On this day

1645: Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud was beheaded on Tower Hill for treason.

1840: Sir Rowland Hill introduced the Penny Post – 112,000 letters were posted in London on the first day.

1863: The London Underground railway was opened by William Gladstone. The Metropolitan Railway went from Paddington to Farringdon Street, stopping at seven stations.

1880: Grock the circus clown was born as Adrien Wettach in Switzerland.

1890: Cleopatra’s tomb was discovered.

1901: The first oil strike – in Texas.

1920: The League of Nations held its first meeting at Geneva. It was dissolved in 1946 and replaced by the United Nations.

1929: The cartoon character Tintin, devised by Hergé, appeared for the first time.

1935: The so-called King and Queen of Hollywood, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, were divorced in Los Angeles.

1971: Coco Chanel, French fashion designer and one of the most influential couturiers of the 20th century, died aged 87.

1985: Eight people were killed in a gas blast at flats in Putney, south-west London.

2007: David Beckham (pictured below) agreed to join US side Los Angeles Galaxy, leaving Real Madrid, in a fiveyear deal worth £128 million.

2018: The Duke of Cambridge witnessed two robotic operations on cancer patients during a visit to London’s Royal Marsden Hospital.