On this day

1710: Thomas Augustine Arne, composer who wrote the masque Alfred, which included the song Rule Britannia, was born in London.

1836: Isabella Mary Mayson, who became Mrs Beeton of cookery-book fame, was born in London.

1890: Dancer Vaslav Nijinsky was born in Kyiv.

1904: The first main-line electric train in the UK left Liverpool for Southport.

1941: The original incident used in Compton Mackenzie’s Whisky Galore occurred in the Hebrides when a cargo ship ran aground with her holds full of whisky. Islanders hid the quarter of a million bottles from Customs officers.

1955: Death of jazz great Charlie “Bird” Parker, aged 35.

1969: Beatle Paul Mccartney married photographer Linda Eastman, pictured, while

George Harrison was arrested for illegal possession of cannabis.

1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said he would not allow a single inch of Arab land to remain under Israeli occupation. 1992: Mauritius broke its links with the British Crown, becoming a fully fledged republic but remaining a member of the Commonwealth. 2003: The World Health Organization issued a worldwide health alert regarding an illness it later called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that had struck hundreds of people in China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam .

2009: US hedge-fund investment manager Bernie Madoff pled guilty to various crimes related to his operation of a Ponzi scheme that was one of the largest in the world; he was sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Birthdays

Liza Minnelli, actress/singer, 76; James Taylor, singer-songwriter, 74; Anish Kapoor, sculptor, 68; Courtney B Vance, actor, 62; Aaron Eckhart, actor, 54; Graham Coxon, musician (Blur), 53; Pete Doherty, musician, 43.