1586 - Sir Thomas Harriot introduces potatoes to Europe on return to England
1741 - Capt Bering discovers Mount St Elias, Alaska
1821 - Peru declares independence from Spain (National Day)
1851 - Total solar eclipse captured on a daguerreotype photograph
1858 - First use of fingerprints as a means of identification is made by Sir William James Herschel of the Indian Civil Service
1858 - Nadar takes 1st airborne photo (in a balloon)
1976 - 242,000 die in Tientsin-Tangshan (China) 8.2 earthquake
