ON THIS DAY

■■ 1535: Sir Thomas More, English statesman and Lord Chancellor, was executed on Tower Hill for refusing to accept Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.

■■1685: The Battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset – the last on English soil – took place with victory for James II’s Royalist forces over the rebels under the Duke of Monmouth.

■■ 1875: South Cliff Tramway, the first cliff railway, opened in Scarborough.

■■1885: Louis Pasteur administered his first successful treatment with an anti-rabies vaccine.

■■ 1886: Box numbers were introduced in classified advertisements by the Daily Telegraph.

■■1907: Brooklands motor racing track near Weybridge, Surrey, was opened. It closed in 1939.

■■ 1919: The British airship R34 became the first to cross the Atlantic, from Edinburgh to New York in 108 hours.

■■1971: Jazz legend Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack. He once said: “Musicians don’t retire, they stop when there’s no more music in them.” ■■ 1988: 167 men died in an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea, above.

■■ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Ancient diamonds indicated Earth was primed for life’s explosion at least 2.7 billion years ago, scientists said. ■■BIRTHDAYS: The Dalai Lama, 87; Dame Mary Peters, former Olympic pentathlon champion, 83; George W Bush, former US president, 76; Sylvester Stallone, actor, 76; Geraldine James, actress, 72; Geoffrey Rush, actor, 71; Jennifer Saunders, actress/comedian, 64, above; 50 Cent, rapper, 47; Kate Nash, singer-songwriter, 35.

The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2021 was 65.7%