ON THIS DAY
1567: The first state lottery was held in Britain - 40,000 lots at 10 shillings each were available from St Paul’s Cathedral.
1753: Sir Hans Sloane, British physician and naturalist, whose collection formed the nucleus of the British Museum, died.
1857: Fred Archer, champion jockey who had 2,748 wins including five Derbys, was born.
1858: H Gordon Selfridge, founder of the London Department Store, was born in Ripon, Wisconsin.
1917: A patriotic appeal was launched for the nation to subscribe to the new War Loan, to finance the staggering cost of the conflict (£5.7m a day).
1922: Insulin was first used successfully in the treatment of diabetes.
1928: Thomas Hardy, poet and novelist, died in his native Dorset aged 87.
1973: The Open University awarded its first degrees.
1974: The first surviving sextuplets were born in South Africa.
1989: The second Battle of Naseby was lost when judges refused to halt the M1-A1 link across a field where Cromwell was defeated by Royalists in 1645.
1993: Richard Branson won a legal victory after British Airways apologised for a dirty tricks campaign” against Virgin Atlantic Airways.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Police in Paris recovered some jewels stolen from the Ritz Hotel in a multimillion-euro robbery, but were still searching for two thieves and the rest of the missing luxury merchandise.
BIRTHDAYS: Arthur Scargill, former mineworkers’ union leader, 81; Anna Calder-Marshall, actress, 72; Ben Crenshaw, golfer, 67; John Sessions, comic/actor, 66; Phyllis Logan, actress, 63; Bryan Robson, football manager, 62; Jason Connery, actor, 56; Mary J Blige, rap singer, 48; Emile Heskey, footballer, 41.