ON THIS DAY
1879: Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham was born in St Helens.
1895: Conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent was born in Ashford, Kent.
1899: Duke Ellington, jazz composer, bandleader and pianist, was born in Washington, DC.
1909: In a revolutionary Budget, Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced a “supertax” of sixpence in the pound for anyone earning more than £5,000 a year, to pay for pensions and re-armament.
1930: The Academy Awardwinning war classic All Quiet On The Western Front opened in America. Twelve years later, its star Lew Ayres refused to fight in the Second World War, declaring himself a conscientious objector.
1933: Footballers’ shirts were first numbered - from 1 to 22 - in the FA Cup final at Wembley.
1980: Film director Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense, died aged 80.
1990: Stephen Hendry, at 21, became the youngest world snooker champion by beating Jimmy White 18-12 in the final at Sheffield.
1991: A 145mph cyclone devastated the port of Chittagong in Bangladesh, killing more than
100,000 people and making millions homeless.
2011: Prince William and Kate Middleton began their life together as a married couple after a glittering wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey. They sealed their love with not one but two kisses on Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Official documents about a £1.3bn Royal
Navy “hunter killer” submarine were reportedly found in the toilets of a Wetherspoons pub in Cumbria.
BIRTHDAYS: Cheryl Kennedy, actress, 77; Anita Dobson, actress, 75; Jerry Seinfeld, comedian, 70; Daniel Day-Lewis, actor, 67; Michelle Pfeiffer, actress, 66; Phil Tufnell, former cricketer, 58; Andre Agassi, former tennis player, 54; Uma Thurman, actress, 54.