THIS DAY

1628: Charles Perrault, French writer and collector of fairy tales, was born in Paris. His Tales Of Mother Goose included Little Red Riding Hood and Puss In Boots.

1866: The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded.

1879: The British-Zulu War began.

1948: The London Co-op opened the first supermarket in Britain at Manor Park.

1959: Henry Cooper became the British and European heavyweight boxing champion when he defeated Brian London on points.

1960: Nevil Shute, pop ular author, notably of A Town Like Alice, died in Melbourne, Australia, where he had emigrated in 1950.

1970: Nigeria’s civil war ended when the Biafran army surrendered.

1976: Dame Agatha Christie, the world’s most successful detective story writer, died, aged 85.

1982: Mark Thatcher disappeared in the Sahara while on the Paris-Dakar rally. He was later spotted by a search plane and rescued.

Dame Agatha Christie died on this day in 1976, aged 85