Today in History

1649 – Charles I, king of England and Scotland, is beheaded.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell is ritually executed in England, having been dead for two years.

1815 – The library of Congress, destroyed by fire in 1814, is authorised to buy 6500 books from Thomas Jefferson.

1835 – Painter Richard Lawrence tries to assassinate United States President Andrew Jackson.

1883 – The England cricket team is presented with the ashes of a bail after defeat by Australia in Sydney. The two sides have played for the Ashes trophy since.

1911 – Bookmakers take their last legal bets in New Zealand, after an amendment to the Gaming Act banned them from racecourses, other public places and hotels.

1933 – Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi, left, is assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in Delhi, India.

1958 – Britain’s House of Lords passes a bill allowing women to take their seats there.

1965 – State funeral of Sir Winston Churchill at St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

1968 – The Tet Offensive begins as Communist forces launch surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

1972 – Thirteen unarmed civil rights marchers are shot dead by British soldiers in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on what becomes known as ‘‘Bloody Sunday’’.

1994 – Kapil Dev, of India, equals Richard Hadlee’s world record of 431 test cricket wickets.

Birthdays

Franklin D Roosevelt, US president (1882-1945); Olof Palme, Swedish PM (1927-86); Gene Hackman, US actor (1930-); Vanessa Redgrave, UK actor (1937-); Dick Cheney, US vice-president (1941-); Phil Collins, UK musician (1951-); Eddie Jones, Australian rugby coach (1960-); Christian Bale, US actor (1974-); Olivia Colman, UK actor (1974-).