National day of Argentina

1191: Richard I (the Lionheart) married Berengaria, reputed to be extremely ugly.

1540: Henry VIII divorced his fourth wife Anne of Cleves, nicknamed The Flanders Mare, after six months of marriage.

1872: The first doughnut cutter was patented in America by John Blondel. A sea captain, he is said to have invented the hole so he could slip the doughnut over the ship's wheel while steering.

1877: Wimbledon staged its first lawn tennis championship at its original site in Worple Road.

1938: Gas masks were issued to Britain's civilian population in anticipation of the war with Germany.

1951: As the McCarthy witchhunts gathered pace in the USA, novelist Dashiell Hammett was jailed for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

1954: Australia's Peter Thompson, aged 24, became the youngest winner of the British Open Golf Championship.

1955: Bill Haley and His Comets went to No 1 in the US pop charts with Rock Around The Clock.

1984: A bolt of lightning set fire to York Minster. The 700-year-old building suffered serious damage to the south transept but the famous Rose Window survived.

LAST YEAR: Six managers from Network Rail and Balfour Beatty were charged with manslaughter over the Hatfield crash.