2348 BC: Claimed by some biblical scholars to be the day when the Flood began.

1748:" Death of Isaac Watts, who wrote the hymns When I Survey The Wondrous Cross and O God Our Help In Ages Past.

1823: The first pleasure pier, The Chain Pier at Brighton, opened. It closed in 1896 and was destroyed in a storm the same year.

1882: To beat copyright pirates, Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan was premiered in London and America, the first show to open simultaneously in both countries.

1884: Evaporated milk was patented by John Mayenberg, of St Louis, USA.

1914: The battleship HMS Bulwark was blown to pieces off Sheerness, with the loss of 800 lives.

1952: Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap opened in London, at the Ambassadors Theatre. Richard Attenborough played the detective, and notices said the play had a fair degree of success'.

1969: John Lennon returned his MBE in protest against British involvement in Biafra and support of US action in Vietnam.

1984: Britain's top rock stars, responding to a call by Bob Geldof, pictured, gathered together under the name Band Aid to record Do They Know It's Christmas, in aid of the Ethiopian famine appeal.

On this day last year: Thousands of Afghan and foreign defenders of Kunduz - including the top Taliban commander - surrendered peacefully as elated northern alliance troops entered their last northern citadel.