ON THIS DAY
1577: Explorer and navigator Sir Francis Drake began his voyage to sail around the world. 1708: William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born in London. 1738: Astronomer Sir William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, was born in Hanover. He died in Slough in 1822. 1837: Isaac Pitman’s stenographic sound-hand, the first shorthand system, was published, price 4d. 1899: Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers while he was covering the war as a reporter for the Morning Post. He escaped a few weeks later. 1901: An electrical hearing aid was patented by Miller Reese of New York. 1923: Rampant inflation in Germany reached a peak when the mark (4.2 to the dollar in 1914) rose to 4,200,000,000 to the dollar. 1956: Elvis Presley’s first film, Love Me Tender, was premiered in New York. 1968: The Cunard flagship Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton for the last time. She was replaced by the Queen Elizabeth II. 1969: ITV channel ATV screened the first colour television commercial in Britain - for Birds Eye peas. 1983: The Greenham Common women’s group mounted their first protest as cruise missiles arrived at the US airbase in Berkshire. 2002: Moors murderer Myra Hindley died in jail, aged 60. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Prison officers were ordered back to work after thousands joined a protest held amid claims jails were “in meltdown”. BIRTHDAYS: Ed Asner, actor, 88; Petula Clark, singer, 85; Sam Waterston, actor, 77; Frida Lyngstad, singer (ABBA), 72; Beverly D’Angelo, actress, 66; Johnny Lee Miller, actor, 45; Peter Phillips, son of the Princess Royal and Capt Mark Phillips, 40; Gemma Atkinson, actress, 33.