On this day: Train collision at Wellneuk Junction, Paisley | Blitz reached climax

Events, birthdays and anniversaries from 16 April

1746: The Jacobites were defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden.

1856: Declaration of Paris abolished privateering, defined nature of contraband, and recognised principle of “free ships, free goods”.

1906: Pacific cable between United States and China was completed.

1912: American pilot Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel, from Dover to Hardelot.

1917: A large crowd in Petrograd welcomed Lenin back from exile in Switzerland.

1924: The Metro Goldwyn Mayer film studio was formed – a merger between Metro-Goldwyn and the Louis B Mayer Company.

1929: The first machine for making tea bags was patented by Paul von Korosy.

1941: The Blitz reached climax as 500 German aircraft dropped 100,000 bombs in all-night attack on London.

1943: Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide).

1945: American troops entered Nuremberg, Germany.

1948: The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (EEC) was set up.

1951: The British submarine Affray sank in the English Channel with the loss of 75 lives.

1953: The Royal yacht Britannia was launched by the Queen from John Brown’s yard on the Clyde.

1964: Twelve members of the Great Train Robbery gang were sentenced to a total of 307 years in jail.

1972: Apollo 16 was launched, John Young and Charles Duke making the fifth Moon landing.

1979: Seven killed, 63 injured, in head-on collision between trains at Wellneuk Junction, Paisley.

1990: Nelson Mandela was hailed by a 70,000 crowd at Wembley Stadium.

1991: First 300 United Nations observers arrived in Kuwait to monitor ceasefire.

1994: A British Sea Harrier was shot down over Gorazde in Bosnia, as UN jets tried to halt a Serbian assault on the town.

2004: The super liner RMS Queen Mary 2 embarked on her first trans-Atlantic crossing.

2007: A gunman killed 32 students and staff at Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg in the USA’s worst peacetime shooting.

BIRTHDAYS

Paul di Resta, Scottish racing driver, 27; Akon, hip hop singer, 36; Dame Joan Bakewell DBE, broadcaster and writer, 80; Ellen Barkin, American actress, 59; Pope Benedict XVI, 86; Nick Berry, British actor, 50; Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, 73; Lynne Franks, British public relations consultant, 65; Gabrielle, singer, 43; Vince Hill, British singer, 76; Richard Kershaw, British broadcaster, 79; Martin Lawrence, American actor, 48; Ruth Madoc, British actress, 70; Conchita Martinez, Spanish tennis player, 41; Jimmy Osmond, pop singer, 50; Sir Frank Williams, managing director, Williams motor racing team, 71; Gordon Wilson, MP 1974-87, and former leader of the SNP, 75.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1682 John Hadley, inventor of reflecting telescope; 1800 William Chambers, author and publisher; 1889 Sir Charles Chaplin, film actor; 1918 Spike Milligan KBE, comedian; 1947 Gerry Rafferty, Paisley-born singer and songwriter.

Deaths: 1828 Francesco de 
Goya, painter; 1850 Madame Tussaud, founder of wax museum; 1991 Sir David Lean, film director; 1998 Fred Davis, snooker champion.