On this day

1879: Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was born in St Helens.

1895: Conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent was born in Ashford, Kent.

1899: Duke Ellington, jazz composer, bandleader and pianist, was born in Washington, DC.

1909: In a revolutionary Budget, Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced a “supertax” of sixpence in the pound for anyone earning more than £5,000 a year, to pay for pensions and re-armament.

1930: The Academy Award-winning war classic All Quiet On The Western Front opened in America. Twelve years later, its star Lew Ayres refused to fight in the Second World War, declaring himself a conscientious objector.

1933: Footballers’ shirts were first numbered - from 1 to 22 - in the English FA Cup Final at Wembley. 1980: Film director Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, died aged 80. 1990: Stephen Hendry, at 21, became the youngest world snooker champion by beating Jimmy White 18-12 in the final at Sheffield.

1991: A 145mph cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing more than 100,000 people and making millions homeless.

2011: Prince William and Kate Middleton began their life together as a married couple after a glittering wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey. They sealed their love with not one but two kisses on Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Confirmed global cases of Covid-19 reached 3 million, with the death toll passing 210,000.