On this day ...

DECEMBER 10

1851: Melvil Dewey, who devised the library cataloguing system which bears his name, was born in New York.

1868: London’s first traffic lights were installed in Westminster, to help MPs get to the House of Commons.

1868: Whitaker’s Almanack was published for the first time.

1869: Wyoming became the first American territory to grant women the vote.

1896: Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite, died. On this day in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded.

1907: Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, the first time it had been awarded to an English writer.

1936: Edward VIII, above, signed the Instrument of Abdication. He choose his love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson over his royal duty.

2011: The Sun, Earth and Moon fell almost exactly in line.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A school leaver’s chances of going to university depend heavily on where they live, figures suggested.

BIRTHDAYS: Sir John Birt, former BBC director-general, 74; Clive Anderson, television presenter, 66; Susan Dey, actress, 66; Kenneth Branagh, actor and director, above, 58; Brian Molko, singer/songwriter, 46; Meg White, drummer (The White Stripes), 44; Patrick Flueger, actor, 35; Xavier Samuel, actor, 35.