ON THIS DAY

1819: Troops broke up a meeting to demand parliamentary reforms on St Peter’s Field, Manchester. Eleven died in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

1888: TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - was born in Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire.

1927: Wembley Stadium was sold for use as a greyhound racing track.

1948: Baseball player George Herman “Babe” Ruth died in New York at the age of 53.

1949: Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind, died after being knocked down by a car two days earlier.

1956: Bela Lugosi, the horror actor who became a drug addict later in his life, died. He was buried (as he had stipulated) in his famous Dracula cape.

1959: Archbishop Makarios was elected the first president of the future republic of Cyprus.

1962: Pete Best, the original drummer with The Beatles, was fired by Brian Epstein and replaced by Ringo Starr.

1977: The king of rock ‘n’ roll, Elvis Presley, died in the bathroom of his home in Memphis, Tennessee, though he was actually pronounced dead at 3.30pm in the Baptist Hospital, Memphis.

2004: The Boscastle flood hit Cornwall - 440 million gallons of water swept through the West Country town, causing millions of pounds of damage.

2008: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set a new world record of 9.69 seconds in the 100m at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR

A global ice age known as “Snowball Earth” triggered the development of complex life 650 million years ago, new evidence suggested.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR

John Standing, actor, 84; Sir Trevor McDonald, veteran broadcaster, 79; Bruce Beresford, film director, 78; John Craven, TV presenter, 78; John Challis, actor (Only Fools And Horses), 76; Lesley Ann Warren, actress, 72; Katharine Hamnett, fashion designer, 71; James Cameron, director, 64; Madonna, pop singer, 60; Timothy Hutton, actor, 58; Barry Venison, footballer turned pundit, 54; Ulrika Jonsson, TV presenter, 51.