On this day: Winton becomes first woman to read news

In 1960 Nan Winton  right, with Barbara Castle in 1961  became the first woman to read the national news on BBC TV. Picture: Getty Images

EVENTS, birthdays, anniversaries

1522: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visited England and signed Treaty of Windsor with King Henry VIII, calling for invasion of France.

1605: Russia’s Tsar Theodore II was assassinated in palace revolution.

1756: Night of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Some 156 British prisoners were put into a cell 20ft square on a hot June night when Suraja Dowla, Nawab of Bengal, captured Fort William. Only 23 survived.

1789: The French Revolution began.

1841: Samuel Morse patented telegraph.

1862: Congress prohibited slavery in US territories.

1885: Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City from France.

1887: The second Tay Bridge, the longest railway bridge in Britain, was opened.

1921: Major European powers agreed to mediate in dispute between Turkey and Greece.

1923: General “Pancho” Villa, Mexican guerrilla leader and revolutionary, was assassinated at Parral (Chihuahua).

1927: Greyhound racing began at White City Stadium in London.

1944: US troops took Saipan Island in Pacific from Japanese.

1949: “Gorgeous Gussie” Moran, American tennis player, caused a sensation at Wimbledon, wearing lace-trimmed underwear under a short skirt, designed by Teddy Tinling.

1960: Nan Winton became the first woman to read the national news on BBC television.

1961: Kuwait became independent.

1966: First black British police officer went on duty in Coventry.

1969: The discovery of high-grade crude oil deposits in the North Sea was announced, ten years after the first natural gas was found.

1970: Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 9 landed in Kazakhstan, establishing record for longest manned space flight at 17 days, 16 hours and 59 minutes.

1973: Juan Peron returned as president of Argentina after almost 20 years of exile.

1975: The first major world conference on status of women was held in Mexico City.

1977: Eight thousand miles of pipeline opened, carrying oil across Alaska.

1987: Basque separatists claimed responsibility after explosion in Barcelona department store garage killed 12 people.

1990: The Agra diamond was sold for a record £4,070,000 at Christie’s.

1990: Scotland bowed out of World Cup after 1-0 defeat by Brazil.

1995: Conservationists claimed a major victory as Shell abandoned plans to dump the disused Brent Spar oil rig in the Atlantic.

1997: Jonathan Aitken, the former Cabinet minister, faced criminal prosecution, a £2m legal bill and the ruin of his private and public life after dropping a High Court libel action against the Guardian and Granada TV.

2000: Peter Houghton became the first patient to receive the Jarvik 2000, the first totally artificial heart that could maintain blood flow in addition to generating a pulse.

2003: The Wikimedia Foundatio was founded in St Petersburg, Florida.

2008: An NHS region in Scotland announced plans to offer smokers cash incentives of £50 to quit the habit.

2010: It was revealed that the cost to Britain of the country’s commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq had soared to more than £20bn over the past decade.

BIRTHDAYS

Nicole Kidman, actress, 48; Danny Aiello, actor, 82; Candy Clark, model and actress, 68; Wendy Craig, actress, 81; Stafford Dean, opera singer, 78; Olympia Dukakis, actress, 84; Stephen Frears, film director, 74; Duchess of Gloucester, 69; John Goodman, actor, 63; Ronald Hines, actor, 86; Allan Lamb, cricketer, 61; Frank Lampard OBE, footballer, 37; Martin Landau, actor, 87; Raúl Ramirez, tennis player, 62; Lionel Richie, singer and songwriter, 66; Vikram Seth, novelist and poet, 63; Claire Tomalin, biographer, 82; Brian Wilson, musician (Beach Boys) and composer, 73; Anne Murray, singer, 70; John Mahoney, English-born American actor, 75; Brian Duffy, astronaut, 62.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1723 Adam Ferguson, Logierait-born philosopher and pioneer of sociology; 1906 Dame Catherine Cookson, novelist; 1909 Errol Flynn, actor; 1916 Johnny Morris, naturalist and broadcaster; 1924 Chet Atkins, guitarist; 1924 Audie Murphy, actor and much decorated Second World War soldier.

Deaths: 1597 Willem Barents, Arctic explorer; 1837 William IV, the “Sailor King”; 1870 Jules de Goncourt, French writer; 1980 Gustav Pettersson, composer; 1991 Gerald Priestland, broadcaster; 1992 Sir Charles Groves, conductor; 1992 John Bratby, artist; 2012 Alexander Charles Robert “Alistair” Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 9th Marquess of Londonderry.