On this day: RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, was launched

On this day in 1910 the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the ill-fated Titantic, was launched in Belfast. Picture: GettyOn this day in 1910 the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the ill-fated Titantic, was launched in Belfast. Picture: Getty
On this day in 1910 the RMS Olympic, the sister ship of the ill-fated Titantic, was launched in Belfast. Picture: Getty
Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 20 October

Close season for the killing of hinds ends.

1576: Spanish troops occupied and plundered Maastricht.

1714: Georg Ludwig von Hannover was crowned King George I.

1813: The German kingdom of Westphalia was abolished.

1817: The first Mississippi “showboat” set off from Nashville, Tennesse, on its maiden voyage.

1818: The 49th parallel was established by the US and Britain as the boundary between Canada and the United States.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1835: HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, left Galapagos, bound for Tahiti.

1899: At the Battle of Talana Hill (also known as the Battle of Glencoe) during the second Boer War, British forces suffered heavy casualties but succeeeded in driving the Boers – Dutch farmers – from their hilltop position.

1910: RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, was launched from Harland & Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast. Her career spanned 24 years and she earned the nickname Old Reliable for service as a troop ship during the war.

1922: Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy.

1941: The keel of Britain’s largest and last battleship, Vanguard, was laid at Clydebank. She was launched on 30 November, 1944.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1945: Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon warned US that creation of Jewish state could lead to war; Arab League was formed.

1960: DH Lawrence’s novel, Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928) took Penguin Books to the dock at the Old Bailey under the Obscene Publications Act. Penguin was found not guilty.

1968: Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of President John F Kennedy, married shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis on his island of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea.

1973: The Sydney Opera House was opened by the Queen.

1977: Civilian government in Thailand was ousted in bloodless coup by military junta which had installed it a year earlier.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1987: Legal history was made at the Old Bailey when a teenage girl gave evidence in a sex abuse case from behind a screen.

1988: The Sengstack family of New Jersey sold their company’s outright ownership of the song, Happy Birthday To You, which they had sung for 50 years for a reported $25 million, it is said to earn $2m a year in royalties.

1988: The government came under pressure to recognise a moral responsibility towards 18,000 investors who lost savings in the collapse of the investment firm Barlow Clowes International.

1991: At Wentworth, Severiano Ballesteros won the world matchplay golf championship for the fifth time.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

1995: The Scottish secretary, Michael Forsyth, announced a plan to encourage Highland crofters to buy thousands of acres of land owned by the Scottish Office.

1997: Elton John’s funeral service tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales, Candle in the Wind 97, was declared the biggest-selling single in music history.

2007: South Africa beat England, the holder, 15-6 in the World Rugby Cup final in Paris.

2011: Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi was tortured and killed shortly after the Battle of Sirte while in the custody of rebel fighters. His son Muatassim was also killed.

BIRTHDAYS

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Viggo Mortensen, actor, 57; Tom Petty, guitarist/singer, 65; Ian Rush MBE, footballer, 54; Snoop Dogg, rapper, 44; Mark King, musician (Level 42), 57; Eddie Macken, Irish showjumper, 66; Dannii Minogue, singer and television presenter, 44; Tommy Nakajima, golfer, 61; The Hon Emma Christina Tennant FRSL, writer, 78; Susan Tully, actress, 48; Timothy West CBE, actor and director, 81; Leila Josefowicz, violinist, 38; Candice Swanepoel, model, 27; Paul Wilson, musician (Snow Patrol), 37; Norman Blake, Smusician (Teenage Fanclub), 50; Ric Lee, drummer (Ten Years After), 70; Sir Ken Morrison CBE, supermarket magnate, 84.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1632 Sir Christopher Wren, architect and astronomer; 1784 Lord Palmerston, twice prime minister; 1882 Bela Lugosi, actor in horror films; 1891 James Chadwick, Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered the neutron; 1938 Kathy Kirby, singer.

Deaths:: 1842 Grace Darling, wh saved the ship­wrecked crew of the Forfarshire in 1838; 1935 Arthur Henderson, Glasgow-born, first Labour Cabinet minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner; 1970 Patrick Wymark, actor; 1994 Burt Lancaster, actor; 2014 Oscar de la Renta, fashion designer, 82; .

Dare to be Honest
Follow us
©National World Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice