1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.
1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.
1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."
1848 - Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.
1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.
1916 - In World War I, Paris was bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.
1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.
1963 - Britain was refused entry into the EEC.
1996 - French President Jacques Chirac announced the "definitive end" to nuclear testing.
1996 - La Fenice, the 204 year old opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected.