IT HAPPENED TODAY
1066:
Edward the Confessor England’s most pious king, died.
1787:
John Burke, genealogist and founder of Burke’s Peerage, was born in Tipperary, Ireland.
1884:
Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida was premiered at the Savoy Theatre.
1896:
The German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen gave the first demonstration of X-rays.
1919:
The Nazi Party was founded by Anton Drexler in Munich.
1941:
Amy Johnson English aviator and first woman to fly solo from England to Australia in 1930, drowned in a mysterious accident over the Thames estuary.
1948:
Mrs Dale first opened her radio diary. She was noted for always being ‘rather worried’ about her doctor husband Jim.
1971:
One-day international cricket was born when 46,000 spectators watched England play Australia at Melbourne. The scheduled Test match had been aborted by rain.
1981:
The hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, who killed 13 women over four years, ended when lorry driver Peter Sutcliffe was charged with murder.
1991:
Thirteen people died as 100mph winds battered the British Isles and power cuts crippled the country.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Work began to dismantle Dippy the Diplodocus at the Natural History Museum, a three-and-a-half week project to prepare the dinosaur replica for its two-year UK tour.
Robert Duvall, actor/director, 87; King Juan Carlos of Spain, 80; Jan Leeming, former newscaster, 76; Diane Keaton actress, 72; Pamela Sue Martin, actress, 65; Vinnie Jones, actor and former footballer, 53; Marilyn Manson, rock singer, 49; Bradley Cooper, actor, 43.