ON THIS DAY

● 1861: London’s first tram cars, drawn by horses, began operating from Bayswater, designed by a Mr Train from New York.

● 1919: In Italy, fascism became an organised political movement following the founding of Fasci di CombattimentobyBenito Mussolini a month earlier.

● 1921: Donald Campbell, who emulated his father, Sir Malcolm, by breaking land and waterspeed records, was born in Horley, Surrey.

● 1966: The first official meeting for 400 years between the Catholic and the Anglican churches took place in Rome between Pope Paul VI and Dr Ramsey, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

● 1981: Englishman Mike Hailwood, nine times world motor cycling champion, died two days after a car crash in which his nineyear-old daughter was also killed.

● 1981: All animal transportation on the Isle of Wight and in southern Hampshire was banned in a successful attempt to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

● 1989: A 1,000-foot diameter asteroid missed the Earth by a mere 400,000 miles.

● 2001: The Mir space station was deorbited. It broke up in the atmosphere before falling into the Pacific near Fiji.

● ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Kazakhstan renamed its capital city Nur-Sultan, in honour of the country’s long-term leader who resigned.

● BIRTHDAYS: Barry Cryer, writer/comedian, 85; Michael Nyman, composer, 76; Alan Bleasdale, playwright, 74; Chaka Khan, singer, 67; ir Steve Redgrave,retiredOlympicrower, 58; Marti Pellow, singer, 55; Damon Albarn, singer, 52.