From the archives of the Hindustan Times: July 17, 2019

Attempt on King Edward’s life (1936)

London- An Incident, which appears to have been an attempt on the life of his majesty King Edward the Eighth, Occurred this Morning (July 16) when the king was riding in a Procession from the Hyde park Ceremony of the presentation of colours to the guards.

A revolver

As the King passed under the arch top of Constitution Hill, a man in the crowd appeared to throw a missile at the King,

The missile, which turned out to be a revolver, struck the flank of the King’s charger which kicked it.

The King looked round and then, unperturbed, continued to ride slowly ahead.

Man overpowered

A mounted policeman leapt from the horse on the top of the man and assisted by the spectators overpowered him. Other policemen arrived in the meanwhile and the man was arrested.

A scuffle

As he was being removed, another man approached the police; there was a scuffle and he also was arrested. Later, two women eye-witnesses to the incident, left in a police car.

A press photograph of the incident shows a man, shabbily dresses and hatless, being removed towards the ambulance by three policemen.

A late massage stated:-

Scotland Yard announced that the revolver was loaded in four of its five chambers, The man will appear at Bow Street Police Court this afternoon charged under fire arms Act.

It is believed that the man is not a foreigner. Eye witness’s accounts aggress that the King throughout remained calm , neither slowed nor increased his pace and steadily looked to the left where the scuffle took place as policeman and a woman simultaneously knocked the revolver out of the man’s hand.

Charu Majumdar arrested from Calcutta hideout (1972)

CALCUTTA -CPI (M-L) founder Charu Majumdar was arrested this morning (July 16) from a central Calcutta flat, police said.

Three top aides of Mr Majumdar, including a woman, were also taken into custody. A large number of secret documents relating to party affairs were seized.

The residence was raided by a squad of the Detective Department of Calcutta police headed by a high-ranking police official.

Mr Majumdar was reported to be staying in the flat for the past one month.

Mr Majumdar, 55, who has been suffering from paralytic ailment for the past few years, did not reportedly put up any resistance when the police party raided the flat.

Mr Majumdar was produced before the police magistrate of Sealdah on charges of waging war against the Government, attempts to murder and rioting. He was remanded to police custody.

Venkataraman elected eighth President (1987)

New Delhi-In a landslide victory, Congress-I nominee R. Venkataraman was today (July 16) declared elected the eighth President of India. By securing a phenomenal 72.28 per cent of the valid votes, Mr Venkataraman not only bagged the committed votes of Congress-I and allies but also drew a good chunk from the Opposition.

Mr Venkataraman polled 7,40,148 value votes as against his chief adversary, Mr V. R. Krishna lyer’s 2,81,550. The third candidate in the fray, Mr Mithilesh Kumar, could manage only 2,223 value votes.

Mr Venkataraman will be sworn-in as the new President of the Republic on July 25 in the Central Hall of Parliament. The Five-year term of President Zail Singh expires on July 24.

The final voting figures, which emerged after six and a half hours of counting at Parliament House, showed that it was Mr Krishna lyer and not Mr Venkataraman who was a victim of cross-voting. Thus all speculation in certain quarters of Congressmen cross-voting against Mr Venkataraman has been proved wrong.

While the Congress-I and its allies had 7,08,010 votes in the Presidential electoral college, Mr Venkataraman has bagged 7,40,148. That is an extra 32,138 votes. In contrast, the Opposition parties had a collective strength of 3,26,411 votes whereas Mr Krishna lyer could garner only 2,81,550 votes, representing a deficit of 44,891 votes.