IT HAPPENED TODAY
1836:
Texas was proclaimed a republic, independent of Mexico.
1882:
Robert MacLean tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor.
1930:
Novelist DH Lawrence (above) died in France of tuberculosis.
1949:
The first round-the-world non-stop flight was completed by Captain James Gallagher and his 13-man USAF crew. It took 94 hours, during which the plane, Lucky Lady II, was refuelled four times in flight.
1958:
A British team led by Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of the Antarctic, covering 2,158 miles in 99 days.
1969:
The French-built supersonic airliner Concorde made its maiden flight from Toulouse.
1970:
Southern Rhodesia broke away from Britain and became a republic under Ian Smith.
1986:
The Queen signed the Australia Bill in Canberra, formally severing any Australian constitutional ties with Britain.
1988:
A new political party was born when Liberals merged with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats.
1995:
Financial dealer Nick Leeson, (above) whose multimillion-pound dealings on the high-risk derivatives market in Singapore bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested after a week-long manhunt.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A rare species of shark that usually lives in tropical waters was spotted off the UK coastline for the first time in recorded history, experts said.
BIRTHDAYS:
Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Union president, 87; Tom Wolfe, novelist, 87; John Irving, novelist, 76; John Altman, actor, 66; Ian Woosnam, golfer, 60; Jon Bon Jovi, actor/rock singer, 56; Daniel Craig, (above) actor, 50; James Arthur, singer, 30.