ON THIS DAY
1626: Manhattan island was bought from Native Americans by Dutch settler Peter Minuit for trinkets worth about $25.
1840: The first postage stamp – the Penny Black – was issued by the Post Office for use.
1851: American inventor Linus Yale patented the lock which bears his name.
1856: Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was born in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic).
1895: Rudolph Valentino, Italian heartthrob of the silent screen, was born in Castellaneta, Italy.
1937: The German airship Hindenburg exploded at its moorings in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 36 of the 97 people aboard.
1954: Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, in three minutes 59.4 seconds.
1960: Princess Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Lord Snowdon) in Westminster Abbey.
1966: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors murderers, were found guilty at Chester Assizes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
1976: An earthquake struck Friuli in northern Italy, causing 989 deaths and the destruction of entire villages.
1994: The Queen opened the Channel Tunnel.
1994: Nelson Mandela and the ANC were confirmed the winners in South Africa’s first post-apartheid election.
1997: The Bank of England was given independence from political control, the most significant change in the bank’s 300-year history.
2004: The series finale of the television sitcom Friends was shown on US channel NBC, attracting 52.46 million viewers.
2013: Three women missing for more than a decade are found alive in the US city of Cleveland, Ohio. Ariel Castro is taken into custody.
BIRTHDAYS: Bob Seger, rock singer, 77; Jeffery Deaver, author, 72; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, 69; Graeme Souness, former footballer and manager, 69; George Clooney, actor, 61; Leslie Hope, actress, 57; Chris Shiflett, guitarist (Foo Fighters), 51; Kerry Ellis, musical theatre actress, 43; Gabourey Sidibe, actress, 39.