Today in history

1535 — Jacques Cartier sails from St Malo on his second voyage to Canada, to explore the St Lawrence River and discover the future Montreal.

1536 — Anne Boleyn, second wife of England’s King Henry VIII, is beheaded.

1554 — France’s King Henry II invades the Netherlands.

1585 — English shipping in Spanish ports is confiscated, serving as declaration of war.

1588 — The Spanish Armada sets sail for England, where it is soundly defeated.

1635 — In the Thirty Years War, France declares war on Spain.

1643 — The French, under the Duke of Enghien, heavily defeats the Spanish at the battle of Rocroi, destroying the Spanish infantry.

1849 — Irishman William Hamilton is arrested after firing blanks at Queen Victoria in London.

1900 — Britain annexes Tongan Islands in South Pacific.

1924 — Aviators Stanley Globre and Ivor Mcintyre complete first round-australia flight, taking 93 hours.

1930 — White women are enfranchised in South Africa.

1958 — British actor Ronald Colman dies. He was best known for his role in Lost Horizon.

1967 — The Soviet Union ratifies a treaty with the US and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space.

1974 — In France, Valery Giscard d’estaing defeats Francois Mitterrand for the presidency in a runoff vote.

1992 — Two doctors who performed an autopsy on John F Kennedy confirm the president died from two bullets fired from above and behind.

1994 — Former US first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies.

1997 — More than 350 people are killed when a cyclone sweeps coastal Bangladesh.

2004 — The world’s first embryonic stem cell bank opens in Britain.

2006 — The UN anti-torture watchdog calls for the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Apa Sherpa, 46, of Nepal climbs Mount Everest for the 16th time.

2010 — Top US scientists urge the government to take drastic action to raise the cost of using coal and oil to slow global warming.

2014 — Sir Jack Brabham, Australian three-time formula one champion, dies aged 88.

2016 — Egyptair Flight MS804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea while flying from Paris to Cairo. All 66 people on board the Airbus 320 are killed.

Today’s Birthdays: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (1762-1814); Jodi Picoult, American writer (1966-); Lily Cole, English model (1988-).