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: James Ramsay MacDonald was born in Lossiemouth. 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 for the British 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, pictured above right, 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, pictured above left, and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2009: Edgar Allan Poe received a funeral in Baltimore, USA, 160 years after his death and 200 after his birth.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Newlyweds Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank kissed on the steps of St George’s Chapel in Windsor after their marriage ceremony.

“In my experience, America is very, very reluctant to allow its nationals to be tried overseas, and is absolutely ruthless in enforcing the code of diplomatic immunity. I must say, I don’t think it was appropriate for that provision to be used in this case” -

The prime minister on the diplomatic immunity row following the death of 19-year-old Harry Dunn.

“It’s not our problem to solve, it’s their problem to solve, and their failure to solve it has had a huge human cost on our family. We looked at him (Boris Johnson) once before to be our hero and now he’s got the chance” - Richard Ratcliffe calls on the PM to secure the release of his wife Nazanin ZaghariRatcliffe, pictured, who is jailed in Iran.

“In my view looking at the threats the public and my officers face, more Taser is required and we are doing a big uplift to take it to 10,000 in the next couple of years – highly mobile, highly available, there to protect the public and indeed themselves and their colleagues” -

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick says more Taserarmed police will help prevent attacks on officers.