ON THIS DAY
43 BC: Cicero (Marcus Tullius), the great Roman orator, was executed for a series of attacks on Mark Antony.
1732: The original Covent Garden Opera House opened with Way Of The World, by William Congreve.
1783: William Pitt the Younger became the youngest of Britain’s prime ministers - he was 24.
1815: Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s most famous general, was executed for supporting Napoleon at Waterloo when he was ordered by the Allies to arrest him.
1817: Captain Bligh, captain of mutiny ship The Bounty, died in London.
1941: The Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.
1982: Charles Brooks Jnr, a prisoner at Fort Worth, was executed by a lethal injection, the first to die by this method in the US.
1988: Peter Langan, restaurateur, co-owner with Michael Caine of the famous London brasserie Langan’s, died in a fire at his home.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Fifteen new safety recommendations were announced following the Croydon tram crash.
BIRTHDAYS: Sue Johnston, actress, 75; Rosalind Ayres, actress, 72; Tom Waits, singer/songwriter, 69; Colin Hendry, former footballer, 53; Damien Rice, singer/ songwriter, 45; John Terry, footballer, 38; Emily Browning, actress, 30; Nicholas Hoult, actor, 29.