ON THIS DAY

● 1207: Liverpool was created a borough by King John.

● 1749: Johann von Goethe, poet, playwright and scientist, was born in Frankfurt. His masterpiece was Faust, and in 1867, 35 years after his death, the first part of that work became the first paperback book to go on sale in the world.

● 1850: The Channel telegraph cable was finally laid between Dover and Cap Gris Nez.

● 1895: RL Thomas, secretary and treasurer of Kinestoscope Co of New Jersey, USA, became the first film actor, playing the part of the Queen in The Execution Of Mary Queen Of Scots. A dummy was also used for the first time – for the beheading.

● 1933: The BBC was used for the first time by the police hunting a wanted man. An appeal was broadcast for information on murder suspect Stanley Hobday.

● 1963: Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King made his famous “I have a dream...” speech to a rally of 200,000 people in Washington.

● 1988: Thirty-three people died when three Italian air force jets collided during an aerobatics display at Ramstein in Western Germany.

● 2012: The widow of locked-in syndromesuffererTony Nicklinson said she hoped his campaign for a change in the law on assisted dying would continue in his memory.

● ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A yacht believed to be carrying cocaine with an estimated street value of £60 million was seized off the Welsh coast.

● BIRTHDAYS: David Soul, singer/actor, 77; Hugh Cornwell, rock singer (The Stranglers), 71; Shania Twain, singer, 55; Jack Black, actor, 51.