ON THIS DAY
65 BC: Roman poet Horace was born in Venusian Apulia.
1542: Mary, Queen of Scots, was born at Linlithgow Palace.
1733: A Dorset man reported seeing a polished silver disc in the sky – the first known sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO.
1854: Pope Pius IX settled an ancient controversy by declaring that Christ’s mother, the Virgin Mary, was preserved from all sin from the moment she was conceived.
1859: Thomas de Quincey, essayist and opium addict, died in Scotland.
1864: The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon at Bristol, designed by Brunel, was opened.
1894: James Thurber, American humourist and creator of Walter Mitty, was born in Columbus, Ohio.
1941: Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.
1980: John Lennon was shot dead in New York by Mark David
Chapman.
1991: Leaders of the three republics – Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine – formed a “commonwealth of independent states” and pronounced the Soviet Union dead.
BIRTHDAYS: James Galway, flautist, 79; Sir Geoff Hurst, former footballer, 77; Kim Basinger, actress, 65; Teri Hatcher, actress, 54; David Harewood, actor, 53; Sinead O’Connor, singer, 52; Nicki Minaj, singer, 36.