1348: Edward III established the Order of the Garter.

1793: French King Louis XVI went on trial and was sentenced to the guillotine.

1840: American Charles Wilkes discovered the coast of Antarctica.

1853: Verdi's Il Trovatore was premiered in Rome.

1915: The first casualties were sustained in air raid over Britain, when a German Zeppelin bombed Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.

1937: The 18-year-old Margot Fonteyn made her debut in Giselle at Sadler's Wells.

1942: The Japanese invaded Burma.

1943: Singer Janis Joplin was born in Texas. Her typical drink-and-drugs rock lifestyle ended in early death in 1970.

1963: Snow and ice meant that only nine out of 63 League football fixtures could be played, and two of those were abandoned.

1966: Indira Ghandi became Prime Minister of India, following in the footsteps of her father Jawaharlal Nehru.

1990: England's rebel cricketers flew into South Africa as police used tear gas to disperse a crowd of 150 protesters at Johannesburg airport.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Terrorists linked to al Qaida remain at large in Britain and are using established terror groups, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens warned.