ON THIS DAY

1625: Death of King James I, the first Stuart king of England and the first to rule both England and Scotland.

1703: Russia’s Tsar Peter the Great founds St Petersburg.

1899: The first international radio transmission is sent when inventor Guglielmo Marconi sends a wireless message from England to France.

1977: Two Boeing 747s, owned by KLM and PanAm, collide and burst into flames on runway at Tenerife in Canary Islands, killing 583 people.

1991: Commandos storm a jetliner in Singapore with 120 passengers aboard, killing four Pakistani hijackers after a nine-hour stand-off.

2002: Deaths of Oscar-winning filmmaker Billy Wilder, 95; US comedian Milton Berle, 93, and British actor-comedian Dudley Moore, 66.

BIRTHDAYS: Hip-hop singer Fergie is 44. Pop singer-songwriter Kimbra is 29.