On this day

1666: The Great Fire of London began in Pudding Lane in the house of Thomas Farynor, baker to King Charles II. It ended on September 6 at Pye Corner. Around 13,200 buildings were destroyed as well as St Paul’s Cathedral and 87 other churches. 1726: English prison reformer and philanthropist John Howard was born in Hackney, east London.

1834: Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer, road, bridge and canal builder, died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 1906: Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole, completed his sailing round Canada’s Northwest Passage. 1916: The last of the famous Blaydon races – immortalised in the folk song – in Northumberland were held. 1939: On the eve of the official declaration of the Second World War, Ted Drake scored four goals for Arsenal against Sunderland. 1945: The formal Japanese surrender to the Allies was signed on board the American battleship USS Missouri. 1945: Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent from France.

1973: JRR Tolkien, creator of Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit, died aged 81.

1974: Edward Heath’s Morning Cloud III was sunk in a Force 9 gale in the English Channel. Heath was not on board. Two of the seven crew drowned

1980: John Arlott, BBC cricket c ommentator, called his last game, England vs. Australia at Lord’s, before retiring after 35 years of broadcasting. 1998: Swissair flight 111 crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 229 on board. It was later determined that faulty wires had caused the plane’s flammable insulation to catch fire.

Birthdays

Mark Harmon, actor, 70; Jimmy Connors, former tennis player, 69; Keanu Reeves, actor, 57; Lennox Lewis, former boxer, 56; Salma Hayek, pictured, actress, 55; Joey Barton, footballer, 39.