DATELINE

December 19 1848: Emily Bronte, English novelist who wrote Wuthering Heights, died aged 30 from tuberculosis.

1851: Painter Joseph Turner died in his Chelsea house under the assumed name of Admiral Booth, where his demand for privacy was strictly enforced by his housekeeper.

1905: London County Council set up the first motorised ambulance service for traffic accident victims.

1906: Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet president

1977-1982, was born in the Ukraine.

1981: The Penlee lifeboat, Solomon Browne, was lost with her crew of eight, attempting to rescue the crew of the coaster Union Star, wrecked in violent seas off the Cornish coast.

1984: Britain and China signed an agreement for the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997.

1984: Ted Hughes was named Poet Laureate in succession to Sir John Betjeman.