AD 304 Saint Agnes was martyred - burnt at the stake at the age of 13 when she refused to marry the husband chosen by her father.

1793 Louis XVI, King of France since 1774, was guillotined after being found guilty of treason.

1846 The Daily News, the newspaper edited by Charles Dickens, was first published.

1907 Taxi cabs were officially recognised in Britain.

1911 The first Monte Carlo Rally began.

1924 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Father of the Russian Revolution, died of a brain haemorrhage at Gorki, utside Moscow.

1950 George Orwell (pen name of British author Eric Arthur Blair) died. His best known works include Animal Farm and 1984.

1951 Atomic bombs were tested in Nevada for the first time.

1954 The USA launched the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine.

1976 British and French Concordes made their maiden flights - from London to Bahrain and Paris to Rio de Janeiro.

1991 Iraq threatened to use shot-down allied airmen as human shields against bomb attacks.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Prime Minister Tony Blair predicted the public would eventually back a war against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq if other means of disarming him failed.