ON THIS DAY

• 1547: Coronation of nine-yearold Edward VI, only son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

• 1653: Admiral Robert Blake defeated the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp off Portsmouth.

• 1856: The steam packet-ship John Rutledge, en route from Liverpool to New York, hit an iceberg and sank with the loss of 120 passengers and 19 crew.

• 1938: Anthony Eden resigned as British Foreign Secretary, in protest over prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy.

• 1947: Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed the last Viceroy of India – the same day the government announced the British would leave India by June 1948.

• 1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit when he circled the Earth three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

• 1978: A judge indicted Isabel Peron,ex-presidentofargentina, for fraudulent use of £8 million from a state-run charity.

• 1985: Contraceptives were first sold in the Irish Republic.

• LAST YEAR: A Japanese spacecraft began its approach towards a distant asteroid on a mission to collect material that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system and life on Earth.

• BIRTHDAYS: Sidney Poitier, actor, 93; Jimmy Greaves, TV football pundit, 80; Mike Leigh, film director, 77; Ivana Trump, socialite, 71; Gordon Brown, former prime minister, 69; Phil Neal, former footballer and manager, 69; Patty Hearst, American newspaper heiress, 66; Imogen Stubbs, actress, 59; Ian Brown, rock singer, 57; Cindy Crawford, model/actress, 54.