IT HAPPENED TODAY

NOVEMBER 30

1667: Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin.

1835: Mark Twain (above), author of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, was born in Missouri.

1874: Sir Winston Churchill, a descendant of the great Duke of Marlborough, was born in Blenheim Palace.

1900: Irish-born playwright Oscar Wilde died in Paris aged 46.

1936: The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire.

1955: The first floodlit football match was played at Wembley, between England and Spain.

1957: The great Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli died.

1968: The Trades Description Act came into force.

2005: Only Fools and Horses actor

David Jason (above) marries his longterm partner, Gill Hinchcliffe, and the following day he received a knighthood from the Queen at Buckingham Palace in London.

2009: The European Organisation for Nuclear Research announced that the Large Hadron Collider had set a new world record for energy, making it the world’s highest energy particle accelerator.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duke of Cambridge presented Father Christmas with Prince George’s festive wishlist — a police car.

BIRTHDAYS: Frank Ifield, singer, 81; Ridley Scott, film director, 81; George Graham, former footballer and manager, 74; Roger Glover, rock musician (Deep Purple), 73; Billy Idol, rock singer, 63; Lorraine Kelly (below),

TV presenter, 59; Gary Lineker, broadcaster and former footballer, 58; Ben Stiller, actor, 53; Phil Babb, former footballer, 48; Dougie Poynter, musician (McFly), 31.