1814: The last London Frost Fair was held. Crowds flocked on to the frozen Thames to enjoy a variety of entertainments.

1875: Dr Albert Schweitzer, missionary surgeon, organist and Nobel Prize winner (1952), was born in French Equatorial Africa.

1878: Queen Victoria was given a demonstration of Alexander Graham Bell's new invention, the telephone.

1898: Lewis Carroll, author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, died.

1900: Puccini's opera Tosca was premiered in Rome, despite a bomb scare by the composer's envious contemporaries.

1904: Photographer and stage designer Sir Cecil Beaton was born in London.

1938: Walt Disney's first full-length Technicolor cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opened in the US.

1953: Marshal Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia.

1957: Actor Humphrey Bogart died. His wife Lauren Bacall placed a gold whistle in his coffin with the inscription: "If you need anything, just whistle" - a line from their first film together, To Have And Have Not.

1989: British Muslims held public burnings of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses.

1997: The trial begins of footballers John Fashanu, Bruce Grobelaar and Hans Segers for allegedly being bribed by a Far Eastern gambling ring to throw matches.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The Queen was convalescing at her Norfolk estate after an operation to remove torn cartilage from her right knee.