21 de junio

Twenty-seven leaders of the Bohemian revolt were put to death in one morning, among them the physician Jan Jesenius, rector of the university. Twelve heads were hung on the Old Town Bridge Tower. Twenty-seven crosses in the pavement mark the spot.

After years of trying to patch the ruin, the old cathedral was demolished. Wren’s new one took 35 years and was declared complete in 1711.

The ninth ratification put the Constitution into effect, though Virginia and New York, without which it could hardly work, followed only in the next five weeks.

Some 50 kilometres short of the army waiting for him. The family was brought back to Paris through silent crowds; after Varennes, few trusted the king again, and the first open calls for a republic began.

During the tournament Anderssen played a casual game against Lionel Kieseritzky at Simpson’s Divan in the Strand. He gave up both rooks, a bishop and his queen and mated with his remaining minor pieces.

Interned in Orkney while the peace was negotiated, the High Seas Fleet was sunk by its own crews on Admiral von Reuter’s order, to keep it from the Allies: 52 ships went to the bottom.

Peter Goldmark’s team at Columbia cut fine “microgrooves” into unbreakable vinyl, turning at 33⅓ revolutions a minute: a twelve-inch disc now held over twenty minutes a side instead of four. A symphony fitted on one record, and so, later, did the idea of an album as a single work.

The first program ever held in a computer's electronic memory: Tom Kilburn's routine to find the highest factor of 2¹⁸, which ran for 52 minutes. The Baby was a test rig for its memory, a cathode-ray tube that stored 1,024 bits as dots of charge.

It lasted 46 days. Bannister won the Empire Games and European titles that summer and retired at the end of 1954 to become a doctor.

Forty-six days after Bannister, with Chataway, Bannister’s pacemaker, second. Landy was timed in 3:57.9; rounding up to the next fifth made it 3:58.0.

Three years. At the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 Landy took the athletes’ oath and won bronze in the 1500 metres.

James Chaney, 21, of Meridian, and Andrew Goodman, 20, and Michael Schwerner, 24, of New York, were held in the Neshoba County jail, released after dark, and killed by Klansmen with a deputy sheriff. Their bodies were found in an earthen dam on 4 August. Seven men were convicted of federal civil…

Carlos Alberto finished the last goal after a move through most of the team. A third title meant Brazil kept the Jules Rimet trophy for good, and Mário Zagallo became the first to win as player and coach.

The first World Cup broadcast in colour, and the first with substitutes and yellow and red cards. Matches kicked off at noon in the heat and altitude to suit European television. Jairzinho scored in every one of Brazil’s six games.

Argentina kicked off knowing they had to win by four clear goals to reach the final ahead of Brazil, and won by six. Claims that the match was bought have been made ever since; none has been proved.