1819: Troops broke up a meeting to demand Parliamentary reforms on St Peter's Field, Manchester. Eleven died in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre.

1927: Wembley Stadium was sold for use as a greyhound racing track.

1948: Legendary baseball player George Herman "Babe" Ruth died in New York aged of 53.

1949: Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With The Wind, died after being knocked down by a car.

1952: Severe thunderstorms in Somerset and Devon devastated the towns of Lynton and Lynmouth.

1956: Bela Lugosi, the horror actor who became a drug addict, died. He was buried, as he had stipulated, in his famous Dracula cape.

1962: Pete Best, original drummer with The Beatles, was fired by Brian Epstein and replaced by Ringo Starr.

1977: The king of rock'n'roll, Elvis Presley, died in the bathroom of his home in Memphis, Tennessee, though he was actually pronounced dead at 3.30pm in the emergency room of the Baptist Hospital, Memphis.