Also on this day

1863: First part of London’s Tube opens between Paddington and Farringdon.

1920: The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, marking official end of the First World War.

1927: Film Metropolis, right, by Fritz Lang, is released in Germany.

cent of all oil produced in the States. It owned 20,000 oil wells, 4,000 miles of pipeline and employed 100,000 people.

Rockefeller remained chairman until he retired in 1897. But the status and behaviour of his company had caught the attention of the authorities. In 1911 the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly.

It was broken up into more than 30 smaller companies. In theory, these companies were no longer owned by a single person and were meant to provide competition. But they still operated in conjunction with each other and as banker JP Morgan observed, “How in hell is any court going to compel a man to compete with himself?”

The breakup didn’t do Rockefeller’s fabulous wealth much harm. At its height, in 1912, he is estimated to have been worth the modern equivalent of $400billion. (Elon Musk, today’s world’s richest man, is estimated to be worth around $185billion). Rockefeller gave much of his fortune away in his later years and is remembered as a great philanthropist.

Question: in 49BC?

Who crossed the Rubicon on this day

Last week I asked: On January 3, 1962, Pope John XXIII excommunicated whom? The answer is FIDEL CASTRO