ON THIS DAY
AD 68: Rome’s Emperor Nero committed suicide, aged 32, after the Senate had declared him a public enemy. 1549: The Church of England adopted The Book of Common Prayer compiled by Thomas Cranmer. 1836: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, English physician, was born in London. She was the first woman doctor to qualify in Britain, and opened St Mary’s dispensary for women and children in Seymour Place. 1870: Charles Dickens died in Gad’s Hill Place, near Rochester, Kent, after a brain haemorrhage the previous evening. He left only six of the planned 12 parts of his final novel, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, completed. 1898: Hong Kong was leased to Britain from China for 99 years. 1904: The London Symphony Orchestra was formed by musicians who had left Henry Wood’s orchestra after a disagreement. 1934: Donald Duck was born – in Walt Disney’s cartoon The Wise Little Hen. 1959: America launched the first ballistic missile submarine, the George Washington. 1975: Live radio broadcasting from the House of Commons began. 1991: The £100m, two-mile, four-lane Dartford Bridge in east London was completed. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The stars of Carla Lane’s hit television comedies, including Bread and the Liver Birds, joined family and friends to pay tribute to the acclaimed writer at her funeral in Liverpool. BIRTHDAYS: Tony Britton, actor, 93; Charles Saatchi, advertising executive, 74; David Troughton, actor, 67; Patricia Cornwell, writer, 61; Michael J Fox, actor, 56; Johnny Depp, actor, 54; Gloria Reuben, actress, 53; Natalie Portman, actress, 36.