ON THIS DAY: Transporter Bridge man's funeral carried on gondola

FROM THE ARGUS ARCHIVE: On this day a year ago the Argus reported how a maintenance man on Newport Transporter Bridge was laid to rest after final journey across bridge he called "his second home".

Five years ago today we reported how in a Gwent Police crackdown on irresponsible motorists, one driver was caught flossing their teeth.

The stories from history on this day - February 25th

1570: Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V, who declared her a usurper.

1601: Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was executed for high treason after trying to raise the City of London against Queen Elizabeth's counsellors.

1723: Sir Christopher Wren, English designer and architect, notably of St Paul's Cathedral, died in London and was buried in the crypt of his cathedral.

1862: Abraham Lincoln issued new currency for the USA called ''greenbacks''.

1873: Operatic tenor Enrico Caruso was born in Naples. His first record, On With The Motley from Pagliacci, was the first to sell a million copies.

1922: French mass murderer, Henri ''Bluebeard'' Landru, was guillotined for the murder of 10 women and a teenage boy, whose bodies were never found.

1939: The first of 2.5 million Anderson air raid shelters appeared in Islington, north London. The sunken, corrugated iron huts were to protect people from bombs but were used after the war for keeping chickens, cars, garden tools, etc.

1964: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) won the world heavyweight boxing title for the first time, knocking out Sonny Liston in round seven in Miami.

1983: US playwright Tennessee Williams, whose plays include A Streetcar Named Desire, died in a New York hotel.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: TV regulator Ofcom said it would investigate Channel 4 series Benefits Street to see whether it broke broadcasting guidelines, following nearly 1,800 complaints.