1970: An explosion in space blew out a faulty oxygen tank on moon mission Apollo 13 leaving the three crew members short of air and fuel 205,000 miles from home. Crawling into the cramped lunar module they had just enough power to swing around the moon and get back to the earth's atmosphere.

1868: The might of the British Empire cracked a very small nut when General Sir Robert Napier with17,000 troops, 19,000 horses and mules, 8,000 camels and 44 elephants, captured Magdala, the mountain stronghold of Emperor Theodore of Abyssinia to rescue the British Ambassador Lord Cameron. The cost to Britain for the nine-month rescue mission was a staggering £8,600,000.

1912: The Royal Flying Corps was constituted by royal charter.

1911: The man who had no nerves died on this day. Henri Pachard, the eccentric Parisian millionaire, won and lost fortunes at the Monte Carlo gaming tables without turning a hair. Accused of secret nervousness, Pachard offered to display his indifference to tension and, in 1903, he stood in a circus cage with eight lions and, ignoring their roars fired six shots accurately into the inner rings of a target.