It happened today – this day in history – October 9

768: Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I are crowned Kings of The Franks.

1192: Richard I leaves Jerusalem in disguise.

1651: Parliament passes the Navigation Act.

1806: Prussia declares war on France.

1854: The siege of Sevastopol begins during the Crimean War.

1855: Isaac Singer patents the sewing machine motor.

1870: Rome is incorporated into Italy by royal decree.

1876: The first 2-way telephone conversation over outdoor wires.

1914: German troops take Antwerp.

1932: Stalin expels Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev from the Communist Party after a power struggle.

1934: Alexander I King of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou are assassinated in Marseille.

1940: John Lennon born in Liverpool.

1941: US President Franklin D Roosevelt approves an atomic program that will become the Manhattan Project.

1944: Churchill arrives in Russia for talks with Stalin.

1947: The first telephone conversation between a moving car and a plane.

1953: Konrad Adenauer becomes Chancellor of West Germany.

1958: Death of Pope Pius XII.

1962: Uganda gains independence from Britain

1963: Prime minister Harold Macmillan resigns and is replaced by Alec Douglas-Home.

1967: Revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara is executed in Bolivia.

1970: The Khmer Republic (Cambodia) declares independence.

1973: Elvis and Priscilla Presley were granted a divorce.

1981: Capital punishment is abolished in France.

1986: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera premiers in London.

1990: All four members of The Stone Roses were each fined £3,000 after being found guilty of criminal damage at their former record company’s offices.

1995: Death of former prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

2002: Serial killer Aileen Wournos is executed in the US.

2015: Death of former Conservative politician Sir Geoffrey Howe and newsreader Gordon Honeycombe.

2017: Harvey Weinstein is fired from The Weinstein Company after allegations of sexual abuse.

BIRTHDAYS: Brian Blessed, actor, 83; Jackson Browne, songwriter, 71; Sharon Osbourne, TV personality/Ozzy’s wife and manager, 67; Tony Shaloub, actor, 66; Scott Bakula, actor, 65; James Fearnley, musician (The Pogues) 65; Steve Ovett, Olympic athlete, 64; David Cameron, former prime minister, 53; Mat Osman, musician, (Suede) 52; P J Harvey, musician, 50; Sean Lennon, musician, 44; Nicky Byrne, singer (Westlife) 41; Brandon Routhm actor, 40; Bella Hadid, fashion model, 23.