ON THIS DAY
1684: Puppet shows performed and shopping stalls were set up on the Thames in London during a deep freeze.
1799:
Prime minister William Pitt (the Younger) introduced income tax at two shillings in the pound to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars.
1898:
Gracie Fields (Grace Stansfield) was born in Rochdale. She became one of Britain’s most popular entertainers and was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1979. 1902: New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.
1914:
Striptease artiste Gypsy Rose Lee was born in Seattle. She became Queen of Burlesque in the 1930s and her autobiography, Gypsy, became a hit musical.
1927:
Greta Garbo and John Gilbert - reallife lovers - shocked cinemagoers in New York by their uninhibited kissing in the silent film Flesh And The Devil.
1951:
Life After Tomorrow, the first film to receive an X rating in Britain, opened in London. 1957:
Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister in the wake of the Suez crisis.
1972:
The liner Queen Elizabeth, after being removed to Hong Kong to serve as a floating marine university, sank after catching fire.
1997:
Yachtsman Tony Bullimore was found alive, five days after his boat capsized in the freezing wastes of the Southern Ocean, 2,200km off the coast of Australia.
2007:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone.