IT HAPPENED TODAY
1560:
The first General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was held.
1812:
Grimm’s Fairy Tales or Children’s and Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm was published for the first time.
1915:
Australian, New Zealand and British troops were evacuated from the ill-fated Gallipoli expedition.
1928:
Harry Ramsden started his fish and chip restaurant in a hut in Guiseley, near Leeds, which soon became the most famous in the world.
1957:
At the height of his career, Elvis Presley (above) received his call-up papers.
1961:
The London bells of St Maryle-Bow, Cheapside, began chiming again. They are the Bow Bells in the rhyme Oranges And Lemons, within the range of whose sound true Cockneys must be born.
1990:
The last remaining pit in the Rhondda — Maerdy Colliery — closed after the afternoon shift finished, ending more than a century of coal mining.
2005:
Actress Renee Zellweger (above) annulled her marriage to country-music singer Kenny Chesney citing fraud, after four months of marriage.
2007:
The Queen became the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
The owner of a garage used by Banksy as a canvas for an artwork said they were paying for a security firm to protect it from vandals.
BIRTHDAYS:
Uri Geller, spoon-bender and psychic, 73; Jenny Agutter, actress, 67; Billy Bragg, singer, 62; Simon Hughes, broadcaster and cricketer, 60; Robert Cavanah, actor, 54; George Lamb, radio and TV presenter, 40; Ashley Cole, footballer, 39; Jonah Hill, actor, 36.