In Hong Kong 1953: Queen Elizabeth visited the Hong Kong stall at the British Industries Fair at Earl's Court, London. She took special interest in the display of coronation souvenirs and also remarked on the range and beauty of Hong Kong textiles. 1957: Actor Robert Cummings arrived in the territory with plans to export rice to Hong Kong. The star of the US television series, the Bob Cummings Show, was a member of a joint Australian-American rice-growing syndicate studying the possibilities of exporting Australian rice. 1967: Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni arrived to promote his first English-language film, Blow-Up. He was considering legal action against Japan for cutting his film, the only nation to do so. 1971: The Government Marriage Registry reported the number of couples giving notice of their intention to marry so far this year was already a record 9,465. The Year of the Boar is considered most auspicious for marriage as it is widely believed couples will stay affectionate to a ripe old age and have plenty of children. Around the world 1520: England's King Henry VIII and France's King Francis I signed a treaty ending French interference in Scotland. 1654: Sweden's Queen Christina abdicated, shocking Europe, and was succeeded by Charles X. She later moved to Rome. 1683: The first public museum, The Ashmolean, was opened at Oxford, England. 1898: Ninette de Valois, Irish dancer, choreographer and founder of the Royal Ballet, born as Edris Stannus. 1933: The first drive-in cinema opened in Camden, New Jersey, in the US. A showing of Wife Beware had room for 400 cars. 1941: Louis Chevrolet, American car racer and designer, died. 1944: Operation Overlord, the landing of Allied forces on the coast of Normandy, France, took place. It was known as 'D-Day'. 1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell's vision of a world ruled by Big Brother, was published. 1967: Egyptians closed the Suez Canal during Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. It remained closed to international shipping for eight years. 1972: Coal mine explosion in Rhodesia kills 431 workers. 1988: War between guerillas and Afghan government forces entered new stage as Soviet troops proceeded with their withdrawal from Afghanistan. 1992: Muslim fighters lift a month-long blockade to allow 800 Yugoslav soldiers and their families to leave Bosnia. 1994: An earthquake in Colombia set off a landslide that buried several villages, killing as many as 1,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless. 1995: Bosnian Serbs released more UN peacekeepers held captive after Nato air strikes, and the United States announced it would shift 1,500 troops closer to the country. 1999: Nato announced it would intensify its air campaign against Yugoslavia after talks on the Kosovo peace plan collapsed. The Yugoslavs sought the delay of entry by a Nato-led peacekeeping force.
