On this day

753BC: Romulus founded Rome. 1509: Henry VII died at the age of 52 and his second son acceded to the throne as Henry VIII. 1816: Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the three Bronte Sisters and author of Jane Eyre, was born in Thornton, Yorkshire.

1910: Novelist Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) died in Reading, Connecticut, aged 74. Halley’s comet appeared in 1835 when he was born. He always said he would die when it appeared again – and he did. 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, scourge of the First World War British fliers, was shot down in his red Fokker tri-plane and died.

1945: Ivor Novello’s Perchance To Dream opened at the London Hippodrome with his now classic song We’ll Gather Lilacs. The show ran to 1,022 performances. 1946: British economist John Maynard Keynes died.

1960: Brasilia became the new capital of Brazil, transferred from the old capital of Rio de Janeiro.

1983: One pound coins went into circulation in Britain, replacing paper notes in England and Wales but not in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

1989: In Beijing around 100,000 students camped in Tiananmen Square to commemorate reform leader Hu Yaobang only for thousands to be killed in a massacre by the army.

Birthdays

Queen Elizabeth II, 95; Charles Grodin, actor, 86; Iggy Pop (James Osterberg), singer, 74; Tony Danza, actor, 70; Andie Macdowell, actress, 63; Robert Smith, rock musician (The Cure), 62; Toby Stephens, actor, 52; James Mcavoy, pictured, actor, 42.

Quote of the day

“There is no place in modern music for anyone with strong emotions ... In a world obsessed with hate laws, there are none that protect me” – former Smiths singer Morrissey is upset by a parody of him in The Simpsons.