On this day... February 5 | Nostalgia

1782: Spain captured Minorca from the British.

1788: Sir Robert Peel, who as home secretary formed the Metropolitan Police and later became prime minister, was born in Lancashire.

1811: The Prince of Wales became Prince Regent on the established insanity of George III.

1840: Two British inventors were born: Sir Hiram Stevens, who perfected the machine gun, and Scottish veterinary surgeon John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tyre.

1924: The BBC pips, or time signals, from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time.

1936: Charles Chaplin’s film Modern Times had its premiere in America.

1953: Sweet rationing ends in Britain after 11 years in force.

1957: Bill Haley & His Comets arrived in London at the start of their British tour and received a wildly enthusiastic welcome.

1961: The Sunday Telegraph began publication.

1967: The Musicians’ Union banned the Rolling Stones’s Let’s Spend The Night Together from Eamonn Andrews’s television show.

1982: Laker Airlines, created by former pilot Sir Freddie Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible, collapsed with debts of £270m.

1994: A mortar bomb exploded in the main market square in Sarajevo killing 68 and wounding 200 people.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Grandparents who scooped £1m on the lottery announced they were planning to spend their winnings on a pair of new knees.

BIRTHDAYS: Susan Hill, novelist and playwright, 79; Michael Mann, film director, 78; Charlotte Rampling, actress, 75; Barbara Hershey, actress, 73; Russell Grant, astrologer, 70; Jennifer Jason Leigh, actress, 59; Jose Maria Olazabal, golfer, 55; Bobby Brown, singer, 52; Andy Hinchcliffe, former footballer, 52; Cristiano Ronaldo, footballer, 36.