ON THIS DAY

• 1772: Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (The Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan) was born in Ottery St Mary, Devon.

• 1805: Lord Nelson, English naval hero, was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar – dying at the precise moment the Franco-spanish fleet surrendered.

• 1858: The Can-can was first performed in Offenbach’s Orpheus In The Underworld in Paris.

• 1918: The “Spanish flu” epidemic started in Britain, eventually killing approximately twice as many as died in the First World War.

• 1952: The president of the Kenya African Union, Jomo Kenyatta, was arrested following the declaration of a state of emergency in the British colony of Kenya.

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1966: Disaster struck the small Welsh mining village of Aberfan when a colliery slag tip slid down the side of a hill and engulfed a row of houses, a farm and a school. Of the 144 people who died, 116 were children.

• 1982: Gerry Adams and Martin Mcguinness made history by becoming the first members of Sinn Fein to be elected to the Ulster Assembly.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Tackling antimicrobial resistance needs to become a top five policy priority for the government in order to help prevent the virtual loss of modern medicine, MPS said.

• BIRTHDAYS: Sir Geoffrey Boycott, former cricketer turned cricket commentator, 79. Peter (Lord) Mandelson, former European Union trade commissioner, 66; Julian Cope, musician, 62; David Campese, ex-australian rugby player, 57; Paul Ince,former footballer, 52.