On this day: Chilean miners safe after 69 days

Their 69-day underground ordeal is over, as miners trapped after an accident are brought to the surface on this day in 2010. Picture: Getty

AD54: Roman emperor Claudius I died after eating poisoned mushrooms as a result of a plot inspired by his wife, Agrippina.

1861: Kingdom of Italy was divided into prefectures.

1880: Transvaal declared independence from Britain.

1884: Greenwich was adopted as the universal time meridian of longitude from which standard times throughout the world are calculated.

1924: Ramsay MacDonald made the first election broadcast on the BBC, on behalf of the Labour Party.

1943: Italy declared war on Germany, its former Axis partner.

1952: Egypt reached agreement with Sudan on Nile waters.

1969: Soviet Union sent a third spacecraft into orbit in as many days. At that point there were seven cosmonauts in space.

1972: The bank rate was abolished, to be called instead the minimum lending rate.

1988: The Queen sued the Sun newspaper for breach of copyright after it printed one of her private photographs.

1988: The government’s long legal battle to prevent any mention in the British media of Spycatcher, the memoirs of the former MI5 officer Peter Wright, failed when the House of Lords ruled unanimously against it.

1989: Wall Street suffered its biggest share price collapse since Black Monday in October, 1987.

1992: A political storm erupted as British Coal announced it was closing 27 pits, mothballing three others and cutting 30,000 jobs.

1993: More than 400 English football hooligans were arrested in Rotterdam as England lost 2-0 to Holland.

1994: Peace moved a step closer in Northern Ireland as Loyalist paramilitary groups followed the IRA and announced a ceasefire.

1996: Damon Hill became world motor racing champion when he won the Japanese Grand Prix. His late father, Graham, had won the title in 1962 and 1968.

1999: The US Senate rejected ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty.

2008: The government announced it was to pump billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money into Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS.

2010: The Copiapó mining accident in Chile ended. All 33 miners reached the surface after a record 69 days underground.

BIRTHDAYS

Edwina Currie, former MP 1983-97 and novelist, 68; Sacha Baron Cohen, comedian, 43; Pippa Guard, Edinburgh-born actress, 62; Robert Lamm, singer-songwriter (Chicago), 70; David Haye, boxer, 34; Nana Mouskouri, singer, 80; Marie Osmond, singer, 55; Paul Simon, singer and composer, 73; Ian Thorpe, swimmer, 32; Kate Walsh, actress, 47; Sammy Hagar, musician (Van Halen), 67; Nancy Kerrigan, skater, 45; Scott Parker, footballer, 34; Paul Potts, singer, 44; John Snow, cricketer, 73; Gabriel Agbonlahor, footballer, 28; Wes Brown, footballer, 35; Peter Dumbreck, Kirkcaldy-born racing driver, 41; Javier Sotomayor, world record-breaking high jumper, 47; Chris Farlowe, singer, 74.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1453 Edward, Prince of Wales; 1713 Allan Ramsey, Edinburgh-born artist; 1797 William Motherwell, Glasgow-born poet and journalist; 1853 Lillie Langtry, actress and mistress of Edward VII; 1925 Baroness Thatcher, prime minister 1979-90.

Deaths: 54AD Claudius, Roman emperor; 1974 Ed Sullivan, US TV presenter; 1991 Donald Houston, actor; 1996 Beryl Reid, actress; 2001 Peter Doyle, singer (The New Seekers).