On this day

1547: Coronation of nine-year-old Edward VI, only son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

1653: Admiral Robert Blake defeated the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp off Portsmouth.

1938: Anthony Eden resigned as British Foreign Secretary, in protest over prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy.

1947: Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed the last Viceroy of India - the same day the Government announced the British would leave India by June 1948.

1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit when he circled the Earth three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

1978: A judge indicted Isabel Peron, ex-president of Argentina, for fraudulent use of £8 million from a state-run charity.

1985: Contraceptives were first sold in the Irish Republic.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A pile-up involving around 200 vehicles in Canada was being blamed on sudden blizzardlike conditions.