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26th September

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1580: Drake circumnavigates the world


English seaman Francis Drake returns to Plymouth in England in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth. In 1577, Drake set off from England on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. Of five ships, only the Golden Hind reached the Pacific, but Drake continued unperturbed, seizing Spanish treasure and searching in vain for a northeast passage back to the Atlantic. In 1579, he set off across the Pacific. After sailing the Indian Ocean, he rounded Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, returning to the Atlantic and then England. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I visited his ship and knighted Drake. The most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen, he later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

2006

Shinzo Abe becomes the new Prime Minister of Japan.

2005

In Northern Ireland, General John de Chastelain, the head of the arms decommissioning body, announces that the IRA has put all of its weapons beyond use.

2002

More than a 1000 people are killed when a ferry from Senegal capsizes off the coast of Gambia.

1996

U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid returns to Earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis following six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir.

1984

Britain agrees to transfer sovereignty of Hong Kong over to China in 1997.

1983

Racing yacht Australia II beats the American boat Liberty in the deciding race off Newport, Rhode Island to deprive the United States of the America’s Cup, a trophy the Americans had never lost in the 132 year history of the event.

1977

Two earthquakes hit central Italy killing ten people and damage several pieces of valuable art held in galleries in the area.

1973

Concorde makes its first non-stop flight across the Atlantic from Washington to Paris in record time.

1969

In Britain, The Beatles release the album Abbey Road.

1960

In America, the first ever Presidential candidate television debate is held between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

1957

The first production of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein’s musical based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, goes on stage at the Winter Garden in New York, America.

1944

The Second World War: Allied forces go “a bridge too far” and bid a hasty retreat from Arnhem in the Netherlands suffering heavy loses as Operation Market Garden fails. 

1934

In Britain, Queen Mary launches the cruise liner the Queen Mary.

1907

A Royal Proclamation changes the status of New Zealand from a British colony to the Dominion of New Zealand.

1687

The Parthenon in Athens is severely damaged when a mortar bomb, fired by the Venetian Army besieging the Turks holding the Acropolis, sets off the Turkish supplies of gunpowder.

1948

Australian singer and actress Olivia Newton John.

1947

British singer Barbara Dickson.

1943

Australian Test cricketer Ian Chappell

1920

American actor William Conrad

1898

American composer George Gershwin is born in Brooklyn, New York City the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.His first major songwriting success is 'Swanee' (1920) sung by Al Jolson. Teams up with his brother, Ira, to write a series of hit musicals in the 1920s and 1930s. Together they write the folk opera 'Porgy and Bess' (1935). Among George Gershwin's best-known works are the concert 'Rhapsody In Blue' (1924) and the song 'I Got Rhythm'. Dies from a brain tumour in 1937 aged 38.

1887

English aeronautical engineer Sir Barnes Wallis Designed two aircraft used by Britain during World War II - the Wellesley and Wellington bombers and famously devised the ingenious 'bouncing bombs' used to breach several German dams in the 'Dambuster' raids carried out by the RAF.

1959

Assassination of the Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Solomon Bandarandike.

1942

English clergyman Rev Wilson Carlisle - founder of the Church Army in 1882.

1937

American blues singer Bessie Smith dies after a car crash aged 43. Reported to have bled to death after being refused entry to a 'whites only' hospital in Mississippi. In 1929 she took the lead role in the film 'St Louis Blues' - the title of her favourite song.

1915

British politician Keir Hardie dies aged 59.