On this day: Ceasefire in Vietnam

A boat arrives at Vung Tau port in Vietnam with more than 7,000 refugees on board as formal ceasefire is signed in 1973. Picture: Getty

1660: General George Monck led his army into London.

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

1807: British forces under Sir Samuel Auchmuty took Montevideo.

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

1848: Britain’s Sir Harry Smith annexed country between Orange and Vaal Rivers in South Africa.

1919: The first meeting of the League of Nations was held in Paris, with United States 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.”

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.

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

2009: A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic.

BIRTHDAYS

Kirsty Wark, Scottish television presenter, 59; Gillian Ayres OBE, artist, 84; Shelley Berman, comedian, 88; Dave Davies, rock singer (The Kinks), 67; Val Doonican, entertainer, 87; Morgan Fairchild, actress, 64; Isla Fisher, Scottish-Australian actress, 38; Retief Goosen, South African Major-winning golfer, 45; Jeremy Kemp, actor, 79; Bridget Regan, actress, 32; Bobby Simpson, Australian cricketer, 78.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births:1821 Elizabeth Blackwell, English-American physician, first woman in United States to gain MD degree; 1830 Marquess of Salisbury, three times prime minister; 1873 Lord Trenchard, “father” of the Royal Air Force.

Deaths: 1762 Richard “Beau” Nash, gambler and dandy 1959 Buddy Holly, rock singer and guitarist, aged 23, (air crash); 2010 John McCallum CBE, actor and producer; 2011 Maria Schneider, film actress.