On this day

In 1883 the volcano Krakatoa erupted, killing more than 30,000 people on neighbouring Indonesian islands; in 1939 the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world’s first jet aircraft, made its maiden flight. Lack of military interest led the prototype aircraft to be stored in a museum in Berlin, and it was destroyed during an Allied bombing raid in 1943; in 1955 the Guinness Book of Records, compiled by twins Norris and Ross McWhirter, was first published. Now called Guinness World Records, it is sold in more than 100 countries; in 1964 the Walt Disney film Mary Poppins had its premiere in Los Angeles. The film won five Oscars from 13 nominations. The reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter wrote: “Mary Poppins is a picture that is, more than most, a triumph of many individual contributions. And its special triumph is that it seems to be the work of a single, cohesive intelligence.”; in 1979 Lord Mountbatten and three others were murdered by the Provisional IRA on his boat in Co Sligo, Ireland. Mountbatten served as the last viceroy of the British Indian Empire, overseeing partition in 1947 between India and Pakistan.