1555: Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burnt at the stake for heresy.

1793: Marie Antoinette, Queen of France as wife of Louis XVI, was convicted of treason and guillotined in Paris.

1846: An anaesthetic was successfully used for the first time at the Massachusetts General Hospital where dentist William Morton used diethyl ether before removing a tumour from a man's jaw.

1847: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell.

1854: Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin.

1881: The Sunday People was published for the first time, as The People.

1902: The first detention centre for young offenders was opened at the village of Borstal, Kent.

1946: The Nuremberg executions began. They included von Ribbentrop, Rosenberg and Streicher.

1958: Blue Peter started on BBC TV. The presenters were Leila Williams and Christopher Trace.

1964: Harold Wilson became Prime Minister of a Labour Government which won a General Election with a majority of four.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Anti-GM campaigners welcomed a decision by biotechnology giant Monsanto to pull out of the European seed cereal business.