ON THIS DAY

43 BC: Cicero (Marcus Tullius), the great Roman orator, was executed for a series of attacks on Mark Antony. 1732: The original Covent Garden Opera House opened with Way Of The World, by William Congreve. 1783: William Pitt the Younger became the youngest of Britain’s prime ministers – he was 24. 1815: Marshal Ney, Napoleon’s most famous general, was executed for supporting Napoleon at Waterloo when he was ordered by the Allies to arrest him. 1817: Captain Bligh, captain of mutiny ship The Bounty, died in London. 1941: The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. 1982: Charles Brooks Jnr, a prisoner at Fort Worth, was the first to be executed by a lethal injection in the US. 1988: Peter Langan, restaurateur, died in a fire at his home. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Actor Ryan Gosling said he’d feared the days of old Hollywood musicals were over before he made his Oscartipped new film La La Land.