On this day

1715: King Louis XIV of France, the “Sun King”, died in Versailles after reigning for 72 years .

1875: Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, was born in Chicago. He never visited Africa, where his stories were set.

1923: An earthquake in Japan left the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama in ruins and killed more than 300,000 people.

1939: Germany invaded Poland and bombed Warsaw at 6am. For the first time in history, the King went to Downing Street instead of the Prime Minister going to the

Palace, as Neville Chamberlain needed to stay near his telephone. 1951: Britain’s first supermarket opened, the Premier in Earl’s Court, London.

1969: Colonel Gaddafi seized power in Libya, overthrowing King Idris I.

1971: The British penny and threepenny coins ceased to be legal tender.

1990: The Prince of Wales was recovering after surgeons operated for the second time on his right arm, broken when he fell from his polo pony.

Birthdays

Lily Tomlin, comedienne, 82; Barry Gibb, singer (Bee Gees), 75; Bruce Foxton, rock musician, 66; Gloria Estefan, pictured, singer, 64; Ruud Gullit, former footballer, 58.

Quotes of the day

“I’ve met very few people in my 20 years in television who have ever set foot on a council estate like the one I was brought up on, who have any understanding of life on those estates, or of people on zero-hours contracts, or who are struggling, and I think that lack of experience weakens us as a profession in telling the stories of the whole nation – in terms of race, class and other metrics, we have historically failed” – TV historian David Olusoga.

“Don’t waste your money. They’re failed actors that set themselves up as gurus” – Sir Anthony Hopkins advises aspiring thespians to avoid acting schools.