AD 304: Saint Agnes was martyred -- burnt at the stake at aged 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.

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

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: Downing Street said that three Britons being held as al Qaida suspects at Camp X-Ray in Cuba had no complaints about their treatment.

BIRTHDAYS:

NORMAN Willis, trade unionist, 70; Ken Maginnis, policitian, 65; George Foulkes, Scotland Minister, 61; Placido Domingo, tenor, 62; Edwin Starr, singer, 61; Martin Shaw, actor, 58; Jill Eikenberry, actress, 56; Billy Ocean, singer, 53; Geena Davis, actress, 46; Emma Bunton, Spice Girl, 27