On this day: Lee Harvey Oswald shot dead

Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged killer of president John F Kennedy, shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas on this day in 1963. Picture: AP

1542: Battle of Solway Moss with defeat of the Scots by an English cavalry force under Lord Dacre.

1642: Abel Tasman, Dutch navigator, discovered Van Diemen’s Land, which was renamed Tasmania in 1853.

1859: First publication of scientific treatise On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, in which he promulgated his theory of evolution.

1942: Germans suffered heavy losses in Battle of Stalingrad.

1952: Agatha Christie’s play, The Mousetrap, opened in London at the Ambassadors Theatre.

1962: First transmission of satirical TV programme That Was The Week That Was by BBC. It was introduced by David Frost, with some material written by John Cleese.

1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, charged with killing president John Kennedy, was shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas.

1965: The government imposed an experimental 70mph speed limit on motorways.

1974: US president Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, meeting in Vladivostok, reached tentative agreement to limit the number of strategic nuclear weapons.

1977: Archaeologist said tomb uncovered near Salonika, Greece, was that of Macedon’s King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

1983: Mother Teresa of Calcutta presented with the Order of Merit by the Queen.

1985: Egyptian commandos stormed hijacked Egyptian airliner at Malta. An explosion during the assault killed 40 to 50 people.

1990: South Africa’s Pan-Africanist Congress announced it would join African National Congress in opposing the white-led government.

1992: In a speech at London’s Guildhall to mark her 40 years on the throne, the Queen said 1992 had turned out to be an “annus horribilis”.

1993: Eleven-year-olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were sentenced for the killing of toddler Jamie Bulger in Liverpool.

1994: Antonio Canova’s sculpture Three Graces was bought by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London for £7.6m.

2010: Hundreds of students gathered outside the Scottish Liberal Democrat HQ in Edinburgh as part of UK-wide protests over tuition fees.

BIRTHDAYS

Shirley Henderson, Scottish actress, 49; Billy Connolly CBE, Scottish comedian and actor, 72; Robin Williamson, Scottish singer, musician (Incredible String Band), 71; Roy Aitken, former footballer and manager, 56; Pete Best, drummer replaced by Ringo Starr in The Beatles, 73; Sir Ian Botham OBE, cricketer, commentator and charity fund-raiser, 59; Tommy Boyd MBE, footballer, 49; Edward Stourton, broadcaster, 57; Stephen Merchant, writer, actor, producer, presenter, comedian, 40; Carmelita Jeter, Olympic and world champion sprinter, 35; Johnny Spillane, world champion skier, 34; Sean O’Loughlin, Great Britain rugby league internationalist, 32.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1774 Thomas Dick, Scottish church minister, science teacher and writer; 1815 Grace Darling, heroine of the 1838 North Sea rescue of SS Forfarshire; 1864 Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, painter; 1913 Geraldine Fitzgerald, actress; 1918 William Strethan “Wild Bill” Davis, jazz pianist and arranger.

Deaths: 1572 John Knox, Protestant reformer; 1790 Robert Henry, historian; 1996 Sorley MacLean, poet and teacher.