THIS DAY

1707: The Union of Scotland and England was proclaimed.

1840: The first Penny Black stamps with Queen Victoria’s head went on sale five days before the official issue date.

1851: Queen Victoria opened the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, which ran until October 11.

1873: Missionary and explorer David Livingstone died of malaria in central Africa.

1912: The statue of Peter Pan was installed in Kensington Gardens, London. JM Barrie, author of Peter Pan, commissioned and paid for the statue, although children were told that fairies put it there.

1925: Cyprus became a British colony, having originally been annexed in 1914 when Turkey supported Germany during the First World War.

1931: US president Herbert Hoover opened the Empire State Building in New York. At 1,250ft high and with 102 floors, it was then the world’s tallest building.

1945: Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels committed suicide in his bunker.

1960: An American U2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down over the Soviet Union.

1968: Legoland Family Park opened at Billund in Denmark.

2009: Carol Ann Duffy became the first female Poet Laureate in the post’s 341year history.

On this day last year: Robot staff were operating at a Tokyo hotel used for mildly sick Covid-19s patients, under a new plan to free up beds at hospitals overburdened with more severe cases.

> Legoland Family Park opened on this day in 1968 in Denmark