On this day ...

FEBRUARY 11

1847: Inventor Thomas Edison was born in Ohio.

1852: The first flushing lavatory for women opened in Bedford Street, London.

1858: The ‘Miracle of Lourdes’ took place when St Bernadette (peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous) had her first vision of the Virgin Mary.

1929: The 109 acres of the Vatican in Rome was made an independent sovereign state under the Lateran Treaty.

1940: John Buchan, Scottish novelist, died. He is best remembered for his creation Richard Hannay and the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps.

1975: Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party, the Conservatives, at the age of 49.

1990: South Africa’s black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, above, was freed from prison after 27 years.

2010: The fashion world mourned the loss of a “modern-day genius” following the death of Alexander McQueen.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Royal Horticultural Society announced that snowdrops, the blooms that signal the end of winter is coming, had appeared across the UK around a week earlier than usual.

BIRTHDAYS: Dennis Skinner, Labour politician, 87; Sheryl Crow, singer/ songwriter, 57; Jennifer Aniston, actress, 50; Steve McManaman, former footballer, 47; Nick Barmby, former footballer/manager, 45; Kelly Rowland, singer, 38; Taylor Lautner, actor, 27.