ON THIS DAY

■■ 1577: Explorer and navigator Sir Francis Drake began his voyage to sail around the world.

■■ 1708: William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born in London.

■■ 1738: Astronomer Sir William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, was born in Hanover. He died in Slough in 1822.

■■ 1837: Isaac Pitman’s stenographic sound-hand, the first shorthand system, was published, price 4d.

■■ 1899: Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers while covering the war as a reporter for the Morning Post. He escaped a few weeks later.

■■ 1901: An electrical hearing aid was patented by Miller Reese of New York.

■■ 1923: Rampant inflation in Germany reached a peak when the mark (4.2 to the dollar in 1914) rose to 4,200,000,000 to the dollar.

■■ 1956: Elvis Presley’s first film, Love Me Tender, was premiered in New York.

■■ 1968: The Cunard flagship Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton for the last time. She was replaced by the Queen Elizabeth II.

■■ 1969: ITV channel ATV screened the first colour television commercial in Britain - for Birds Eye peas.

■■ 1983: The Greenham Common women’s group mounted their first protest as cruise missiles arrived at the US airbase in Berkshire.

■■ 2002: Moors murderer Myra Hindley died in jail, aged 60.

■■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Duchess of Cornwall paid tribute to a campaign by the Women’s Institute (WI) to encourage its members to raise awareness and take action to end violence against women.

■■ BIRTHDAYS: Petula Clark, above, singer, 90; Sam Waterston, actor, 82; Frida Lyngstad, singer (ABBA), 77; Beverly D’Angelo, actress, 71; Johnny Lee Miller, actor, 50; Peter Phillips, son of the Princess Royal and Capt Mark Phillips, 45; Gemma Atkinson, actress, 38.

■■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2021 was 65.7%