NOW & THEN
23 JUNE
1543: England’s King Henry VIII issued an ultimatum to France, serving as declaration of war.
1585: Star Chamber ordered closure of all provincial offices.
1611: Henry Hudson, navigator and searcher for Northwest Passage, was cast adrift in a small boat to die, with his son and several others, when his crew mutinied.
1683: William Penn, the Englishman who founded Pennsylvania, signed a peace treaty with the American Indians.
1757: The Battle of Plassey took place in Bengal, with victory for the British, under Robert Clive, over the Indian forces – laying the foundations of the British Empire in India.
1823: George and Robert Stephenson opened their locomotive foundry in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.
1846: Adolphe Sax was awarded a patent for the saxophone.
1872: The first practical typewriter was patented by Christopher Sholes in Milwaukee, United States.
1894: 286 miners were killed in a disaster at the Albion coal pit at Cilfynydd in South Wales.
1902: The award of the Order of Merit was founded by King Edward VII for his Coronation Honours. There can be only 24 holders at any one time.
1910: The Duke of Windsor (Edward VIII) became the Prince of Wales on his 16th birthday.
1914: The Royal Naval Air Service was formed.
1951: Jaguar Cars won Le Mans 24-hour race for first time. It was the first British victory for 16 years.
1951: British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean fled to the Soviet Union.
1970: The world’s first large screw-driven all-metal steamship, Brunel’s 320ft Great Britain, was brought back to Bristol from the Falkland Islands, where she had lain rusting since 1886.
1972: Irish Republican Army’s provisional wing announced a conditional ceasefire in the Northern Ireland conflict.
1973: The first graduates of the Open University received their degrees at a ceremony in Alexandra Palace.
1988: Chocolate makers Rowntree accepted Nestlé’s £2,550 million bid to buy out the company.
1990: Hoverspeed Great Britain, the world’s biggest catamaran, crossed the Atlantic in a record three days, seven hours and 54 minutes to claim the Blue Riband Trophy.
1994: It was announced that the Royal Yacht Britannia would be decommissioned in 1997 and possibly not replaced.
1996: The Scottish Claymores beat defending champions Frankfurt Galaxy 32-27 to win the American football World Bowl at Murrayfield.
2009: The Irish broadcaster Setanta Sports went into administration after failing to make a number of payments to sporting organisations. About 200 employees involved with the British operations were to be made redundant.
2016: The UK electorate went to the polls to vote in a referendum to decide whether the country should leave the European Union. 51.9 per cent voted to leave, while 48.1 elected to remain.