On this day: Wendy Alexander became Scots Labour leader

On this day in 2007, Wendy Alexander became leader of the Labour Party in Scotland. She held the role for just under a year. Picture: Getty

422: St Celestine began his reign as Pope.

1297: Scots under William Wallace defeated the English at Cambuskenneth.

1547: The Battle of Pinkie, in which the Scots, under the Earl of Arran, were heavily defeated by English, with thousands of Scottish soldiers killed.

1813: Nine vessels of the US navy defeated and captured six vessels of the British Royal Navy during at the Battle of Lake Eries, during the “War of 1812”.

1846: Elias Howe patented the sewing machine.

1897: Marlborough Street Court, London, fined taxi driver George Smith £1, making him the first person in Britain to be convicted for drink-driving.

1907: British colony of New Zealand became a dominion.

1921: The first motorway was completed in Germany.

1923: The Irish Free State joined the League of Nations.

1939: German Army gained complete control of western Poland; Canada declared war on Germany; first British forces arrived in France.

1942: RAF dropped 100,000 bombs on Dusseldorf in one raid.

1945: Vidkun Quisling, the puppet premier of Norway, was sentenced to death for collaboration and was executed on 24 October.

1948: Australian cricketer Don Bradman scored 153 runs in his final first-class innings in England playing against HDG Leveson-Gower’s XI in Scarborough.

1950: Joe di Maggio became the first baseball player to hit three home runs in one game while playing for the New York Yankees against the Washington Senators.

1960: Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia, running barefoot, set a new world record of 2:15:16.2 in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Rome, the first sub-Sahara African to win a gold medal.

1961: German racing driver Wolfgang von Trips was killed, as were 13 people in the crowd who were struck by debris, when two cars collided in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

1967: Gibraltar referendum resulted in overwhelming vote to retain link with Britain rather than Spanish sovereignty.

1977: Hamida Djanoubi became the last person to be executed by guillotine in France after being convicted of the torture and murder of Elisabeth Bousquet, 21, in Marseille.

1981: Picasso’s Guernica returned to Spain after 40 years custodianship in the United States. Picasso refused to allow the painting to be shown in Spain until democracy was restored.

1992: Medical experts said a Pittsburgh patient who died after having a baboon liver transplant had contracted the Aids virus.

2001: Charles Ingram cheated his way into winning £1 million on TV quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

2007: Wendy Alexander became leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, replacing Jack McConnell, the former first minister, who stood down following defeat in the Scottish Parliament elections.

2012: Scotland’s Andy Murray defeated Novak Djokovic to win the US Open men’s singles title at Flushing Meadows

BIRTHDAYS

Guy Ritchie, film director, 47; Siobhan Fahey, singer, 57; Carol Decker, singer, 58; José Feliciano, singer, 70; Colin Firth CBE, actor, 55; Judy Geeson, actress, 67; Karl Lagerfeld, fashion designer, 82; Arnold Palmer, golfer, 86; Joe Perry, musician (Aerosmith), 65; Ryan Philippe, actor, 41; John Archibald Sinclair, 3rd Viscount Thurso, MP 2001-15, 62; Hetti Bywater, actress, 21; Coco Rocha, model, 27; Eoin Morgan, Test cricketer, 29; Amy Irving, actress, 62; Kate Burton, actress, 58; Luke Treadaway, actor, 31; Johnny Fingers, pianist (Boomtown Rats), 59; Don Powell, drummer (Slade), 69; Jim Hines, Olympic gold medal-winning athlete, 69;

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1624 Thomas Sydenham, physician; 1659 Henry Purcell, composer; 1771 Mungo Park, Selkirk-born surgeon and explorer in West Africa; 1886 Hilda Doolittle, poet and novelist; 1890 Sir Mortimer Wheeler, Glasgow-born archaeologist; 1890 Elsa Schiaparelli, fashion designer; 1918 Rin Tin Tin, German Shepherd dog and movie star; 1926 Beryl Cook, painter; 1927 Johnny Keating, Edinburgh-born musician, composer; 1939 Cynthia Lennon, publisher and first wife of John Lennon.

Deaths: 1797 Mary Wollstonecroft Godwin, pioneer of women’s rights; 1842 Captain William Hobson, first governor of New Zealand; 1931 Salvatore Maranzano, Mafia boss; 1938 Charles Cruft, dog show founder; 1983 Johannes Vorster, ex-president of South Africa; 1985 Jock Stein, football manager; 1999 Bill McCue, singer; 2006 Patty Berg, golfer; 2006 Taufa’hau Tupou IV, king of Tonga 1965-2006; 2007 Jane Wyman, actress (first wife of president Ronald Reagan); 2007 Dame Anita Roddick, Body Shop founder; 2014 Richard Kiel, actor (“Jaws” in James Bond movies).