ON THIS DAY

■1791: The optical telegraph (semaphore machine) was unveiled in Paris.

■1836: Texas was proclaimed a republic, independent of Mexico.

■1882: Robert MacLean tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor.

■1930: Novelist DH Lawrence died in France of tuberculosis.

■1949: The first round-the-world non-stop flight was completed by Captain James Gallagher and his 13-man USAF crew. It took 94 hours, during which the plane, Lucky Lady II, was refuelled four times in flight.

■1958: A British team led by Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of the Antarctic, covering 2,158 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea in 99 days.

■1969: The French-built supersonic airliner Concorde made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

■1970: Southern Rhodesia broke away from Britain and became a republic under Ian Smith.

■1986: The Queen signed the Australia Bill in Canberra, formally severing any Australian constitutional ties with Britain.

■1988: A new political party was born when Liberals merged with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats.

■1995: Financial dealer Nick Leeson, whose multimillion-pound dealings on the high-risk derivatives market in Singapore bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt airport after a week-long manhunt.

■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: An ultramassive white dwarf star with “unusually high” levels of carbon in its atmosphere was discovered by astronomers.

■■BIRTHDAYS: Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Union president, 90; John Irving, novelist, 79; JPR Williams, former rugby player, above left, 72; John Altman, actor, 69; Ian Woosnam, golfer, above right, 63; Jon Bon Jovi, actor/rock singer, 59; Daniel Craig, actor, 53; James Arthur, singer, 33.

■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%