National day of Burma

1493 Christopher Columbus sailed from America to Spain in the Nina.

1809 Louis Braille, inventor of the alphabetic system for the blind which bears his name, was born in Paris.

1813 Isaac Pitman, English publisher and inventor of shorthand, was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

1884 The Fabian Society was founded to promote socialist ideals.

1885 The first successful appendix operation was performed by Dr William West Grant, in Iowa.

1929 Australian cricketer Don Bradman made his first Test century, playing against England in Melbourne.

1936 Billboard magazine in New York published the first popular music chart.

1967 Donald Campbell died attempting to break the world water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District.

1972 Rose Heilbron became Britain's first woman judge at the Old Bailey.

1986 Christopher Isherwood, novelist and playwright, died. His novel Goodbye To Berlin was adapted as the musical Cabaret.

1993 P&O European Ferries announced the closure of its passenger service between Dover and Boulogne after 170 years.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Prime Minister Tony Blair returned from a 10-day holiday in Egypt with his family, amid growing expectation that British troops would be readied for conflict in the Gulf.