ON THIS DAY

1864: Stephen Foster, US composer of minstrel songs and ballads (The Old Folks At Home, Beautiful Dreamer, etc) died after hitting his head on a chamber pot.

1887: Sophie Tucker, singer and vaudeville star known in America as “the last of the Red Hot Mamas”, was born in Russia.

1893: The Independent British Labour Party was formed by Keir Hardie.

1904: English composer

Richard Addinsell was born.

His most famous work was the Warsaw Concerto which he wrote for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight.

1921: The first British patent for windscreen wipers was registered by Mills Munitions of Birmingham.

1942: The pilot of an experimental jet fighter became the first to leave his plane via an emergency ejector seat.

1962: An outbreak of smallpox spread throughout Britain.

1964: A reluctant Capitol Records released the first Beatles record in the US “to see how it goes”. I Wanna Hold Your Hand became their fastest-selling single - one million copies were sold in the first three weeks.

1982: A Boeing 737 crashed into a bridge, hitting five ships and killing 78 people, on the Potomac River in Washington DC.

1990: An army undercover unit shot dead three men robbing a betting shop in west Belfast, causing uproar among republicans. Two of the raiders were hooded and carried replica guns.

2010: Pope Benedict XVI met and forgave the woman who knocked him down at Christmas Eve Mass in 2009.

2013: Steve McQueen’s 12 Years

A Slave won the coveted Golden Globe for best movie drama.

2017: Humans have changed the course of nature and postponed the next ice age through climate change, a study found.

BIRTHDAYS

Mark O’Meara, golfer, 61; Kevin Anderson, actor, 58; Julia LouisDreyfus, actress, 57; Suggs McPherson, singer (Madness), 57; Penelope Ann Miller, actress, 54; Ronan Rafferty, golfer, 54; Stephen Hendry, snooker player, 49; Nicole Eggert, actress, 46; Orlando Bloom pictured, actor, 41.