1437: James I, King of Scotland, was assassinated by a group of dissident nobles led by Sir Robert Graham.

1547: Coronation of nine-year-old Edward VI, only son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

1653: Admiral Robert lake defeated the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp off Portsmouth.

1707: Aurangzeb, last of the great Mongul emperors of India, died in Delhi, aged 88.

1892: First performance of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan.

1938: Anthony Eden, resigned as British Foreign Secretary, being unable to support Prime Minister Chamberlain's appeasement policy.

1947: Lord Louis Mountbatten was appointed the last Viceroy of India - the same day that the Government announced that the British would leave India by June 1948.

1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit when he circled the earth three times in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7.

1978: A judge indicted Isabel Person, ex-President of Argentina, for fraudulent use of £8 million from the funds of a state-run charity.

1985: Contraceptives went on sale in the Irish Republic for the first time.