On this day: Dr Who first on TV

Dr Who was first broadcast on television on this day in 1963. Daleks are seen here, in 1965. Picture: PA

1852: Britain’s first pillar-boxes, erected in St Helier, Jersey, were brought into public use.

1858: The General Medical Council held its first meeting in London.

1889: The world’s first jukebox was installed in the Palais Royal Saloon, San Francisco.

1890: Grand Duchy of Luxembourg was separated from the Netherlands.

1943: United States forces defeated Japanese in Pacific battle of Tarawa.

1948: The zoom lens was patented by Dr Frank Gerard Back.

1955: Elvis Presley signed with the RCA Corporation.

1963: Dr Who was first broadcast on television, with William Hartnell playing the Doctor.

1971: China took seat as permanent member of United Nations Security Council.

1977: Israel paraded tanks on its side of Lebanese border as warning to Syrian troops and Palestine guerrillas to stay away from frontier.

1989: The government announced an extra £19 million for haemophiliacs infected with the HIV virus.

1989: At least 300,000 people jammed Prague’s Wenceslas Square to demand democratic reforms.

1990: Iraq ended curfew in occupied Kuwait, but began calling up army reservists in their thirties.

1991: Ian Richter, British businessman, was released from life sentence for bribery in Baghdad after government agreed to release £70m of Iraq’s frozen assets for food and medicine.

1993: Rachel Whiteread won both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.

2001: The Convention on Cybercrime was signed in Budapest, Hungary.

2005: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African country.

2007: MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sank in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg near the South Shetland Islands. There were no fatalities.

2010: The bombardment of Yeonpyeong occurred on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea. The North Korean artillery attack killed two civilians and two South Korean marines.

BIRTHDAYS

Kirsty Young, Scottish radio and television presenter, 45; Susan Anspach, actress, 71; Zoë Ball, television presenter, 43; Kelly Brook, model and actress, 34; Miley Cyrus, actress and singer, 21; Kevin Gallacher, Scottish footballer, 47; Bruce Hornsby, singer, 59; Sue Nicholls, actress, 70; Krzysztof Penderecki, composer, 80; Asafa Powell, sprinter, 31; Diana Quick, actress, 67; Susan Anspach, American actress, 71.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1859 Billy the Kid (William H Bonney), American outlaw; 1869 Valdemar Poulsen, Danish inventor of the tape recorder; 1887 Boris Karloff (William Henry Pratt), horror film actor; 1888 “Harpo” Marx; 1909 Nigel Tranter, Scottish novelist; 1916 Michael Gough, actor (Alfred Pennyworth in Batman films).

Deaths: 1910 Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippen, murderer (hanged); 1934 Arthur Wing Pinero, dramatist; 1990 Roald Dahl, children’s author; 1995 Louis Malle, film director; 2001 Mary Whitehouse, television campaigner; 2012 Larry Hagman, American actor.

On this day: Dr Who first on TV | Roald Dahl died