IT HAPPENED TODAY
1522:
Ferdinand Magellan’s Spanish expedition aboard the Victoria returns to Spain without its captain. First to circumnavigate the earth.
1666:
The Great Fire of London was finally extinguished — it started on September 2.
1880:
England beat Australia by five wickets at the Oval in the first Test match played in England and WG Grace scored England’s first Test century.
1941:
Yellow Star of David badges became compulsory for all Jews living in Nazi Germany.
1966:
Hendrik Verwoerd, South African prime minister since 1958, was assassinated in parliament in Cape Town by Dimitri Tsafendas.
1990:
Cricketer Sir Len Hutton, the first professional to captain England, died aged 74. His son Richard was born the very same day in 1942.
Tributes from around the world flooded in after opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti lost his battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 71.
2012:
A four-year-old British girl was found alive underneath the bodies of her family hours after a gunman opened fire on their car in the French Alps.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A secondary school banned girls from wearing skirts to make the uniform ‘gender neutral’ and to deal with complaints over the decency of short skirts.
BIRTHDAYS:
Roger Law, satirist and puppeteer, 77; Roger Waters, rock musician (Pink Floyd), 75; Bruce Rioch, former Arsenal football manager, 71; Rosie Perez, actress, 54; Idris Elba, actor, 46; Greg Rusedski, former tennis player, 45; Tim Henman, former tennis player, 44; Nina Persson, singer (The Cardigans), 44; Pippa Middleton 35.