On this day
■ 1626: Manhattan island was bought from local Indians by Dutch settler Peter Minuit for trinkets worth about 25 dollars.
■ 1840: The first postage stamp
– the Penny Black – was issued by the Post Office for use.
■ 1856: Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic).
■ 1937: The German airship Hindenburg exploded at its moorings in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 of the 97 people aboard.
■ 1954: Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, in three minutes 59.4 seconds.
■ 1960: Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) in Westminster Abbey.
■ 1966: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors murderers, were found guilty at Chester Assizes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
■ 1976: An earthquake struck Friuli in Northern Italy, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.
■ 1994: The Queen opened the Channel Tunnel.
■ 1994: Nelson Mandela and the ANC were confirmed the winners in South Africa’s first post-apartheid election.
■ 1997: The Bank of England was given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.
■ 2004: The series finale of the television sitcom Friends was shown on US channel NBC, attracting 52.46 million viewers.
■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Alcohol-related deaths had reached their highest level for 20 years, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), after jumping by a fifth over the previous year.
■ BIRTHDAYS: Bob Seger, rock singer, 77; Jeffery Deaver, author, 72; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, 69; Graeme Souness, former footballer and manager, 69; George Clooney, actor, 61; Leslie Hope, actress, 57; Chris Shiflett, guitarist (Foo Fighters), 51; Kerry Ellis, musical theatre actress, 43; Gabourey Sidibe, actress, 39.