On this day: Traffic wardens introduced in London

One of Britains first traffic wardens starts work in London on this day in 1960. Picture: Getty

Battle of Britain day.

National day of Costa Rica.

1595: Edinburgh High School riot, in which John MacMorrane, a bailie, was shot and killed by William Sinclair, one of the pupils occupying the school.

1830: The opening of Liverpool and Manchester Railway was marred by the first railway fatality when William Huskisson, MP, was run down by Stephenson’s locomotive, Rocket.

1890: Augustin le Prince, motion picture film pioneer, packed up his film and projector ready to take them to the Paris Opera next day for a demonstration. Early on the 16th, he boarded the Dijon-Paris train and was never seen again.

1916: Tanks were first used in battle by the British Army at Flers in the Somme offensive.

1917: Russia was proclaimed a republic by Alexander Kerensky.

1931: Twelve-thousand Royal Navy sailors on 15 ships in the Atlantic Fleet went on strike at Invergordon in protest over cuts in servicemen’s pay.

1935: Nuremberg laws were set up, under which Jews were outlawed and the Swastika became the flag of Germany.

1938: Prime minister Neville Chamberlain visited Hitler at Berchtesgaden over Czechoslovak crisis.

1940: The Battle of Britain ended: 1,733 German planes were said to have been destroyed, against 915 lost by the RAF.

1949: Konrad Adenauer was elected West German chancellor.

1959: Nikita Khrushchev began a 12-day visit to US.

1960: Traffic wardens were introduced in London.

1972: Former White House aides Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt were charged with conspiracy over the Watergate break-in.

1978: Muhammad Ali regained the world heavyweight boxing title for a second time, by beating Leon Spinks in New Orleans.

1994: United States warships gathered off the coast of Haiti, as president Bill Clinton warned that the US would invade unless the island’s military rulers quit.

2001: Iain Duncan Smith elected leader of the Conservative Party to succeed William Hague.

2008: Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest US investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection, amid the collapse of the US mortgage market.

2008: The last episode of BBC school drama Grange Hill was broadcast. It had run since 1978.

BIRTHDAYS

Brendan O’Carroll, writer, comedian, actor, director (Mrs Brown’s Boys), 59; Prince Henry of Wales, 30; General Eva Burrows, general of the Salvation Army 1986-93, 85; Sophie Dahl, actress and model, 37; Tom Hardy, actor, 37; Tommy Lee Jones, actor, 68; Jessye Norman, soprano, 69; Oliver Stone, actor and film director, 68; Graham Taylor OBE, football manager, 70; Jimmy Carr, comedian, 42; Queen Letizia of Spain, 42; Eidur Gudjohnsen, footballer, 36; Paul Thomson, Glasgow-born drummer (Franz Ferdinand), 38; Tom Dolan, double Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer, 39; Maggie Reilly, singer, 58; Johan Neeskens, footballer and manager, 63.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1254 Marco Polo, traveller; 1649 Titus Oates fabricator of “Popish plot”; 1881 Ettore Bugatti, Italian-French car designer; 1891 Agatha Christie, writer of detective stories.

Deaths: 1859 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer; 1885 Jumbo, London Zoo’s and PT Barnum’s circus elephant; 1995 Sam McCluskie, Leith-born general secretary of the National Union of Seamen; 2007 Colin McRae MBE, rally driver (helicopter crash).