ON THIS DaY

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■■1509: Henry VII died at the age of 52 and his second son acceded to the throne as Henry VIII.

■■1816: Charlotte Bronte, eldest of the three Bronte Sisters and author of Jane Eyre, was born in Thornton, Yorkshire.

■■1910: Novelist Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) died in Reading, Connecticut, aged 74. Halley’s comet appeared in 1835 when he was born and he always said he would die when it appeared again - and he did. ■■1918: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, scourge of the First World War British fliers, was shot down in his red Fokker tri-plane and died.

■■1945: Ivor Novello’s Perchance To Dream opened at the London Hippodrome with his now classic song We’ll Gather Lilacs. The show ran to 1,022 performances.

■■1946: British economist John Maynard Keynes died.

■■1960: Brasilia became the new capital of Brazil, transferred from the old capital of Rio de Janeiro. ■■1983: One pound coins went into circulation in Britain, replacing paper notes in England and Wales but not in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

■■1989: Tiananmen Square Protests: Around 100,000 students gathered in Tiananmen Square, Beijing to commemorate Chinese reform leader Hu Yaobang.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Stargazers were told to look forward to catching the Lyrid meteor shower, with up to 18 meteors expected to light up the night sky every hour.

■■BIRTHDAYS: Queen Elizabeth II, 95; Charles Grodin, actor, 86; Iggy Pop (James Osterberg), singer, 74; Tony Danza, actor, 70; Andie MacDowell, actress, 63; Robert Smith, rock musician (The Cure), 62; Toby Stephens, actor, 52; James McAvoy, actor, 42.

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753BC: Romulus founded Rome.