ON THIS DAY
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1607: Captain John Smith landed on the Virginia coast and started the first permanent English settlement in the New World - Jamestown.
1830: The republic of Ecuador was created.
1835: Death of architect John Nash, who planned Regent’s Park, Trafalgar Square and Llanerchaeron, near Aberaeron.
1842: Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, composer, was born, son of a bandmaster at Sandhurst Military College.
1846: The United States declared war on Mexico.
1914: Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion, known as the “Brown Bomber”, was born in Lexington, Alabama.
1943: German and Italian forces in Africa surrendered.
1961: Death of double Oscar winner Gary Cooper.
1981: Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square in Rome.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The first giant tunnelling machine was launched, as part of the controversial HS2 project. BIRTHDAYS: Harvey Keitel, actor, 83; Zoe Wanamaker, actress, 73; Stevie Wonder, singer, 72; Rosie Boycott, former editor of The Independent and The Daily Express, 71; Selina Scott, former TV presenter/newsreader, 71; Richard Madeley, TV presenter/columnist, 66; Frances Barber, actress, 64; Samantha Morton, actress, 45.