On this day: Glasgow Airport terror attack

On this day in 2007 Britain was put on the highest terror alert when a burning car was driven into Glasgow Airport. Picture: PA

Close season for killing of stags ends.

1520: Spanish conquistadors, under Hernan Cortés, seized gold from the Aztecs.

1690: The French under Tourville defeated the English/Dutch fleet at the Battle of Beachy Head.

1837: An act of parliament abolished punishment by pillory.

1859: Charles Blondin made the first crossing of the Niagara Falls on a tightrope, 1,100ft long and 160ft above the falls.

1894: London’s Tower Bridge, designed by Sir Horace Jones and Sir J Wolfe Barry, was opened.

1910: Anthony Wilding defeated Arthur Gore in the Wimbledon men’s singles final: Dorothea Lambert Chambers defeated Dora Boothby in the ladies’ final.

1914: Mahatma Gandhi was arrested for the first time after campaigning for Indian rights in South Africa.

1925: In the USA, Charles Jenkins was granted a patent for “transmitting pictures over wireless” – a step towards the first television.

1930: Don Bradman scored 254 for Australia at Lord’s against England in 320 minutes, including 25 fours.

1934: Hitler’s rival, Ernst Röhm, and hundreds of influential Nazis were murdered by the SS in the Night of the Long Knives.

1937: The first emergency telephone service in the world opened in London, using 999.

1938: Superman made his first appearance in DC Comics’ Action Comics Series issue No 1.

1940: Guernsey was occupied by German forces.

1957: The lion was stamped on British eggs for the first time.

1960: Lionel Bart’s musical, Oliver!, based on Charles Dickens’s novel, opened in London. It ran for 2,618 performances.

1963: Cardinal Montini was elected Pope Paul VI.

1966: The Beatles landed in Tokyo for a concert tour.

1970: Brazil defeated Italy 4-1 in Mexico City to win the World Cup for the third time.

1974: Soviet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, while on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Canada, defected to the west.

1975: Muhammad Ali defeated Britain’s Joe Bugner to successfully defend his world heavyweight boxing title.

1991: Owing to rain, tennis was played on the middle Sunday of the Wimbledon championships for the first time.

1992: Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher joined the House of Lords as Baroness Thatcher.

1994: Argentine football star Diego Maradona was banned from the World Cup after failing a drugs test.

1994: Ice skater Tonya Harding was stripped of her national title and banned from competition for life by the US Ice Skating Federation as a result of the knee-clubbing of fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan during the Olympic trials.

1997: The UK transferred sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China.

2003: MPs voted for a complete ban on hunting in England and Wales.

2007: Britain was on its highest terror alert after a burning car was driven into the passenger terminal at Glasgow Airport, a day after the discovery of two car bombs in the West End of London.

2011: Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers went on strike to protect their pensions.

BIRTHDAYS

Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, singer, 32; Carole Baxter, head gardener television’s Beechgrove Garden, 58; Rupert Graves, actor, 52; Tony Hatch, composer, 76; James Loughran CBE, Glasgow-born conductor, 84; Jack McConnell, Baron McConnell of Glenscorrodale, Scotland’s first minister 2002-7, 55; Andrew Murray, golfer, 59; Mike Tyson, former world heavyweight boxing champion, 49; Michael Phelps, multi Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, 30; Ralf Schumacher, Formula One racing driver, 40; Andy Knowles, drummer/keyboard player (Franz Ferdinand), 34; Patrick Wolf, singer-songwriter, 32.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1470 Charles VIII, king of France; 1685 John Gay, poet, dramatist; 1818 Edward John Hopkins, organist, composer; 1891 Sir Stanley Spencer, artist; 1891 Howard Hawks, film director; 1917 Lena Horne, singer; 1922 Mollie Hunter, Longniddry-born writer; 1930 James Loughran, Glasgow-born conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé Orchestra; 1939 John Fortune, satirist and actor.

Deaths: 1660 William Oughtred, mathematician and inventor of slide rule in 1622; 1685 Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll; 1785 James Oglethorpe, British general, MP and founder of the British colony of Georgia; 1792 Antonio Rosetti, classical composer and musician; 1973 Nancy Mitford, writer; 2005 Christopher Fry, poet and playwright; 2012 Yitzhak Shamir, 7th prime minister of Israel;

2014 Paul Mazursky, US film director.