On this day

1606: The Union flag became England’s official flag.

1709: The Tatler was first published.

1838: English settlers in South Africa defeated the Zulus at the Battle of Tugela.

1861: The American Civil War, a conflict between 23 northern states and 11 southern states, began with the siege of Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

1945: US President Franklin D Roosevelt died of a brain haemorrhage less than a month before the surrender of Germany to the Allies.

1954: Bill Haley recorded Rock Around The Clock, the first record to sell a million copies in Britain alone.

1961: The Russians made the first manned space flight with Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1.

1981: Death of Joe Louis, world heavyweight boxing champion dubbed the “Brown Bomber”. On the same day in 1989, Sugar Ray Robinson, unbeaten welterweight champion and five times winner of the middleweight title, died.

1992: Euro Disneyland opened near Paris.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Two of the astronauts on the near-disastrous Apollo 13 mission said they still considered the aborted trip a success, 50 years after the world watched their ordeal on TV.

Crowds pictured on opening day at Euro Disneyland near Paris.