ON THIS DAY
AD54: Roman Emperor Claudius I died after eating poisoned mushrooms as a result of a plot inspired by his wife, the Empress Agrippina. 1163: The body of the Anglo Saxon King, Edward (the Confessor), was transferred to a new shrine and October 13 has been celebrated as his feast day ever since. 1853: Lillie Langtry, British actress and mistress of Edward VII when he was Prince of Wales, was born in Jersey. 1884: Greenwich was adopted as the universal time meridian of longitude, from which standard times throughout the world are calculated. 1905: Legendary English actor Sir Henry Irving died in Bradford, during his farewell tour. 1924: Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC on behalf of the Labour Party. 1944: Athens was liberated by the Allies. 1984: John Lowe achieved the first televised 501 score in nine darts in a major event in the quarter finals of the World Match Play championship in Slough. 1996: British Formula One driver Damon Hill won his only World Championship after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. 2010: One by one, the 33 miners trapped for 69 days half a mile beneath the Chilean desert climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: American singer Bob Dylan was hailed as “a great poet in the English-speaking tradition” following his surprise win of the Nobel Prize in Literature. BIRTHDAYS: Nana Mouskouri, singer, 83; Paul Simon, singer, 76; Edwina Currie, author and former Tory MP, 71; Sammy Hagar, rock guitarist, 70; Chris Carter, writer and TV producer (The X-Files), 60; Marie Osmond, singer and actress, 58; Kelly Preston, actress, 55; John Regis, former athlete, 51; Ian Thorpe, Olympic swimmer, 35.