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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1958: Advertisement: Learn tango, cha-cha, rock'n'roll, mambo and all the latest dance steps with Miss Leung, 29 King Kwong St, 2/F, Happy Valley.

1966: A new 56-lane bowling complex was being planned for Tsim Sha Tsui. Hang Lung Development Company said the three-storey Kowloon Centre would be located immediately

behind Chungking Mansions.

1969: Columbia Films was sponsoring an inter-school singing competition to coincide with the release of Lionel Bart's musical Oliver. Those entering had to sing I'd Do Anything.

1972: Huge crowds thronged the Chartered Bank's main office in the hope of being allocated some of the 4.125 million shares of the Sing Tao newspaper. A minimum of 1,000 shares were being offered at $6 each.

Around the world

1811: Venezuela declared independence from Spain.

1826: Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, British East Indian administrator and founder of Singapore in 1819, died.

1865: William Booth founded the Christian Mission, later renamed the Salvation Army, in London.

1865: The world's first speed limit - two miles per hour - was imposed in Britain under the Locomotives and Highways Act.

1945: American General Douglas MacArthur announced the liberation of the Philippines.

1945: John Curtin, prime minister of Australia during most of World War II, died.

1948: The National Health Service came into being in Britain.

1959: Indonesian President Sukarno dissolved parliament and assumed dictatorial powers.

1969: Thomas Mboya, Kenyan statesman, was assassinated.

1975: American Arthur Ashe beat fellow American Jimmy Connors to become the first black tennis player to win the Wimbledon men's singles title.

1975: Independence from Portugal was granted to the Republic of Cape Verde.

1980: Sweden's Bjorn Borg won the Wimbledon men's singles title for the fifth consecutive year.

1989: Former White House aide Oliver North was fined US$150,000 for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked the Reagan administration.

1991: The Bank of England said the operations of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International had been suspended immediately, following allegations of massive fraud.

1994: PLA leader Yasser Arafat travelled to the West Bank after 27 years in exile, determined to turn the self-rule areas of Gaza and Jericho into a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

1994: In Italy, a graft trial opened with two former prime ministers heading a list of accused that read like a 'who's who' of the country's fallen mighty.

2000: Turkey's appeals court confirmed a one-year jail sentence imposed on Islamist former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan for provoking hatred in a 1994 speech.



Today in history