IT HAPPENED TODAY
1602:
The Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public.
1674:
The blind English poet John Milton died at the age of 65. A student once wrote in an essay on Milton: “He got married and wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.”
1847:
Dracula creator Bram Stoker (above) was born in Dublin.
1886:
Fred Archer, English champion jockey who won the Derby five times, shot himself, aged only 29.
1895:
Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays during an experiment at the University of Wurzburg with the flow of electricity through a partially evacuated glass tube.
1920:
The first Rupert Bear cartoon appeared in the Daily Express.
1923:
The Munich Beer Hall Putsch — marked the start of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany.
John F Kennedy (above) defeated Richard Nixon to become US president.
1974:
The famous fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden in London closed after more than 300 years.
1987:
An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Bitterns,a wetland bird which was once extinct in the UK, are booming with populations at a record high, conservationists said.
BIRTHDAYS:
Nerys Hughes, actress, 77; Roy Wood, rock musician, 71; Bonnie Raitt (below), singer/guitarist, 69; Rupert Allason (espionage writer Nigel West), 67; Rickie Lee Jones, singer/songwriter, 64; Parker Posey, actress, 50; Tara Reid, actress, 43; Brett Lee, former cricketer, 42; Jane Danson, actress, 40; Joe Cole, footballer, 37; Jack Osbourne, TV personality, 33.