1340: Geoffrey Chaucer, author of Canterbury Tales, was born. He died on his birthday in 1400.

1415: The Battle of Agincourt took place at which the heavily-outnumbered English Army of Henry V defeated the French.

1825: Johann Strauss the Younger, Austrian composer of waltzes like The Blue Danube and operettas including Die Fledermaus, was born in Vienna.

1854: Lord Cardigan led the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. Six hundred rode into the valley of death.

1900: Britain annexed the former Boer South African Republic and renamed it the Transvaal Colony.

1936: The first radio request programme was broadcast. A station in Berlin introduced You Ask - We Play.

1951: Margaret Roberts (Thatcher), at 26, was the youngest candidate to stand at a General Election. The Tories won overall by a narrow margin but she failed to win her seat.

1983: US Marines invaded Grenada.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Osama bin Laden, the man blamed by America and Britain for the September 11 terrorist atrocities, may never be brought to account, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted.