ON THIS DAY

1628: Charles Perrault, French writer and collector of fairy tales was born in Paris. His Tales Of Mother Goose included Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Puss In Boots.

1866: The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded.

1879: The British-Zulu War began. 1948: The London Co-op opened the first supermarket in Britain at Manor Park.

1959: Henry Cooper became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion when he defeated Brian London on points.

1960: Nevil Shute, popular author, notably of A Town Like Alice, died in Melbourne, Australia, where he had emigrated in 1950.

1970: Nigeria’s civil war ended when the Biafran army surrendered.

1976: Dame Agatha Christie, the world’s most successful detective story writer, died, aged 85.

1982: Mark Thatcher disappeared in the Sahara while on the ParisDakar rally. He was later spotted by a search plane and rescued.

1987: Prince Edward resigned from the Royal Marines.

1990: The break-up of the USSR began as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prepared for secession.

2010: A severe 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. The confirmed death toll rose above 150,000 in the Port-auPrince area alone.

2017: A thief was been caught on camera smuggling a 2ft python from an Oregon pet shop - by stuffing it down his trousers.

BIRTHDAYS

Des O’Connor, singer/presenter, 86; Michael Aspel, TV presenter, 85; Maggie Bell, singer/songwriter, 73; Anthony Andrews, actor, 70; Brendan Foster, athletics commentator, 70; Howard Stern, radio DJ, 64; Melanie Chisholm, pictured, singer (Spice Girls), 44; Gemma Arterton, actress, 32.

QUOTES OF THE DAY

“One of the great environmental scourges of our time” - Prime Minister Theresa May on plastic waste polluting the sea.

“How can wolf-whistling be offensive to women? It’s a compliment. They are saying ‘Cor, you’re looking all right, darling’ -What’s wrong with that?” - Actress Joanna Lumley.