On this day.

1831: Michael Faraday successfully demonstrated the first electrical transformer at the Royal Institute, London.

1835: The city of Melbourne was founded in Australia.

1885: Daimler received his first patent for a motorcycle.

1896: Chop-suey was invented in New York. 1929: The airship Graf Zeppelin completed an historic round-the-world trip, 21 days, seven hours and 26 minutes after taking off.

1953; The USSR exploded a hydrogen bomb.

1973: President Nixon refused a court order to hand over tapes of White House conversations.

1991: The Supreme Soviet voted to formally suspend all activities of the Communist party. 1994: Shops opened legally on a Sunday for the first time in Britain.

1996: President Clinton delivered his keynote speech to the Democratic convention. 2000: It was reported that 16,000 copies of a Bill Clinton photo book and had been seized in China, because it featured a snap of him holding hands with the Dalai Lama.

2003: It was announced that Alastair Campbell was stepping down as director of communications and strategy, and that former Labour Party Director of Communications David Hill was to replace him.

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