On this day
9:33am Tuesday 7th July 2009 in News
1307: Edward I, having conquered the Welsh, died on his way to Scotland to fight Robert the Bruce.
1814: The first authentic historical novel, Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, was published.
1816: Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish-born playwright of School for Scandal (1777), died. He became manager of the Drury Lane Theatre as well as a politician but died in poverty.
1860: Composer Gustav Mahler was born in Kaliste, Bohemia.
1927: Christopher Stone became the first “disc jockey” on British radio when he presented his Record Round-up from Savoy Hill.
1967: Using Sir Francis Drake’s sword, the Queen knighted Francis Chichester, who had sailed solo round the world in Gypsy Moth IV.
LAST YEAR: Gordon Brown urged Britons to stop wasting food as he arrived in Japan for a G8 summit dominated by rising prices and the world economy.
