1587: Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringay Castle in Northamptonshire, implicated in a Catholic plot to overthrow Elizabeth I.

1725: Catherine I became Empress of Russia on the death of her husband Peter the Great.

1819: John Ruskin, writer and artist, was born in London.

1886: Rioting and looting followed a protest march by the unemployed in Trafalgar Square.

1904: The Russo-Japanese War broke out, provoked by Russian penetration into Manchuria and Korea.

1915: DW Griffiths's epic The Birth Of A Nation was released.

1931: James Dean, cult actor, (pictured) was born in Marion, Indiana. He made just three films, East of Eden, Rebel Without A Cause and Giant, before he died in a car smash.

1965: The Government announced a ban on cigarette advertising on TV.

1976: Fourteen British mercenaries died by firing squad in Angola.

1990: American pop singer Del Shannon shot himself.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Former Minister for Europe Keith Vaz faced a month-long suspension from the House of Commons after he was found to have committed "serious breaches" of the MPs' code of conduct.

BIRTHDAYS:

John Williams, film score composer (Jaws, Star Wars), 71; Nick Nolte, actor, 62; Mary Steenburgen, actress, 50; John Grisham, author, 48; Ralf Little, Bury-born actor and ex-Bolton School pupil, 22.