ON THIS DAY
1497:
Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon with four vessels in search of a sea route to India.
1822:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet, was drowned in Italy while sailing his small schooner Ariel to his home on the Gulf of Spezia.
1882:
1884:
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded.
1889:
John L Sullivan defeated Jake Kilrain in Mississippi after 75 rounds – the last bare-knuckle heavyweight title contest.
1907:
Ziegfeld’s Follies of 1907 opened on Broadway, his first, and like the others that followed, contained 13 characters in the title for good luck.
1918:
Eccentric composer Percy Grainger was born in Melbourne.
National Savings stamps went on sale in Britain. 1961:
The first all-england women’s singles final took place at Wimbledon between Christine Truman and Angela
Mortimer, who won in three sets.
1965:
Horse racing starting stalls were introduced in the Chesterfield Stakes at Newmarket.
1965:
Ronald Biggs, one of the Great Train Robbers, scaled the wall of Wandsworth Prison with a rope ladder and escaped. He had served 15 months of his sentence. He eventually settled in Brazil.
ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR:
Buckingham Palace announced its garden would opening to the public for picnics and self-guided tours for the first time.
BIRTHDAYS:
Sarah Kennedy, TV and radio presenter, 72; Kevin Bacon, actor, 64; Pauline Quirke, actress, 63; Billy Crudup, actor, 54; Beck, pop star, 52; Robbie Keane, footballer, 42; Sophia Bush, actress, 40; Jaden Smith, actor, 24.