IT HAPPENED TODAY
1600:
Charles I was born at Dunfermline Palace in Scotland.
1828:
Franz Schubert, Austrian composer, died in Vienna of typhus, aged 31.
1863:
Abraham Lincoln (above) made his famous Gettysburg address, with his freedom cry: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
1942:
The Russians mounted a counter-attack at Stalingrad and surrounded the German army.
1979:
Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 ‘hostages’ held in the US embassy in Tehran.
1984:
More than 500 people died and 1,000 buildings were destroyed in an explosion at a chemicals factory in Mexico City.
1988:
Christina Onassis (above), daughter of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle, died from a pulmonary edema, at the age of just 37.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
The Prince of Wales visited the island of Dominica to meet survivors of Hurricane Maria, which battered the country with high winds, torrential rain and flooding.
BIRTHDAYS:
Ted Turner, media mogul, 80; Calvin Klein, fashion designer, 76; Raymond Blanc, restaurateur, 69; Meg Ryan, actress, 57 (below) ; Jodie Foster, actress, 56; Douglas Henshall, actor, 53; Lady Davina Windsor, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, 41; Adele Silva, actress, 38.