On this day: Slave trade in Britain abolished

On this day in 1980, Robert Runcie, Bishop of St Albans, was enthroned as the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury. Picture: Getty

Annunciation Day, the old legal New Year until 1599.

Lady Day.

National day of Greece.

1306: Robert de Brus, Earl of Carrick and Lord of Annandale, was crowned King of Scots.

1802: The Treaty of Amiens was signed with France, Spain and Holland, returning most of Britain’s possessions taken during the French Revolutionary Wars.

1807: Slave trade in Britain abolished.

1810: The Commercial Bank of Scotland was officially founded in Edinburgh by John Pitcairn, Lord Cockburn and others.

1843: The 1,300 ft Thames tunnel, linking Wapping with Rotherhithe, was formally opened.

1876: First Scotland versus Wales football international was played in Glasgow: Scotland won 4-0.

1897: The Scottish Trades Union Congress was founded.

1925: Greece was formally declared a republic.

1940: The Mosquito, Britain’s two-seater fighter bomber, made its maiden flight.

1949: Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet won five Oscars – the first British film to win an Academy award.

1957: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed Treaty of Rome and established the European Economic Community.

1974: The Mousetrap moved after 8,862 performances to St Martin’s Theatre, London.

1975: Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was assassinated in palace in Riyadh.

1980: Doctor Robert Runcie enthroned as the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury.

1982: Former Labour deputy leader Roy Jenkins took traditional Conservative seat at Glasgow Hillhead for the SDP in sensational by-election victory.

1989: The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race had two women as coxes for the first time in its 135 years. Oxford won.

1993: The Warrington IRA bomb atrocity claimed a second young victim when 12-year-old Tim Parry died in hospital.

1996: The European Union’s Veterinarian Committee banned the export of British beef and its by-products as a result of mad cow disease.

2002: Halle Berry made Oscars history when she became the first black woman to win the Best Actress award.

2010: Sherlock, a Collie cross-breed, who lived to be Scotland’s oldest dog, died at the age of 21.

BIRTHDAYS

Sarah Jessica Parker, actress, 49; Melanie Blatt, singer (All Saints), 39; Humphrey Burton CBE, writer and broadcaster, 83; Marcia Cross, actress, 52; Cathy Dennis, singer and songwriter, 45; Robert Fox, theatre, film and television producer, 62; Aretha Franklin, soul singer, 72; Paul Michael Glaser, actor 71; John Jeffrey, Scottish rugby player and broadcaster, 55; Sir Elton John, singer and songwriter, 67; Barry Kyle, theatre director, 67; Richard O’Brien, actor and writer (Rocky Horror Show), 72.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1867 Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor; 1881 Béla Bartók, composer; 1906 AJP Taylor, historian and broadcaster; 1908 Sir David Lean, film director; 1914 Denis Peploe, artist; 1915 Dorothy Squires, singer; 1932 Lord Walker of Worcester MBE, MP 1961-92, secretary of state for energy 1983-87.

Deaths: 1902 Maj-Gen Sir Hector Macdonald, crofter’s son known as “Fighting Mac” for his war exploits; 1918 Claude Debussy, composer; 1937 John Drinkwater, poet and playwright; 2002 Kenneth Wolstenholme, football commentator.