NOW & THEN
6 AUGUST
1497: Italian explorer John Cabot returned to Bristol from Newfoundland, the first European to come back from North America since the Vikings.
1675: Russian Tsar Alexis banned foreign hairstyles worn by anyone other than nobility.
1806: The Holy Roman Empire ended. (It had not been holy, Roman, nor an empire). Francis II renounced the title as its emperor and became emperor of Austria.
1844: The first press telegram in Britain was sent to the Times, announcing the birth at 7.50am of Prince Alfred to Queen Victoria.
1856: The Great Bell, to become known as Big Ben, was cast in the Great clock at Westminster.
1859: “Worth a guinea a box” appeared on Beecham’s Powders’ packets and advertising material to promote the patent medicine. It was one of the first advertising slogans.
1915: The Allies landed at Gallipoli.
1926: American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel, crossing from Cape Gris Nez to Deal in 14 hours 30 minutes, almost two hours faster than her five male predecessors.
1942: Montgomery took command of Eighth Army.
1945: With the approval of president Harry S Truman, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, from a Boeing B29 bomber, Enola Gay.
1948: Fanny Blankers-koen of the Netherlands, known as the “Flying Housewife”, became the first woman to win four Olympic gold medals when she triumphed in the 100 metres, the 80m hurdles, 200m and 4x100m at Wembley Stadium, London.
1949: John Haigh, 39, acid bath murderer, was executed at Wandsworth Prison, London.
1962: Jamaica became independent after being a British colony for more than 300 years.
1966: Muhammad Ali retained his world heavyweight title when he knocked out Brian London in the third round after landing 11 punches in three seconds at the Earls Court Exhibition Hall in London.
1970: Kevin Murphy became the first Briton to swim the English Channel both ways non-stop, taking 35 hours and 10 minutes.
1973: Singer Stevie Wonder was involved in a car crash and went into a coma which lasted four days.
1981: Former Argentine president Isabel Peron was freed after being held under house arrest for five years.
1990: Nearly 400 Britons and Americans were rounded up in Kuwait and taken to Iraq as first part of “human shield”.
1991: Serbia and Croatia proclaimed an “absolute and unconditional cease-fire” in the republic of Croatia.
1996: Nasa announced that life may have existed on Mars.
1997: Korean Air Flight 801, a Boeing 747-300, crashed into the jungle on Guam on approach to the airport, killing 228 people.
2011: More than 40 people were arrested after rioting saw police attacked and buildings and vehicles set alight in Tottenham, north London, following the fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan on 4 August.
2012: Mount Tongariro in New Zealand erupted for the first time.