On this day ...

NOVEMBER 30

1667: Author Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels) was born in Dublin.

1835: Mark Twain, author of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, was born in Missouri.

1874: Sir Winston Churchill, a descendant of the great Duke of Marlborough, was born in Blenheim Palace.

1900: Oscar Wilde, Irish-born playwright, died in Paris aged 46.

1936: The Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire.

1955: The first floodlit football match at Wembley was played, between England and Spain.

1957: The great Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli died. 1968: The Trades Description Act came into force. 2009: The European Organisation for Nuclear Research announced that the Large Hadron Collider set a new world record for energy making it the world’s highest energy particle accelerator.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

The Duke of Cambridge, above, presented Father Christmas with Prince George’s festive wishlist – a police car.

BIRTHDAYS: Frank Ifield, singer, 81; Ridley Scott, film director, 81; George Graham, former footballer and manager, 74; Roger Glover, rock musician (Deep Purple), 73; Billy Idol, rock singer, 63; Lorraine Kelly, above, TV presenter, 59; Gary Lineker, broadcaster and former footballer, 58; Ben Stiller, actor, 53; Phil Babb, former footballer, 48; Dougie Poynter, musician (McFly), 31.