IT HAPPENED TODAY
1556:
Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, was condemned as a heretic under Catholic Queen Mary I and burned at the stake in Oxford.
1685:
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany.
1861:
Albert Chevalier, composer and singer of Cockney songs such as My Old Dutch and Knocked ‘Em In The Old Kent Road, born in London.
1918:
The last major German offensive of the First World War began on the Somme.
1933:
The first Nazi concentration camp was completed in Germany. It served as a prototype and model for others including Auschwitz.
1960:
The Sharpeville massacre took place in the Transvaal, South Africa, when police fired on a demonstration against Pass Laws, killing 69 people.
Alcatraz (top), the notorious maximum security prison in San Francisco Bay, was closed.
1985:
Riot police shot dead 17 black people at South Africa’s Langa township on the 25th anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre.
1991:
The poll tax was ditched as Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine (above) unveiled a new property tax to replace it.
1993:
The IRA claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in Warrington which killed two boys.
1995:
Police raided Tokyo headquarters of the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect after Sarin nerve gas was released on the city’s underground.
Michael Heseltine, former deputy Prime Minister, 85; Gary Oldman (above), actor, 60; Matthew Broderick, actor, 56; Rosie O’Donnell, actress, 56; Ieuan Evans, former rugby player, 54; Matthew Maynard, former cricketer, 52; Adrian Chiles, television presenter, 51; Mark Williams, snooker player, 43; Ronaldinho, footballer, 38.