On this day: ARPANET, the precursor to the internet

National Day of Turkey.

1787: Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was first performed, in Prague.

1859: Spain declared war on Morocco.

1863: Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant founded the International Red Cross.

1929: “Black Tuesday” – so-called when Wall Street crashed, leading to the Great Depression.

1956: Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal, just 20 miles away.

1964: A collection of gems, including the 565 carat (113g) Star of India, were stolen by thieves from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

1967: London criminal Jack McVitie was murdered by the Kray twins, leading to their eventual imprisonment.

1969: The first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet.

1983: More than half-a-million people demonstrated against cruise missiles in The Hague, Netherlands.

1985: Lester Piggott rode Full Choke at Nottingham to record his 4,349th winner. This was thought to be the end of his career in Britain – he eventually retired in 1995.

1986: The final section of the M25 motorway around London was opened by prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

1987: Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns won the world middleweight title, making him the first boxer to win a world title at four different weights.

1991: The American Galileo spacecraft made its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid.

1994: A man was arrested outside the White House in Washington after spraying the building with automatic gunfire while Bill Clinton, the president, watched television inside.

1995: Orkney police started an investigation after 25 grey seal pups were found shot near Burwick on South Ronaldsay.

1998: A fire at The Gothenburg nightclub in Sweden claimed 63 lives and injured 200.

2004: In Rome, European heads of state signed the Treaty and Final Act to establish the first European Constitution.

2005: More than 60 people die in a series of bombings in Delhi.

2008: Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines to create the world’s largest airline.

BIRTHDAYS

Yasmin Le Bon, model, 49; Angela Douglas, actress, 73; Richard Dreyfuss, actor, 66; Ian Durrant, Scottish footballer and coach, 47; Robert Hardy CBE, actor and writer, 88; Kate Jackson, American actress, 65; Michael Jayston, actor, 78; Denny Laine, rock musician (Wings), 69; Winona Ryder, actress, 42; Frank Sedgman, Australian tennis champion, 86; Rufus Sewell, actor, 46; Jack Shepherd, actor and director, 73; Michael Vaughan OBE, former England cricket captain, 39.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1656 Edmund Halley, astronomer; 1740 James Boswell, Edinburgh-born diarist and biographer of Samuel Johnson; 1891 Fanny Brice, actress and singer; 1897 Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister; 1904 Vivian Ellis, composer and author.

Deaths: 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh, seafarer; 1911 Joseph Pulitzer, American newspaper publisher; 1924 Frances Burnett, novelist and dramatist; 2009 Norman Painting OBE, actor (Phil Archer in The Archers); 2011 Jimmy Savile, media personality.