On this day

1663: The first Theatre Royal, in London’s Drury Lane, opened. 1711: David Hume, Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and essayist, was born in Edinburgh.

1765: HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship, was launched at Chatham having cost #363,176 and three shillings. It is now preserved at Portsmouth.

1812: Robert Browning, Victorian poet, was born in London.

1833: Johannes Brahms, German composer, was born in Hamburg. 1840: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the great Russian composer, was born in Kamsko-votkinsk.

1896: HH Holmes, who was considered the first known serial killer in the United States, was hanged. He confessed to 130 murders, though some believe the real number exceeded 200.

1915: The Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.

1919: Maria Eva Peron, “Evita”, legendary Argentinian, was born in Los Toldos, near Buenos Aires,

Argentina, the illegitimate daughter of a cook.

1945: Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies at Rheims.

1946: The Sony Corporation, a major Japanese manufacturer of consumer electronics products, was founded by Ibuka Masaru and Morita Akio.

1973: The Washington Post won the Public Service Pulitzer Prize for the work of its reporters Bob Woodward, pictured left, and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate scandal. 2007: The tomb of Herod the Great was discovered by Israeli archaeologists south of Jerusalem.

Birthdays

Richard O’sullivan, actor, 78; Anne Dudley, musician and composer, 66; Traci Lords, pictured right, actress, 54; Eagle-eye Cherry, singer, 54; Breckin Meyer, actor, 48; Kate Lawler, former Big Brother contestant, now DJ, 42; Matt Helders, drummer (Arctic Monkeys), 36.