ON THIS DAY

1800: The first soup kitchens for the poor of London began.

1815: The British, led by General Sir Edward Pakenham, were defeated at New Orleans in the last battle Britain fought against the US.

1824: Wilkie Collins, English pioneer of the detective and suspense story, was born in London. He wrote The Woman In White (1860) and The Moonstone (1868).

1832: Bell’s New Weekly Messenger published the first cartoon to appear in an English newspaper.

1889: Dr Herman Hollerith of

New York patented an electrically operated computer to process data. The company he formed to market his invention evolved into the giant IBM.

1921: David Lloyd George became the first British prime minister to occupy Chequers, a country mansion in Buckinghamshire, presented to the nation as a gift by Lord Lee of Fareham.

1935: Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, the survivor of twin boys.

1940: Sugar, bacon and butter were rationed in Britain.

1982: Spain ended its siege of Gibraltar and reopened the frontier. In return, Britain ended its opposition to Spain joining the EEC.

1989: A British Midland 737 crashed into an embankment alongside the M1 near Kegworth, Leicestershire, killing 47 people.

1997: Kevin Keegan quit as manager of Newcastle United after five years in the post.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Three Britons were among 180 people killed after a Ukrainian passenger plane crashed moments after take off from Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, Iran.

BIRTHDAYS: Dame Shirley Bassey, singer, 84; John McTiernan, film director, 70; Rachel Nichols, actress, 41; Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), 37; Michael Mancienne, footballer, 33.