ON THIS DAY

1879: Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was born in St Helens.

1895: Conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent was born in Ashford, Kent.

1899: Duke Ellington, jazz composer, bandleader and pianist, was born in Washington, DC.

1909: In a revolutionary Budget, Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced a “supertax” of sixpence in the pound for anyone earning more than £ 5000 a year, to pay for pensions and re- armament.

1930: The Academy Award- winning war classic All Quiet On The Western Front opened in America. Twelve years later, its star Lew Ayres refused to fight in the Second World War, declaring himself a conscientious objector.

1933: Footballers’ shirts were first numbered – from 1 to 22 – in the English FA Cup Final at Wembley.

1980: Film director Alfred Hitchcock, above, the master of suspense, died aged 80.

1990: Stephen Hendry, at 21, became the youngest world snooker champion by beating Jimmy White 18- 12 in the final at Sheffield.

1991: A 145mph cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing more than 100,000 people and making millions homeless.

2011: Prince William and Kate Middleton began their life together as a married couple after a glittering wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey. They sealed their love with not one but two kisses on Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Official documents about a £ 1.3 billion Royal Navy “hunter killer” submarine were reportedly found in the toilets of a Wetherspoons pub in Cumbria.