On this day: World’s first space tourist

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on April 28.
On this day in 2001 space station commander Yury Usachev, left, welcomed millionaire Dennis Tito, centre, on board. Picture: APOn this day in 2001 space station commander Yury Usachev, left, welcomed millionaire Dennis Tito, centre, on board. Picture: AP
On this day in 2001 space station commander Yury Usachev, left, welcomed millionaire Dennis Tito, centre, on board. Picture: AP

1398: Dukedom of Rothesay conferred on David Stuart, eldest son of King Robert III of Scotland.

1558: Walter Mylne burned at the stake at St Andrews for heresy, the last Protestant martyr in Scotland.

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1603: The funeral of Queen Elizabeth took place at Westminster Abbey.

1770: Captain Cook in the Endeavour reached Australia, at a point in New South Wales they named Sting Ray Bay. Found to be a botanist’s paradise, it was later renamed Botany Bay.

1789: The mutiny on the Bounty took place in the South Seas, led by Fletcher Christian. 1876: Queen Victoria was declared Empress of India.

1919: Two crew members were lost from Fraserburgh lifeboat at harbour entrance.

1919: League of Nations was founded.

1923: The first FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium was staged, Bolton Wanderers defeating West Ham 2-0.

1936: Farouk became king of Egypt on death of his father, King Fuad I.

1945: Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator, and his mistress Claretta Petacci were executed by partisans.

1952: Japan regained sovereignty after Second World War.

1955: Ruth Ellis was sent for trial accused of the murder of her lover. She later became the last woman to be hanged in Britain.

1961: Britain applied to join European Common Market.

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1967: World Boxing authorities took away Muhammad Ali’s title for refusing to serve in United States forces.

1968: Tokyo police restored order after 5,000 people demonstrated for return of Okinawa to Japan, and an end to Vietnam War.

1969: Charles de Gaulle resigned as President of France.

1985: Dennis Taylor won the Embassy snooker championship after a spectacular final frame with Steve Davis.

1988: The first woman conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, Sian Edwards, 28, from Manchester, took up the baton.

1990: Liverpool beat Queen’s Park Rangers 2-1 to win their 18th League Championship.

1991: G-7 members meeting in Washington refused to lower global interest rates in spite of pleas from George Bush amidst American recession.

1993: A major health inquiry was launched in Scotland after an unknown number of women were wrongly given the “all-clear” on smear tests for cervical cancer.

1994: Britain accused Iran of planning to supply weapons and money to the IRA.

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1995: Less than a year after it opened, Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre faced a cash crisis over debts of £3.1million.

2001: Millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first space tourist.

2010: Prime minister Gordon Brown was forced to apologise after being caught on tape describing a 65-year-old grandmother as a “bigot” during the general election campaign.

2014: Ann Maguire, a 61-year-old schoolteacher, was stabbed to death by one of her pupils in front of her class at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds.

BIRTHDAYS

Ian Rankin, Scottish writer, 55; Jessica Alba, actress, 34; Ann-Margret, actress, 74; Mike Brearley, cricketer and psychoanalyst, 73; Penélope Cruz, actress, 41; John Daly, golfer, 49; Grenville Davey, sculptor, 54; Kim Gordon, rock guitarist (Sonic Youth), 62; Doctor Kenneth Kaunda, president of Zambia 1964-91, 91; Harper Lee, novelist, 89; Professor Nicola LeFanu, composer, 68; Jay Leno, comedian and television host, 65; Mary McDonnell, actress, 63; Doctor Jeffrey Tate, conductor, 72; Juan Mata, footballer, 27; Sir Bradley Wiggins CBE, cyclist, 35; Howard Donald, singer-songwrite (Take That), 47; Nicklas Lidstrom, ice hockey player, 45.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1442 King Edward IV; 1758 James Monroe, fifth US president; 1795 Charles Sturt, soldier and explorer in Australia; 1801 Lord Shaftesbury, social reformer; 1878 Lionel Barrymore, actor; 1912 Odette Hallowes, British wartime agent; 1913 Reg Butler, sculptor; 1937 Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq 1979-2003; 1937 Jean Redpath, Edinburgh-born folk singer; 1948 Sir Terence Pratchett OBE, British fantasy author.

Deaths: 1558 Walter Mylne, Protestant martyr (burned at the stake at St Andrews for heresy); 1710 Thomas Betterton, actor and dramatist; 1831 John Abernethy, surgeon; 1842 Sir Charles Bell, anatomist; 1865 Sir Samuel Cunard, ship-owner; 1945 Benito Mussolini, Italian dictator; 1988 Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway, politician and pacifist; 1992 Francis Bacon, artist; 1992 Olivier Messiaen, composer and organist; 1999 Sir Alf Ramsay, footballer and manager; 2014 Richard Kershaw, British broadcaster.