ON THIS DAY

1821: Death of John Keats, English Romantic poet, in Rome.

1905: The Rotary Club is founded by lawyer Paul Percy Harris in Chicago.

1919: Benito Mussolini breaks with the Socialist party and founds his own Fasci del Comattimento (Fascist) party in Italy.

1931: Death of Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, in hospital in Sydney.

1938: First oil discovery in Kuwait.

1970: The Indian-Pacific train service leaves Sydney at the start of the first- ever direct rail crossing of the Australian continent.

2015: Disgraced TV entertainer Rolf Harris is stripped of his Order of Australia honours.

Birthdays: Samuel Pepys, English diarist (16331703); William McMahon, Australia’s 20th prime minister (1908-1988); Emily Blunt, British actor (1983-).