On this day...

Clive Anderson, television presenter, 68; Susan Dey, actress, 68; Kenneth Branagh, above, actor/ director, 60; Brian Molko, singer/songwriter, 48; Meg White, above, drummer (The White Stripes), 46; Patrick Flueger, actor, 37; actor, 37. 1868: London’s first traffic lights were installed in Westminster, to help MPs get to the House of Commons.

1868: Whitaker’s Almanack was published for the first time.

1869: Wyoming became the first American territory to grant women the vote.

1896: Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite, died. On this day in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. 1907: Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first time it had been awarded to an English writer.

1936: Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication. He choose his love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson over his royal duty.

2011: The Sun, Earth and Moon fell almost exactly in line.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

Without evidence...

INTERESTED to read the letters from Messrs Starr and ‘SMD,’ one bemoaning the fact there have been several letters regarding the most important issues facing the country and the other being a snowflake, trying to defend, without any substantive evidence, this inept Conservative government

Star Wars not real

WHILE I am sure the extra £4 billion a year the Prime Minister announced will be welcomed by the Ministry of Defence, it will be really interesting to see how this is going to be paid for, particularly in