1848: Chopin gave his final public performance.

1869: The Suez Canal, which had taken ten years to build, was formerly opened.

1937: The House of Commons voted to erect air-raid shelters in British cities.

1938: Footballer Willie Hall scored the quickest hat-trick in a home international game when he scored three goals in a three-and-a-half minutes for England against Ireland in Manchester. He then went on to score another two goals in the 7-0 win.

1959: The Sound of Music opened on Broadway. In Korea, the film industry thought the movie was too long so they shortened it by editing out all the songs.

1981: The Police were top of the pops with Every Little Thing She Does is Magic.

1988: The Queen was awarded £100,000 in damages after The Sun printed one of her private photographs.

1993: Vladimir Lenin's mausoleum was closed by the Russian authorities. It was the first Moscow site linked to Lenin to be shut down.

1995: A cricket Test match between England and South Africa opened in Pretoria. It was the first to take place in South Africa since 1965.

1997: A rugby tradition ended when Sky Sports took over live coverage of Twickenham from the BBC.