ON THIS DAY
64 AD: place The Great Fire of Rome took during the reign of Nero. He played the lyre and was 50 miles away at his villa in Antium when he heard the news.
1817: Author Jane Austen died at the age of 41. Doctors were unable to diagnose her illness (she had written that her skin had gone “black and blue and every wrong colour”), but medical authorities now believe she died from Addison’s Disease.
1848: WG Grace, famous English cricketer, was born in Downend, near Bristol. In his 37-year playing career, he hit nearly 51,000 runs and took more than 2,800 wickets.
1870: The Dogma of Papal Infallibility in matters of faith and morals was proclaimed by the Vatican Council.
1872: The Ballot Act, which laid the foundations of our current voting system, was passed.
1919: The Cenotaph in London’s Whitehall was unveiled. The First World War memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and would later do double duty for the Second World War.
1925: Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which Adolf Hitler wrote while in jail, was published.
1934: The Mersey Tunnel was formally opened.
1936: The Spanish Civil War began when the army, led by General Franco, revolted against the Republican government. It lasted three years.
1969: Senator Edward Kennedy crashed his car into the Chappaquiddick River near Martha’s Vineyard on America’s east coast. Kennedy escaped, but his companion Mary Jo Kopechne drowned. He didn’t report the incident for 10 hours and was subsequently found guilty of leaving the scene of the accident and given a two-month suspended sentence.