1461: England's bloodiest battle raged for 10 hours around the village of Towton in Yorkshire. More than 28,000 died as Henry VI's Lancastrian forces were crushed and the throne was claimed by Edward IV.

1788: Death of evangelist Charles Wesley, writer of more than 5,500 hymns.

1871: The Royal Albert Hall, London, built in memory of Prince Albert, was opened by Queen Victoria.

1886: The new fizzy drink was launched by graduate chemist John S Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia. Decribed as an Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage', it is now better known as Coca-Cola.

1912: Captain Robert Falcon Scott died in Antarctica returning from his expedition to the South Pole.

1940: Metal strips were introduced into the Bank of England £1 notes, as an anti-forgery device.

1951: First performance of The King And I at St James's Theatre, Broadway, with Yul Brynner as the King and Gertrude Lawrence as Anna.

1960: Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and US President Dwight D Eisenhower agreed on new proposals for a nuclear test ban treaty.

1973: The last US troops left Vietnam.

1974: The US spacecraft Mariner 10 took the first close-up pictures of Mercury.

1981: The first London marathon was won by Norwegian Inge Simonsen.

1993: Emma Thompson won the Oscar for best actress for her role in Howard's End.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A senior Ulster Unionist indicated his party would be prepared to accept an agreement on the return to Northern Ireland of IRA fugitives without going to jail.

BIRTHDAYS: Jack Jones, pensioners' champion and former TGWU leader, 90; Lord Tebbit, former Cabinet minister Norman Tebbit, 72; Julie Goodyear, actress, 60; Eric Idle, comic actor, 60; Vangelis, composer, 60; John Suchet, broadcaster, 59; John Major, former Prime Minister, 60; Terry Jacks, singer, 57; Christopher Lambert, actor, 46; Elle Macpherson, model, 39; Lucy Lawless, actress, 35; Steve Smith, athlete, 30; Jennifer Capriati, tennis player, 27.