Quote of the day

1668: John Dryden was appointed the first Poet Laureate. 1732: Birth of Frederick, Lord North, who as Prime Minister levied the tax on tea that incensed the American colonists and provoked the Boston Tea Party. 1742: The first public performance of Handel’s Messiah was given in Dublin. 1852: Frank Winfield Woolworth, merchant and founder of the chain store, was born in New York.

1882: The Anti-semitic League was founded in Prussia.

1912: The Royal Flying Corps was instituted by Royal Charter. 1936: Joe Payne scored 10 goals for Luton Town against Bristol Rovers on his debut as centre forward – a record for one man in one game in senior football in the UK.

1964: Sidney Poitier became the first black man to win an Oscar for Best Actor, in The Lilies Of The Field.

1980: Four days after his 23rd birthday, Severiano Ballesteros, pictured, won the US Masters, then the event’s youngest winner. 1990: The Soviet Union admitted the massacre of up to 15,000

Polish officers at Katyn in the Soviet Union in 1940.

1992: Neil Kinnock resigned as Labour leader following the party’s defeat by the Conservatives in the General Election three days previously. Deputy Roy Hattersley also said he would step down. 1997: Tiger Woods, 21, became the youngest player to win the US Masters, beating the rest of the field by 12 shots.

Birthdays

Edward Fox, actor, 83; Marjorie Yates, actress, 79; Al Green, soul singer, 74; Peabo Bryson, singer, 69; Peter Davison, actor, 69; Stephen Byers, former Labour MP, 67; Garry Kasparov, former chess champion, 57; Rick Schroder, actor, 50; Lou Bega, singer, 45.

“I think Britain is at its best, weirdly, when we’re in a crisis. We all pull together and that community spirit and that community feel comes rushing back quicker than anything else.” – Prince William, Duke of Cambridge