1896: The first call for breaking the speed limit in Great Britain. Walter Arnold is fined one shilling for being caught driving his car at 12 km/h when the speed limit was 3 km/h.

1961: The palace of Vergina comes to light from the excavations carried out by the University of Thessaloniki under Manolis Andronikos.

1967: The internationally renowned Kephalonite sculptor Gerasimos Sclavos meets a tragic death in his workshop in Paris, when he is crushed by one of his sculptures.

1996: The Navy patrol car “Antonio” lowers the Turkish flag raised the previous day by Turkish journalists and raises the Greek one. At night, Greek frogmen disembark at Megali Imia, without being noticed by the Turkish warships sailing there. The political mandate to the Greek military is to avoid any escalation of tension.

2008: Bill Gates visits Athens. The founder of Microsoft has meetings with Costas Karamanlis and George Papandreou, inaugurates his company’s Innovation Center and during his speech at the Concert Hall, predicts: “The keyboard and the mouse will soon be extinct species, as they are replaced by more natural forms of communication, such as voice and touch’.

Births

1912: Jackson Pollock, American painter, proponent of abstract expressionism. (D. 11/8/1956)

1944: John Tavener, English composer, with significant influences in his work from Byzantine music.
(Thu. 12/11/2013)

1978: Gianluigi Buffon, Italian international goalkeeper.

Deaths

814: Charlemagne, emperor of the Franks, one of the visionaries of United Europe. (Born 2/4/742)

1725: Peter the Great, Czar of Russia (1682-1725). (Born 30/5/1672)

2003: Taygeti Basouri, Greek actress, who became known by her first name. (Born 1917)