A look back at events in history on December 10 with Mike Badham

1768: The Royal Academy was formed in London by George III. Its first president was painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

1842: The first bathtub ever seen in the US was unveiled in Cincinnati by a Mr Thompson who'd imported it from England. Doctors declared it was injurious to health, it was banned in Boston and taxed in Virginia. But when President Fillmore installed one in the White House in 1851, bathtubs became all the rage. This story is often quoted in books and newspapers, despite the fact that it is a complete fabrication. Writer H.L. Mencken wrote it as a spoof for a New York newspaper The Evening Mail - and everyone believed it.

1845: Pneumatic tyres were patented by Scottish engineer Robert Thompson.

1861: Socialist nob Frances "Daisy" Maynard was born. She married the earl of Warwick and later became one of Edward VII's mistresses. Keen on education for the workers, she spent a fortune on promoting it. 1896: Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite, died and left all his cash to fund annual prizes for science, medicine, literature and peace. No peace prize was awarded in 1939 or 1940. The International Red Cross won it in 1944.

1898: Cuba won independence from Spain after the Spanish-American war.

1941: The battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese aircraft off the eastern Malayan coast. Coming three days after Pearl Harbor, this was the writing on the wall for the battleship. Up till then, everyone thought they were invulnerable, even though US flyer Billy Mitchell had sunk one as an experiment in the 1920s.

1941: Tough German spy Karl Richter went unwillingly to the gallows. It took four prison officers to subdue him long enough for Pierrepoint to put the noose on and pull the lever.

1953: Issue one of Playboy mag went on sale. It carried the famous nude colour photo of Marilyn Monroe.

1991: After a two-day meeting, twelve European countries signed the Maastricht agreement, pledging even closer political and economic union.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.