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 Meyenberg, of St Louis, USA.

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, 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: The first match of England's cricket tour of Zimbabwe was cancelled despite a ban on UK journalists being lifted.