ON THIS DAY

1284: Peterhouse College, Cambridge, was founded.

1732: Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn was born. He went on to compose 104 symphonies and numerous chamber and vocal works.

1837: English landscape painter

John Constable, who painted The Hay Wain, died.

1855: Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the Bronte sisters and author of Jane Eyre, died.

1889: The 985ft-high Eiffel Tower, costing £260,000, was officially opened by French premier Pierre Tirard.

1939: Britain and France pledged to support Poland against any aggression from Hitler’s Germany.

1959: The Dalai Lama was granted political asylum in India, having arrived in the country fleeing

Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet.

1973: Red Rum won the Grand National in record time – nine minutes 1.9 seconds.

1980: Jesse Owens, winner of four Olympic golds in Berlin in 1936, died.

1986: The Greater London Council was abolished.

1990: An anti-Poll Tax demonstration ended in a riot in Trafalgar Square with looting and arson in the West End.

1991: The Warsaw Pact formally ceased to exist as a military force when Soviet commanders surrendered their powers.

1993: The United Nations Security Council authorised military intervention in Yugoslavia, allowing planes violating a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina to be shot down.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: UK supermarkets revealed March 2020 had been the busiest month on record, as shoppers rushed to stock up as pandemic fears mounted.

BIRTHDAYS: Richard Chamberlain, actor, 87; Herb Alpert, musician,

86; Lord (David) Steel, former

Liberal leader, 83; Al Gore, former US vice president, 73; Roger Black, broadcaster and former athlete, 55.