On this day: Berlin bombed by 1,000 aircraft in daylight raid

EVENTS, birthdays, anniversaries
The bombed-out business centre of Berlin. Picture: Getty ImagesThe bombed-out business centre of Berlin. Picture: Getty Images
The bombed-out business centre of Berlin. Picture: Getty Images

1660: General George Monck led his army into London.

1730: The first stock exchange quotations were published in the Daily Advertiser, London.

1830: Greece was declared independent under protection of France, Russia and Britain at London conference.

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1877: Chopsticks, the novelty piano piece, was registered at the British Museum. Arranged as a duet and solo for piano by Arthur de Lull (a pseudonym for “Euphemia Allen”, the music publisher’s sister who wrote it when she was 16).

1916: Parliamentary buildings in Ottawa were destroyed by fire.

1917: United States and Germany broke off diplomatic relations.

1919: The first meeting of the League of Nations was held in Paris, with American president Woodrow Wilson as chairman.

1935: The jingle “We are the Ovaltineys, little girls and boys” was first sung on radio. Listeners were invited to join the Ovaltiney Club (with badge and rule book) and a coded message was given out each week. Harry Hemsley and his imaginary family formed the nucleus of the series.

1945: United States forces recaptured Manila in Philippines from Japanese.

1945: Berlin was bombed by more than 1,000 Allied aircraft in a daylight raid.

1960: Harold Macmillan, speaking to the South African parliament in Cape Town, made the historic statement: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact.”

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1966: The first “soft” landing on the Moon was made by unmanned Soviet Luna IX, which began sending signals back to Earth.

1973: Fighting in Vietnam came to virtual halt after formal ceasefire went into effect.

1982: Kodak marketed first disc film and camera.

1991: A government report on climate changes announced that Britain could face all-year hosepipe bans next century with drought being a permanent fact of life.

1991: Allied aircraft claimed complete air and sea supremacy over Iraq in Gulf war.

1993: The government made a U-turn on defence cuts, reprieving four historic regiments.

1993: The Netherlands parliament backed plans to allow euthanasia under controlled conditions.

1994: The Crown Office decided not to prosecute alleged war criminals living in Scotland.

1998: Twenty skiers died in the Italian Dolomites when a Nato jet cut through the wires of their cable-car.

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2007: A Baghdad market bombing killed at more than 130 people and injured a further 339.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1809 Felix Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist; 1821 Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician, first woman in US to gain MD degree; 1826 Walter Bagehot, political economist and journalist; 1830 Marquess of Salisbury, three times prime minister; 1874 Gertrude Stein, American writer and eccentric; 1883 Clarence E Mulford, writer of westerns and creator of Hopalong Cassidy; 1907 James A Michener, novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner; 1927 Val Doonican, Irish entertainer; 1928 Frankie Vaughan, singer.

Deaths: 1399 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, fourth son of Edward III and father of Henry IV; 1924 Woodrow Wilson, 28th United States president; 1959 Buddy Holly, rock singer and guitarist, aged 23, (air crash); 1961 William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil; 1969 Boris Karloff (William Henry Pratt), film actor who played Frankenstein’s monster; 1989 John Cassavetes, actor, director and screenwriter; 2011 Maria Schneider, French film actress; 2014 Louise Brough, winner of 13 Wimbledon titles; 2015 The Rt Hon Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, British historian.