On this day

1284: Peterhouse College, Cambridge, was founded.

1732: Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn was born. He went on to compose 104 symphonies and numerous chamber and vocal works.

1837: English landscape painter John Constable, who painted The Hay Wain, died.

1855: Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the Bronte sisters and author of Jane Eyre, died.

1889: The 985ft-high Eiffel Tower, costing £260,000, was officially opened by French premier Pierre Tirard.

1939: Britain and France pledged to support Poland against any aggression from Hitler’s Germany.

1959: The Dalai Lama was granted political asylum in India, having arrived in the country fleeing Chinese repression of an uprising in Tibet.

1973: Red Rum won the Grand National in record time – nine minutes 1.9 seconds.

1980: Track and field athlete Jesse Owens, winner of four Olympic golds in Berlin in 1936, died.

1990: An anti-poll tax demonstration ended in a riot in Trafalgar Square.

1991: The War saw Pact formally ceased to exist as a military force when Soviet commanders surrendered.

1993: The UN Security Council authorised military intervention in Yugoslavia, allowing planes violating a no-fly zone over Bosnia-Herzegovina to be shot down.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two Ronnies star and “true great of British comedy “Ronnie Corbett died aged 85.