ON THIS DaY

■■1707: The Union of Scotland and England was proclaimed.

■■1840: The first Penny Black stamps with Queen Victoria’s head went on sale five days before the official issue date.

■■1851: Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, which ran until October 11.

■■1873: Missionary and explorer David Livingstone died of malaria in central Africa.

■■1912: The statue of Peter Pan was installed in Kensington Gardens, London. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, commissioned and paid for the statue.

■■1925: Cyprus became a British colony, having originally been annexed in 1914 when Turkey supported Germany during the First World War.

■■1931: US president Herbert Hoover opened the Empire State Building in New York. At 1,250ft high and with 102 floors, it was then the world’s tallest building.

■■1945: Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels committed suicide in his bunker.

■■1960: An American U2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down over the Soviet Union.

■■1968: Legoland Family Park opened at Billund in Denmark.

■■2009: Carol Ann Duffy became the first female Poet Laureate in the post’s 341-year history.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: 1,800 miners who had been trapped underground in a South African mine were successfully freed.

■■BIRTHDAYS: Una Stubbs, actress, 83; Judy Collins, singer, 81; Rita Coolidge, singer, 75; Joanna Lumley, actress, 74; John Diehl, actor, 70; Ray Parker Jr, singer, 66; Lady Sarah Chatto, daughter of Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon, 56; Wes Anderson, director, 51; Matt Di Angelo, actor, 33.

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Write to What’s On, South Wales Echo, Six Park Street, Cardiff CF10 1XR or email ecletters@walesonline.co.uk including your name, address and contact number. Don’t forget to tell us where and when your event is taking place and what it’s all about.

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