IT HAPPENED TODAY
480 BC:
The Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis to halt their advance into Europe.
1846:
The German astronomer Johann Galle and his assistant Heinrich d’Arrest discovered Neptune.
1848:
Chewing gum was first commercially produced by John Curtis on a stove in his home in Bangor, Maine, and sold as State Of Maine Pure Spruce Gum.
1889:
Wilkie Collins, English novelist and pioneer of detective fiction (The Woman In White, The Moonstone), died in London.
1912:
The first Keystone Cops film was released in America by Mack Sennett, called Cohen Collects A Debt.
1939:
Sigmund Freud Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis, died, aged 83.
1964:
The first performance of Fiddler On The Roof took place in New York with Zero Mostel singing If I Were A Rich Man.
Juan Peron was re-elected president of Argentina after being ousted almost 18 years earlier. During his first presidential term (1946–52), Perón was supported by his second wife, Eva Duarte, inspiration for the Evita musical, and they were immensely popular among the Argentine working class. Eva died in 1952, and Perón was elected to a second term, serving from 1952 until 1955.
1974:
The BBC Ceefax teletext service began, the world’s first.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
The annual Big Butterfly Count revealed that small tortoiseshell butterfly numbers had plummeted, despite the year’s hot sunny conditions.
BIRTHDAYS:
Julio Iglesias, singer 76; Bruce Springsteen, rock singer, 70; Nicholas Witchell, journalist, 66; Cherie Blair (Cherie Booth QC), barrister, 65; Karl Pilkington, TV presenter, 47; Trinidad James, American rapper, 32.