On this day: Start of Sino-Japanese War

Japanese troops search members of the Chinese population during clashes that marked the start of Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Picture: Getty

1575: The Raid of the Redeswire, skirmish between Scottish and English borderers.

1585: France’s King Henry III was forced to sign Treaty of Memoirs with the Guises, whereby he capitulated to their demands for revoking all toleration of the Huguenots.

1753: Act was passed for naturalisation of Jews in Britain.

1814: Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley was published.

1890: The first electric chair execution took place in New York.

1898: United States annexed island of Hawaii.

1913: House of Commons passed Irish Home Rule Bill.

1925: Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall was destroyed by fire.

1929: The Vatican became a sovereign state.

1937: Japanese troops on manoeuvres near Peking clashed with Chinese, marking start of Sino-Japanese War.

1976: David Steel was elected leader of the Liberal Party.

1977: The Solomon Islands gained full independence within the Commonwealth, having been a British protectorate since 1899.

1981: Solar Challenger, piloted by Steve Ptacek, became the first solar-powered aircraft to cross the English Channel.

1989: Thousands of people defied martial law in Burma and held a rally in memory of citizens killed during military crackdowns.

1990: Martina Navratilova, 33, won a record ninth Wimbledon women’s singles title, beating Zina Garrison.

1990: Diplomats said thousands of Albanians crowding into foreign embassies would be allowed to leave their communist homeland.

1991: IRA terrorist suspects Nessan Quinlivan and Pearse McAuley escaped from Brixton Jail, London, using smuggled gun.

1994: Unions said they would fight the government decision to close Rosyth naval base with the loss of 1,800 jobs.

2005: Fifty-six people died and over 700 were injured when four British suicide bombers attacked three London Tube trains and a bus in the rush-hour.

2008: The General Synod of the Church of England voted in favour of the consecration of women bishops.

2011: Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, the News of the World, announced it would close due to the ongoing damaging allegations against it relating to the phone-hacking scandal.

BIRTHDAYS

Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey), Beatles’ drummer, 74; Dr Sir Ian Wilmut, Dolly the sheep cloning scientist, 70; Jeremy Guscott, rugby player and broadcaster, 47; Michael Howard, MP, Conservative Party leader 2003-5, 73; Hamish MacInnes, Scottish mountaineer and writer, 84; William David Mungo James Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield, 84; Bill Oddie, actor and ornithologist, 73; Jeremy Kyle, TV presenter, 49; 32; Shelley Duvall, actress, 65; David McCullough, author and historian, 81; Michelle Kwan, American former world champion figure skater, 33.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1860 Gustav Mahler, composer; 1887 Marc Chagall, painter and designer; 1903 Sir Steven Runciman, historian; 1921 Ezzard Charles, world heavyweight boxing champion.

Deaths: 1129, Shirakawa, emperor of Japan; 1307 King Edward I, “the Hammer of the Scots”; 1656 Michelangelo Rossi, Italian opera composer;1791 Thomas Blacklock, Edinburgh-born poet; 1919 Jon Pertwee, actor (Doctor Who); 1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes; 2006 Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd founder and songwriter.