4th April

[chenrezig]

1581 Queen Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake aboard his ship the Golden Hind at Deptford after his circumnavigation of the world.

1617 The death of John Napier, the Scottish mathematician who invented logarithms.

1660 The 'Declaration of Breda' was proclaimed by King Charles II in which he promised a general pardon for crimes committed during the English Civil War.

1873 The Kennel Club was founded. It is the oldest, recognized kennel club in the world and was the first official registry of purebred dogs in the world. Its role is to act as governing body for various canine activities including dog shows, dog agility and working trials.

1934 Yorkshireman Percy Shaw laid the first 'cats' eyes' along the centre of the road at an accident black spot near Bradford.

1949 The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established by 12 western states, including Great Britain. The military alliance provided for a collective self-defence against Soviet aggression and greatly increased American influence in Europe.

1958 The first Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) protest march left Hyde Park in London towards Aldermaston in Berkshire.

1964 British pop group The Beatles occupied the first five places in the US singles pop charts with:- 'Can't Buy Me Love', 'Twist and Shout', 'She Loves You', 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'Please Please Me'. The Beatles are the best-selling pop band in history, have had the most number-one albums in the UK charts and have held the top spot longer than any other musical act.

1981 An emotional Aintree saw Bob Champion win the Grand National on Aldaniti. Champion, suffering from cancer, had been given eight months to live, while Aldaniti, who had led all the way, had been plagued with tendon problems and a broken back.

1984 The women from the main peace camp at Greenham Common in Berkshire were evicted, but said it would not end their protest against nuclear weapons being sited at the RAF base.

1985 Royal Assent was given for the Bill to hand Hong Kong to China in 1997.

1988 The British TV soap opera 'Crossroads' came to an end after 24 years with the transmission of the last of its 4,510 episodes.

1991 Children at the centre of 'satanic abuse allegations' in the Orkney Islands were reunited with their families after the case was thrown out of court.

1997 The residents of Eigg, a small island off the west coast of Scotland, bought their island with help from an anonymous English millionairess, after an eight-month ownership battle.

2007 The death of ventriloquist Terry Hall. He appeared regularly on television with his puppet, Lenny the Lion and is credited as being one of the first ventriloquists to use a non-human like puppet.

2007 Fifteen British Royal Navy personnel from HMS Cornwall who had been held in Iran, were released by the Iranian President. In the course of events the Iranians claimed that the British forces had been sailing in Iranian waters.

[Rosalind]

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[annie]

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