On this day: Yachtsman Francis Chichester was knighted

1967: Round-the-world yachtsman Francis Chichester was knighted by the Queen on the quay at Greenwich. Picture: PA

Chinese New Year begins

1778: Joseph Bramah patented the valved flush lavatory.

1822: Greek independence was proclaimed formally.

1865: Treaty between Spain and Peru virtually recognised Peru’s independence.

1879: Thomas Edison patented his electric lamp.

1914: Haiti’s president, Michel Oreste, abdicated during revolt, and United States Marines landed to preserve order.

1926: John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor, gave his first public demonstration of “true television” to members of the Royal Institution in his workshop in Soho, London.

1943: American bombers staged first all-US air raid on Germany – a daylight attack on Wilhelmshaven.

1943: Germany began civil conscription of women.

1944: Soviet city of Leningrad was liberated completely from Germans.

1950: United States agreed to provide arms to Nato members.

1967: United States, Soviet Union and 60 other nations signed treaty to limit military activities in outer space.

1967: Fire broke out aboard the spaceship Apollo 1 during the ground test at Cape Kennedy, killing Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee.

1967: Round-the-world yachtsman Francis Chichester was knighted by the Queen on the quay at Greenwich. The sword that touched his shoulders was that of Sir Francis Drake’s.

1973: The United States signed a ceasefire to end its military action in Vietnam.

1989: Ariane-2 rocket launched from European Space Agency’s base at Kourou, French Guiana, carrying Intelsat-V communication satellite to beam television and telephone signals round the world.

1990: United States vice-president Quayle began fence-mending trip to Honduras, Panama and Jamaica.

1990: Baby Alexandra Griffiths was reunited with her parents two weeks after her abduction from St Thomas’s Hospital in London.

1991: Allied aircraft bombed Iraq’s second city, Basra.

1995: Five thousand survivors of Auschwitz attended a service at the site of the Nazi concentration camp to mark the 50th anniversary of its liberation.

1996: Germany first observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

2002: An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, killed more than 1,000 people and displaced 20,000 others.

2003: The first selections for the National Recording Registry were announced by the Library of Congress.

2004: Prime minister Tony Blair’s political authority reached an all-time low when his 161 majority was reduced to five, with 72 Labour MPs voting against tuition fees for English universities.

2006: Western Union discontinued its telegram and commercial messaging services.

2010: Porfirio Lobo Sosa became the new president of Honduras.