ON THIS DAY

1682: The Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers (Chelsea Pensioners), also venue for the world-famous flower show, was founded. 1702: The first successful English daily newspaper, a single broadsheet called the Daily Courant, was published. 1845: In New Zealand, a Maori uprising against the British began. 1864: The Bradfield Reservoir, near Sheffield, burst its banks, killing 270 people. 1941: The US Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill enabling Britain to borrow millions of dollars to buy food and arms needed for the Second World War. 1945: The huge Krupps factory in Essen, Germany was destroyed when 1,000 Allied bombers took part in the biggest ever daylight raid. 1960: Riot police stood by in the Belgian Congo as Patrice Lumumba, the future controversial independence premier, was allowed to speak in public for the first time. He was found murdered in the bush less than a year later. 1974: Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, allegedly MI6 spies inside the IRA, escaped from prison. 1981: Sir Maurice Oldfield, British intelligence chief considered to be the model for Ian Fleming’s ‘M’ in the Bond novels, died 1985: The Al-Fayed brothers won control of the House of Fraser Group to become owners of Harrods. 1988: The Bank of England pound note ceased to be legal tender at midnight, and was replaced by the pound coin. 1993: North Korea pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty. BIRTHDAYS Rupert Murdoch, media magnate, 84; Bobby McFerrin, singer, 65; Alex Kingston, actress, 52; Shane Richie, actor and presenter, 51; Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, interior designer and TV personality, 50; Lisa Loeb, singer, 47; Thora Birch, actress, 33; Anton Yelchin, actor, 26. QUOTES OF THE DAY “I adore being part of a team. No waiting in trailers, no being bored to death doing retakes. It’s a tightrope walk every night and we all have to be there together” – Actress Kristin Scott Thomas who prefers theatre work to filming. “When people ask what kind of actor I am, I reply, ‘A bloody good actor’” – Greg Wise does not suffer from modesty. “My mother and father who were totally anti-royalist, were crying. Something about these events turns everyone into hypocrites” – Actress Emily Mortimer, daughter of the late Sir John Mortimer recalls the occasion when her parents watched the Charles-Diana wedding on TV. “The idea that my constituents want to know what I am having in the dining room is utterly, utterly objectionable” – Tory MP Charles Walker is no fan of Twitter or Facebook.