On this day

1422: King Henry V of England died in Vincennes, France, struck down with dysentery. He was succeeded by his nine-month-old infant son, Henry VI.

1888: Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck’s Row in the East End of London.

1900: Coca-Cola first went on sale in Britain.

1908: At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years, WG Grace retired from first-class cricket. He scored 54,896 runs and 126 centuries, took 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.

1936: Elizabeth Cowell, Britain’s first female TV announcer, made her debut at Alexandra Palace.

1957: Malaya became independent. On the same day in 1962, Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies also became independent, having been a British possession since 1802.

1962: Chris Bonington and Ian Clough became the first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger in Switzerland.

1969: Rocky Marciano, American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1952 to 1956, who retired undefeated, was killed in an air crash in Iowa.

1972: American swimmer Mark Spitz won his fifth gold medal at the Munich Olympics.

1997: Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a car crash in central Paris along with Dodi Fayed.

2012: The German manufacturer of anti-morning sickness drug Thalidomide apologised for the thousands of children born without limbs as a result of its use.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Berlin Zoo’s popular twin panda cubs celebrated their first birthday with a frozen cake and a portion of snow from the penguin house.