1603: Elizabeth I died aged 69, after nearly 45 years as Queen.

1834: Artist and poet William Morris was born in London.

1877: The University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge ended in a dead heat. On the same date in 1951, the race was called off when the Oxford boat sank. It was rerun two days later, when Cambridge won by 12 lengths.

1887: Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, US silent film comedian, was born. In 1921 he was involved in a sex scandal that ruined his career.

1911: Denmark abolished capital punishment.

1946: Alastair Cooke read his first Letter From America on BBC Radio.

1953: Death of Queen Mary, widow of George V.

1956: In the Grand National, the Queen Mother's horse Devon Loch collapsed after clearing the final fence in first place. The rider was Dick Francis, now a best-selling writer.

1958: Elvis Presley signed up for the US Army in Memphis, Tennessee.

1965: David Steel, aged 26, won Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles for the Liberals to become Britain's youngest MP.

1976: President Isabel Peron of Argentina was deposed in a bloodless military coup.

1986: At least eight people were killed as hurricane force winds swept Britain.

1993: Ezer Weizman was elected President of Israel, while South African leader FW de Klerk said his country built six atomic bombs but destroyed them after 1989.