Also on this day

1066: William the Conqueror’s army sets sail from Normandy to invade England.

1917: French painter Edgar Degas, pictured, dies aged 83.

1928: The Republic of China is recognised by the United States.

so they could sell bread below cost price. He cut down on luxuries for members of his court and forbade nepotism. He made a list of the poorest citizens in Rome which he intended to use to see how he could improve their lives.

Urban also introduced what is thought to be the world’s first smoking ban, a threat to excommunicate anyone caught in the porch or inside a church, “whether it be by chewing it, smoking it with a pipe or sniffing it in powdered form through the nose”. Tobacco had arrived in Europe barely a dozen years earlier.

Three days in, he fell ill with malaria. He asked to be moved to an area with cleaner air but because a pope was not supposed to be seen before his coronation he stayed in the Vatican. Thousands took part in processions praying for his recovery – to no avail.

Urban was buried in the Vatican, with his remains later transferred to Rome’s Santa Maria sopra Minerva. He was succeeded by Pope Gregory XIV.

Question: The world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives opened this day in 1825, connecting which two northern towns?

Last week I asked which British film shared the Grand Prix at the first Cannes Film Festival which opened on September 20, 1946. The answer is BRIEF ENCOUNTER.