On this day

1596: Sir Francis Drake died at sea off Panama.

1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg. He composed 20 operas, 17 masses, 41 symphonies, 27 string quartets and 21 piano concertos – and still died a pauper in 1791, aged 35.

1778:

Joseph Bramah patented the valved flush toilet.

1832:

Lewis Carroll, children’s author, was born in Daresbury, near Warrington, as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

1859: Kaiser Wilhelm II, third German emperor and grandson of Queen Victoria, was born. He was forced to abdicate after the First World War.

1879: Edison patented his electric lamp.

1885: Jerome Kern, US composer regarded as the father of the modern musical, was born in New York. His major work was Show Boat.

1901: Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer whose operas include Rigoletto, Traviata and Aida, died aged 87.

1926: John Logie Baird gave a public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London.

1944: The 900-day siege of Leningrad ended.

1951: Atomic bombs were tested in Nevada for the first time.

1967:

Round-the-world yachtsman Francis Chichester was knighted by the Queen at Greenwich with a sword which once belonged to Sir Francis Drake.

1973:

America signed a ceasefire to end its military action in Vietnam.

1992:

Gennifer Flowers accused Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton of being a liar after he denied having a 12-year affair with her.

2010: American novelist JD Salinger, the author of The Catcher In The Rye, died aged 91.