On this day

1135: Henry I died “of a surfeit of lampreys”.

1581: Jesuit martyr Edmund Campion was hanged at Tyburn.

1640: The Portuguese drove out the Spanish to reclaim their independence.

1761: Madame Marie Tussaud, wax-works modeller, was born in Strasbourg.

1887: The 28th Beeton’s Christmas Annual went on sale. It featured A Study In Scarlet by A Conan Doyle, which introduced the detective Sherlock Holmes.

1906: The Cinema Omnia Pathe, the world’s first purpose-built picture palace, opened in Paris.

1959: Twelve countries signed an agreement to preserve Antarctica for peaceful scientific research.

1989: Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev met in Rome to end 70 years of hostility between USSR and the Vatican.

1990: The two halves of the Channel Tunnel were joined under the sea.

2009: International agreement The Treaty of Lisbon, also known as the Reform Treaty, came into force.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

Being HIV positive or taking preventative treatment for the disease was no longer a barrier for serving in the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence announced.