On this day

1632: Architect Sir Christopher Wren, whose work includes St Paul’s Cathedral and Chelsea Hospital, was born in East Knoyle, Wiltshire.

1818: The 49th parallel was established by the US and Britain as the boundary between Canada and the US.

1822: Thomas Hughes, author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays, was born at Uffington, Berkshire.

1890: Explorer Sir Richard Burton died. Not only did he write 43 travel books and two volumes of poetry but he also translated 16 volumes of the Arabian Nights, two volumes of Latin poetry and six volumes of Portuguese literature, as well as books in Hindustani, Arabic and Sanskrit. An accomplished swordsman, he spoke 20 languages.

1944: General Macarthur returned to the Philippines as their liberator, fulfilling a promise he made when his forces retreated from the Japanese. On the same day the Allies captured Aachen, the first German city in their drive to Berlin.

1960: DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover put Penguin Books in the dock at the Old Bailey, accused under the Obscene Publications Act. It was found not guilty.

1973: The Sydney Opera House was opened by the Queen.

2011: Muammar Gaddafi, (pictured below) who ruled Libya for 42 years, was captured and killed as rebel troops overran the last pockets of loyalist resistance in his hometown of Sirte.

2019: Scientists revealed they were “birthing” a tumour in lab-grown human tissue, as part of a quest to stop cancer from occurring in the first place.