62; Professor Anita Brookner CBE, novelist and art historian, 86; Phoebe Cates, actress, 51; Michael Flatley, Irish step dancer and dance impresario, 56; Shirley Hughes OBE, author and illustrator of books for young children, 87; Dr James Macmillan, composer, 55; Will Ferrell, actor, 47; Gareth Bale, Welsh international footballer, 25; Adam Scott, Australian golfer, 34; Margaret Court MBE, former Wimbledon tennis champion, 72; Sergio Busquets, footballer, 26; Dennis Priestley, darts player, 64.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1194 St Clare of Assisi, Italian saint; 1723 Sir Joshua Reynolds, portrait painter and first president of the Royal Academy; 1821 Mary Baker Eddy, religious reformer and founder of Christian Science movement; 1872 Roald Amundsen, explorer; 1887 “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, baseball player; 1901 Fritz Mahler, composer; 1911 Ginger Rogers, dancer and actress; 1907 Barbara Stanwyck, actress; 1941 Desmond Dekker, Reggae singer-songwriter.

Deaths: 1309 James Stewart, High Steward of Scotland; 1557 Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII; 1882 May Todd Lincoln, US First Lady; 1960 Abrecht von Kesselring, Nazi general; 1965 Joseph Hilaire Belloc, writer and historian; 1989 Herbert von Karajan, conductor; 1995 Professor Sir Stephen Spender, poet and critic; 2003 Carol Shields, novelist (The Stone Diaries); 2008 Jo Stafford, singer; 2012 Jon Lord, musician (Deep Purple, Whitesnake, the Flower Pot Men).