IT HAPPENED TODAY
1851:
Melvil Dewey, who devised the library cataloguing system which bears his name, was born in New York.
1868:
London’s first traffic lights were installed in Westminster, to help MPs get to the House of Commons.
1868:
Whitaker’s Almanack was published for the first time.
1869:
Wyoming became the first American territory to grant women the vote.
1896:
Alfred Bernhard Nobel (above), Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite, died. On this day in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded.
Rudyard Kipling (above) was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first time it had been awarded to an English writer.
1907: 1936:
Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication. He chose his love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson over his royal duty.
1964:
Nobel Peace Prize presented to Dr Martin Luther King Jr in Oslo.
1967:
Singer Otis Redding died at 26.
2007:
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner became the first elected female President of Argentina.
2011:
The sun, Earth and moon fell almost exactly in line.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Prime Minister Theresa May called off a key “meaningful vote” on her Brexit deal in the face of what had been expected to be a significant defeat.
BIRTHDAYS:
Sir John Birt, former BBC director-general, 75; Clive Anderson, television presenter, 67; Susan Dey, actress, 67; Kenneth Branagh, actor/director, 59; Brian Molko, singer/songwriter, 47; Meg White (above), drummer (The White Stripes), 45; Patrick Flueger, actor, 36; Xavier Samuel, actor, 36.