On this day ...

JANUARY 12

1628: Charles Perrault, French writer and collector of fairy tales was born in Paris. His Tales Of Mother Goose included Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Puss In Boots.

1866: The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded.

1879: The British-Zulu War began.

1948: The London Co-op opened the first supermarket in Britain at Manor Park.

1959: Henry Cooper became British and European heavyweight boxing champion.

1976: Dame Agatha Christie, above, the world’s most successful detective story writer, died, aged 85.

1982: Mark Thatcher disappeared in the Sahara while on the Paris-Dakar rally.

1987: Prince Edward quit the Royal Marines.

1990: The break-up of the USSR began as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prepared for secession.

2010: A severe 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. The confirmed death toll rose above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Figures revealed that around 170 children and teenagers each day had teeth removed during the previous year, with sugar blamed for creating an ‘oral health crisis’. BIRTHDAYS: Des O’Connor, singer/presenter, 87; Michael Aspel, TV presenter, 86; Maggie Bell, singer/ songwriter, 74; Anthony Andrews, actor, 71; Brendan Foster, athletics commentator, 71; Howard Stern, radio DJ, 65; Melanie Chisholm, singer (Spice Girls), 45; Gemma Arterton, actress, above, 33.