1682: The Chelsea Hospital for old soldiers (Chelsea Pensioners), also venue for the world-famous flower show, was founded.

1702: The first successful English daily newspaper, a single broadsheet called the Daily Courant, was published.

1819: Sir Henry Tate, sugar refiner who left his art collection to the nation which formed the basis for the Tate Gallery, was born in Chorley, Lancs.

1845: In New Zealand, a Maori uprising against the British began.

1864: The Bradfield Reservoir, near Sheffield, burst its banks, killing 250 people.

1925: No No Nanette was premiered at the Palace Theatre, London, with Binnie Hale playing Nanette.

1941: The US Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill enabling Britain to borrow millions of dollars to buy food and arms needed for the Second World War. The loan was only to be paid back after the war.

1945: The huge Krupps factory in Germany was destroyed when 1,000 Allied bombers took part in the biggest ever daylight raid.

1952: The Budget raised tax allowances and profits tax, cut food subsidies and raised the bank rate to 4%.

1960: Riot police stood by in the Belgian Congo as Patrice Lumumba, the future controversial independence premier, was allowed to speak in public for the first time. He was found massacred in the bush less than a year later.

1974: Kenneth and Keith Littlejohn, allegedly MI6 spies inside the IRA, escaped from prison.

1985: The Al-Fayed brothers won control of the House of Fraser Group to become owners of Harrods.

1988: The Bank of England pound note ceased to be legal tender at midnight, and was replaced by the pound coin.

1993: North Korea pulled out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.