On this day: Usain Bolt 100m record | Elvis Presley died

Events, birthdays and anniversaries from 16 August

1620: The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, taking pilgrims to religious freedom in the New World of America.

1819: The Peterloo massacre occurred in St Peter’s Fields, Manchester. A meeting petitioning for parliamentary reform was dispersed by the army, killing 11.

1949: Tate & Lyle introduced Mr Cube, figure of a personalised sugar cube, to fight its battle against proposals in Labour’s election manifesto to nationalise the sugar industry.

1952: Bristol Britannia airliner made its maiden flight.

1956: First London conference to discuss Suez Canal was boycotted by Egypt’s president Nasser.

1959: Cyprus became an independent republic.

1962: Pete Best, the original drummer with the Beatles, was fired by Brian Epstein and replaced by Ringo Starr.

1964: Major-General Nguyen Khan took over presidency of South Vietnam, ousting Major-General Duong van Minh.

1972: Morocco’s King Hassan II escaped assassination attempt by Moroccan Air Force jets over Rabat.

1974: Turkish invaders of Cyprus completed division of island into two areas and declared ceasefire.

1989: Palestinian activists in Gaza Strip called for two-week boycott of jobs in Israel to protest against computerised identity cards for day labourers.

1990: Nine people were hacked to death at train station in Soweto, South Africa.

1990: President Saddam Hussein of Iraq offered to end ten years of conflict with Iran, buying peace with one arch-enemy in order to concentrate Iraq’s forces against the international army mustered in Saudi Arabia after the invasion of Kuwait.

1991: In the United States, airlines worldwide were advised to ban the use of reverse thrust mechanisms in Boeing 767s after a Lauda Air 767 crash over Thailand.

1992: Nigel Mansell clinched his first world drivers’ championship.

2006: Private Harry Farr, pardoned 90 years after he was executed by firing squad for cowardice during the First World War, was the first of 300 soldiers shot for military offences in the war to receive pardons.

2009: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set a new 100 metres world record of 9.58 seconds at the World Championships in Berlin. The new mark took 0.11 seconds off the previous record.

BIRTHDAYS

George Galloway, MP, 59; Angela Bassett, actress, 55; Frankie Boyle, Scottish comedian, 41; James Cameron, film director, 59; John Challis, actor, 71; John Craven, television presenter, 73; David Dickinson, antiques expert and television presenter, 72; Katharine Hamnett CBE, fashion designer, 66; Timothy Hutton, actor, 53; Ulrika Jonsson, presenter, 46; Sir Trevor MacDonald, broadcaster, 74; Madonna, pop singer 55; Tom Maschler, publisher and inventor of the Booker Prize, 80.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1645 Jean de la Buyère, essayist-novelist; 1766 Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairne), Perthshire-born poet and author of Jacobite songs; 1902 Georgette Hayer, novelist; 1922 Thubten Norbu, Dalai Lama’s brother; 1930 Ted Hughes, author, Poet Laureate 1984-98.

Deaths: 1899 Robert Bunsen, inventor of gas burner; 1948 George Herman “Babe” Ruth, baseball player; 1949 Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind; 1956 Béla Lugosi, horror film actor; 1977 Elvis Presley, singer and actor; 2003 Idi Amin, Uganda dictator.