ON THIS DAY
■ THE IDES OF MARCH anniversary of the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.
■ 1824: Work on John Rennie’s London Bridge began.
■ 1909: “The world’s most beautiful store” opened in London’s Oxford Street. It was named after its American owner, Harry Gordon Selfridge.
■ 1917: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated.
■ 1929: In Chicago, boogie-woogie pioneer Clarence ‘Pinetop’ Smith was killed as he sat at his piano, by a gunman’s bullet not intended for him. He was 24.
■ 1932: The New BBC Dance Orchestra made its radio debut under the direction of Henry Hall.
■ 1933: Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich, which he said would endure for a thousand years.
■ 1937: America’s first central blood bank was set up.
■ 1945: Album charts were first published in America, by Billboard, with the King Cole Trio number one.
■ 1956: My Fair Lady opened on Broadway starring Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. The title was adapted from the Cockney pronunciation of “Mayfair”.
■ 1968: Foreign Secretary George Brown quit as he accused Prime Minister Harold Wilson of running the Cabinet in a dictatorial fashion.
■ 1974: A federal grand jury concluded that President Nixon was involved in a conspiracy to cover up White House involvement in the burglary at the Democratic Party headquarters in 1972.
■ 1984: Only 21 of Britain’s 174 coal mines were working as strikes against the Coal Board’s 5.2% pay offer and its pit-closure programme became official.
■ 1990: Mikhail Gorbachev was elected executive president of the USSR.
■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: New research suggested having high levels of caffeine in your blood may lower the amount of body fat you carry and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
■ BIRTHDAYS: Judd Hirsch, actor, 89; Mike Love, singer (Beach Boys), 83; David Cronenberg, film director, 81; Sly Stone, musician, 81; Ry Cooder, above, rock singer, 77; John Duttine, actor, 75; Ben Okri, novelist, 65; Eva Amurri, actress, 39.
■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2021 was 65.7%