ON THIS DAY

■■ 1626: Manhattan island was bought from local Indians by Dutch settler Peter Minuit for trinkets worth about $25.

■■ 1840: The first postage stamp – the Penny Black – was issued by the Post Office for use.

■■ 1851: American inventor Linus Yale patented the lock which bears his name.

■■ 1856: Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic).

■■ 1895: Rudolph Valentino, Italian heartthrob of the silent screen, was born in Castellaneta, Italy.

■■ 1937: The German airship Hindenburg exploded at its moorings in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 of the 97 people aboard.

■■ 1954: Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, in three minutes 59.4 seconds.

■■ 1960: Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) in Westminster Abbey.

■■ 1966: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors murderers, were found guilty at Chester Assizes and sentenced to life imprisonment.

■■ 1976: An earthquake struck Friuli in Italy, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.

■■ 1994: The Queen opened the Channel Tunnel.

■■ 1994: Nelson Mandela and the ANC were confirmed the winners in South Africa’s first post-apartheid election.

■■ 1997: The Bank of England was given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.

■■ 2004: The series finale of the television sitcom Friends was shown on US channel NBC. ■■ BIRTHDAYS: Bob Seger, rock singer, 79; Jeffery Deaver, author, 74; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, 71; Graeme Souness, former footballer and manager, 71; George Clooney, actor, 63, above; Leslie Hope, actress, 59; Chris Shiflett, guitarist (Foo Fighters), 53; Kerry Ellis, musical theatre actress, 45; Gabourey Sidibe, actress, 41.

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