On This Day

Feast day of St Laurence O’Toole, St Adeotus Aribert, St Nicholas Tavelic, St Dubricius or Dyfrig, St Stephen of Como, and St Peter of Narbonne.

1770: Scottish explorer James Bruce discovered the source of the Blue Nile in NE Ethiopia, then considered the main stream of the Nile. 1840: Impressionist painter Claude Monet was born in Paris.

1896: The speed limit for horseless carriages was raised from 4mph (2mph in towns) to 14mph. It was marked by the first London to Brighton car run, which became a regular and official event from 1927.

1922: The British Broadcasting Company began daily transmissions. At 6pm the news was read by Arthur Burrows, once at normal speed and once at slow speed.

1925: An exhibition of Surrealist art opened in Paris, including works by Max Ernst, Man Ray, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso.

1932: Book tokens went on sale in Britain for the first time.

1940: Coventry Cathedral was destroyed by enemy bombing. More than 1,000 civilians died in the raid.

1941: The aircraft carrier Ark Royal sank near Gibraltar after being hit by an enemy torpedo.

1952: Britain’s first hit parade was published in the New Musical Express. Al Martino’s Here In My Heart was the first number one.

1963: A volcanic eruption under the sea off Iceland created the new island of Surtsey.

1973: Bobby Moore made his 108th (and final) international appearance for England, against Italy at Wembley.

1991: Prince Sihanouk, Cambodia’s former head of state, returned to Phnom Penh after nearly 13 years in exile to head the country’s interim government.

On This Day Last Year

British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler left Somalia after more than a year in captivity.

Birthdays

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former UN secretary-general, 89; PJ O’Rourke, writer, 64; The Prince of Wales, 63; Bernard Hinault, cyclist – five-time winner of the Tour de France, 57; Letitia Dean, actress, 44; Adam Gilchrist, cricketer, 40.