ON THIS DAY

• 1637: The Ancient Society of College Youths was founded to ring the City of London bells. College youths have rung Bow Bells since 1637 and also ring St Paul’s Bells on Sundays.

• 1854: The combined British and French armies defeated the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman in the Crimean War.

• 1909: The first Woolworth’s store in Britain opened in Liverpool.

• 1914: Britain and France declared war on Turkey.

• 1956: A popular uprising in Hungary was crushed by Soviet troops, with an estimated 20,000 Hungarians killed.

• 1968: US presidential election Republican challenger Richard M Nixon defeated vice-president Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C Wallace.

• 1990: Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, was shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel.

• 1991: Robert Maxwell, millionaire publishing tycoon, was found dead at sea hours after disappearing from his yacht off the Canary Islands.

• 2006: Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging by the Iraq High Tribunal.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A United Nations report said Earth’s protective ozone layer was finally healing from damage caused by aerosol sprays and coolants.

• BIRTHDAYS: Lester Piggott, former jockey, 84; Elke Sommer, actress, 79; Art Garfunkel, singer, 78; Dennis Andries, former boxer, 66; Bryan Adams, rock singer, 60; Tatum O’Neal, actress, 56; Tamzin Outhwaite,actress,49.