On this day: Strachan resigns at Celtic | Bank Holiday Act passed
National day of Jordan.
1768: Captain Cook set off on his first voyage, to explore the Antipodes.
1840: The first drama school in Britain, Miss Kelly’s Theatre (later the Royalty) was opened in Dean Street, London.
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Hide Ad1871: The House of Commons passed the Bank Holiday Act, creating public holidays on Easter Monday, Whit Monday and Christmas Day.
1878: Gilbert & Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore was premiered at Opera Comique, London. The Daily Telegraph critic wrote that it was “a frothy production destined soon to subside to nothingness”.
1907: The first 24-hour motor race, called the Endurance Derby, was held in Philadelphia. The winning car covered a distance of 791 miles.
1911: President Porfirio Diaz was overthrown in Mexican revolution.
1914: The House of Commons passed Irish Home Rule Bill.
1915: Second Battle of Ypres ended.
1923: Independence of Transjordan under Amir Abdullah was proclaimed.
1935: Jesse Owens, American athlete, set six world records within 45 minutes at Ann Arbor in Michigan.
1951: The spies Burgess and McLean escaped from Britain en route to Moscow.
1953: Chris Chataway set a two-mile run record of eight minutes and 49.6 seconds.
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Hide Ad1962: Coventry’s new cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence, was consecrated, after six years of building.
1967: Celtic, managed by Jock Stein, became the first British football club to win the European Cup, beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.
1979: American Airlines DC-10 lost an engine and nose-dived to ground at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, killing all 272 aboard.
1982: Destroyer HMS Coventry was sunk by Argentine Exocet missiles in Falklands war.
1989: Chinese premier Li Peng denied that troops surrounding Peking were deployed to crush student protests.
1994: Camelot, won the contract to run the National Lottery.
2000: Israel withdrew its army from most of the Lebanese territory 22 years after its first invasion in 1978.
2002: A China Airlines Boeing 747-200 broke apart in mid-air and plunged into the Taiwan Strait killing 225 people.
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Hide Ad2009: Gordon Strachan resigned as manager of Celtic a day after his team lost the Scottish Premier League title to Rangers.
BIRTHDAYS
Mike Myers, actor, 50; Audrey Baxter, managing director, Baxter of Speyside, 43; Pat Bonner, footballer, 53; Alastair Campbell, journalist and former spin doctor, 56; Julian Clary, comedian and actor, 54; Sir Malcolm Innes of Edingight, Lord Lyon King of Arms 1981-2001, and president, Heraldry Society of Scotland, 75; David Jenkins, athlete, 61; Sir Ian McKellen, actor and director, 74; Paul Weller, musician (The Jam), 55; Johnny Wilkinson, rugby player, 34.
ANNIVERSARIES
Births: 1713 John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Edinburgh-born Prime Minister 1762-63; 1803 Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and philosopher; 1881 Béla Bartók, composer; 1892 Josip Tito, Yugoslavia’s president; 1913 Richard Dimbleby, broadcaster; 1926 Miles Davis, American jazz trumpeter and composer.
Deaths: 1934 Gustav Holst, composer; 1954 Robert Capa, war photographer (killed in Vietnam); 2005 Ismail Merchant, producer; 2008 Sydney Pollack, director.