ON THIS DaY

■■ 1687: Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer who made French opera popular, died from an abscess on his foot caused by striking it with the stick he used to conduct his Te Deum.

■■1859: In Melbourne, plasterer Ben Douglas became chairman of the Political Labour League of Victoria, the first Labour Party.

■■1888: The English Football League was formed by 12 clubs meeting at a Fleet Street hotel. ■■1895: The first celluloid film was presented to an invited audience by Auguste and Louis Lumiere in Paris. ■■1896: Thomas Hughes, lawyer, author and Liberal MP, died. He was involved in the formation of some early trade unions and wrote Tom Brown’s Schooldays.

■■1907: The first cabs with taxi meters began operating in London.

■■1945: The Arab League was founded by seven Middle East countries.

■■1958: Showman Michael Todd, husband of Elizabeth Taylor, died when his light aircraft iced up and crashed into mountains in New Mexico. The plane was called Lucky Liz.

■■1963: John Profumo denied having an affair with model Christine Keeler. The Secretary of State for War later resigned admitting he had lied to parliament. ■■1979: The British ambassador in Holland Sir Richard Sykes was shot dead by two IRA gunmen who opened fire outside his home in The Hague.

■■1996: The war crimes tribunal in The Hague made its first indictment of three Muslims and a Croat for the torture, rape and murder of Serb prisoners.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The number of people infected with Covid-19 worldwide reached the hundreds of thousands. ■■BIRTHDAYS: Stephen Sondheim, songwriter, 91; William Shatner, actor, 90; M Emmet Walsh, actor, 86; Roger Whittaker, singer/ songwriter, 85; George Benson, guitarist, 78; Lord (Andrew) Lloyd Webber, composer, 73; Matthew Modine, actor, 62; Beverley Knight, singer, 48; Reese Witherspoon, actress, 45.

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