On this day

1650: Nell Gwyn, orange seller who became a comedy actress and then mistress of Charles II, was born in London.

1709: The real Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, on whom Daniel Defoe based his famous novel, was rescued after spending five years on the uninhabited islands of Juan Fernandez. 1852: Britain’s first ‘Gents’ opened in Fleet Street, followed on February 11 by the first ‘Ladies’, just off the Strand. They were dubbed ‘Public Waiting Rooms’. 1878: Greece declared war on Turkey. 1880: The first imported frozen meat from Australia arrived in Britain.

1882: Author James Joyce was born in Dublin. His masterpiece Ulysses was published on this same day in 1922. 1914: Cub Scouts were formed in England, the first pack was in Sussex. 1943: The last pockets of German resistance to the Russians finally crumbled in Stalingrad.

1972: A mob in Dublin burned down the British Embassy in protest at the “Bloody Sunday” killings in Londonderry the previous weekend.

1979: Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, on bail charged with killing girlfriend Nancy Spungen, died of a heroin overdose in New York.

1986: New Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev blamed predecessor Leonid Brezhnev for years of stagnation and vowed to implement radical reforms.

1990: South African president FW de Klerk lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and 30 other anti-apartheid organisations.

2014: Oscar-winning US actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died from “acute mixed drug intoxication” at his New York apartment.