On this day

1660: The Royal Society was founded in London.

1757: William Blake, mystic and visionary English poet and painter, was born in London.

1905: The Irish political party Sinn Fein was founded in Dublin by Arthur Griffith.

1919: Viscountess (Nancy) Astor became Britain’s first woman MP, holding a safe Plymouth seat for the Tories in a by-election caused by her husband’s elevation to the peerage.

1934: Winston Churchill warned that weak defences could mean that Britain could be “tortured into absolute subjection” in any war with Germany.

1943: The Big Three - Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin - met in Tehran to “plan strategy” and discuss post-war policy, including treatment of a defeated Germany.

1967: Horse racing was suspended in Britain after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

1968: Enid Blyton, creator of Noddy and Big Ears, among many other children’s favourites, died.

1983: The government announced an end to the monopoly by opticians on the sale of glasses.

2010: Britain shivered in record low temperatures, including a “ridiculously low” minus 17C in Wales.

2017: Just a couple of days after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement was announced, already souvenirs were in production (pictured below).