ON THIS DAY
1663:
1765:
The first Theatre Royal, in London’s Drury Lane, opened.
HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship, was launched at Chatham having cost £363,176 and three shillings. It is now preserved at Portsmouth.
1812:
Robert Browning, Victorian poet, was born in London.
1833:
Johannes Brahms, German composer, was born in Hamburg, Germany.
1840:
Peter Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer, was born in Kamskovotkinsk.
1915:
The Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.
1919:
Maria eva Peron, “Evita”, legendary Argentinian, was born in Los Toldos, near Buenos Aires, Argentina, the illegitimate daughter of a cook.