It happened today – this day in history – November 10

1483: Birth of German theologian Martin Luther.

1619: Rene Descartes has the dream that inspires his “Meditations on First Philosophy”.

1674: The Dutch formally cede New Netherlands (New York) to the British.

1683: Birth of George II.

1697: Birth of artist William Hogarth.

1730: Birth of Irish dramatist Oliver Goldsmith.

1871: Henry Morton Stanley encounters David Livingstone at Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika with the immortal words “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”

1880: Birth of sculptor Jacob Epstein.

1885: German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world’s first motorcycle.

1891: Granville T Woods patents the electric railway. On the same day, French poet Arthur Rimbaud dies aged 37.

1911: The Chinese Imperial army recaptures Nanking.

1938: Death of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, first president of Turkey.

1940: Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives .

1950: William Faulkner wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1951: The first long distance telephone call without operator assistance.

1952: Trygve Lie resigns as the first Secretary General of the United Nations.

1954: Lt Col John Stapp travels at 632 mph in a rocket sled.

1969: Sesame Street premieres on US television.

1975: PLO leader Yasser Arafat addresses the UN.

1982: Death of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev aged 75.

1983: Marvin Hagler retains his world middleweight boxing title with a 15-round unanimous points decision over Roberto Durán at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

1989: Germans begin to demolish the Berlin Wall.

1996: Death of newspaper agony aunt Marje Proops.

2006: Death of actor Jack Palance (Vladimir Palahniuk) aged 87.

2007: Death of author Norman Mailer aged 84.

2014: Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan was arrested following an alleged air rage incident on a flight from the US.

BIRTHDAYS: Sir Tim Rice, lyricist, 75; Roland Emmerich, director, 64; Neil Gaiman, writer, 59; Hugh Bonneville, actor, 56; Ellen Pompeo, actress, 50; Jens Lehmann, former footballer, 50; Jacqui Abbott, singer (Beautiful South), 46; Taron Egerton, actor, 30.