ON THIS DaY

■1778: British forces take St Lucia in the West Indies from the French. ■ ■1831: Nat Turner, the leader of a bloody slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, was hanged in Jerusalem, the county seat.

■ ■1880: Australian outlaw Ned Kelly was hanged outside Melbourne Jail.

■ ■1887: Construction of the Manchester Ship Canal starts at Eastham.

■ ■1918: The Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne to end the First World War.

■ ■1920: King George V unveiled the Cenotaph, above, in Whitehall.

■ ■1925: The BBC broadcast its first radio play, The White Chateau by Reginald Berkley.

■ ■1940: Willys-Overland launched the Jeep (so-called from the initials GP, for general purpose car).

■ ■1946: Stevenage was designated the first new town in Britain.

■ ■1952: The first video recorder was demonstrated in Beverly Hills, California, by inventors John Mullin and Wayne Johnson.

■ ■1965: Ian Smith’s all-white Rhodesia government unilaterally declared independence from Britain (UDI).

■ ■1987: Van Gogh’s Irises fetched £29.3m at Sotheby’s in New York.

■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two cannabis-based medicines used to treat epilepsy and multiple sclerosis were recommended for use on the NHS for the first time.

■ ■BIRTHDAYS: Veronica Hurst, actress, 89; Barbara Boxer, American politician, 80; Kathy Lette, comedienne and author, 62; Demi Moore, actress, 58; Calista Flockhart, actress, 56; Mark Draper, former footballer, 50; Leonardo DiCaprio, actor, 46.