1100: William II of England was killed by an arrow in the New Forest, allegedly mistaken for a deer.

1784: The first specially-built Royal Mail coach ran from Bristol to London.

1788: Thomas Gainsborough, English painter, died.

1865: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was published, but was quickly withdrawn because of bad printing. Only 21 copies of the first edition survive, making it one of the rarest 19th-century books.

1876: James Butler, or Wild Bill Hickok, Marshal of the West, was shot dead by Jack McCall while playing poker in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota. He was holding two black aces, two black eights and the jack of diamonds - known to this day as "the dead man's hand"

1894: Death duties were introduced in Britain.

1921: Enrico Caruso, the great Italian tenor, died aged 48 from peritonitis.

1973: More than 40 people died when fire swept through the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.

1980: Right-wing terrorists exploded a bomb at Bologna railway station in Italy, killing 84.

1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait and took control after eight hours. The Kuwaiti Royal Family fled to Saudi Arabia, and a puppet government was installed.

On this day last year: The Football League's hopes of recovering £178.5 million from Carlton and Granada following the collapse of their joint venture ITV Digital were dashed when a High Court judge ruled that the media giants were not liable for the company's debts.

BIRTHDAYS: ALAN Whicker, broadcaster and writer, 78; Peter O'Toole, actor, pictured, 71; Wes Craven, film director, 64; Isabel Allende, novelist, 61; Julia Foster, actress, 60; Rose Tremain, author, 60; Joanna Cassidy, actress, 58; Edward Furlong, actor, 26; Donna Air, TV presenter, 24.