IT HAPPENED TODAY
1628: Charles Perrault, French writer and collector of fairy tales, was born in Paris. His Tales Of Mother Goose included Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Puss In Boots.
1866: The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded.
1879: The British-Zulu War began.
1948: The London Co-op opened the first supermarket in Britain at Manor Park.
1959: Henry Cooper (above) became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion when he defeated Brian London on points.
1960: Nevil Shute, popular author, notably of A Town Like Alice, died in Melbourne, Australia, where he had emigrated in 1950.
1970: Nigeria’s civil war ended when the Biafran army surrendered.
1976: Dame Agatha Christie, the world’s most successful detective story writer, died, aged 85.
1982: Mark Thatcher (above) disappeared in the Sahara while on the Paris-Dakar rally.
1990: The break-up of the USSR began as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prepared for secession.
2010: A severe 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. The confirmed death toll rose above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A brave thief was caught on camera smuggling a 2ft python from an Oregon pet shop — by stuffing it down his trousers.
BIRTHDAYS: Des O’Connor, singer/ presenter, 86; Michael Aspel, TV presenter, 85; Maggie Bell, singer/ songwriter, 73; Anthony Andrews, actor, 70; Brendan Foster, athletics commentator, 70; Howard Stern, radio DJ, 64; Melanie Chisholm, singer (Spice Girls), 44; Gemma Arterton (above), actress, 32.