on this day

1533: Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn, wife number two. The result was a break with the church in Rome.

1701: Scottish pirate William Kidd was hanged at Execution Dock in London for piracy.

1795: Sir Charles Barry, architect, was born in Westminster. With assistant Augustus Pugin, he designed the new Houses of Parliament.

1873: The North West Mounted Police were established in Canada – the name was changed to The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920.

1934: Bank robbers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were shot dead in an ambush by Texas Rangers near Gibland, Louisiana.

1945: Heinrich Himmler, Hitler’s minister of the interior, committed suicide.