IT HAPPENED TODAY
1552:
Death of Spanish missionary Francis Xavier, who helped Ignatius Loyola found the Jesuits.
1836:
Three people died at Great Corby, near Carlisle in Cumbria, in the first fatal railway derailment.
1894:
Robert Louis Stevenson (above), author of Treasure Island and other works, died of a stroke at his villa in Samoa.
1910:
Neon lighting, developed by French physicist Georges Claude, was displayed for the first time at the Paris Motor Show.
1919:
French Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir died near Cannes. He was 78.
1926:
Novelist Agatha Christie (below) disappeared from her Surrey home. She was found on December 14 staying under an assumed name at a hotel in Harrogate but had no recollection of how she got there.
1967:
The first heart transplant was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard and a team of surgeons in South Africa.
1984:
More than 3,000 people died in a chemical factory spillage at Bhopal, central India.
1988:
Health Minister Edwina Currie claimed that most of the UK’s egg production was affected by salmonella.
2012:
St James’s Palace announced that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were expecting their first baby.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Three astronauts blasted off to the International Space Station, a successful launch that followed October’s aborted mission.
BIRTHDAYS:
Jean-Luc Godard, film director, 89; Paul Nicholas, actor, 75; Ozzy Osbourne, rock singer, 71; Daryl Hannah, actress, 59; Julianne Moore (above), actress, 59; Daniel Bedingfield, singer/songwriter, 40; Anna Chlumsky, actress, 39.