IT HAPPENED TODAY
1556: An earthquake killed 830,000 people in China’s Shensi Province.
1806: William Pitt the Younger, twice British Prime Minister, died aged 47.
1900: The Battle of Spion Kop was fought during the Boer War.
1931: Anna Pavlova (above), Russian prima ballerina, famous as the Dying Swan, died aged 49 at her home in Hampstead Heath.
1943: The British captured Tripoli from the Germans.
1943: Duke Ellington played at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
1956: Sir Alexander Korda, Hungarian-born British film producer and director, died.
1963: Kim Philby, double agent, defected to Russia.
1985: A House of Lords debate was televised live for the first time.
1990: Gales of up to 115mph caused great damage and at least four deaths in Britain.
2018: Singer Neil Diamond (above) retired after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
2018: Twelve camels were disqualified from the King Abdulaziz camel beauty contest in Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A ‘full body scan’ carried out on the Van Gogh Museum’s version of the Dutch master’s famous Sunflowers deemed the painting not fit to travel because it is in a ‘stable but vulnerable’ condition.
BIRTHDAYS: Princess Caroline of Monaco, 63; Andrei Kanchelskis, former footballer and manager, 51; Scott Gibbs, former rugby player, 49; Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, actress, 46; Dawn O’Porter (above), television presenter, 41; Steven Taylor, footballer, 34.