On this day

1603: The funeral of Queen Elizabeth I took place at Westminster Abbey.

1789: The crew of HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, mutinied in the Friendly Islands in the South Seas, sailing for the Pitcairn Islands.

1923: The first English FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium was staged. Bolton Wanderers defeated West Ham 2-0. It became known as the White Horse Final after the mounted police officer who helped to control the record crowd of over 200,000.

1945: Benito Mussolini and his mistress Claretta Petacci were executed by Italian partisans and their bodies hung upside down in a square in Milan, towards the end of World War II.

1947: The Kon Tiki expedition set out with Thor Heyerdahl, aiming to prove that ancient cults could have sailed on a balsa wood raft from Peru to Polynesia.

1967: Muhammad Ali refused induction into the US army and was stripped of his world heavyweight boxing title.

1969: General de Gaulle resigned as president of France after defeat in a referendum on electoral reform.

1985: Dennis Taylor won the Embassy World Snooker Championship after a spectacular final frame against Steve Davis.

1990: A Chorus Line closed on Broadway after a record-breaking 15 years.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Ken Livingstone was suspended by Labour for “bringing the party into disrepute” following an anti-Semitism row.