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.