IT HAPPENED TODAY

DECEMBER 18

1707: Charles Wesley, hymn writer and prolific preacher, was born in Epworth, Lincolnshire.

1737: Antonio Stradivari, violin maker, died in his nineties in Cremona, Italy.

1865: The United States officially abolished slavery with the ratification of the 13th Amendment.

1912: Newspapers ran headlines of the discovery of Piltdown Man in Sussex. It was claimed to be the fossilised skull and remains of the earliest known European. In 1953 it was proved to be a hoax. The skull was that of an orangutan combined with the skull of a fully developed modern man.

1952: Bill and Ben, the Flowerpot Men, were first seen on BBC TV, along with Little Weed.

1969: The death penalty for murder was formally abolished in Britain.

1970: Divorce became legal in

Italy.

2012: The Queen (top) capped her Diamond Jubilee year by becoming the first monarch to attend the Cabinet in more than two centuries.

2014: Ronnie Biggs (above), the great train robber who won worldwide notoriety for spending 36 years on the run after escaping prison, died aged 84.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A 16,000-tonne Russian cargo ship that ran aground off the coast of Falmouth, Cornwall, was re-floated during high tide.

BIRTHDAYS: Keith Richards, Rolling Stones guitarist, 76; Steven Spielberg, film-maker, 73; Brad Pitt (above), actor, 56; Robson Green, actor, 55; DMX (Earl Simmons), rapper, 49; Katie Holmes, actress, 41; Christina Aguilera, singer, 39; Lizzie Armitstead, track and road racing cyclist, 31.