1886: Cruft's Dog Show came to London, organised by Charles Cruft, general manager of a dog biscuit firm.

1895: Charles Frederick Worth, English founder of Parisian haute couture, died, aged 70.

1906: The Bakerloo Line on the London Underground was opened.

1910: The first film made in Hollywood was released: D W Griffith's In Old California.

1914: The Rokeby Venus by Velasquez, in London's National Gallery, was slashed by a suffragette.

1961: Bradshaws Monthly Railway Guide was published for the last time. It had been in existence since 1839.

1969: James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to murdering American civil rights leader Martin Luther King and was sentenced to 99 years in jail.

1981: Death of Sir Maurice Oldfield, British intelligence chief considered to be the model for Ian Fleming's 'M' in the Bond novels.

1988: The Prince of Wales narrowly escaped death in an avalanche at Klosters in the Swiss Alps. His friend Hugh Lindsay was killed.

1990: Observer journalist Farzad Bazoft was sentenced to death by an Iraqi military court for espionage. Daphne Parish, a British nurse accused of helping him, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

1994: Frederick West was charged with the murder of eight women after their bodies were dug up in the garden of his Gloucester home.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared for high-level talks with US Vice President Dick Cheney about the Middle East as the Israel-Palestinian conflict descended to bloody new depths.

BIRTHDAYS: Chuck Norris, actor, 62; Sir Paul Condon, former Metropolitan Police commissioner, 56; Garth Crooks, broadcaster and former footballer, 45; Sharon Stone, actress, 45; Neneh Cherry, singer, 39; The Earl of Wessex, 39; Edie Brickell, singer, 37; Chris Sutton, footballer, 29.