On this day: First televised general election results in UK

The first televised general election results. The Labour Party held on with the closest contest for 100 years. Picture: Getty

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on 23 February

1310: Declaration of the clergy and people in favour of King Robert Bruce from the Church of the Friars Minor in Dundee.

1573: Pacification of Perth ended fighting in Scotland between Regent and supporters of Mary Queen of Scots.

1863: Captain JH Speke discovered source of the Nile.

1874: Lawn tennis was patented by an Englishman, Major Walter Wingfield.

1898: Emile Zola was imprisoned in France for writing J’accuse.

1901: Britain and Germany agreed on boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland.

1905: The first Rotary Club was formed in Chicago.

1906: Canadian Tommy Burns won the world heavyweight boxing title in Los Angeles with a points win over Marvin Hart. He was the only one of his countrymen to win the title and the shortest at 5ft 7in.

1915: The French actress Sarah Bernhardt had her right leg amputated.

1919: Benito Mussolini founded the Fascist Party in Italy.

1920: The first regular broadcasting service in Britain started from Marconi’s studio in Chelmsford. The 30-minute programme was transmitted twice daily.

1933: Japan began occupation of China north of the Great Wall.

1934: Clark Gable exposed his bare chest in the film It Happened One Night, and millions of men stopped wearing vests.

1950: The first televised general election results. The Labour Party held on with the closest contest for 100 years – and Clement Attlee remained prime minister.

1953: An amnesty offered by the government to Second World War deserters brought in applications from more than 3,000 servicemen and 14 servicewomen.

1973: Fighting continued in Laos in spite of peace agreement between Laotian government and Communist-led Pathet Lao.

1987: Soviet dissident Josif Begun was freed as USSR promised release of 140 political prisoners and review of other cases.

1989: Japan said farewell to Emperor Hirohito with series of centuries-old court and religious funeral services.

1990: Prince Sihanouk returned to Cambodia after 11 years in exile.

1990: Shell UK was fined £1million for polluting the Mersey estuary in August 1989.

1991: Military junta seized power in Thailand after a bloodless coup.

1998: Osama bin Laden published a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and “Crusaders”; the latter term commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States.

2007: A train derailed on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 22. .

2008: The Suffolk Strangler, Steve Wright, 49, who murdered five Ipswich prostitutes in a six-week killing spree, was told by a judge that he would spend the rest of his life in prison.

2013: The United Kingdom lost its AAA credit rating, the first such downgrade since 1978.