OCTOBER 14
1066: The Battle of Hastings was fought at Senlac Hill in Sussex, at which William of Normandy defeated Harold of England to claim the English throne.
1644: Quaker leader William Penn - founder of the state of Pennsylvania - was born in London.
1890: Dwight D Eisenhower - ''Ike'' - Second World War military leader and 34th US president, was born in Dension, Texas.
1893: The first performance of The Gaiety Girl, considered the first musical comedy, took place in London.
1913: Britain's worst pit disaster took place at Senghenydd, Glamorgan - 439 died after an explosion.
1939: The Royal Navy battleship Royal Oak was torpedoed and sunk in Scapa Flow.
1944: Rommel, the ''Desert Fox'', took cyanide tablets and died within minutes, before he could be arrested for his part in the plot to kill Hitler.
1947: Chuck Yeager in his Bell X-1 rocket plane became the first man to break the sound barrier.
1969: The 50p decimal coin was first issued in Britain, replacing the 10 shilling note.
1990: Conductor Leonard Bernstein died, five days after announcing his retirement through ill health.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two e-fits of a man who was seen carrying a child near where Madeleine McCann went missing were released by police ahead of a new television appeal for information.
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