BACK IN THE DAY

MAY 12

1765 Lady Emma Hamilton, who became Admiral Lord Nelson’s famous mistress, is baptised. Hers was a genuine rags-to-richesto-rags story – thanks to the British nation ignoring their hero’s last wish.

1789 MP William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, in London, calling the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice.

11935 Recovering alcoholic Bill Wilson cofounds Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio.

1988 A bus going to Mount Frere, in the Eastern Cape, overturns near Cathcart, killing 31 people. | THE HISTORIAN