ON THIS DAY

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1583: The first life insurance policy was sold in London.

■■ 1815: The Battle of Waterloo was fought, where combined forces led by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Field Marshal Blucher defeated Napoleon.

■■ 1817: London’s Waterloo Bridge was opened. It was originally called Strand Bridge but was re-named on the anniversary of the Battle.

■■ 1822: London’s first nude statue was unveiled in Hyde Park. The bronze figure of Achilles was sculpted by Sir Richard Westmacott. Achilles later acquired a bronze fig-leaf.

■■ 1903: Jeanette MacDonald, star of countless 1930s musicals with Nelson Eddy, was born in Philadelphia.

■■ 1940: With France collapsing before German forces, the Battle of Britain was about to begin, with Winston Churchill saying: “Let us brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’.”

■■ 1963: Henry Cooper floored Cassius Clay (later Muhammed Ali) in Round Four at Wembley Stadium. But by the fifth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped.

■■ 1978: Garfield, the world’s favourite fat cat created by Jim Davis, was born. The name came from Davis’s grandfather, James A Garfield Davis.

■■ 2010: John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics for Beatles hit A Day In The Life sold for £810,000 at auction.

■■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duchess of Cambridge launched her own Centre for Early Childhood in a landmark step aimed at signalling her lifetime commitment to transforming society. ■■ BIRTHDAYS: Delia Smith, TV cook, 81; Sir Paul McCartney, musician, 80, above; Thabo Mbeki, South African politician, 80; Fabio Capello, former England football manager, 76; Isabella Rossellini, actress/model, 70; Ralph Brown, actor, 65; Alison Moyet, singer, 61; Blake Shelton, American country singer, 46.

■■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2021 was 65.7%