It happened today – this day in history – November 1

1210: King John begins imprisoning Jews.

1348: The back death reaches London.

1604: Shakespeare’s Othello is first presented.

1611: Shakespeare’s The Tempest is first presented.

1755: An earthquake in Lisbon kills 50,000.

1800: John Adams becomes the first US President to live in the White House.

1887: Birth of artist L S Lowry.

1894: Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia. On the same day a vaccine for diphtheria is announced in Paris.

1911: The first aerial bomb is dropped by an Italian pilot on Turkish troops in Libya during the Italo-Turkish War

1914: Germany’s Paul von Hindenburg is named marshal of the Eastern front.

1922: The Ottoman Empire comes to an end as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk takes Constantinople and proclaims the Republic of Turkey.

1932: Wernher von Braun is named head of the German liquid-fuel rocket program.

1936: Mussolini describes the alliance between Italy and Germany as an “axis”.

1939: First animal conceived by artificial insemination (a rabbit) is displayed.

1954: General Fulgencio Batista is elected President of Cuba. On the same day, the Front de Libération Nationale fires the first shots of the Algerian War of Independence against France.

1972: Death of poet Ezra Pound.

1985: Death of comedy actor Phil Silvers.

1987: Williams driver Nelson Piquet wins the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.

1990: Deputy Prime Minister Geoffrey Howe resigns from Margaret Thatcher’s government.

1993: The Maastricht Treaty, the Treaty on European Union comes into effect.

1997: James Cameron’s Titanic premieres at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

1998: McLaren driver Mika Häkkinen wins season ending Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka to claim his first Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.

2007: Martina Hingis retires from tennis after testing positive for cocaine at Wimbledon. She maintains her innocence but says she has no desire for a fight with anti-doping authorities.

2009: Mercedes driver Jenson Button wins the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship.

BIRTHDAYS: Gary Player, golfer, 84; Obert Foxworth, actor, 78; Jim Steinman, songwriter, 72; Ronald Bell, musician (Kool and the Gang) 68; Lyle Lovett, country singer, 62; Anthony Kiedis, singer (Red Hot Chili Peppers), 57; Mags Furuholmen, musician (A-Ha) 57; Sharron Davies, swimmer/broadcaster 57; Rick Allen, drummer (Def Leppard) 56; Mark Hughes, football manager, 56; Jeremy Hunt, politician, 53; Jenny McCarthy, TV personality, 47; Joe Donovan, drummer (Blossoms) 27.