St David’s Day – national day of Wales.
1498: Vasco da Gama discovered Mozambique on the southeast African coast.
1562: About 1,200 French Huguenots were slain at Massacre of Vassy, provoking first War of Religion in France.
1682: The Advocates’ Library (since 1925 the National Library of Scotland) opened by its founder, Sir George Mackenzie, the Lord Advocate.
1711: The first edition of The Spectator magazine was published by Addison and Steele, at a penny.
1780: Pennsylvania became first American state to abolish slavery.
1810: Sweden appointed world’s first Ombudsman, Lars Mannerheim.
1815: Napoleon Bonaparte landed in France, forcing King Louis XVIII to flee.
1872: Yellowstone Park, the oldest national park in America – more than two million acres in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho – was designated.
1912: Suffragettes smashed nearly every shop window in Oxford and Regent Streets, London. More than 120 people were arrested, including Emmeline Pankhurst.
1913: The International Lawn Tennis Federation, the world’s governing body for tennis, was founded in Paris.
1932: Charles Lindbergh, 20-month-old son of the famous American aviator, was snatched from the nursery of his home in New Jersey. His body was found four miles away on 12 May. The ransom note was traced to Bruno Hauptmann, 36, a German carpenter, who died in the electric chair.
1940: Vivien Leigh won Best Actress Oscar for her role as Scarlett O’hara in Gone With The Wind.
1946: The Bank of England passed to public ownership by Act of Parliament.
1947: The International Monetary Fund began operations.
1949: American Joe Louis, the world heavyweight boxing champion, retired aged 35, after a record 25 successful defences of his title.
1963: John Profumo, secretary of state for war, resigned on the disclosure of his affair with Christine Keeler, said to be the mistress also of a Soviet naval attache.
1966: Soviet spacecraft Venus III become first to land on another planet.
1970: The first transatlantic telephone direct-dialling service began between London and New York.
1979: Referendum on the Scottish Devolution Bill. Six regions voted for the proposals, six against. The result was: Yes 1,230,937 (32.85 per cent); No 1,153,503 (30.78 per cent). Just over 36 per cent did not vote.
2001: Scotland’s first cases of foot-and-mouth disease for 40 years confirmed in Dumfries and Galloway.
2006: English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article: Jordanhill railway station.
2011: Insurers were told they were not allowed to charge different premiums to men and women because of their gender, under a ruling by the European Court of Justice.