IT HAPPENED TODAY
1587:
Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire, implicated in a Catholic plot to overthrow Elizabeth I.
1725:
Catherine I became Empress of Russia on the death of her husband Peter the Great.
1819:
John Ruskin, writer and artist, was born in London.
1886:
Rioting and looting followed a protest march by the unemployed in Trafalgar Square.
1904:
The Russo-Japanese War broke out, provoked by Russian penetration into Manchuria and Korea.
1915:
DW Griffith’s epic The Birth Of A Nation was released.
1931:
James Dean (top), cult actor, was born in Marion, Indiana. He made just three films, East Of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant, before he died in a car smash.
1965:
The UK Government announced a ban on cigarette advertising on TV.
1976:
Fourteen British mercenaries died by firing squad in Angola.
1990:
American pop singer Del Shannon shot himself.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (above), the former London socialite who was also god-daughter of the Prince of Wales, died at the age of 45.
BIRTHDAYS:
John Williams, film score composer (Jaws, Star Wars, Indiana Jones), 86; Nick Nolte, actor, 77; Mary Steenburgen, actress, 65; John Grisham, author, 63; Mohammad Azharuddin, Indian politician and former cricketer, 55; Seth Green, actor, 44; Abi Titmuss (pictured above), model/ TV personality, 42; Dani Harmer, actress, 29.