On this day in...

1639 – Jeremiah Horrocks became the first astronomer to observe the transit of Venus.

1715 – The River Thames froze.

1859 – Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was published. Much of his work for the book was done while he lived in Down House, Downe.

1991 – Queen singer Freddie Mercury died of complications from AIDS at his Holland Park home in London. Bohemian Rhapsody/ These are the Days of our Lives was subsequently re-released as a tribute to him.

1999 – Manchester city centre officially reopened after the 1996 IRA bombing.

2003 – Former S Clubber Rachel Stevens had six leather whips seized from her bag at Heathrow airport on her way to the Royal Variety performance.

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