ON 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, Sleeping Beauty 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, popular 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 ParisDakar rally. He was later spotted by a search plane and rescued. 1987: Prince Edward resigned from the Royal Marines. 1990: The break-up of the USSR began as the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania prepared for secession. 2010: A severe 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. The confirmed death toll rose above 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince area alone. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A thief was been caught on camera smuggling a 2ft python from an Oregon pet shop - by stuffing it down his trousers. BIRTHDAYS: Des O’Connor, singer/ presenter, 86; Michael Aspel, TV presenter, 85; Maggie Bell, singer/ songwriter, 73; Anthony Andrews, actor, 70; Brendan Foster, athletics commentator, 70; Howard Stern, radio DJ, 64; Melanie Chisholm, singer (Spice Girls), 44; Gemma Arterton, actress, 32.