On this day: First Boy Scout rally takes place

On this day in 1909 the first Boy Scout rally took place in Crystal Palace, London, led by Lord Baden-Powell. Picture: Hulton/Getty

1571: Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and grandfather of James VI of Scotland, was shot dead in Stirling.

1609: Navigator Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan.

1774: New Caledonia was sighted for the first time by Europeans during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.

1860: The first weather forecast appeared in the Times newspaper.

1862: During the American Civil War, General Robert E Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia across the Potomac river, thus taking the war into the North.

1870: Emperor Napoleon III was deposed and the third French republic was declared.

1882: Thomas Edison switched on the world’s first commercial electrical power plant, lighting up one square mile of Lower Manhattan.

1884: Britain ended its policy of penal transportation to New South Wales, Australia.

1886: Geronimo, Apache chief and leader of the last great Red Indian resistance, surrendered in Arizona to General Nelson Miles.

1888: George Eastman registered Kodak as a trademark and patented the first roll-film camera.

1909: The first Boy Scout rally took place in Crystal Palace, London.

1916: British forces took Dar es Salaam in Tanganyika.

1939: The British liner Athenia sank after being torpedoed by a German U-boat the previous day off Ireland. Ninety-three lives were lost.

1939: A Bristol Blenheim was the first British aircraft to cross the German coast following the outbreak of the Second World War, and German ships were bombed.

1944: Allies liberated Antwerp.

1949: Britain’s largest aircraft, the 130-ton eight-engined Bristol Brabazon, had its first flight.

1955: Richard Baker presented the late-night summary on BBC to become the first television newscaster to be seen on screen.

1962: The last tram car in Glasgow ran from Dalmuir to Auchenshuggle.

1964: The Forth Road Bridge, 6,156ft long and with a centre span of 3,300ft, was opened by the Queen.

1970: Russian ballerina Natalia Makarova defected to the West during a visit to London by the Kirov Ballet.

1972: US swimmer Mark Spitz became the first competitor to win seven gold medals at a single Olympics during the Games in Munich.

1972: Thieves stole 18 paintings from Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts.

1987: United Nations secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar said Iran had agreed to negotiate implementation of UN peace plan to end its war with Iraq.

1990: Convoy of seven buses carrying 306 British women and children stranded since Iraqi invasion reached Baghdad after 14-hour journey from Kuwait.

1992: The government borrowed £7.25 billion in foreign currencies to help prop up the pound.

1998: Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students at Stanford University.

2009: Hundreds of homes were evacuated after some of the worst flooding in living memory caused devastation from the Lothians to Moray.

2010: A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand at 4:35am, causing widespread damage and several power outages.

BIRTHDAYS

Beyoncé Knowles, singer, 34; Raymond Floyd, golfer, 73; Dawn Fraser MBE, Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimming gold medallist, 78; Mark Ronson, DJ/producer, 40; John David James Dalrymple, 14th Earl of Stair, 54; Tom Watson, eight-time major-winning golfer, 66; David Garrett, violinist, 35; Kevin Kennedy, actor, writer, producer, 54; Michael Stean, chess grandmaster, 62; Merald “Bubba” Knight jnr, R&B/soul singer (Gladys Knight and the Pips), 73; Gene Parsons, drummer, guitarist, singer-songwriter (the Byrds), 71.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1241 Alexander III, King of Scotland 1249-86 (at Roxburgh); 1736 Robert Raikes, founder of Sunday School movement; 1886 Albert Orsborn, Salvation Army general; 1901 Sir William Lyons, founder of Jaguar Cars; 1905 Mary Renault, novelist; 1928 Dick York, actor (Bewitched).

Deaths: 1571 Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, Regent of Scotland; 1780 John Fielding, magistrate, social reformer; 1852 William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist; 1907 Edvard Grieg, composer; 1970 James M Taylor, astronaut and test pilot; 1990 Irene Dunn, actress; 1997 Jeffrey Bernard, journalist; 2006 Steve Irwin, television presenter; 2007 9th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, estate owner; 2009 Iain Cuthbertson, Glasgow-born actor; 2009 Keith Waterhouse CBE, writer; 2014 Joan Rivers, actress and comedienne.