ON THIS DAY

• 1540: Thomas Cromwell, chancellor to Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king’s failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. On the same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

• 1586: The first potatoes reached Britain, arriving in Plymouth after brought from Colombia by Sir Thomas Harriott.

• 1750: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, died of a stroke. Earlier that year he had had two operations by an English occultist to try to cure his blindness. His sight was restored on July 18, 10 days before he died.

• 1865: Doctor Edward Pritchard was hanged in Glasgow for poisoning his mother-in-law and his wife. It was the last public hanging in Scotland.

• 1866: Beatrix Potter was born in London. She was the author and illustrator who created the immortal characters Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Jemima Puddleduck, among others.

• 1945: A US bomber crashed into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, killing three crew.

• 1959: Postcodes were introduced in Britain by the Postmaster General together with new postal sorting machines.

• 1976: An earthquake hit Tangshan in China, killing threequarters of a million people.

• ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Parts of the country were flooded after half a month’s worth of rain fell within 24 hours.

• BIRTHDAYS: Sir Garfield Sobers, former cricketer, 84; Riccardo Muti, conductor, 79; Elizabeth Berkley, actress, 48; Justin Lee Collins, comedian/tv presenter, 46; Michael Carrick, footballer, 39; Cher Lloyd, singer, 27; Harry Kane, footballer, 27.