On this day

AD54: Roman Emperor Claudius I died after eating poisoned mushrooms as a result of a plot inspired by his wife, the Empress Agrippina.

1163: The body of the Anglo Saxon King, Edward (the Confessor), was transferred to a new shrine and October 13 has been celebrated as his feast day ever since.

1853: Lillie Langtry, British actress and mistress of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales, was born in Jersey.

1884: Greenwich was adopted as the universal time meridian of longitude, from which standard times throughout the world are calculated.

1905: Legendary English actor Sir Henry Irving died in Bradford, during his farewell tour.

1924: Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC on behalf of the Labour Party.

1944: Athens was liberated by the Allies.

1984: Derbyshire’s John Lowe achieved the first televised 501 score in nine darts in a major event in the quarter finals of the World Match Play championship in Slough.

1996: British Formula One driver Damon Hill won his only World Championship after triumphing in the Japanese Grand Prix.

2010: One by one, the 33 miners trapped for 69 days in half-mile-deep dungeon beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface (pictured below).

2017: A couple were jailed for making fake holiday sickness claims in a landmark case.