On this day

1504: Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, was born. He had an extremely long nose and was extremely inquisitive, hence the expression “Nosey Parker”.

1637: The first Poet Laureate, Ben Jonson, died in poverty.

1844: The first press telegram in Britain was sent to The Times, announcing the birth of Prince Alfred to Queen Victoria.

1859: “Worth a guinea a box” appeared on Beecham’s Powders packets – the first known advertising slogan.

1881: Alexander Fleming, pictured above left with his wife en route to Paris from London Airport, Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, was born.

1889: The Savoy Hotel in London opened.

1890: Murderer Walter Kemmler was the first man to die in the electric chair, at Auburn Prison, New York.

1931: Bix Beiderbecke, legendary jazz trumpeter, died aged 28 from a combination of pneumonia and alcoholism.

1932: The first film festival was held in the Hotel Excelsior, Venice.

1945: The first atomic bomb was dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan, pictured above, from the B29 bomber Enola Gay.

1962: Jamaica gained independence after being a British colony for more than 300 years.

2011: A march in protest of the death of Mark Duggan in Tottenham sparked a wave of rioting throughout the country over the following few days.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A small plane carrying the management team for American singer Pink crash-landed and burst into flames in Denmark.