ON THIS DAY

1440:

• Eton College was founded by Henry VI for 25 poor and needy scholars. Prefects were warned to look out for “ill-kempt heads, unwashed faces, foul clothes”.

1818:

• Richard Gatling, American inventor of the Gatling gun, was born in North Carolina.

1878:

• Cleopatra’s Needle, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, 68ft of granite, was presented to Britain by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan and erected on the Thames Embankment.

1910:

• The first policewoman in the United States Alice Stebbin Wells joined the Los Angeles Police Department.

1935:

• US multimillionaire Howard Hughes achieved the first of several aviation records he established before going into self-enforced seclusion, flying a plane of his own design at 352.46mph.

1953:

• Senator John Kennedy – later to be president – married Jacqueline Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.

1970:

• Concorde landed at Heathrow Airport for the first time to a barrage of complaints about noise.

1977:

• South African black activist Steve Biko died after six days in police detention in Port Elizabeth.

2014:

• Former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Ian Paisley died aged 88.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

• Maui hunkered down for heavy rain and powerful wind as a gradually weakening tropical storm barrelled towards Hawaii.

BIRTHDAYS:

• Sir Ian Holm, actor, 88; Patrick Mower, actor, 81; Maria Aitken, actress, 74; Bertie Ahern, former Irish premier, 68; Rachel Ward, actress, 62.