ON THIS DAY

1602: The Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public.

1674: The blind English poet John Milton died at the age of 65. A student once wrote in an essay on Milton: “He got married and wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.” 1847: Dracula creator Bram Stoker was born in Dublin.

1886: Fred Archer, English champion jockey who won the Derby five times, shot himself, aged only 29.

1895: Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays during an experiment at the University of Wurzburg with the flow of electricity through a partially evacuated glass tube. 1920: The first Rupert Bear cartoon appeared in the Daily Express.

1923: The Munich Beer Hall Putsch - marked the start of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. 1932: Franklin D Roosevelt - promising a “New Deal” for America swept into the White House on a landslide in the US presidential election.

1960: John F Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon to become US president.

1966: Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate.

1967: Radio Leicester, the first BBC local radio station, was opened.

1974: The famous fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden in London closed after more than 300 years.

1987: An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The dress worn by Amy Winehouse during her final stage performance sold for more than 243,000 dollars (£180,000) at an auction of the late singer’s estate.