On this day: Ravenscraig steelworks closure

On this day in 1990 British Steel announced the closure of the strip mill at Ravenscraig, Motherwell, with the loss of 770 jobs. Picture: Allan MacDonald

1568: Mary Queen of Scots sailed from Port Mary across Solway Firth to begin her exile in England.

1763: Doctor Johnson and James Boswell met for the first time, at Tom Davie’s bookshop in Russell Street, London.

1770: Marie Antoinette married France’s King Louis XVI.

1888: Emile Berliner demonstrated the first gramophone in Philadelphia.

1908: Britain’s first diesel submarine, D1, was launched at Barrow.

1911: The Queen Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace was unveiled.

1920: Joan of Arc was canonised.

1932: Japan’s premier, Tsuyoshi Inukai, was assassinated in Tokyo.

1938: The Women’s Voluntary Services Association was formed by the Marchioness of Reading, as the WVS. The Royal tag was added in 1966.

1943: The Dambusters, using “skip” bombs invented by Dr Barnes Wallis, made their famous raid on the Moehne, Eder and Sorpe dams in the Ruhr, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson.

1962: United States Marines began arriving in Thailand to help defend it against communist threat in neighbouring Laos.

1969: The Russian spacecraft Venus 5 touched down on Venus.

1975: Junko Tabei, of Japan, climbed Mount Everest, the first woman to do so.

1979: Police in El Salvador sealed off capital after ten days of violence by anti-government terrorists took 44 lives.

1983: London police began fitting wheel clamps to illegally parked vehicles.

1990: British Steel announced decision to close the hot strip mill at Ravenscraig with the loss of 770 jobs.

1991: President François Mitterrand appointed France’s first woman prime minister, Edith Cresson, aged 57.

1992: The United States won the yachting world’s premier competition, the America’s Cup.

2003: In Casablanca, Morocco, 33 civilians were killed and more than 100 people were injured in terrorist attacks.

2005: Kuwait permitted women’s suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote.

2011: Donald Findlay, a leading QC and former vice-chairman of Rangers, was sent a knife in the post to Cowdenbeath FC, where he was chairman, a threat allegedly linked to sectarianism.

BIRTHDAYS

Sarah Boyack, MSP, minister for transport 1999-2001, 53; Pierce Brosnan OBE, actor (James Bond), 61; Billy Cobham, jazz drummer, 70; Judy Finnigan, television presenter, 66; Megan Fox, actress, 28; Robert Fripp, rock guitarist (King Crimson), 68; Roy Hudd OBE, comedian, playwright and author, 78; Janet Jackson, soul singer, 48; Olga Korbut, former Olympic gymnast, 59; Krist Novoselic, rock bassist (Nirvana), 49; Christian Lacroix, French fashion designer, 63; Hazel O’Connor, singer, 59; Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player, 44; Debra Winger, actress, 59.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1905 Herbert Ernest Bates, novelist; 1905 Henry Fonda, actor; 1910 Wilf Mannion, footballer; 1912 Studs Terkel, US radio broadcaster; 1919 Waldzin Valentino (known as Liberace), pianist and entertainer; 1929 Betty Carter, jazz singer; 1931 Professor Peter Levi, poet and archaeologist.

Deaths: 1703 Charles Perrault, writer of fairy tales; 1782 Daniel Solander, botanist; 1990 Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets; 1990 Sammy Davis jnr, entertainer; 2013 Paul Shane, actor (Ted Bovis in Hi-de-Hi!).