1440: Eton College was founded.
1931: British sterling currency was taken off the gold standard.
1946: The first Cannes film festival opened.
1963: US president John F Kenne
dy went before UN General Assembly and proposed joint US-Soviet expedition to the Moon.
1967: The liner QE2 was launched from John Brown's yard at Clydebank.
1989: Indian peacekeeping troops declared ceasefire in their two-year-old battle against Tamil guerrillas fighting for independent nation.
1989: In Brussels, the European Community announced it would prosecute Britain over polluted drinking water.
1990: Acid rain in Britain was said to be the worst in Europe. The Lake District had the worst levels, in some areas having doubled since 1979. The Department of the Environment said there was no cause for alarm.
1990: Both Germanys ratified treaty that would dissolve East Germany and allow it to merge with West Germany on 3 October.
1994: John Major became the first British prime minister to visit South Africa for 30 years.
1995: A European court ruled that football transfer fees were illegal and that the restriction on three foreign players per team in European ties was a breach of the Treaty of Rome.
2001: MSPs voted by a majority of 50 to ban fox-hunting, hare-coursing and badger-baiting in Scotland.
BirthdaysNuno Bettencourt, rock musician (Extreme), 42; Sir Jeremy Child, actor, 64; Gary Cole, actor, 52; Alannah Currie, singer, 50; Sir John Dankworth, jazz musician, 81; Victoria Dillard, actress, 39; Caroline Flint, housing minister, 47; Professor Edward Friel, broadcaster and writer, chief executive, Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley Tourist Board, 67; Crispin Glover, actor, 44; John Harle, saxophonist and composer, 52; Kristen Johnston, actress, 41; Sophia Loren, actress, 74; Iain MacSween, chief executive, Scottish Fishermen's Organisation, 59; Professor Peter Radford, Olympic athlete, 69; José Rivero, golfer, 53; Prof Sir Graham Teasdale, president, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow 2003-6, 68.
AnniversariesBirths: 1839 Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy; 1842 Sir James Dewar, (born Kincardine-on-Forth) physician and chemist and inventor of the vacuum flask; 1869 Sir George Robey, actor and comedian; 1878 Upton Sinclair, novelist; 1885 Jelly Roll Morton, jazz pianist and composer; 1902 Florence Margaret ("Stevie Smith"), poet; 1914 Kenneth More, actor; 1926 Fred Winter, jockey and trainer.
Deaths: 1863 Jacob Grimm, philologist and collector of folk tales with his young brother Wilhelm; 1944 Guy Gibson, VC, (leader of Dambusters attack on Eder and Mohne dams); 1957 Jean Sibelius, composer; 1991 Tom Anderson, Shetland traditional fiddler; 1993 Leonard Parkin, broadcaster; 2002 Joan Littlewood, theatre director and writer; 2005 Simon Wiesenthal, Nazi-hunter.
21 SeptemberNational day of Malta.
1745: Battle of Prestonpans and defeat of the Hanoverian army under General John Cope by Prince Charles Edward Stuart and the Jacobites.
1893: The first petrol-powered car was demonstrated in the US by Frank Duryea of Springfield, Massachusetts.
1915: Stonehenge and the surrounding 30 acres of land was sold by Sir Edmund Antrobus to CH Chubb for £6,600 at auction. Mr Chubb presented it to the nation three years later.
1944: San Marino declared war on Germany.
1947: An American Skymaster flew from Ohio to Brize Norton, England, without a crew, under automatic control and guided by radio impulses.
1951: First non-stop double swim across the English Channel by Antonio Abertando, of Argentina, in 43hr 5min.
1962: The TV quiz programme University Challenge, hosted by Bamber Gascoigne, was first transmitted.
1965: British Petroleum became the first company to strike oil in the North Sea.
1991: Boxing safety row erupted after Michael Watson was critically injured in middleweight title fight with champion Chris Eubank.
1994: Scientists announced that 4.4-million-year-old human remains found in Ethiopia represented the missing link between apes and early man.
BirthdaysCurtly Ambrose, cricketer, 45; Charles Clarke, Home Secretary 2004-6, 58; Ethan Coen, scriptwriter and film producer, 51; Leonard Cohen, singer, poet and composer, 74; Shirley Conran, writer, 76; John Crawley, cricketer, 37; Liam Gallagher, rock musician, 36; Larry Hagman, actor (Dallas), 77; Chico Hamilton, jazz drummer, 87; Keith Harris, ventriloquist, 61; Faith Hill, singer, 41; Stephen King, novelist, 61; Rikki Lake, singer, songwriter and chat show hostess, 40; Simon Mayo, broadcaster, 50; Rob Morrow, actor, 46; Bill Murray, actor, producer and writer, 58; Nancy Travis, actress, 47; Luke Wilson, actor, 37; Sir Jimmy Young, radio presenter, 87.
AnniversariesBirths: 1452 Girolamo Savonarola, Italian political reformer and monk (hanged as a heretic); 1722 John Home, Leith-born dramatist; 1756 John McAdam, Ayr-born surveyor who introduced the "macadam" system of road-surfacing; 1849 Sir Edmund Gosse, critic; 1866 HG Wells, novelist; 1874 Gustav Holst, composer; 1895 Juan de la Cierva, Spanish aeronautical engineer and inventor of the autogiro; 1902 Baron Constantine, cricketer and diplomat; 1902 Sir Allen Lane, founder of Penguin Books; 1908 Captain CH Upham, one of only three awarded bar to Victoria Cross; 1919 Nigel Stock, actor; 1930 Dawn Addams, actress.
Deaths: 19BC Virgil, Roman poet; 1327 Edward II (murdered in Berkeley Castle); 1832 Sir Walter Scott, novelist and poet; 1860 Arthur Shopenhauer, philosopher; 1936 Frank Hornby, toy manufacturer; 1952 Sir Montague Burton, tailoring magnate; 1957 King Haakon VII of Norway; 1974 Walter Brennan, actor; 1974 Jacqueline Susann, novelist; 1994 Vitas Gerulitis, tennis player; 1996 Dorothy Lamour, actress and singer; 2000 Duke of Sutherland.
The full article contains 889 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
