On this day: PS Waverley launched on River Clyde

Launched on the River Clyde on this day in 1947, the Waverley is the worlds only sea-going paddle steamer. Picture: PA

1263: The Battle of Largs, after which defeat of the Norsemen leads to cession of the Hebrides and Mann to Scotland.

1492: King Henry VII of England invaded France.

1608: The first telescope was demonstrated by Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey.

1836: HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin, the naturalist, aboard, returned after nearly five years’ study of South American waters.

1866: J Osterhoudt patented a tin can with a key opener.

1871: Mormon leader Brigham Young was arrested for bigamy.

1901: HMS Holland I, the Royal Navy’s first submarine, was launched at Barrow.

1902: Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit was first published by Frederick Warne & Co.

1906: Tommy Burns knocked out fireman Jim Flynn in the 15th round to retain boxing’s world heavyweight title.

1909: The first rugby match to be staged at Twickenham was played between Harlequins and Richmond.

1910: The first collision of two aircraft occurred near Milan, Italy.

1919: US president Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke leaving him partially paralysed.

1925: London’s first red buses with roofed-in upper decks went into service.

1929: Reunion of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church of Scotland as the Church of Scotland.

1935: Italian forces invaded Abyssinia after Mussolini’s bombers pounded border towns.

1942: The British cruiser Curacao sank off Donegal, with the loss of 338 lives, after a collision with the Cunard liner Queen Mary, which was carrying thousands of troops and zigzagging to avoid U-boats.

1945: Fluorescent lighting was first used in London, on a platform of the Piccadilly Circus Underground station.

1947: The paddle steamer Waverley was launched from A & J Inglis’s yard on the River Clyde.

1950: Legal aid became available across Britain.

1953: A photograph of William Pettit, wanted for murder, was shown on BBC television by request from the police, the first time television was used in Britain to help find a wanted man.

1972: Sweden voted in favour of joining the European Economic Community.

1983: Neil Kinnock became the leader of the Labour Party with a vote of just over 71 per cent.

1990: Dame Joan Sutherland’s 40-year operatic career came to a close with a rapturous reception at Sydney Opera House.

1990: Reunification of East and West Germany created Europe’s largest country.

1992: In South America’s worst prison riot, 111 prisoners died in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

2002: The Beltway sniper attacks, which took place in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia, in the US began, extending over three weeks.

2007: President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walked across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

2009: Police officers involved in the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes were told they would not face punishment. Mr de Menezes was shot dead in 2005, by firearms officers who mistook him for a wanted failed suicide bomber.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1452 Richard III, the last Plantagenet king; 1852 Sir William Ramsay, Glasgow-born chemist , discoverer of inert gases; 1869 Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi, Indian political leader; 1890 Henry “Groucho” Marx, US comedian; 1904 Graham Greene, novelist and playwright.

Deaths: 1764 William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, KG, British prime minister 1756 to 1757; 1958 Marie Stopes, pioneer of birth control; 1988 Sir Alec Issigonis CBE, designer of the Mini motor car.