673: The Venerable Bede, English historian and scholar, was born in Jarrow.

1703: Death of diarist Samuel Pepys.

1805: Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral.

1733: John Kay, Richard Arkwright's assistant, patented the Flying Shuttle to operate on Arkwright's spinning frame.

1865: The Confederate Army surrendered in Texas, ending the American Civil War.

1868: Irish terrorist Michael Barrett was hanged outside Newgate Prison for causing an explosion in London which left 13 dead - the last public execution in England.

1906: The rebuilt Vauxhall Bridge over the Thames was opened.

1913: Emily Duncan became Britain's first woman magistrate.

1950: Petrol rationing ended in Britain.

1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono began a "bed-in" for world peace in a Montreal hotel.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The furore over Britain's place in Europe grew as plans for a new constitution were unveiled in Brussels. Proposals for a president of Europe, an EU "foreign minister" and common foreign and defence policies sparked a new round of Eurosceptic claims that Prime Minister Tony Blair was being steamrollered into a centralised political union.