On this day: BBC TV Centre | Stockholm Olympics

BBC Television Centre opened on this day in 1960. Picture: Getty

1613: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London was burned down.

1801: Britain’s first census showed a population of 8,872,000.

1804: The world’s first passenger railway was incorporated by Act of Parliament. Known as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, it ran the seven and a half miles between Swansea and Oystermouth.

1855: The Daily Telegraph was published in London for the first time, price twopence.

1868: Press Association national news agency was founded in London.

1871: Labour unions in Britain achieved guaranteed legal recognition, by act of Parliament.

1880: France annexed Tahiti.

1895: The foundation stone of London’s Westminster Cathedral was laid.

1912: Fifth Olympic Games opened in Stockholm.

1916: The Irish revolutionary, Sir Roger Casement, was sentenced to death for treason.

1933: Primo Carnera won the world heavyweight boxing title, knocking out Jack Sharkey in round six in Los Angeles.

1943: American forces landed at New Guinea in Pacific.

1956: The film actress Marilyn Monroe married Arthur Miller, the playwright.

1960: BBC Television Centre opened in London.

1966: Hanoi, North Vietnam’s capital, and Haiphong, its principal port, were bombed by United States for first time in Vietnam War.

1967: Israel defied international protests and united divided city of Jerusalem for first time in two decades, after victory in Six-Day War.

1986: Richard Branson’s boat Virgin Atlantic Challenger II completed the fastest Atlantic crossing in 3 days 8 hours and 31 minutes.

1990: Lithuania voted to freeze its declaration of independence from Moscow rule.

2006: The US Supreme Court ruled that president George W Bush’s plan to try Guantanamo Bay detainees in military tribunals violated US and international law.

2007: Two car bombs were found at Piccadilly Circus, in London.

2010: Scotland’s roads were branded the most dangerous in Britain, according to a report from the Road Safety Foundation.

BIRTHDAYS

Mark Radcliffe, DJ, 55; Charlotte Bingham, playwright and novelist, 71; Gary Busey, actor, 69; Amanda Donohoe, actress, 51; Gilberto Gil, musician, 71; Katherine Jenkins, mezzo-soprano, 33; Mark Radcliffe, DJ, 55; Zuleikha Robinson, actress, 36; Ronnie Ronalde, whistling entertainer, 90; Nicole Scherzinger, singer, 35; Paul Zenon, television magician, 49.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1577 Peter Paul Rubens, artist; 1827 Mortimer Collins, writer; 1858 George Washington Goethals, builder of Panama Canal; 1 1868 George Ellery Hale, astronomer; 1886 Robert Schumann, French prime minister; 1901 Nelson Eddy, American singer and film actor; 1914 Rafael Kubelik, conductor; 1917 David Donaldson, Painter and Limner to the Queen in Scotland; 1928 Ian Bannen, Airdrie-born actor.

Deaths: 1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet; 1882 Joseph Hansom, inventor of the cab; 1886 Adolphe Monticelli, artist; 1895 Thomas Huxley, biologist; 1921 Lady Randolph Churchill; 1940 Paul Klee, painter; 1967 Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jayne Palmer), film actress; 1996 Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, film producer; 2003 Katharine Hepburn, actress.