1492: Columbus discovered Hispaniola, now known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

1768: The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica was published in Scotland.

1774: Austria became the first nation to introduce a state education system.

1877: Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone in New Jersey, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had A Little Lamb.

1926: Mussolini introduced a tax on bachelors and black snow fell in France.

1957: The first American attempt to launch a satellite failed when it exploded on take-off.

1963: The Beatles began the tradition of releasing a Christmas record for their fans.

1967: Cliff Richard was confirmed into the Church of England.

1977: Mull of Kintyre by Wings was number one in the charts.

1983: Britain's first heart and lung transplant was carried out on a Swedish man.

1990: Saddam Hussain announced that he would free all the 2,000 foreign hostages held in Iraq as a human shield during the Gulf War.