IT HAPPENED TODAY
1135:
Henry I died ‘of a surfeit of lampreys’.
1581:
Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion was hanged at Tyburn.
1640:
The Portuguese drove out the Spanish to reclaim independence.
1761:
Madame Marie Tussaud
wax-works modeller, was born in Strasbourg.
1887:
The 28th Beeton’s Christmas Annual went on sale. It featured A Study In Scarlet by A Conan Doyle, which introduced the detective Sherlock Holmes
1906:
The Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world’s first purpose-built picture palace, opened in Paris.
1959:
Twelve countries signed an agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research.
1989:
Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome to end 70 years of hostility between the USSR and the Vatican.
The two halves of the Channel Tunnel were joined under the sea.
2009:
International agreement The Treaty of Lisbon, also known as the Reform Treaty, came into force.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Prince Harry and Rihanna took HIV tests together to raise awareness about the illness on World Aids Day.
BIRTHDAYS:
Woody Allen, film director, 82; Lee Trevino, golfer, 78; Bette Midler singer and actress, 72; Gilbert O’Sullivan, singer, 71; Stephen Poliakoff, playwright, 65; Charlene Tilton, actress, 59; Jeremy Northam, actor, 56; Sarah Silverman, comedian and actress, 47; Janelle Monae, musician, 32.