On this day: Rodney King riots in Los Angeles

On this day in 1992, riots began in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four policemen filmed beating up Rodney King. Picture: Getty

National day of Japan.

1376: Sir Peter de la Mare took his place as first Speaker in the House of Commons.

1429: Joan of Arc entered Orleans, France and won victory over English.

1628: Sweden and Denmark signed defence treaty against Duke of Wallenstein, bringing Sweden into the Thirty Years War.

1781: French fleet under Admiral Suffren prevented Britain from seizing Cape of Good Hope.

1842: Corn Law Bill was given Royal assent.

1909: In a revolutionary Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, introduced a “supertax” of sixpence in the pound for anyone earning more than £5,000 a year to pay for old-age pensions and rearmament. He also doubled death duties.

1918: Germany’s main offensive on Western Front in First World War ended.

1933: Players’ football shirts were first numbered, in the English FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, the numbers running from one to 22, with Manchester City having the higher set of numbers.

1935: Glass reflectors, or “cat’s eyes”, invented by Percy Shaw, were first used on British roads.

1945: Allied troops in Germany liberated 32,000 victims of Nazis in concentration camp at Dachau.

1946: British-United States committee advised against partition of Palestine.

1946: Former Japanese leaders were indicted in Tokyo as war criminals.

1965: Australia decided to send troops to South Vietnam.

1973: Israel decided to expand civil rights of its 336,000 Arab citizens to reward Israeli Arab community for loyalty.

1975: US taskforce evacuated foreigners and Vietnamese by helicopter from Saigon.

1990: Wrecking cranes tore down the section of the Berlin Wall surrounding the Brandenburg Gate, the wall’s most famous section.

1990: Stephen Hendry, aged 21, became the youngest world snooker champion by beating Jimmy White 18-12 in the Embassy Championship.

1991: A cyclone travelling at 145mph drove a tidal wave 20ft high into the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing more than 100,000 and making millions homeless.

1992: Rioting began in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four policemen seen beating up a black man, Rodney King, on an amateur video film.

1993: The Queen announced that Buckingham Palace would be open to the public – for an entrance fee.

1995: Tony Blair won a victory in his battle to modernise the Labour Party when it voted to ditch its Clause 4 commitment to nationalisation.

2005: Syria completed withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation.

2009: Gordon Brown’s government suffered a surprise defeat in the Commons on its policy of restricting the right of former Gurkhas to settle in the UK. MPs voted by 267 to 246 in favour of a Liberal Democrat motion that all Gurkhas be offered an equal right of residence.

2011: One million people gathered in London to watch the marriage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton who became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge following the ceremony.

BIRTHDAYS

Michelle Pfeiffer, actress, 56; André Agassi, tennis champion, 44; Frank Auerbach, artist, 83; General Sir Peter de la Billière KBE, commander-in-chief of British forces in 1990 Gulf War, 80; Daniel Day-Lewis, actor, 57; Anita Dobson, actress, 65; Professor Sir Ian Kershaw, historian, 71; Adrian Maguire, jockey and trainer, 43; Johnny Miller, Major-winning golfer, 67; Lloyd Quinan, Scottish broadcaster and former politician, 57; Jerry Seinfeld, comedian, 60; Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party 1967-76, 85; Uma Thurman, actress, 44; Professor Heinz Wolff, scientist and broadcaster, 86; David Icke, self-styled prophet, 62; Francis Lee, former footballer, 70.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1667 John Arbuthnot, Kincardineshire-born physician; 1769 Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman; 1803 Sir James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak; 1818 Alexander II, Tsar of Russia; 1837 Georges Boulanger, soldier and politician; 1863 William Randolph Hearst, newspaper proprietor; 1879 Sir Thomas Beecham, conductor; 1895 Sir Malcolm Sargent, conductor; 1899 Duke Ellington, jazz musician and composer; 1901 Hirohito, Emperor of Japan; 1907 Fred Zinnemann, film director; 1912 Richard Carlson, actor and director; 1914 Deryck Guyler, actor; 1930 Alf Valentine, cricketer; 1931 Lonnie Donegan, skiffle musician and singer.

Deaths: 1937 Wallace Carothers, chemist and developer of nylon; 1980 Sir Alfred Hitchcock, film director; 1988 Andrew Cruickshank, actor; 1999 Elspeth March, actress.