On this day: Pope John Paul II shot by terrorist
1568: Battle of Langside, in which a force raised by Mary, Queen of Scots, after her escape from Loch Leven Castle, was defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants. It was her last attempt to regain the throne from her son and his adherents.
1607: Captain John Smith and 105 Cavaliers in three ships landed on the Virginia coast and started the first permanent English settlement in the New World, in Jamestown.
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Hide Ad1787: A fleet of 11 ships containing about 730 convicts set out from England to Australia, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, on a journey which lasted until the following January.
1809: French army under Napoleon Bonaparte took Vienna.
1871: Law of Guarantees in Italy declared Pope’s person inviolable and allowed him possession of the Vatican.
1891: Bogey score in golf introduced.
1943: German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered.
1949: The first British-designed jet bomber, English Electric Canberra B Mark One, was test flown at Warton, Lancashire, by Wing Commander RP Beaumont.
1957: The first regular schools programmes on television began on BBC.
1968: Peace negotiations officially opened in Paris between United States and North Vietnam.
1970: Israel attacked Lebanon to try to wipe out guerrilla bases.
1975: United States Marines, warships and planes were placed on alert in western Pacific after seizure of US merchant ship Mayaguez by Cambodians.
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Hide Ad1981: An attempt was made on the life of Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square, Rome. He was shot at close range by a Turkish terrorist.
1988: Riot police stormed sacred Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem and fired rubber bullets at Muslim worshippers.
1990: Two American airmen slain near Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, in attack blamed on communist rebels.
1991: South African judge convicted Winnie Mandela of conspiracy in kidnap and assault of four youths in Soweto, including Stompie Moeketsi, later murdered.
1995: Alison Hargreaves, 33, a mother of two from Spean Bridge, became the first woman to climb Everest solo and without oxygen. She died three months later while descending K2, the world’s second-highest mountain.
2000: Donald Dewar was elected as first minister of the Scottish Parliament.
2005: The Andijan Massacre occurred in Uzbekistan.
2006: Major rebellions occurred in several prisons in São Paulo, Brazil.
2009: Former golf Open champion Paul Lawrie vowed to never return to an exclusive golf club after it kicked him out over remarks he made about the state of its course.
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Hide Ad2011: Network Rail was fined £3 million for safety failings over the Potters Bar train crash, which killed seven people.
2011: Sienna Miller agreed to accept £100,000 in damages from the News of the World, after the paper admitted liability over the hacking her phone.
2014: More than 300 miners were killed following an explosion and fire at a coal mine in Manisa province, western Turkey. The trapped miners were more than a mile below the surface and a mile and a half from the mine’s exit.
BIRTHDAYS
Samantha Morton, actress, 38; Sir Crispin Agnew of Lochnaw, advocate, explorer, Rothesay Herald of Arms, 71; Frances Barber, actress, 58; Rosie Boycott, journalist and broadcaster, 64; Joe Brown MBE, actor and singer, 74; Dr Jane Glover CBE, conductor, 66; Harvey Keitel, actor, 76; Richard Madeley, television presenter, 59; Tim Pigott-Smith, actor and director, 69; Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor, 54; Selina Scott, television presenter, 64; Zoë Wanamaker CBE, actress, 66; Stevie Wonder, singer and songwriter, 65; Robert Pattinson, actor, 29.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1828 Josephine Butler, social reformer; 1840 Alphonse Daudet, French novelist; 1842 Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, composer; 1864 Vesta Tilley, music hall star; 1867 Sir Frank Brangwyn, artist; 1882 Georges Braque, French Cubist painter; 1907 Dame Daphne du Maurier, novelist; 1914 Joe Louis, “the Brown Bomber”, world heavyweight champion 1937-49; 1922 Bea Arthur, American actress; 1924 Alexander Robert Leslie-Melville, 14th Earl of Leven.
Deaths: 1835 John Nash, architect; 1884 Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of first patented reaping machine; 1907 Alexander Buchan, meteorologist, founder of the Ben Nevis Observatory; 1930 Fridtjof Nansen, Arctic explorer; 1961 Gary Cooper, American film actor; 1982 Ralph Reader, creator of Gang Shows; 1997 Laurie Lee MBE, author and poet; 1999 Gene Sarazen, golfer.