Today in History - June 14 | French scientist creates ecological disaster with something brought in from Australia
Fed up with rabbits on his private estate in France, bacteriologist Paul-Félix Armand-Delille infected two of them with the myxoma virus on June 14, 1952.
The virus, which results in the rabbits developing the deadly myxomatosis, proved far more effective than he expected.
In a matter of weeks, nearly all the rabbits on his estate were dead.
Armand-Delille had taken his cue from Australia, where the virus had been released a few years earlier.
The virus had proven remarkably effective in wiping out pest rabbits across Australia.
But Armand-Delille was unable to keep the virus contained to his estate.
In a matter of years, wild rabbit populations in France and Spain dropped by 95 per cent.
In the UK, numbers fell by nearly 99 per cent.
Because rabbits are not a pest in Europe, the virus had dramatic impacts on the ecosystem.
Iberian lynx, which eat rabbits as their main prey, were nearly wiped out in the aftermath.
It is only in recent years that the wild cat population has stabilised.
After ten days as part of the biggest band in world history, Jimmie Nicol was given a cheque for £500 and went back into obscurity on June 14, 1964.
The Beatles were due to tour Australia when Ringo Starr fell ill with tonsilitis on June 3.
Stand-in drummer Nicol was roped in, given a moptop haircut and played the first of his eight concerts with The Beatles barely 24 hours later.
After playing in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong and Australia, Nicol was flown back to the UK from Melbourne when Starr was released from hospital.
Along the way he experienced the monstrous enormity of Beatlemania, with massive crowds packing streets in Australia just to catch a glimpse of them.
Because he didn't want to wake the other Beatles, he didn't get to say goodbye to him.
"Standing in for Ringo was the worst thing that ever happened to me. Until then I was quite happy earning £30 or £40 a week," he said.
"After the headlines died, I began dying too."
Nine months later, Nicol declared bankruptcy.
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