On this day ...

DECEMBER 1

1581: Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion was hanged at Tyburn.

1640: The Portuguese drove out the Spanish to reclaim their independence.

1761: Madame Marie Tussaud, above, wax-works modeller, was born in Strasbourg.

1887: The 28th Beeton’s Christmas Annual went on sale. It featured A Study In Scarlet by A Conan Doyle, which introduced the detective Sherlock Holmes.

1906: The Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world’s first purpose-built picture palace, opened in Paris.

1959: Twelve countries signed an agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research.

1989: Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome to end 70 years of hostility between USSR and the Vatican.

1990: The two halves of the Channel Tunnel were joined under the sea.

2009: International agreement The Treaty of Lisbon, also known as the Reform Treaty, came into force.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Figures revealed that a railway station in Angus, Scotland, was the least used in Britain. BIRTHDAYS: Woody Allen, above, film director, 83; Lee Trevino, golfer, 79; Bette Midler, singer and actress, 73; Gilbert O’Sullivan, singer, 72; Stephen Poliakoff, playwright, 66; Charlene Tilton, actress, 60; Jeremy Northam, actor, 57; Sarah Silverman, comedian and actress, 48; Janelle Monae, musician, 33.