ON THIS DAY

● 1570: Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V who declared her a usurper.

● 1601: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was executed for high treason after trying to raise the City of London against Queen Elizabeth’s counsellors.

● 1723: Sir Christopher Wren, English architect and designer, notably of St Paul’s Cathedral, died in London and was buried in the crypt of his cathedral.

● 1873: Enrico Caruso, operatic tenor, was born in Naples. His first record, On With The Motley from Pagliacci, was the first to sell a million copies.

● 1922: French mass murderer, Henri “Bluebeard” Landru, was guillotined for the murder of 10 women and a teenage boy, whose bodies were never found.

● 1939: The first of 2.5 million Anderson air raid shelters appeared in Islington, north London. The sunken, corrugated iron huts were to protect people from bombs but were used after the war for keeping chickens, cars, garden tools, etc.

● 1964: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) won the world heavyweight boxing title for the first time, knocking out Sonny Liston in round seven in Miami.

● 1983: Tennessee Williams, US playwright whose plays include A Streetcar Named Desire, died in a New York hotel.

● ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A fugitive monkey was reunited with her daughter at a Berlin zoo, after being caught at a railway station in the German capital.

● BIRTHDAYS: Sir Tom Courtenay, actor, 83; Diane Baker, actress, 82; Lord (David) Puttnam, film producer and politician, 79; Elkie Brooks, singer, 75; Lee Evans, retired stand-up comedian, 56.