On this day: Post Office Tower opened in London

On this day in 1965 the Post Office Tower was opened in London. At 581ft high, it was the UKs highest building. Picture: Getty

891: Formosus began his reign as Catholic pope.

1111: Boudouin VII became the Earl of Flanders.

1470: King Henry VI was released from Tower of London.

1783: Benjamin Hanks patented the self-winding clock.

1848: Austria declared war on Hungary.

1853: The Great Fire of Newcastle and Gateshead began shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths, hundreds injured and the mass destruction of property.

1883: The Orient Express completed its maiden run from Paris to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in nearly 78 hours.

1889: The Moulin Rouge opened in Paris.

1890: Bigamy was renounced by the Mormons in Utah, US.

1895: The Promenade Concerts were founded by Sir Henry Wood.

1900: Britain annexed the Orange Free State (as Orange iver Colony).

1908: Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1918: The US troop ship Otranto sank in Machir Bay, off the west coast of Islay, with the loss of more than 400 lives.

1918: US freighter Ticonderoga was sunk by a German U-boat, with the loss of 243 lives.

1927: The first full-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer, opened in New York. Al Jolson sang Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye, Mammy, and Blue Skies, in a soundtrack that was almost entirely music.

1928: Revolutionary and future first president of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for communist activity.

1958: US nuclear submarine Seawolf surfaced off New England coast after establishing world record by remaining submerged for two months.

1965: London’s Post Office Tower was opened.

1968: British drivers took the first three places in the US Grand Prix: Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and John Surtees.

1976: Coup in Thailand resulted in military takeover.

1981: Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president since 1970, was assassinated during a military parade in Cairo.

1985: Nigel Mansell won his first Grand Prix, at Brand’s Hatch.

1987: Fiji was proclaimed a republic by Lieutenant-Colonel Rabuka, who declared himself head of state next day.

1991: Israeli peace campaigner Abe Nathan, who ran Voice of Peace radio station, was jailed

for 18 months for meeting the PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

1995: 51 Pegasi was discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.

2000: Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic resigned.

2004: A report by the US’s chief weapons inspector said that Iraq had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and had no means to produce them.

2007: Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.

2007: BBC One’s controller, Peter Fincham, resigned over a film clip that appeared to show the Queen storming out of a photo shoot with Annie Leibovitz when she was actually walking in.

2010: According to The Good Pub Guide, Scotland was one of the most expensive places for a beer, with the average pint costing £2.90.

BIRTHDAYS

Ioan Gruffudd, actor, 42; Baron (Melvyn) Bragg, television and radio presenter, 76; Eileen Derbyshire MBE, actress, 84; Britt Ekland, actress, 73; Ricky Hatton MBE, boxer, 37; Anna Quayle, actress, 83; Clive Rees, Welsh rugby player, 64; Elisabeth Shue, actress, 52; Millie Small, singer (My Boy Lollipop), 69; Valerie Adams, four-time World and double Olympic shot-put champion, 31; Ellen Travolta, actress, 75; Adam Gemili, sprinter, 22; Mark Schwarzer, football goalkeeper, 43; Richard Jobson, Kirkcaldy-born singer-songwriter and TV presenter, 55; Alan Copeland, singer-songwriter, 89.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1888 Roland Garros, French aviator and First World War fighter pilot; 1906 Janet Gaynor, first winner of Academy Award for Best Actress; 1908 Carole Lombard, actress; 1910 Baroness Castle of Blackburn, politician; 1930 Richie Benaud OBE, former Australian cricket captain, broadcaster.

Deaths: 1892 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate; 1979 Elizabeth Bishop, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet; 1980 Hattie Jacques, comedy actress; 1981 Anwar Sadat, president of Egypt 1970 to 1981; 1989 Bette Davis, actress.