ON THIS DAY
1437: James I, King of Scotland, was assassinated by a group of dissident nobles led by Sir Robert Graham.
1595: Robert Southwell, English poet and Jesuit martyr, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn.
1613: Michael Romanov was elected Tsar of Russia, founding the house of Romanov which ruled until the revolution in March 1917.
1849: Britain annexed the Punjab at the end of the Second Sikh War.
1858: The first electric burglar alarm was installed by Edwin T Holmes of Boston, Massachusetts.
1910: Sir Douglas Bader, Second World War fighter pilot, was born. Despite losing both legs, he continued to fly, and is regarded as a hero of the Battle of Britain.
1916: Germany launched an all-out attack on the French fortress of Verdun.
1949: A Woman To Remember, one of the first television soap operas, began in the United States.
1952: Identity cards were abolished in Britain.
1965: American Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was shot dead while addressing a meeting in New York.
1988: The grave of Boadicea, the warrior queen who fought the Romans almost 2,000 years ago, was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were dressed like a couple of construction workers when they visited a unique Sunderland bridge which the city hopes will help regeneration in the area.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, 95; Jilly Cooper, author, 82; David Geffen, entertainment mogul, 76; Tyne Daly, actress, 73; William Baldwin, actor, 56; James Dean Bradfield, rock singer (Manic Street Preachers), 50; Jennifer Love Hewitt, actress/ director, 40; Charlotte Church, singer and TV presenter, 33.