On this day

1567: The first state lottery was held

40,000 lots at 10 shillings each were

St Paul’s Cathedral.

1753: Sir Hans Sloane, British physician and naturalist, whose collection formed the nucleus the British Museum, died.

1857: Fred Archer, champion jockey who had wins including five Derbies, was born.

1858: H Gordon Selfridge, founder of the London Department Store, pictured above, was born in Ripon, Wisconsin.

1917: A patriotic appeal was launched for the nation to subscribe to the new War Loan, to finance the staggering cost of the conflict (£5.7 million a day).

1922: Insulin was first used successfully in the treatment of diabetes. in England – available from of 2,748 1928: Thomas Hardy, pictured above, English poet and novelist, died in his native Dorset, aged 87.

1973: The Open University awarded its first degrees.

1974: The first surviving sextuplets were born in South Africa.

1989: The second Battle of Naseby was lost when judges refused to halt the M1-A1 link across a field where Cromwell was defeated by Royalists in 1645.

1993: Richard Branson won a legal victory after British Airways apologised for a “dirty-tricks campaign” against Virgin Atlantic Airways.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Police in Paris recovered some jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a multimillion-euro robbery, but were still searching for two thieves and the rest of the missing luxury merchandise.