IT HAPPENED TODAY
1776: The oldest of the classic horse races, the St Leger, was first run at Doncaster.
1848: Branwell Bronte (above), brother of the Bronte sisters, died. He was the inspiration for the violent drunk, Hindley Earnshaw, in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847).
1852: The first hydrogen-filled airship, powered by a 3hp steam engine built by Henri Giffard, made its maiden flight at Versailles in France.
1853: The Northern Daily Times became the first provincial newspaper in England.
1896: American writer F Scott Fitzgerald (below) was born. He became an alcoholic in his early 20s and died aged 44 after having two heart attacks. He wrote the definitive 1920s novel The Great Gatsby in 1925.
1930: The first performance of Private Lives by Noel Coward took place at the New Phoenix Theatre, London.
1953: The Robe, the first film made in CinemaScope, was premiered in Hollywood.
1960: The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was launched in Newport, Virginia.
1975: Everest was climbed by the south-west face for the first time by Dougal Haston and Doug Scott.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Scrabble announced that 300 new words were being introduced to the game, including some long-awaited gems: OKandew.
BIRTHDAYS: Brian Glanville, football writer and novelist, 88; Gerry Marsden, singer (The Pacemakers), 77; Helen Lederer, actress and writer, 65; Theo Paphitis, entrepreneur (Dragons’ Den), 60; Jack Dee, comedian and actor, 58; Ally McCoist, broadcaster and former footballer, 57; Victoria Pendleton (above), former track cyclist, 39; John Arne Riise, footballer, 39.