ON THIS DAY

• 1608: French explorer Samuel Champlain founded the city of Quebec.

• 1728: Robert Adam, architect of the

classical style, was born in Kirkcaldy.

• 1806: Michael Keen, of Isleworth, exhibited the first edible cultivated strawberry, which he called Keen’s Seedling.

• 1863: The Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War ended.

• 1920: The first RAF air display took place at Hendon.

• 1928: A policeman’s helmet and a bunch of red roses were among the pictures shown on John Logie Baird’s first television transmission in colour at Baird Studios, London.

• 1954: Food rationing ended in Britain. Smithfield market opened at midnight instead of 6am to cope with the demand for beef.

• 1959: The first radio broadcast of Sing Something Simple with Cliff Adams and the Adams Singers took place, providing nonstop songs for half an hour.

• 1969: Brian Jones, who had just left the Rolling Stones, was found drowned in his swimming pool. On the same day in 1971, Doors singer Jim Morrison reportedly died of a heart attack in Paris.

• LAST YEAR: Outsourcing giant Serco said it had been fined £19.2 million, plus £3.7m in costs, as part of a settlement with the Serious Fraud Office over fraud and false accounting relating to electronic tagging contracts with the Ministry of Justice.

• BIRTHDAYS: Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright, 83; Susan Penhaligon, actress, 71; Sian Lloyd, weather presenter, 62; Julie Burchill, writer, 61; Vince Clarke, pop musician, 60; Tom Cruise, actor, 58.