On this day: Apollo 15 | England win World Cup
30 JULY
1832: The first interlocking jigsaw puzzle in a box went on sale at Merriman’s Bookshop in Liverpool.
1900: London Underground’s Central Line was opened by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), with a flat rate of twopence.
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Hide Ad1907: Elections were held in Philippines for the first assembly.
1922: Nationalist forces captured Tipperary in Ireland.
1930: Kurds staged uprising on Persian-Turkish frontier.
1935: Ariel, A Life Of Shelley, by André Maurois, was the first Penguin paperback book to be published, price sixpence.
1938: The first edition of the Beano comic went on sale.
1953: Britain signed alliance with Libya.
1963: “Third Man” Kim Philby was granted asylum in USSR after escaping arrest in Britain for spying.
1966: England won the World Cup when they defeated West Germany 4-2 at Wembley.
1971: US Apollo 15 astronauts David R Scott and James B Irwin landed on Moon.
1973: The Thalidomide case ended after 11 years, with compensation of £20million.
1974: Greece, Turkey and Britain signed declaration for ceasefire agreement on Cyprus.
1976: It was reported that at least 100,000 people died in earthquake in northeastern China that shattered the city of Dangsha (Tangshan).
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Hide Ad1986: London estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanished after lunchtime appointment with client calling himself “Mr Kipper”. Her body has never been found.
1991: Luciano Pavarotti’s 30th anniversary concert drew 125,000 people to Hyde Park, London.
1991: UN weapons experts reported finding 46,000 chemical weapons in Iraq, about four times what Baghdad had declared.
2003: In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolled off the assembly line.
2006: The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC2. The show had aired for 42 years.
2008: The BBC was fined a record £400,000 by Ofcom for faking phone-in winners in competitions on Comic Relief, Children in Need, Sport Relief, the Liz Kershaw Show and the Jo Whiley Show.
BIRTHDAYS
Paul Anka, singer and composer, 72; Peter Bogdanovich, film director and actor, 74; Kate Bush, singer, 55; Laurence Fishburne, actor, 52; Frances de la Tour, actress, 69; Patrick Robin Archibald Boyle, 10th Earl of Glasgow, Liberal Democrat peer, 74; Harriet Harman, Labour politician, 63; Jurgen Klinsman, footballer and coach, 49; Lisa Kudrow, actress, 50; Sean Moore, rock drummer (Manic Street Preachers), 43; Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilder, actor, former governor of California 2003-11, 66; Sir Clive Sinclair, inventor, 73; Stan Stennett, comedian and actor, 88; Hilary Swank, actress, 39; Daley Thompson, Olympic decathlon champion, 55.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1763 Samuel Rogers, poet; 1818 Emily Brontë, poet and novelist (Wuthering Heights under name of Ellis Bell); 11863 Henry Ford, father of the mass-produced car; 1898 Henry Moore, sculptor.
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Hide AdDeaths: 1718 William Penn, Quaker leader and founder of Pennsylvania; 1991 Max Jaffa, violinist; 1996 Claudette Colbert, actress; 2007 Ingmar Bergman, film director; 2012 Maeve Binchy, Irish novelist.