On this day

70BC: Virgil, the greatest Roman poet, best-known for his epic Aeneid, which included the legend of the founding of Rome, was born.

1666: The first waistcoat was worn by King Charles II, according to famous diarist Samuel Pepys.

1839: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were betrothed. She proposed to him and confided to her diary: “It was a nervous thing to do, but Albert could not propose to the Queen of England. He would never presume to take such a liberty.”

1881: Novelist PG Wodehouse later Sir - creator of Jeeves and Wooster, was born in Guildford.

1917: Mata Hari, legendary Dutch spy who danced in the nude, was executed by a firing squad in Paris.

1940: A 500lb bomb hit Broadcasting House, London, killing seven people. Bruce Belfrage was reading the news at the time and paused for only a second before continuing.

1976: Two men from the Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR) were jailed for 35 years in connection with the murders of members of the Miami Showband.

1987: The worst hurricane in Britain since records began hit during the night, devastating southern England and causing at least 17 deaths. (Daily Mirror coverage pictured below).

2017: Ahead of his major series Blue Planet, Sir David Attenborough told journalists that immediate action’s needed to tackle plastic pollution in the world’s seas.