On this day ...

DECEMBER 13

1784: Dr Samuel Johnson, above, writer and lexicographer, died.

1867: Twelve people died when Irish bombers blew up the outer wall of London’s Clerkenwell prison in an attempt to rescue a jailed colleague.

1903: Ice-cream cones were patented by Italo Marcione of New York.

1904: The Metropolitan Underground railway in London went electric.

1939: The Battle of the River Plate began, with British warships attacking the great German battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

1967: King Constantine fled Greece after an unsuccessful bid to topple the military junta.

1973: A three-day working week was ordered by the Government because of the Arab oil embargo and the coal miners’ industrial action.

2010: Richard Holbrooke, the long-serving US diplomat who was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died at the age of 69.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Greek yogurt could be an unlikely source of sustainable jet plane fuel, researchers found.

BIRTHDAYS: Dick Van Dyke, actor, 93; Christopher Plummer, actor, 89; Robert Lindsay, actor, 69; Tom Verlaine, singer and rock guitarist (Television), 69; Paula Wilcox, actress, 69; John Francome, author and former jockey, 66; Steve Buscemi, actor/writer/ director, 61; Jamie Foxx, actor and singer, 51; Sara Cox, radio DJ, 44; Taylor Swift, above, singer, 29.