ON THIS DAY

1606: Sir Everard Digby, Robert Wintour, John Grant and Thomas Bates were hung, drawn and quartered for their part in Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot.

1649: Charles I, convicted of treason, was beheaded on a scaffold outside the Banqueting House in Whitehall.

1858: The Halle Orchestra was founded by Charles Halle in Manchester.

1889: Beautiful 17-year-old Baroness Marie Vetsera and her lover, Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf, were found dead at the royal hunting lodge of Mayerling, near Vienna. It remains a mystery whether it was a double suicide or murder.

1933: Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

1948: Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in New Delhi.

1961: The contraceptive pill went on sale in Britain – but was not available on the NHS until December.

1965: Big Ben was silenced for the funeral procession of Sir Winston Churchill.

1982: Stanley Holloway, actor, comedian and singer, died aged 91.

1997: An underground anti-road protest came to an end after six days as the last demonstrator, known as Swampy, emerged from a tunnel underneath the proposed A30 extension route in Devon.

2008: Entertainer and TV presenter Jeremy Beadle died in hospital in north London at the age of 59 following a short battle with pneumonia.

2014: Irish authorities were sure that ‘filler product’ found in contaminated burgers sold in supermarkets came from Poland and was a mixture of beef and horse offcuts, the Food Standards Agency said.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:

Britain began what was to be its ‘last’ full day in the European Union after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal was given its final seal of approval.