ON THIS DAY

• 1618: Sir Walter Raleigh, English seafarer, once a favourite of Elizabeth I, was beheaded at Whitehall, after being falsely accused of treason.

• 1740: James Boswell, Scottish diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson, was born. He accompanied Johnson on a tour, retold in Journal Of A Tour To The Hebrides, before producing his Life Of Samuel Johnson in 1791.

• 1787: Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was first performed, in Prague.

• 1923 : The Treaty of Lausanne of July 24th leads to the creation of the Republic of Turkey.

• 1929: “Black Tuesday” – so-called when Wall Street crashed, leading to the Great Depression. Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors, and stock tickers ran hours behind because the machinery could not handle the tremendous volume of trading.

• 1956: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal.

• 1986: The final section of the M25 around London was opened.

• 1987: Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns won the world middleweight title, making him the first boxer to win a world title at four different weights.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Global health leaders warned that more than nine in 10 children around the world were living in areas of toxic air pollution.

• BIRTHDAYS: Jack Shepherd, actor and playwright, 79; Denny Laine, rock musician (Wings), 75; Richard Dreyfuss, actor, 72; Kate Jackson, actress, 71; Yasmin Le Bon, model, 55; Winona Ryder, actress, 48.