ON THIS DAY

APRIL 5

1614: American Indian Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe in Virginia.

1827: Joseph Lister, the surgeon who introduced antiseptics, was born in London.

1902: A stand at Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow collapsed during a Scotland v England match, killing 26 people and injuring more than 500.

1910: Kissing was banned on the French railways because it could cause delays. 1982: A British Task Force set out to recover the Falklands from their Argentine occupiers.

1199: Richard I, Coeur de Lion, King of England, was killed in battle.

1896: The opening ceremony of the first modern Olympic Games was held in Athens.

1909: US Commander Robert Peary became the first man to reach the North Pole – it was his sixth attempt in 15 years. 1944:PayAsYouEarnincometaxwas introduced in Britain.

1965: Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite, was launched by the United States.

1994: The presidents of the African states of Rwanda and Burundi died in a plane crash.

APRIL 7

1827: Matches, the invention of Stockton chemist John Walker, were sold for the first time. 1968: British world motor racing champion Jim Clark was killed in a crash at Hockenheim, Germany.

1978: US President Jimmy Carter took the decision to postpone production of the controversial neutron bomb.

1908: Liberal Herbert Henry Asquith became Prime Minister.

1925: The Australian government and the British Colonial Office offered lowinterest loans to enable Britons to emigrate to Australia.

1967: Bare-foot Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK with Puppet On A String.

1973: Death of Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor who pioneered Cubism, aged 91.

1986: Clint Eastwood was elected Mayor of Carmel in California.

2013: Former Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher died at the age of 87 following a stroke.

1483: The young Edward V acceded to the throne on the death of Edward IV. He was never crowned and disappeared, believed murdered, 75 days later.

1626: Francis Bacon, philosopher and statesman, died – apparently killed by a chicken. He was trying to stuff it with snow as a method of preservation, caught a chill and died.

1865: Confederate General Robert E Lee surrendered to General Grant in Virginia, bringing the American Civil War to an end.