ON THIS DAY

1567: Mary Queen of Scots abdicated after defeat by the Protestants at Carberry Hill.

1704: Admiral Sir George Rooke captured Gibraltar from the Spanish.

1802: Alexandre Dumas, French creator of The Three Musketeers, was born near Soissons.

1883: Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel in 1875, drowned attempting to swim the rapids below Niagara Falls.

1908: Some 56 runners began the London Marathon from the east lawn of Windsor Castle. An extra 385 yards was added to the 26-mile course so that they finished in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium.

1925: Six-year-old Patricia Cheeseman was the first person to be successfully treated with insulin, at Guy’s Hospital in London.

1935: Greetings telegrams were introduced by the GPO. If they were in a gold envelope they cost an extra threepence.

1980: Peter Sellers died, two days after suffering a heart attack attending a reunion lunch with fellow Goons.