ON THIS day

■ ■AD54: Roman Emperor Claudius I died after eating poisoned mushrooms as a result of a plot inspired by his wife, the Empress Agrippina.

■ ■1163: The body of the Anglo-Saxon king, Edward (the Confessor), was transferred to a new shrine and October 13 has been celebrated as his feast day ever since.

■ ■1853: Lillie Langtry, British actress and mistress of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales, was born in Jersey.

■ ■1884: Greenwich was adopted as the universal time meridian of longitude, from which standard times throughout the world are calculated. ■ ■1905: Legendary English actor Sir Henry Irving died in Bradford, during his farewell tour.

■ ■1924: Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC on behalf of the Labour Party.

■ ■1944: Athens was liberated by the Allies.

■ ■1984: John Lowe achieved the first televised 501 score in nine darts in a major event in the quarter-finals of the World Match Play championship in Slough.

■ ■1996: British Formula One driver Damon Hill won his only World Championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix.

■ ■2010: One by one, the 33 miners trapped for 69 days half a mile beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface.

■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Olivia Colman revealed her husband swiped a toilet toll from Buckingham Palace so they would have a royal souvenir.

■ ■BIRTHDAYS:

Nana

Mouskouri, singer, 86; Paul

Simon, singer,

79; Edwina

Currie, author and former Tory

MP, 74; Sammy

Hagar, rock guitarist, 73;

Chris Carter, writer and TV producer (The X-Files), 63; Marie Osmond, singer and actress, 61, pictured; John Regis, former athlete, 54; Ian Thorpe, Olympic swimmer, 38.