1540: Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry VIII, was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king's failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. On the same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1586: The first potatoes arrived in Britain in Plymouth, brought from Colombia by Sir Thomas Harriott.

1750: Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, died of a stroke.

1794: Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the French Revolution, was guillotined in Paris.

1865: Doctor Edward Pritchard was hanged in Glasgow for poisoning his mother-in-law and his wife. It was the last public hanging in Scotland.

1866: Children's author and illustrator Beatrix Potter was born in London.

1945: A US bomber crashed into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building, killing three crew.

1959: Postcodes were introduced into Britain.

1976: One of the greatest natural disasters of recent centuries occurred when an earthquake hit Tangshan in China, killing three-quarters of a million people.

1987: Laura Davies became the first Briton to win the US Women's Open.

LAST YEAR: Farmer Tony Martin was freed after serving two-thirds of his five-year jail sentence for killing a 16-year-old burglar and wounding his accomplice.