On this day

1492: Christopher Columbus sighted his first land in discovering the New World, calling it San Salvador.

1537: Edward VI, son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was born. He succeeded his father when he was nine, but died at 15. 1609: Three Blind Mice was published in London, believed to be the earliest printed secular song. 1866: Ramsay Macdonald was born. In 1924 he became Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister. 1872: Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. 1875: Modern-day Satanist Aleister Crowley was born in Leamington, Warwickshire. 1899: Mafeking was besieged by the Boers and was gallantly defended by Baden-powell, until relieved 217 days later.

1901: President Theodore Roosevelt renamed the Executive Mansion The White House.

1915: British nurse Edith Cavell was executed as a spy by German firing squad.

1984: Five people died, and 34 were injured, in an IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel in Brighton, where the

Conservative Party conference was being held.

2002: 202 people died in bomb attacks on two nightclubs in Bali. 2007: Former US vice president Al Gore and the UN’S Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Birthdays

Angela Rippon, pictured, broadcaster, 76; Robin Askwith, actor, 70; David Threlfall, actor, 67; Hugh Jackman, actor, 52; Stephen Lee, former snooker player, 46; Josh Hutcherson, actor, 28.

Quotes of the day

“I have had Botox and I openly admit it. If I look good and feel good about the way I look, then I am a happier person. Better to be around someone who is happy and joyful than a misery guts looking 104” – singer Elaine Paige.

“Genuinely, the amount of pride building a chicken hutch gave me was overwhelming” – actor Eddie Redmayne on his DIY.