1963: Junior Lieutenant Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman is space when she blasted off from Tyuratam in the USSR aboard Vostok 6. The 26-year-old orbited the earth 48 times in 70 hours and 50 minutes.

1815: The Battle of Ligny was waged today when the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon looked at each other through their telescopes.

1961: King of the tutu Rudolf Nureyev defected at Parish airport after becoming disenchanted with Russia's Communism.

1885: Christmas carol Away in a Manger first appeared in print.

1948: Chinese bandits carried out the first airborne hi-jacking aboard a flying boat heading for Hong Kong. The pilot resisted and the plane went down. The only survivor was the mastermind of the hi-jacking.

1871: American lawyer Clement Laird Vallandigham died while successfully defending an accused murderer. Intent on proving the murder victim could have killed himself, Clement demonstrated what he meant with a pistol, but he'd forgotten the gun was loaded.