1440: Eton College was founded by Henry VI for 25 poor and needy scholars. Prefects were warned to look out for "ill-kempt heads, unwashed faces, foul clothes".

1818: Richard Gatling, American inventor of the revolving battery gun, was born in North Carolina.

1878: Cleopatra's Needle, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, 68ft of granite, was presented to Britain and erected on the Thames Embankment. Inside the pedestal were placed some important reminders of the British Empire, including Bradshaw's Railway Guide, Whitaker's Almanack and a dozen pin-ups of Victorian ladies.

1888: Maurice Chevalier, legendary French entertainer and actor, pictured left, was born. He appeared in many films -- including Gigi, in which he sang Thank Heaven For Little Girls.

1910: The world's first policewomen began work when Alice Stebbin Wells joined the Los Angeles Police Department.

1935: US multi-millionaire Howard Hughes achieved the first of several aviation records he established before going into self-enforced seclusion, flying a plane of his own design at 352.46mph.

1953: Senator John Kennedy -- later to be president -- married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, Rhode Island.

1970: Concorde landed at Heathrow Airport for the first time to a barrage of complaints about noise.

1977: South African black activist Steve Biko died after six days in police detention in Port Elizabeth.

1978: The Queen Mother was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports in succession to the late Sir Robert Menzies. It was the first appointment of a woman in more than eight centuries.

On this day last year: The US plane hijackers had murdered stewardesses with knives to draw pilots from their cockpits, it was confirmed, as investigators began to piece together the full horror of the worst terror attack in history.