1708: William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham, was born in London.

1738: Astronomer Sir William Herschel, who discovered Uranus, was born in Hanover. He died in Slough in 1822.

1837: Isaac Pitman's stenographic sound-hand, the first shorthand system, was published, price 4d.

1899: Winston Churchill, pictured, was captured by the Boers while covering the war as a reporter for the Morning Post. He escaped a few weeks later.

1901: An electrical hearing aid was patented by Miller Reese of New York.

1923: Rampant inflation in Germany reached a peak when the mark (4.2 to the dollar in 1914) rose to 4,200,000,000 to the dollar.

1968: The Cunard flagship Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton for the last time. She was replaced by the Queen Elizabeth II.

1956: Elvis Presley's first film, Love Me Tender, was premiered in New York.

1969: ITV channel ATV screened the first colour television commercial in Britain - for Birds-Eye peas.

1983: The Greenham Common women's group mounted their first protest as cruise missiles arrived at the US airbase in Berkshire.

On this day last year: Six people were arrested in connection with terrorist attacks on the UK mainland, police said.

BIRTHDAYS: Ed Asner, actor, 73; JG Ballard, novelist, 72; Petula Clark, singer, 70; Sam Waterston, actor, 62; Frida Lyngstad, singer (Abba), 57; Beverly D'Angelo, actress, 49; Johnny Lee Miller, actor, 30; Peter Phillips, son of the Princess Royal and Capt Mark Phillips, 25.