On this day

1667: Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin.

1835: Mark Twain, author of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, was born in Missouri.

1874: Winston Churchill, a descendant of the great Duke of Marlborough, was born at Blenheim Palace.

1900: Oscar Wilde, Irish-born playwright, died in Paris aged 46.

1955: The first floodlit football match at Wembley was played, between England and Spain.

1957: The Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli died. 1968: The Trades Description Act came into force.

2009: The European Organisation for Nuclear Research announced that the Large Hadron Collider had set a new world record for energy, making it the world’s highest energy particle accelerator.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Queen sent the new republic of Barbados her “warmest good wishes for your happiness, peace and prosperity” as it celebrated its “momentous day”.

Irish playwright Oscar Wilde died this day in Paris aged 46.