On this day: 70mph limit was set for British roads

On this day in 1965, the 70mph limit was set for British roads

1715: James Stuart, the Old Pretender, landed at Peterhead after his exile in France.

1818: The hobby-horse was patented by Denis Johnson.

1894: Alfred Dreyfus, French officer found guilty of selling military secrets, was sent to Devil’s Island, although innocent. His conviction sparked the Dreyfus Affair, and he was eventually exonerated.

1905: Revolution in Persia began.

1916: Ministry of Pensions established.

1929: Round-table conference opened between British viceroy and Indian party leaders on dominion status for India.

1935: Anthony Eden became foreign secretary.

1938: A fish identified as a coelacanth, thought to have been extinct for 65 million years, was caught by a fisherman off the coast of South Africa.

1943: The government said there were only enough turkeys available for one family in ten.

1956: Last British-French forces left Port Said, Egypt, after Suez War.

1963: Greek liner Laconia caught fire and sank in North Atlantic with loss of 150 lives.

1965: 70mph speed limit was imposed on British roads.

1975: Pro-Palestinian terrorists ended 20-hour siege of Vienna, took hostages and airliner provided by Austria, and began flight that took them to several Middle East capitals.

1988: South Africa signed accord at UN under which Namibia became independent.

1989: Romanian revolution overthrew president Nicolae Ceausescu, who fled Bucharest with his wife Elena. The Queen cancelled Ceausescu’s honorary knighthood.

1990: Lech Walesa was sworn in as Poland’s first popularly elected president since the Second World War.

1994: Britain lost its battle with the European Community to keep Spanish boats out of some of the UK’s richest fishing grounds.

1995: Peter Phillips, son of the Princess Royal, was capped for Scottish Schools against French Schools at Murrayfield. France won 18-12.

2001: Richard Reid attempted to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.

2010: The world-famous zebra crossing which features on the cover of The Beatles’

Abbey Road album was given Grade II listed status by the government.

BIRTHDAYS

Ralph Fiennes, actor, 52; Basshunter, Swedish singer, 30; James Burke, science historian and broadcaster, 78; Noel Edmonds, television presenter, 66; Dina Meyer, actress, 46; Chris Old, English cricketer, 66; Dan Petrescu, football manager and former player, 47; Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, 63; Richard Whitmore, television presenter, 81; Ken Whitmore, playwright, author and poet, 77; Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, journalist, 91; Vanessa Paradis, singer, model, actress, 42; Leigh Halfpenny, rugby player, 26; Tyrell Biggs, boxer, 54; Bernd Schuster, football manager and former player, 55; Ricky Ross, musician (Deacon Blue), 57; James Burke, historian, TV presentrer and producer, 78.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1696 James Oglethorpe, British MP, general, explorer and founder of the state of Georgia; 1858 Giacomo Puccini, operatic composer; 1888 J Arthur Rank, film magnate; 1907 Dame Peggy Aschcroft, actress; 1909 Patricia Hayes, actress; 1912 Lady Bird Johnson, US First Lady; 1922 Ruth Roman, actress; 1930 Bert Foord, BBC television weatherman; 1930 Sir Peter Hall CBE, theatre director and founder of Royal Shakeaspeare Company; 1932 Phil Woosnam, British footballer and former commissioner of North American Soccer League; 1949 Maurice Gibb CBE, singer (Bee Gees); Robin Gibb CBE, singer (Bee Gees).

Deaths: 1603 Mehmet III, sultan of Ottoman Empire; 1880 George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist; 1939 Ma

Rainey (born Gertrude Malissa Nix Pridgett), singer - “The Mother of the Blues”); 1940 Nathaniel West, novelist; 1943 Beatrix Potter, writer of children’s books; 1965 Richard Dimbleby, television commentator; 1979 Darryl F Zanuck, film producer and executive; 1987 Sir Henry Cotton, golfer; 1989 Samuel Beckett, novelist, playwright, poet and theatre director; 1993 Alexander MacKendrick, Scottish film director (Whisky Galore); 2002 Joe Strummer, rock singer and lyricist (The Clash); 2009 Albert Scanlon, footballer – “Busby Babe”

who survived Munich Air Disaster.