ON THIS DAY

• 1695: Henry Purcell, English composer, died of tuberculosis, aged 36. It is said that a friend asked him if he had made his peace with God, and he replied – “We’ve never quarrelled.”

• 1783: Man’s first free-flight was made by Jean de Rozier and the Marquis d’Arlandes in the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon. They flew above Paris and, after 25 minutes, landed a few miles south.

• 1787: Sir Samuel Cunard, shipowner, was born in Nova Scotia. He came to Britain in 1838 and, with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line.

• 1918: The German battle fleet surrendered to the Allies at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys.

• 1934: Cole Porter’s Anything Goes opened in New York and made a star of Ethel Merman.

• 1936: The first TV gardening programme was broadcast by the BBC – In Your Garden with Mr Middleton.

• 1953: The discovery of The Piltdown Man skull by Charles Dawson in Sussex in 1912 was finally revealed as a hoax.

• 1974: IRA bombs in two Birmingham public houses killed 19 people and left a further 180 injured.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Cameroon’s military freed nine children and their teacher who had been kidnapped by gunmen from a school in Kumba, it was reported.

• BIRTHDAYS: Juliet Mills, actress, 78; Goldie Hawn, actress, 74; Lorna Luft, actress, 67; Bjork, singer, 54; Andrew Caddick, former cricketer, 51; Alex James, musician with band Blur and writer, 51; Justin Langer, former cricketer, 49; Carly Rae Jepsen, singer, 34.