IT HAPPENED TODAY

1133: Henry II, the first Plantagenet King (1154-89), was born in Le Mans.

1790: Death of Flora Macdonald, Scottish Jacobite heroine who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to safety after his defeat at Culloden.

1850: The Menai tubular bridge, joining Wales and Anglesey, constructed by Robert Stephenson, was opened.

1879: William Henry Beveridge, who produced the report which laid the foundations of the British welfare state, was born in Rangpur, Bengal.

1918: Russia declared Moscow its new capital, replacing Petrograd.

1933: The Nazi Party won almost half the seats in the German election.

1936: The Spitfire fighter plane made its maiden flight.

1946: Winston Churchill (above) introduced the phrase ‘Iron Curtain’. He said in a speech: “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.”

1953: Joseph Stalin, Russian communist leader, died in mysterious circumstances — officially from a brain haemorrhage. On the same day Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev died.

1984: Scientists warned of a ‘greenhouse effect’ amid growing concern that carbon dioxide, produced by fossil fuels, would damage the environment.

1993: Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (above) was banned for life after failing a drug test.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A naked British tourist was found walking down a coastal Sydney street after an early morning swim led to a search-and-rescue operation involving a helicopter and police boat.

BIRTHDAYS: Dean Stockwell, actor, 84; Samantha Eggar, actress, 81; Eddy Grant, singer, 72; Elaine Paige, singer, 72; Eva Mendes (above), actress, 46; Kimberly McCullough, actress, 42; Jake Lloyd, actor, 31.