20 juin

The new nawab of Bengal, angry at the Company’s new fortifications and its abuse of the farman, took Fort William. Captives died overnight in its lock-up, the “Black Hole”. John Holwell’s claim that 123 of 146 died is widely doubted; historians’ estimates are far lower.

Locked out of their hall, the deputies crowded into a royal tennis court and swore never to separate until France had a constitution. One deputy refused: Joseph Martin-Dauch signed as an opponent.

The royal family slipped out of the Tuileries around midnight, the king dressed as a valet, in a heavy coach bound for the army on the eastern frontier. At Sainte-Menehould the postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, recognised the king and rode ahead to raise the alarm.

Test flight MW 18014, fired straight up, climbed to about 176 km: the first human-made object in space. More people died building the V-2, as forced labourers in the Mittelwerk tunnels, than were killed by it.

Universal opened Steven Spielberg’s shark film on hundreds of screens at once, backed by national television advertising, instead of rolling it out city by city. It became the first film to earn $100 million in North American rentals. The mechanical shark kept breaking, so Spielberg hardly showed…