On this day: King Kong’s 1933 premiere

On this day in 1933 King Kong had its premiere in New York. Picture: Getty

National day of Morocco.

1802: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was published.

1813: Britain signed Treaty of Stockholm with Sweden, which agreed to supply army in return for British subsidies and promised not to oppose union with Norway.

1875: The first performance of Bizet’s Carmen took place in Paris. The audience jeered Bizet as he fled from the theatre, and critics dubbed it “painful, noisy, blatant” and “eminently repulsive”. Bizet died broken-hearted three months later.

1894: Gladstone resigned as prime minister, and Lord Rosebery took over. Gladstone had seen his Home Rule Bill for Ireland rejected by a majority of 378 in the House of Lords.

1924: Germany signed treaty of friendship with Turkey.

1931: The Star Spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key, was designated the US national anthem by Act of Congress.

1932: Chinese forces were driven back from Shanghai by Japanese.

1933: The film King Kong was premiered in New York.

1943: 173 people, including 62 children, died in a crush on stairs at Bethnal Green Tube station in London when people rushed to enter the station after an air raid warning. News of the tragedy was not released at the time because it was felt that it would affect war-time morale.

1969: Apollo 9 spacecraft launched, with James McDivitt, David Scott and Russell Schweickart aboard.

1974: Turkish airliner crashed in forest near Paris, killing 346 people.

1976: United States administration of president Gerald Ford disclosed that it had decided to sell weapons to Egypt.

1982: The Barbican Arts Centre in London opened.

1985: Miners agreed to call off their strike against pit closures without an agreement having been reached.

1986: Protestant militants went on car-burning rampage in Belfast in protest against British-Irish Agreement.

1988: Political clashes left 11 people dead and more than 300 injured in Bangladesh as accusations of vote fraud marred elections.

1989: West German officials warned of dangerous new dimension in international espionage following exposure of West German spy ring.

1990: President George Bush announced opposition to new Jewish settlements on West Bank or in East Jerusalem.

1991: Latvians and Estonians voted in favour of independence from the Soviet Union.

1992: Police said they had recovered the bodies of 120 Azerbaijanis killed as they fled an Armenian assault in Nagorno-Karabakh.

2002: Switzerland voted in favour of becoming a member of the United Nations.

2004: Belgian brewer Interbrew and Brazilian rival AmBev agreed to merge in a $11.2 billion deal that formed InBev, the world’s largest brewer.

2005: Steve Fossett became the first person to fly an aeroplane non-stop around the world solo without refuelling.

2009: Masked gunmen attacked a convoy carrying Sri Lanka’s cricket team in the city of Lahore, killing six policemen escorting the Sri Lankans and a driver, and wounding seven players and an assistant coach.

Birthdays

Miranda Richardson, actress, 57; Jessica Biel, actress, 33; Charlie Brooker, comedian, writer and broadcaster, 44; David Faustino, actor, 41; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American Olympic gold medallist heptathlete, 53; Ronan Keating, Irish pop singer (Boyzone), 38; Sir Mark Prescott, racehorse trainer, 67; Sir Peter O’Sullevan KBE, horse racing commentator, journalist, 97; Fatima Whitbread MBE, British athlete, 54; John Virgo, British snooker player and broadcaster, 69.

Anniversaries

Births: 1606 Edmund Waller,

poet; 1756 William Godwin, political writer and novelist; 1793 William Macready, actor; 1831 George Pullman, American inventor of Pullman railway carriages; 1847 Alexander Graham Bell, Edinburgh-born, inventor of the telephone; 1869 Sir Henry Wood, conductor and founder of the Promenade Concerts; 1878 Edward Thomas, war poet; 1911 Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpentier), American actress; 1920 Ronald Searle CBE, British artist and cartoonist; 1923 Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson, American folk and country guitarist; 1939 Bill Frindall MBE, cricket scorer and statistician; 1952 Dermot Morgan, actor (Father Ted).

Deaths: 1792 Robert Adam, architect and designer; 1803

Duke of Bridgewater, pioneer of British inland waterways; 1983 Arthur Koestler, author

(suicide); 1987 Danny Kaye, American film actor; 1988 Dick Chipperfield, circus owner; 2010 Michael Foot, leader, Labour Party 1980-3.