ON THIS DAY

1802: Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was published.

1831: George Pullman, US industrialist and inventor who designed the de luxe railway carriages that bear his name, was born. 1847: Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was born in Edinburgh.

1869: Sir Henry Wood, English conductor, was born in London. In 1895 he founded the Promenade Concerts (Proms) and he conducted them until his death in 1944.

1875: Bizet’s Carmen was first performed at the Opera Comique in Paris. Critics called it “painful, blatant, noisy and eminently repulsive” and the composer died brokenhearted three months later. 1911: Jean Harlow (Harlean Carpenter), the platinum blonde actress, was born in Kansas City.

1931: The US Congress adopted The Star-spangled Banner, written by Francis Scott Key, as the national anthem.

1961: Edwin Bush was Britain’s first suspected criminal to be identified by means of an “Identikit” picture.

1974: A Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed near Paris, killing more than 340 people, including members of an English rugby club. 1982: The Barbican Arts Centre in London was opened.

1985: The Miners’ strike came to an end, almost a year after it had begun.

1991: Estonia and Latvia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Boots announced plans to limit the sale of hand sanitiser amid concerns its products could be sold for inflated prices online, as concern over coronavirus ramped up.