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Today in history
1936: Margaret Mitchell?s only novel, Gone with the Wind, was published. The book became one of the bestselling novels of all time.
• 1859: Jean-François Gravelet, a Frenchman known professionally as Émile Blondin, became the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
• 1917: Death of Dadabhai Naoroji, Indian nationalist and critic of British economic policy aged 91. He was known as the ‘Grand Old Man’ of India.
• 1934: Ernst Rohm chief organiser of Hitler’s ‘Brownshirts’ and hundreds of influential Nazis were murdered at the orders of Hitler in what has come to be called the ‘Night of the Long Knives’.
• 1936: Margaret Mitchell’s only novel, Gone with the Wind, was published. The book became one of the bestselling novels of all time, selling some 25 million copies. The book sold 1 million copies within six months, with as many as 50,000 copies being bought on a single day. In 1991, Alexandra Ripley authored a sequel, Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's “Gone With the Wind”. It was received unfavourably prompting the author to remark, “Yes, Margaret Mitchell writes better than I do. But she's dead”.
• 1971: The three-crew members of the Soyuz 11 spacecraft were killed when their air supply leaked out through a faulty valve. The fault was traced to a valve that had been jolted open as the spacecraft undocked.
• 2000: For the first time in Test history, a part of all four innings took place on one day when England played West Indies at Lord’s. West Indies made 267 in their first innings and the England reply was 134. England bowled out the West Indies for a paltry 54 and were 0 for 0 off 1.1 overs at close of play. A wicket fell every 22 balls.
