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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1961: King Mahendra and Queen Ratna of Nepal left Hong Kong on board a special train for a state tour of China. The king was the first monarch to visit the country since the communist takeover in 1949.

1962: US character actor Benson Fong arrived at Kai Tak. The California native, who was educated in Shanghai and Canton, was best known for his role as Charlie Chan's eldest son in the long-running detective series. He would next be seen in the new Elvis Presley film, Girls! Girls! Girls!

1964: American television personality Art Linkletter, author of the best-selling novel Kids Say The Darndest Things, arrived at Kai Tak with his family for a week's visit. Also arriving was Samuel Goldwyn Jnr, the son of the famed Hollywood movie mogul.

1967: Anti-British posters were removed from the walls of the Shenzhen railway station. A Hong Kong Government spokesman called the move 'a very good sign'.

Around the world

1745: The British national anthem, God Save The King, was first performed at Drury Lane Theatre, London.

1850: Flogging of sailors in the US Navy was abolished.

1891: Herman Melville, US novelist and author of Moby Dick, died.

1902: Emile Zola, French novelist who wrote the letter J'accuse  against the French Government over the Dreyfus affair, died.

1964: Arthur 'Harpo' Marx died. He started his show business career as a singer, but played a mute in the Marx Brothers films. Although he never spoke a line, he used a taxi horn to communicate - two blasts for yes, one for no.

1966: Andre Breton, French poet and essayist, died. One of the founders of the surrealist movement, he published The Surrealist Manifesto in 1924.

1970: Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian statesman, died. He staged a coup against the monarchy in 1952, named himself prime minister two years later and elected president in 1956.

1977: A Japan Air Lines DC8, en route from Paris to Tokyo, was hijacked by Japanese 'Red Army' guerillas over Bombay and ordered to fly to Dhaka.

1978: Pope John Paul I died after only 33 days in office and was succeeded by John Paul II.

1985: Eric Arturo Delvalle was sworn in as Panamanian president after Nicolas Ardito Barletta was forced to resign.

1986: Sir Robert Helpmann, Australian dancer and choreographer, died. He choreographed several notable ballets including Miracle In The Gorbals, The Soldier's Tale  and Elektra.

1989: Former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, a war hero who became an unpopular autocrat, died in exile in Hawaii more than three years after he was driven from his homeland.

1991: Jazz great Miles Davis, the leader, composer and trumpet player considered the father of 'cool jazz' for his muted trumpet playing, died after a long battle with illness. He was 65.

1995: China's Communist Party rulers approved an ambitious five-year plan promising an end to poverty, a better deal for farmers and poor inland areas and an overhaul of lumbering state companies.



This day in history