1732: The original Covent Garden Opera House opened with Way Of The World, by William Congreve.

1783: William Pitt the Younger became the youngest of Britain's Prime Ministers - he was 24.

1815: Marshal Ney, Napoleon's most famous general, was executed for supporting Napoleon at Waterloo when he was ordered by the Allies to arrest him.

1817: Captain Bligh, captain of mutiny ship The Bounty, died in London.

1941: The Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

1982: Charles Brooks Jnr, a prisoner at Forth Worth, was executed by a lethal injection, the first to die by this method in the US.

1988: Peter Langan, restaurateur, co-owner with Michael Caine, of the famous London brasserie Langan's, died in a fire at his home.

1989: A gunman claiming to hate feminists masacred 14 women at the University of Montreal.

1991: Serb forces bombarded Dubrovnic's historic Old Town, leaving many dead and thousands homeless.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Taliban fighers began handling over their weapons after supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar agreed to surrender Kandahar, his regime's spiritual home and last stronghold in Afghanistan.