1650: Death of Rene Descartes, father of French philosophy.

1865: The Bill to abolish slavery in the US was signed.

1873: Dame Clara Butt was born. She was the contralto who first performed the song version of Land Of Hope And Glory.

1884: The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, was published.

1896: Mimi's tiny hand was frozen for the first time as Puccini's opera, La Boheme, opened in Turin.

1901: Actor Clark Gable, pictured, was born in Ohio. One studio turned him down for having "big ears and the looks of an ape".

1930: The Times published its first crossword.

1949: Clothes rationing ended in Britain.

1979: Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 14 years' exile in France.

1990: Bulgaria's Communist Government resigned.

PHEASANT AND PARTRIDGE SHOOTING SEASONS END

On this day last year: Passengers were stranded on a ferry which ran aground in gale force winds as stormy weather continued to batter much of Britain.

BIRTHDAYS: Peter Sallis, actor, 82; Boris Yeltsin, former president of the Russian federation, 73; Don Everly, singer, 66; Terry Jones, comic actor and writer (Monty Python), 61; Adam Ingram, Defence Minister, 56; Andrew Smith, Work and Pensions Secretary, 52; Virginia Leng, three-day eventer, 48; Sherilyn Fenn, actress, 38; Princess Stephanie of Monaco, 39; Rob Lee, footballer, 37; Lisa Marie Presley, model, 35; Joshua Redman, jazz saxophonist, 35.