On this day: Robin Knox-Johnston arrives back in UK

In 1969 Robin Knox-Johnston arrived at Falmouth to complete the first non-stop solo circumnavigation, in 312 days. Picture: AFP/Getty

1662: The Royal Society was constituted by Royal Charter from Charles II.

1822: Turkish fleet captured island of Chios off Greece and massacred Christian inhabitants or sold them as slaves.

1838: The 703-tonne Sirius, built by R Menzies & Sons, Leith, and carrying 90 passengers, reached Sandy Hook, New York, to become the first to cross the Atlantic entirely under steam. Shortage of fuel forced the crew to burn spars and furniture to complete the 18-day voyage. Brunel’s steamship, Great Western, arrived a day later.

1915: Germany first used poison gas on Western Front at Ypres.

1918: The Penny Post was abolished.

1931: Treaty of friendship between Egypt and Iraq – first pact between Egypt and an Arab state.

1943: The printing of British £1,000 notes was discontinued.

1945: Allied forces took Bologna in Italy.

1947: A photo-finish camera was used for the first time at Epsom.

1951: Aneurin Bevan resigned as minister of Labour over plan by Clement Attlee’s government to introduce health charges.

1956: China appointed Dalai Lama chairman of committee to prepare Tibet for regional autonomy within Chinese People’s Republic.

1967: Martial law was declared in Greece after the army effected a coup.

1969: Robin Knox-Johnston arrived at Falmouth to complete the first non-stop solo circumnavigation, in 312 days.

1972: John Fairfax and Sylvia Cook, in the 35-foot Britannia II, arrived in Australia, to become the first to row across the Pacific, having left San Francisco on 26 April, 1971.

1988: Israeli warplanes blasted Palestinian guerrilla bases south of Beirut, Lebanon.

1989: Archaeologists said they had unearthed a 2,000-year-old mummy in a gold-covered coffin in the Egyptian oasis Fayoum. She was wrapped in linen and had a child beside her.

1990: American hostage Robert Polhill released by pro-Iranian Shia group in Beirut.

1992: More than 200 died and 1,500 were injured when a gas blast ripped through underground sewers in Guadalajara, Mexico.

1994: Cabinet minister Michael Portillo pledged that Scotland’s water services would not be privatised.

1997: Chilean troops stormed the Japanese ambassador’s house in Lima and freed 72 hostages who had been held for 126 days by a Marxist rebel group. All 14 guerrillas died in the assault.

2000: The Big Number Change took place in the UK.

2005: Japan’s prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, apologised for Japan’s war records.

2006: 243 people were injured in pro-democracy protest in Nepal after Nepali security forces opened fire on protesters against King Gyanendra.

2008: The United States Air Force retired the remaining F-117 Nighthawk aircraft in service.

2009: As he unveiled his Budget, chancellor Alistair Darling claimed the UK would have to borrow a record £175 billion as he admitted the economy faced its worst year since the Second World War.

2014: The World Health Organisation reported that the outbreak of the Ebola virus which began in west Africa in March had killed more than 140 people.

BIRTHDAYS

Jack Nicholson, actor, 78; Amelle Berrabah, singer (Sugababes), 31; Glen Campbell, country singer, 79; George Cole OBE, actor (Minder), 90; Carol Drinkwater, actress, author and olive farmer, 67; Peter Frampton, rock singer, 65; Amber Heard, actress and model, 29; Lloyd Honeyghan, boxer, 55; Ronald Hynd, choreographer, 84; Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope, MP 1983-2005, 69; Kaká, Brazilian footballer, 33; Sheryl Lee, actress, 48; Mike Miller, Scottish golfer, 64; Gary Rhodes OBE, chef, 55; Jancis Robinson OBE, wine writer and broadcaster, 65; Michelle Ryan, actress, 31; Ryan Stiles, actor and comedian, 56; Sean Lock, comedian, 52.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1707 Henry Fielding, novelist (Tom Jones); 1724 Immanuel Kant, philosopher; 1870 Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), Russian revolutionary leader; 1891 Sergei Prokofiev, composer; 1899 Vladimir Nabokov, novelist and poet; 1904 Robert Oppenheimer, physicist who developed atomic bomb; 1916 Lord (Yehudi) Menuhin, violinist, conductor and humanitarian; 1922 Charlie Mingus, jazz musician; 1923 Bettie Page, model and pin-up.

Deaths: 1778 James Hargreaves, inventor of the spinning jenny; 1833 Richard Trevithick, steam engine pioneer; 1869 Rev Patrick Bell, of Carmyllie, Angus, inventor of the reaping machine; 1908 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal Prime Minister; 1933 Sir Frederick Henry Royce, car manufacturer; 1994 Richard Nixon, 37th US president 1969-1979; 2005 Sir Eduardo Paolozzi, sculptor.