ON THIS DAY

1602: The Bodleian Library at Oxford University opened to the public.

1674:

The blind English poet John Milton died at the age of 65. A student once wrote in an essay on Milton: “He got married and wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.”

1847:

Dracula creator Bram Stoker was born in Dublin.

1886:

Fred Archer, English champion jockey who won the Derby five times, shot himself, aged only 29.

1895:

Wilhelm Rontgen discovered X-rays during an experiment at the University of Wurzburg with the flow of electricity through a partially evacuated glass tube.

1920:

The first Rupert Bear cartoon appeared in the Daily Express.

1923:

The Munich Beer Hall Putsch marked the start of Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. 1932: Franklin D Roosevelt - promising a “New Deal” for America - swept into the White House on a landslide in the US presidential election. 1960: John F Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon to become US president.

1966:

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke became the first African American elected to the United States Senate.

1967:

Radio Leicester, the first BBC local radio station, was opened.

1974:

The famous fruit and vegetable market at Covent Garden in London closed after more than 300 years.

1987:

An IRA bomb exploded shortly before a Remembrance Day service at Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing 11 people.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR

Bitterns, a wetland bird which was once extinct in the UK, are booming with populations at a record high, conservationists said.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Nerys Hughes, actress, 77; Roy Wood, rock musician, 71; Bonnie Raitt, singer/guitarist, 69; Rupert Allason (espionage writer Nigel West), 67; Rickie Lee Jones, singer/songwriter, 64; Parker Posey, actress, 50; Tara Reid, actress, 43; Brett Lee, former cricketer, 42; Jane Danson, actress, 40; Joe Cole, footballer, 37; Jack Osbourne, TV personality, 33.