ON THIS day

■■1694: The Bank of England was founded with government backing.

■■1866: The Great Eastern arrived at Heart’s Content in Newfoundland, having successfully laid the transatlantic telegraph cable.

■■1890: Artist Vincent Van Gogh went to the spot where he had painted Cornfield With Flight Of Birds and shot himself. He died two days later, aged 37.

■■1921: The first insulin was isolated by Canadians Sir Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best, providing an effective treatment for diabetes.

■■1949: The de Havilland Comet, the world’s first jet airliner, made its maiden flight.

■■1953: The Korean Armistice was signed at Panmunjom.

■■1964: Sir Winston Churchill made his last appearance in the House of Commons.

■■1980: The deposed Shah of Iran died of cancer in Cairo.

■■1988: Mercury Communications opened its first non-British Telecom payphones at Waterloo Station.

■■1989: The Common Cold Research Centre in Salisbury closed after giving colds to 30,000 people over 43 years.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two strong earthquakes hours apart hit a group of islands in the Luzon Strait in the northern Philippines, killing at least eight people and injuring 60.

■■BIRTHDAYS: Jack Higgins, novelist, 91; Baroness (Shirley) Williams, politician, 90; Bobbie Gentry, singer, 78; Allan Border, former cricketer, 65; Christopher Dean, former Olympic ice-skater, 62; Jo Durie, former tennis player, 60; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, actor, 43; George Shelley, former Union J musician, 27.

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Write to What’s On, South Wales Echo, Six Park Street, Cardiff CF10 1XR or email ecletters@walesonline. co.uk including your name, address and daytime contact number. Don’t forget to tell us where and when your event is taking place and what it’s all about.

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