On this day ...
NOVEMBER 16
1724: Highwayman Jack Sheppard was hanged in front of 200,000 people at Tyburn.
1869: The formal opening of the Suez Canal took place. It had taken 10 years to make the 100-mile canal devised by Ferdinand de Lesseps.
1896: Oswald Mosley, English Fascist leader, was born.
1920: The Bolsheviks defeated the White Russians in the Crimea, ending Russia’s Civil War.
1937: MPs voted in favour of air raid shelters being erected in towns and cities.
1959: The Sound Of Music, a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, opened on Broadway.
1960: Clark Gable, above, the “King of Hollywood” and Oscar winner, died after shooting the final scenes of The Misfits opposite Marilyn Monroe.
1989: Apartheid beach access restrictions were removed by president FW de Klerk in South Africa
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Queen surprised workers at a state-of-the-art wind turbine blade factory with her interest in and knowledge of the huge structures she watched being made. BIRTHDAYS: Willie Carson, former jockey, 76; Marg Helgenberger, actress, 60; Frank Bruno, former boxer, 57; Steve Bould, coach and former Arsenal footballer, 56; Diana Krall, singer and pianist, 54; Paul Scholes, former footballer, 44; Danny Wallace, actor, filmmaker and writer, 42; Maggie Gyllenhaal, above, actress, 41.