ON THIS DAY
1422: King Henry V of England died in Vincennes, France, struck down with dysentery. He was succeeded by his nine-month-old infant son, Henry VI.
1888: Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck’s Row in the East End.
1900: Coca-Cola first went on sale in Britain.
1908: At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years, the legendary WG Grace retired from first-class cricket. He scored 54,896 runs (126 centuries), took 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.
1936: Elizabeth Cowell, Britain’s first woman TV announcer, made her debut at Alexandra Palace.
1957: Malaya became independent. On this same day in 1962, Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies also became independent, having been a British possession since 1802.
1968: Gary Sobers (now Sir Garfield) of Nottinghamshire became the first cricketer to score six sixes off an over, at Swansea against Glamorgan. The hapless bowler was Malcolm Nash.
1969: Rocky Marciano, American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to 1956, who retired undefeated, was killed in an air crash in Iowa.
1972: American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fifth gold medal at the Munich Olympics.
1997: Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in central Paris along with Dodi Fayed.
2012: The German manufacturer of anti-morning sickness drug thalidomide apologised for the thousands of children born without limbs as a result of its use.
THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Monsoon rain in Pakistan left at least eight people dead in flood-related incidents in the country’s largest city Karachi, officials said.
BIRTHDAYS: Martin Bell, former broadcaster and MP, 80; Clive Lloyd, former cricketer, 74; Van Morrison, singer, 73; Richard Gere, actor, 69; Edwin Moses, former athlete, 63; Glenn Tilbrook, rock musician (Squeeze), 61; Todd Carty, actor, 55; Padraig Harrington, golfer, 47; Chris Tucker, actor, 47; Andrei Medvedev, former tennis player, 44; Ian Harte, footballer, 41.