ON THIS DAY

1791: The optical telegraph (semaphore machine) was unveiled in Paris.

1836: Texas was proclaimed a republic, independent of Mexico.

1882: Robert MacLean tried unsuccessfully to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor. 1930:

Novelist DH Lawrence died in France of tuberculosis.

1949: The first round-the-world non-stop flight was completed by Captain James Gallagher and his 13-man USAF crew. It took 94 hours, during which the plane, Lucky Lady II, was refuelled four times in flight.

1958: A British team led by Vivian Fuchs completed the first crossing of the Antarctic, covering 2,158 miles from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea in 99 days.

1969: The French-built supersonic airliner Concorde made its maiden flight from Toulouse.

1970: Southern Rhodesia broke away from Britain and became a republic under Ian Smith.

1986: The Queen signed the Australia Bill in Canberra, formally severing any Australian constitutional ties with Britain. 1988:

A new political party was born when Liberals merged with the Social Democrats to form the Social and Liberal Democrats.

1995: Financial dealer Nick Leeson, whose multimillion-pound dealings on the high-risk derivatives market in Singapore bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt airport after a week-long manhunt.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

An ultra-massive white dwarf star with “unusually high” levels of carbon in its atmosphere was discovered by astronomers.

BIRTHDAYS:

Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet Union president, 90; John Irving, novelist, 79; JPR Williams, former rugby player, 72; John Altman, actor, 69; Ian Woosnam, golfer, 63; Jon Bon Jovi, actor/rock singer, 59; Daniel Craig, actor, 53; James Arthur, singer, 33.