ON THIS DAY
1540: Thomas Cromwell, chancellor to Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king’s failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. On the same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.
1586: The first potatoes arrived in Britain in Plymouth, brought from Colombia by Sir Thomas Harriott.
1750: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, died of a stroke. Earlier that year he had two operations by an English occulist to try to cure his blindness. His sight was restored on July 18, just 10 days before his death.
1794: Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the French Revolution, was guillotined in Paris.
1865: Doctor Edward Pritchard was hanged in Glasgow for poisoning his mother-in-law and wife. It was the last public hanging in Scotland.
1866: Beatrix Potter was born in London – she was the author and illustrator who created Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin and Jemima Puddleduck, among others.
1945: A US bomber crashed into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, killing three crew.
1959: Postcodes were introduced into Britain by the Postmaster General together with new postal sorting machines.
1976: One of the greatest natural disasters of recent centuries occurred when an earthquake hit Tangshan in China, killing threequarters of a million people.
1987: Laura Davies became the first Briton to win the US Women’s Open. BIRTHDAYS: Sir Garfield Sobers, former cricketer, 84; Riccardo Muti, conductor, 79; Elizabeth Berkley, actress, 48; Justin Lee Collins, comedian/TV presenter, 46; Michael Carrick, footballer, 39; Cher Lloyd, singer, 27; Harry Kane, footballer, 27.