ON THIS DAY

1227: Genghis Khan, Mongol emperor who conquered more than a million square miles of land, died after falling from his horse. 1587: Virginia Dare became the first child born of English parents in the New World - on Roanoke Island, North Carolina - seven days after Sir Walter Raleigh’s second expedition landed. 1948: Lester Piggott, aged just 12, rode his first winner on only his seventh ride. 1960: The birth control pill was launched in America. 1964: South Africa was banned from the Olympics because of its racist policies. 1966: The Tay road bridge opened. 1971: 28-year-old disabled Eamon McDevitt was shot dead by the Army in Strabane, Northern Ireland. 2009: Former South Korean president and 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kim Dae-jung died of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome. BIRTHDAYS: Brian Aldiss, science fiction writer, 89; Roman Polanski, film director, 81; Robert Redford, actor, 78; Madeleine Stowe, actress, 56; Denis Leary, actor, 57, Edward Norton, actor, 45; Christian Slater, actor, 45; Mika, singer/songwriter, 31, pictured. QUOTES OF THE DAY: “The trouble with old people is that they are bloody everywhere. You cannot get on a train, or go to a country pub... They are full of old people. Through no fault of their own they believe the state owes them a living” – Jeremy Paxman, aged 64. “I would like to be buried in a nightie. It seems the right thing to go to bed in” – Jade Jagger, daughter of Sir Mick Jagger. “The Windmill was called the Grand National as between sets, the old men in the audience jumped over the seats to be closer to the naked girls” – Barry Cryer of the theatre that famously never closed during the London blitz. “The motivation is out of rage. Lots of people enter politics because they are angry about the way things are” – Actor Tom Conti, who says he would like to succeed Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. “I can’t even keep a pot plant alive for long in here” - Wikileaks fugitive Julian Assange on the health problems he faces after having been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy for two years. “We are in the middle of a generational struggle against a poisonous and extremist ideology which I believe we will be fighting for the rest of my political lifetime” – Prime Minister David Cameron on the terrorist movements operating in Iraq and elsewhere.