ON THIS DAY

MAY 10

1850: Sir Thomas Lipton, founder of on’s grocery chain, who went from

d boy to millionaire by the age of was born in Glasgow.

57: The Sepoy Rebellion broke out in Meerut, triggering the Indian Mutiny against British rule.

1941: The worst night of the London Blitz when the Houses of Parliament were damaged.

1941: Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy, parachuted into Scotland in an effort to negotiate a peace settlement, but was arrested and imprisoned for the remainder of the war.

MAY 11

330: Constantinople became the new capital of the Roman Empire.

1812: British Prime Minister Spencer rceval was shot dead by a bankrupt roker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons.

1981: Reggae singer Bob Marley died of cancer. 1985: A fire broke out in the main stand of Bradford City football ground and 56 spectators died.

1997: World chess champion Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM supercomputer Deep Blue.

MAY 12

1932: The kidnapped baby son of aviator Charles Lindbergh was found dead. 1935: Self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous was founded by William Wilson in Ohio.

1937: The coronation of King George VI took place in Westminster Abbey and was broadcast worldwide by the BBC. 1949: The Soviet blockade of Berlin ended after 11 months. It had cost the Allies #200 million to fly in food and essential supplies.

2008: An earthquake (measuring around 8.0 magnitude) occurred in Sichuan, China, killing more than 69,000 people.

MAY 13

1607: Captain John Smith landed on the Virginia coast and started the first permanent English settlement in the New World – Jamestown.

1846: The United States declared war on Mexico.

1981: Pope John Paul II survived an assassination attempt in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

MAY 14

1610: Henry IV of France, “Good King Henry”, was murdered by a mad monk in Paris.

1643: Louis XIV became King of France at the age of four years 231 days – and reigned for more than 72 years.

1727: Artist Thomas Gainsborough was born in Sudbury, Suffolk.

1796: Edward Jenner made his first vaccination against smallpox, and laid the foundation for modern immunology. 1948: Israel was established as a Jewish state following the partition of Palestine. 1955: Eastern Bloc countries signed the Warsaw Pact.