On this day

274:

Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who became a Christian, was born.

1706:

John Evelyn, writer and diarist, died at Wotton, near Dorking. He had kept a diary for 65 years.

1879:

The discovery of saccharin was reported by chemists Constantin Fahlberg and Professor Ira Remsen in Baltimore.

1881:

The British were defeated by the Boers at the Battle of Majuba.

1900:

The British Labour Party was founded. Ramsay MacDonald was its secretary and later became leader and prime minister.

1902:

John Steinbeck, author (The Grapes Of Wrath), was born in California.

1933:

The Reichstag building in Berlin was burned down – a ploy by the Nazis to suspend civil rights and press freedom.

1939:

Britain’s most haunted house, Borley Rectory, was destroyed by fire.

1965:

Goldie the Eagle escaped from London Zoo and settled in Regent’s Park. His freedom was followed by the media until his recapture on March 10.

1991:

The Gulf War ended after Iraqi troops retreated and Kuwait was liberated.

2011:

Frank Buckles, who lied about his age to fight in World War I and lived to be the last surviving US veteran of the conflict, died at the age of 110.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

Former Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding became the sixth celebrity forced to pull out of The Jump because of injury.