ON THIS DAY

1697: St Paul’s Cathedral was opened.

1804: Napoleon was crowned Emperor in Paris by Pope Pius VII. On this day one year later, he defeated Austro-russian forces at the Battle of Austerlitz.

1814: The Marquis de Sade, French aristocrat whose perverted lifestyle gave the word sadism to the language, died in an asylum. 1859: John Brown, anti-slavery campaigner whose soul marched on in the famous song, was executed for treason in Charleston, West Virginia.

1901: King Camp Gillette patented the safety razor.

1907: English footballers formed the Professional Footballers’ Association.

1923: Greekamerican operatic Maria Callas soprano Maria Callas was born in New York. 1927: Ford’s Model A went on sale as a successor to the Model T.

1954: Four years of anti-communist witch-hunts in America came to an end when its instigator, Joseph Mccarthy, was condemned for conduct unbecoming a senator.

1990: West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl won the first all-german election since 1933.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Kellogg’s trialled fully recyclable packaging for its boxes of Corn Flakes, with the plastic liner replaced with paper.