On this day: George Foreman won world title at 46

On this day in 1994, George Foreman, 46, became the oldest boxer to win a world title when he knocked out Michael Moorer. Picture: Getty

1429: Henry VI was crowned King of England. Two years later he was also crowned King of France.

1860: Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th US President.

1869: Blackfriars Bridge opened in London.

1917: Passchendaele Ridge was captured by British and Canadian troops.

1924: The first female Conservative minister in Britain was the Duchess of Atholl. She was appointed parliamentary under-secretary to the Board of Education.

1924: Prime minister Stanley Baldwin appointed Winston Churchill as his chancellor of the Exchequer.

1928: Herbert C Hoover became 31st US president. Within a few months, the American economy collapsed, leading to a depression.

1942: Tidal wave killed 10,000 people in Bengal, India; Church of England relaxed its ruling that women should wear hats in church.

1956: Work began on the Kariba High Dam between Zambia and Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia).

1962: United Nations General Assembly called for economic sanctions against South Africa because of its racial policies.

1975: Punk rockers the Sex Pistols played their first gig, at St Martin’s College of Art in London.

1986: Forty-five crew and oil rig workers died when a Chinook helicopter crashed into the sea off Sumburgh Head, Shetland.

1988: A computer virus crippled 6,000 US Defence Department systems. It was caused by a 23-year-old graduate whose father was head of the country’s computer security agency.

1991: Nato leaders meeting in Rome formally called a halt to enmity with Soviet Union and its allies and offered them a voice in alliance affairs.

1992: The Princess of Wales condemned as “untrue and hurtful” suggestions of friction between herself and the Queen.

1994: George Foreman, 46, became the oldest boxer to win a world title when he knocked out Michael Moorer to win the IBF and WBA titles in Las Vegas.

1995: The Conservatives suffered a Commons defeat on sleaze when 23 Tory MPs broke ranks and voted in favour of disclosure of outside earnings.

1999: Australians voted to keep the Head of the Commonwealth as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum.

BIRTHDAYS

Emma Stone, actress, 26; Ronald Blythe, writer, 92; Suzanne Charlton, weather presenter, 52; Sally Field, actress, 68; Nigel Havers, actor, 63; Ethan Hawke, actor, 44; Nell McAndrew, model, 41; Thandie Newton, actress, 42; Mike Nichols, film director and producer, 83; PJ Proby, singer, 76; Gareth Williams, rugby player, 60; Glenn Frey, musician, singer-songwriter (The Eagles), 66; Ana Ivanovic, tennis player, 27; André Schürrle, 2014 World Cup-winning footballer, 24; Lori Singer, actress and cellist, 57; Arturo Sandoval, jazz trumpeter, pianist and composer, 65; Jim Rosenthal, TV sports presenter, 67; George Young, Glasgow-born musician (the Easybeats), 66.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 2948 BC Said to be Noah’s birthday; 1494 Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”), longest-reigning sultan of Ottoman Empire; 1638 James Gregory, Aberdeen-born inventor of the reflecting telescope; 1661 Charles II, the last Habsburg ruler of Spain; 1814 Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone. Deaths: 1612 Prince Henry, Prince of Wales (aged 18); 1796 Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia; 1836 Charles X, king of France; 1958 Francis George Scott, Scottish composer.