A look back on events in history on April 1 with Mike Badham

1725: The great lover Casanova was born in Venice. Although a writer, gambler and spy, he is best known for his bedroom exploits. But some say he would never have gained his reputation had he not been the author of his own life story.

1796: The famous Shakespeare play Vortigern was premiered at Drury Lane after theatre owner Richard Brinsley Sheridan paid £300 for it. But the first-night audience gave it the bird, whereupon the man who had discovered the lost masterpiece admitted that he'd written it himself.

1801: Nelson turned a blind eye at the battle of Copenhagen. When his admiral signalled Nelson to break off the engagement, he put his telescope to his blind eye and said: "I see no signal". Although the British fleet had been getting the worst of it, they went on to win.

1805: Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark. An extremely ugly person, he never had a girl friend, or even a boy friend. Neither did he like children, even though he became world famous as a writer of fairy stories.

1902: The first continuous performance cinema, the Electric Theater, opened in Los Angeles. Admission was 10 cents. The first purpose-built cinema was the 500-seat Biograph in London, opened in 1905.

1940: Italian dictator Mussolini ordered all Italians over 14 to mobilise.

1977: Red Rum won the Grand National for the third time.

1982: Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands.

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