On this day: Guy Fawkes Night

Guy Fawkes Night. A law compelling people to celebrate this day was repealed in 1859. 1605: Guy Fawkes’s plot to blow up Parliament was foiled when 36 barrels of gunpowder were found in cellar. 1883: The Mahdi defeated Egyptian force under William Hicks at El Obeid and Britain decided to evacuate the Sudan. 1909: The first Woolworth’s store in Britain opened in Liverpool. 1912: The British Board of Film Censors was appointed. It decided on only two classifications – “Universal” and “Not Suitable for Children”. 1919: The world’s greatest screen lover, Rudolph Valentino, married actress Jean Acker, and found he was locked out on his wedding night. The marriage lasted less than six hours. 1922: Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, undisturbed since 1337BC. 1927: Britain’s first set of automatic traffic lights began working in Wolverhampton. 1940: HMS Jervis Bay sunk defending Atlantic convoy from German warship Admiral Scheer. 1956: Revolt in Hungary was quelled by Soviet forces who killed 20,000 people. Some Hungarians escaped to Britain. 1962: United Nations General Assembly demanded all nuclear tests cease by 1 January, 1963. 1966: Britain’s first post codes came into use, in Croydon. 1970: Vatican issued document reforming Roman Catholic mass. 1975: Roof and top floor of Inveraray Castle were destroyed in six-hour blaze. Most of its antiques and art treasures were rescued intact by estate workers and firemen. The castle was restored after a successful appeal campaign. 1988: Seven hundred Orangemen marched through Brixham, Devon, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of William of Orange’s arrival to claim the British throne. 2006: The former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was sentenced to death at a court in Baghdad for crimes against humanity. 2007: China’s first lunar satellite, Chang’e 1 went into orbit around the Moon. 2008: Barack Obama, a Democratic senator, was elected as the 44th president of the US and, in so doing, became the country’s first black president. 2009: Thirteen people were killed and 30 injured in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas. The attack was carried out by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, an army psychiatrist. BIRTHDAYS Alexa Chung, TV presenter and former model, 30; Bryan Adams, singer, 54; Art Garfunkel, singer and composer, 72; Tessa Jackson, director, Scottish Arts Council 1999-01, 58; Famke Janssen, actress, 48; Steve Miller, singer and guitarist, 70; Tatum O’Neal, actress, 50; Tamzin Outhwaite, actress, 43; Lester Piggott, champion, 78; Lisa Scott-Lee, pop singer (Steps), 38; Sam Shepard, actor, 70; Danniella Westbrook, actress, 40. ANNIVERSARIES Births: 1494 Hans Sachs, poet and dramatist; 1735 James Beattie, Laurencekirk-born poet; 1860 Johnny Laidlay, Musselburgh amateur golfer; 1913 Vivien Leigh, actress. Deaths: 1879 James Clerk Maxwell, Edinburgh-born mathematician and physicist; 1960 Mack Sennett, film director who created Keystone Cops; 1979 Al Capp, cartoonist; 1982 Jacques Tati, actor and film director; 1987 Eamonn Andrews, broadcaster; 1989 Vladimir Horowitz, pianist; 1991 Robert Maxwell, publisher, 1997 Isaiah Berlin, philosopher.

On this day: Guy Fawkes Night | Obama elected