ON THIS SUNDAY
1226: St Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, died. 1888: The first performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Yeoman Of The Guard took place at the Savoy Theatre, London.
1906: SOS was established as an international distress signal, replacing the call sign CDQ. 1929: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed Yugoslavia.
1941: The aerosol was patented by LD Goodhue and WN Sullivan. 1952: Britain’s first atomic weapon was exploded in the Monte Bello Islands, off Australia. 1956: The Bolshoi Ballet appeared at Covent Garden for the first time.
1959: The postcode, required in the addressing of mail for mechanical sorting, was first used in Britain in Norwich.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duke of Sussex wished runners “good luck” ahead of the pandemic-postponed virtual London Marathon, saying the event was a “reminder of our strength and sense of community”.