1545: The Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives. It was raised on October 11, 1982, and taken to Portsmouth Dockyard.

1553: Mary Tudor was proclaimed Queen and Lady Jane Grey, a Protestant, was sent to the Tower, where she was beheaded on February 12, 1554. Mary's reign was short - she died in 1558.

1814: Samuel Colt, inventor of the six-shot revolver, was born.

1843: At Wapping Dock, Prince Albert launched the world's largest ship, Brunel's 3,270-ton Great Britain.

1848: At a convention in Seneca Falls, New York state, female rights campaigner Amelia Bloomer introduced "bloomers" to the world, which she described as "the lower part of a rational dress".

1896: Novelist AJ Cronin, creator of Dr Finlay, was born in Cardross, Dunbartonshire.

1937: The creator of the immortal Peter Pan, JM Barrie, died.

1983: People searching a clay pit in Surrey discovered fossils of a previously unknown species of carnivorous dinosaur.

1990: MPs voted in favour of permanent televising of the House of Commons.

LAST YEAR: A walkout by BA's Heathrow Airport check-in staff disrupted 80,000 passengers.