IT HAPPENED TODAY
1517:
Martin Luther nailed his 95 ‘theses’ to the church door at Wittenburg and inadvertently sparking the Reformation which split the Church.
1795:
Lyric poet John Keats was born in London.
1940:
The Battle of Britain ended. The RAF lost 915 aircraft and the Luftwaffe 1,733.
1955:
Princess Margaret announced that she would not marry Captain Peter Townsend, who was a divorcee.
1958:
Dr Ake Senning implanted the first internal heart pacemaker in Stockholm.
1971:
A terrorist bomb exploded at the top of the Post Office Tower in London.
1973:
Three members of the Provisional IRA escape from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin using a hijacked helicopter.
1984:
Mrs Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India, was shot dead by two Sikh members of her bodyguard in New Delhi.
2003:
Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton aged 13, had her arm bitten off by a shark while surfing in Hawaii. She went on to have a professional surfing career, despite her disability. Her autobiography Soul Surfer was published in 2004 and was subsequently made into a film in 2011.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
A shortage of midwives is costing the NHS almost £100m a year, a report suggested.
BIRTHDAYS:
Michael Kitchen, actor, 70; Charles Moore, journalist and former editor of the Daily Telegraph, 62; Peter Jackson, film director, 57; Larry Mullen Jnr, rock drummer (U2), 57; Johnny Marr rock guitarist, 55; Denis Irwin, former footballer and TV presenter, 53; Ian Walker, former footballer, 47; Matt Dawson, former rugby player, 46.