James Owen - The Times On This Day - Facts and trivia for every day of the year

1649 King Charles I, who had reigned since 1625, was executed in Whitehall.

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1661 Oliver Cromwell was ritually executed, more than two years after his death.

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1790 the first lifeboat was tested by Henry Greathead of South Shields.

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1933 Hitler was sworn in as German chancellor.

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1948 Mahatma Gandhi, Indian leader, was assassinated in Delhi.

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1965 Sir Winston Churchill’s state funeral took place in London.

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1968 the Vietcong launched the Tet Offensive against South Vietnam.

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1972 British troops killed 13 people during a civil rights march in Londonderry on what is now known as Bloody Sunday.

1606 Guy Fawkes and his fellow Gunpowder Plot conspirators were executed.

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1788 Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie), leader of the Jacobite rebellion, died in Rome aged 68.

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1858 the Great Eastern steamship, the largest vessel in the world, built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched.

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1929 Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Soviet Union.

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1983 the wearing of front seatbelts in cars was made compulsory in Britain.

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1990 the first McDonald’s restaurant in Russia opened in Pushkin Square, Moscow.

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2010 Avatar became the first film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide.

1851 Mary Shelley, who at 21 wrote Frankenstein , died aged 54.

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1874 Hugo von Hofmannsthal, poet, dramatist and librettist ( Der Rosenkavalier) , was born in Vienna.

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1884 publication of the first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary.

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1896 the world premiere of Puccini’s opera La Bohème took place in Turin, with Arturo Toscanini conducting.

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1910 the first British labour exchange opened.

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1915 Stanley Matthews, footballer, was born in Stoke-on-Trent.

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1924 Britain formally recognised the Soviet Union.

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1974 Ronald Biggs, one of the Great Train Robbers, was arrested by Brazilian police in Rio de Janeiro.

1650 Nell Gwyn, comic actress and mistress of King Charles II, was born.

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1709 Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, was rescued after being marooned for four years on an island off Chile.

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1901 the state funeral of Queen Victoria took place at Windsor.

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1972 the British embassy in Dublin was burnt down by demonstrators protesting the killings on Bloody Sunday two days previously in Londonderry.

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1977 the Pompidou Centre opened in Paris.

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1979 Sid Vicious (Simon John Ritchie), bass guitarist of the Sex Pistols, died in New York aged 21.

1761 Richard (Beau) Nash, dandy who developed Bath into the most fashionable spa town in England, died.

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1877 The Celebrated Chop Waltz , better known as Chopsticks , music for the piano by 16-year-old Euphemia Allen, was registered at the British Museum.

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1919 President Woodrow Wilson attended the first meeting of the League of Nations in Paris.

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1924 Woodrow Wilson, 28th American president 1913–21, died aged 67.

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1960 Harold Macmillan made his Wind of Change speech to the South African parliament.

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1969 Yassir Arafat was appointed chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

1911 Rolls-Royce commissioned its famous figurehead, The Spirit of Ecstasy , from the sculptor Charles Sykes.

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1927 Malcolm Campbell set the land-speed record at 174.88mph in his 12-cylinder Napier-Campbell Blue Bird on Pendine Sands, Carmarthen Bay.

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1945 the Yalta conference opened, at which Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin discussed strategy for the final months of the war.

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1962 The Sunday Times issued the first colour supplement in Britain.

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1968 the world’s largest hovercraft (165 tons and costing £1.75 million) was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

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1971 the British carmaker Rolls-Royce declared itself bankrupt.

1811 the Prince of Wales, later King George IV, was declared Prince Regent.

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1887 Verdi’s Otello received its world premiere at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan.

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1920 the RAF College at Cranwell, Lincolnshire, opened.

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1982 Laker Airways collapsed with debts of £270 million.

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1983 the Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was imprisoned in France.

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1987 Liberace, pianist known for his flamboyant costumes, died.

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1999 South African president Nelson Mandela made his last State of the Nation speech to parliament before retiring.

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2008 tornados killed 57 people in the southern United States.

1685 King James II acceded to the throne.

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1919 William Rossetti, writer and brother to Christina and Dante Gabriel, died.

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1945 Bob Marley, singer-songwriter, was born in Nine Mile, Jamaica.

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1952 Queen Elizabeth II acceded to the throne while visiting Kenya.

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1958 seven members of the Manchester United football team were among those killed in an air crash in Munich.

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1964 France and Britain agreed to build a Channel tunnel.

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1971 astronaut Alan Shepard became the first person to hit a golf ball on the moon.

1812 Charles Dickens, novelist and social critic, was born in Portsmouth.

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1863 HMS Orpheus was wrecked off New Zealand, killing 185 sailors.

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1940 Disney’s film Pinocchio was given a gala premiere in New York.

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1971 Swiss men voted to allow women to vote in federal elections and to stand for parliament.

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1974 prime minister Edward Heath called a snap election.

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1992 ministers from the 12 European Community countries signed the Maastricht treaty.

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2005 Ellen MacArthur completed her single-handed round-the-world voyage in the record-breaking time of 71 days 14 hours and 18 minutes.

1587 Mary Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire, aged 44.

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1725 Peter the Great, tsar of Russia since 1682, died aged 52.

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1872 Robert Southwell Bourke (6th Earl of Mayo), Viceroy of India, was assassinated in the Andaman Islands.

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1924 the gas chamber was first used as a form of execution when Gee Jon was put to death in Nevada for murder.

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1965 a ban was announced on cigarette advertising on British television.

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1983 Shergar, the Aga Khan’s Derby winner, was kidnapped from stables in Co Kildare and, despite a ransom demand, was never seen again.

1540 the first recorded race meeting in England was held at Roodee Fields, Chester.

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1567 Lord Darnley, consort of Mary Queen of Scots, was murdered in Edinburgh.

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1933 ten days after Hitler had become German chancellor, members of the Oxford Union voted against fighting for “King and Country”.

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1972 the British government declared a state of emergency after a month-long miners’ strike.

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1979 Trevor Francis became the first British footballer to break the £1m transfer fee when he signed for Nottingham Forest.

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1996 an IRA bomb exploded in London’s Docklands, killing two and injuring 100.