ON THIS DAY
1859: The world’s first oil well was drilled in Titusville, Pennsylvania, by Edwin Drake.
1883: Krakatoa, a volcanic island in the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java, erupted with thousands killed by the resulting tidal waves. 1899: CS Forester, English novelist, was born in Cairo. He published The African Queen in 1935 and two years later created a series of historical novels his most popular character, Captain Horatio Hornblower.
1912: Tarzan Of The Apes, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, first went into print as a magazine serial.
1966: Francis Chichester left Plymouth in Gipsy Moth IV on his single-handed voyage around the world.
1967: The man who helped make The Beatles a legend, manager Brian Epstein, died in his London home from an overdose of sleeping pills. 1979: Earl Mountbatten, the Queen’s cousin, was killed when the IRA exploded a remote-controlled 50lb bomb on his boat Shadow V off the coast of County Sligo, Ireland. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A student said he was “amazed” after Russell Crowe donated thousands to his drama school fund.