ON THIS DAY

■■ 1600: Charles I was born at Dunfermline Palace in Scotland.

■■ 1828: Franz Schubert, Austrian composer, died in Vienna of typhus, aged 31.

■■ 1863: Abraham Lincoln, above, made his famous Gettysburg address, with his freedom cry: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

■■ 1942: The Russians counterattacked at Stalingrad and surrounded the German army.

■■ 1979: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered the release of 13 ‘hostages’ held in the US embassy in Tehran.

■■ 1984: More than 500 people died and 1,000 buildings were destroyed in an explosion at a chemicals factory in Mexico City.

■■ 1988: Christina Onassis, daughter of the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle, died from a pulmonary edema, aged just 37.

■■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Dyson opened a virtual reality store to allow customers to try out its products before choosing to buy them. ■■ BIRTHDAYS: Ted Turner, media mogul, 84; Calvin Klein, fashion designer, 80; Raymond Blanc, restaurateur, 73; Meg Ryan, actress, 61; Jodie Foster, actress, 60, above; Douglas Henshall, actor, 57; Lady Davina Windsor, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, 45; Adele Silva, actress, 42.