ON THIS day

1430

Joan of Arc falls off her horse during a battle and is captured by forces of the Duke of Burgundy, an ally of the English invaders of France.

1498

Religious reformer and pioneer of democracy Girolamo Savonarola, a Dominican monk, is hanged and then burnt in Florence after being accused of heresy.

1568

William of Orange’s allies defeat the Spanish at Heiligerlee in Holland, starting the Revolt of the Netherlands.

1618

The Defenestration of Prague, a Bohemian revolt against the Habsburg Emperor, begins the Thirty Years War.

1785

US inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin reveals his invention of spectacles of two thicknesses, the first bifocals, in a letter from France sent to a friend in London, George Whatley.

1873

Canada’s Mounties, then called the North West Mounted Police, is established.

1892

Frederic Deeming, 38, who murdered two wives and four of his own children, burying their bodies under cement, is hanged in Melbourne. Deeming was a serial bigamist and conman.

1912

US architect Walter Burley Griffin’s entry No. 29 is announced as winner of the international competition to design Australia’s new national capital.

1934

Lovers, robbers, and murderers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (pictured) are shot dead by police in Louisiana.

1951

China formally annexes Tibet as an autonomous region, giving rise to a Tibetan independence movement led by the Dalai Lama.

1991

Prolific historian of Australia Manning Clark, 76, dies in Canberra.

2010

The Duchess of York is exposed taking cash for access to ex-husband Prince Andrew from a London reporter posing as an Indian businessman.