ON THIS DAY
1625: Charles I was crowned King of England and Scotland. 1863: Sir Henry Royce, co-founder of Rolls-Royce Motor Company, was born in Alwalton, near Peterborough, the son of a miller. 1923: Chemist and physicist Sir James Dewar, who invented the vacuum flask, died in London. 1924: Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan was born in New Jersey. 1931: Arnold Bennett, novelist and writer (Clayhanger) died of typhoid after a visit to Paris. 1945: The last of more than 1,000 V2 bombs dropped on Britain landed at Orpington, Kent. 1958: Nikita Khrushchev ousted prime minister Nikolai Bulganin to take power in the USSR. 1966: Football’s World Cup trophy was found in a garden in south London by a dog called Pickles after it was stolen from a public exhibition in Westminster Hall a week earlier. 1977: Two jumbo jets collided on the ground at foggy Tenerife airport, killing 574 people. 1980: Mount St Helens in Washington state in the United States became active after 123 years dormant. 1980: North Sea accommodation platform Alexander Kielland collapsed, killing 123 oil rig workers. 1989: Bank Holiday Monday was the warmest for 37 years, with the Midlands hotter than the Costa Brava or the Canary Islands. 1991: David Icke, former goalkeeper, BBC sports presenter and then Green Party spokesman, announced he had been “chosen” to save the world. ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: The unfinished Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece, Adoration Of The Magi, was revealed following a six-year renovation, looking cleaner and brighter. BIRTHDAYS: Julian Glover, actor, 83; Michael York, actor, 76; Tony Banks, musician (Genesis), 68; Quentin Tarantino, film director, 55; David Coulthard, former F1 racing driver, 47; Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, former footballer, 46; Fergie, singer (Black Eyed Peas), 43; Jessie J, singer, 30.