Also on this day

1792: La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed.

1915: Battle of Gallipoli begins in First World War.

1953: James Watson, pictured, and Francis Crick publish paper on the double helix structure of DNA.

Cromwell helped create the New Model Army of Parliamentarians against the king, where he was second in command. Dubbed “Old Ironsides” he helped defeat the Cavalier forces and was one of the signatories to Charles I’s death warrant in 1649. He then led the bloody invasion of Ireland, where Irish Catholics had sided with the regrouping Royalists.

Upon victory he declared Catholicism illegal, and all Catholic land forfeit. He returned to the mainland, and later became Lord Protector – a king in all but name, and held the position until his death in 1658. His son Richard took the helm but lacked support and had to resign.

Reforms were then brought in to ensure the return of the monarchy, and Charles II,

Charles’s son, took the throne in 1660.

On January 30, 1661 – 12 years after the king’s execution – Cromwell was exhumed and beheaded, with his head put on top of a pole at Westminster Hall. It is now rumoured to reside at Sydney Sussex College in Cambridge, where Cromwell briefly studied.

Question: On this day in 1960, US naval submarine the USS Triton was the first to achieve what?

Last week I asked: On April 18, 1912, a ship arrived in New York carrying 705 survivors from the Titanic. What was her name? THE CARPATHIA