ON THIS DAY
1100: William II of England was killed by an arrow in the New Forest, allegedly mistaken for a deer. 1784: The first specially built Royal Mail coach ran from Bristol to London. 1788: Thomas Gainsborough, English painter, died. 1865: Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was published, but was quickly withdrawn because of bad printing. Only 21 copies of the first edition survived, making it one of the rarest 19th century books. 1876: James Butler, or Wild Bill Hickok, Marshal of the West, was shot dead by Jack McCall while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. He was holding two black aces, two black eights and the jack of diamonds – known to this day as “the dead man’s hand”. 1894: Death duties were introduced in Britain. 1921: Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor, died aged 48 from peritonitis. 1969: The US Mariner unmanned spacecraft beamed the first pictures of Mars back to Earth. 1973: More than 40 people died when fire swept through the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man. 1980: Right-wing terrorists exploded a bomb at Bologna railway station in Italy, killing 84. 1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait and took control after eight hours. The Kuwaiti royal family fled to Saudi Arabia, and a puppet government was installed. 2015: Tributes poured in for “national treasure” Cilla Black after the entertainer died at her home in the south of Spain. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: One of the most endangered species of big cat, the leopard, gave birth to two cubs. BIRTHDAYS: Isabel Allende, novelist, 75; Rose Tremain, author, 74; Joanna Cassidy, actress, 72; Sammy McIlroy, former footballer and manager, 63; Edward Furlong, actor, 40; Donna Air, TV presenter, 38.