On this day

1800: The Irish parliament passed the Act of Union with England.

1854: The Crimean War began after the United Kingdom and France declared war on Russia.

1868: The 7th Earl of Cardigan, who led the Charge of the Light Brigade to disaster at Balaclava in the Crimean War, died. He is now best remembered for the woollen garment named after him.

1920: Douglas Elton Ullman wed Gladys Smith in Hollywood. The couple were better known as screen stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford and their marriage was described as “Hollywood’s first royal wedding”.

1930: Turkey’s capital city Constantinople changed its name to Istanbul.

1939: Madrid surrendered to Franco to end the Spanish Civil War.

1942: British commandos destroyed the U-boat base at St Nazaire.

1964: The pirate station Radio Caroline began transmitting from a ship in the North Sea.

1979: Therewas a radiation leak alert at ThreeMile Island nuclear station, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, when the atomic core began to melt down.

1991: A jury returned a verdict of accidental death at the end of an inquest into the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans in the Hillsborough disaster.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Air passengers were left sick and in tears as their flights were battered by Storm Katie whichwas packing winds of more than 100mph.