ON THIS DAY

Birthdays: Helen Lederer, Jack Dee and Victoria Pendleton 1776: The oldest of the classic horse races, the St Leger, was first run at Doncaster. 1848: Branwell Bronte, brother of the Bronte sisters, died. He was the inspiration for the violent drunk, Hindley Earnshaw, in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (1847). 1852: The first hydrogen-filled airship, powered by a 3hp steam engine built by Henri Giffard, made its maiden flight at Versailles, France. 1853: The Northern Daily Times became the first provincial newspaper in England.

1896: American writer F Scott

Fitzgerald was born. He became an alcoholic in his early 20s and died aged 44 after having two heart attacks. He wrote The Great Gatsby in 1925.

1930: The first performance of Private Lives by Noel Coward took place at the New Phoenix Theatre, London.

1953: The Robe, the first film made in CinemaScope, was premiered in Hollywood.

1960: The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, was launched in Newport, Virginia. 1975: Everest was climbed by the south-west face for the first time by Dougal Haston and Doug Scott.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A powerful 5.8-magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan.

BIRTHDAYS: Brian Glanville, football writer and novelist, 89; Gerry Marsden, singer (The Pacemakers), 78; Helen Lederer, actress and writer, 66; Theo Paphitis, entrepreneur (Dragons’ Den), 61; Jack Dee, comedian and actor, 59; Ally McCoist, broadcaster and former footballer, 58; Victoria Pendleton, former track cyclist, 40; John Arne Riise, footballer, 40.