On this day

1642: Montreal in Canada was founded.

1804: Napoleon Bonaparte was proclaimed Emperor of France. 1830: Edwin Budding of Gloucestershire signed an agreement for the manufacture of his invention, the lawn mower.

The first customer was Regent’s Park Zoo.

1872: Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, nuclear disarmer and Nobel Prize for literature winner, was born in Trelleck, Monmouthshire.

1882: The present Eddystone Lighthouse, off Cornwall, the fourth in existence, was opened.

1909: Fred Perry, three times Wimbledon men’s singles champion, was born in Stockport, near Manchester.

1954: The European Convention on Human Rights came into force.

1961: The first London production of The Sound Of Music opened, starring Jean Bayless as Maria.

1980: Mount St Helens volcano in the American state of Washington erupted, killing 100 people. A cloud of ash 2,500 miles long and 1,000 miles wide was created.

1990: A treaty was signed in Bonn introducing economic and monetary union between East and West Germany.

1991: Helen Sharman, 27, from Sheffield, Yorkshire, a former chemist for the Mars chocolate company, became Britain’s first astronaut as the Soviet Soyuz TM-12 space capsule blasted into orbit.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Prince of Wales paid tribute to the “inspiring” efforts of youth workers to bring about reconciliation in Northern Ireland.