On this day

z 1709: The real Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, on whom Daniel Defoe based his famous novel, was rescued after spending five years on the uninhabited islands of Juan Fernandez.

z 1852: Britain’s first gents opened in Fleet Street.

z 1943: The last pockets of German resistance to the Russians finally crumbled in Stalingrad.

z 1979: Sex Pistol Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York.

z 1990: South African president FW de Klerk lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and 30 other antiapartheid organisations.

z 2014: Oscar-winning US actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died from “acute mixed drug intoxication’’ in New York.