On this day

In 1867 the first prearranged race of two self-propelled road vehicles took place. The contest, using steam-powered engines, was along an eight-mile route in the Manchester area; in 1963 a hotline was set up to “help reduce the risk of war occurring by accident or miscalculation”, for use by President Kennedy and the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. The first official use was on the day that Kennedy was assassinated, on November 22, 1963; in 1976 more than 100 police officers were taken to hospital after clashes at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London; in 2009 the Democratic Party of Japan unseated the ruling Liberal Democrats in general elections, ending 54 years of near-unbroken rule.