ON THIS day

■■217: Roman emperor Caracalla (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) was assassinated.

■■1838: Brunel’s 236ft steamship Great Western left Bristol for New York on her maiden voyage.

■■1904: Britain and France signed a mutual recognition of each other’s colonial interests.

■■1908: Liberal Herbert Henry Asquith became Prime Minister.

■■1925: The Australian government and the British Colonial Office offered low-interest loans to enable Britons to emigrate to Australia.

■■1950: Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky died in London.

■■1967: Barefoot Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK with Puppet On A String.

■■1973: Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor who pioneered Cubism, aged 91.

■■1986: Clint Eastwood was elected Mayor of Carmel in California.

■■2005: More than four million people attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

■■2013: Former Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher died at the age of 87 following a stroke.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: After two months indoors, residents of Wuhan, the Chinese city where the Covid-19 crisis began, were celebrating the end of lockdown.

■■BIRTHDAYS: Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer, 80, above; Steve Howe, rock guitarist, 74; Joe Royle, football manager, 72; Julian Lennon, musician, 58; Alec Stewart, former cricketer, 58; Mark Blundell, former racing driver turned commentator, 55; Robin Wright Penn, actress, 55; Patricia Arquette, actress, 53.

■■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%