1265: The first English Parliament met at Westminster Hall.

1649: The trial of Charles I began.

1779: David Garrick, English actor and theatre manager, died and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

1841: Hong Kong was ceded to Britain by China after the Opium Wars.

1892: The first game of basketball was played at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1900: John Ruskin, painter and social reformer, died at Coniston in the Lake District.

1901: Six states formed the Commonwealth of Australia.

1936: George V died, and Edward VIII acceded to the throne. He abdicated after 325 days.

1944: The RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

1961: John F Kennedy was inaugurated as the thirty-fifth President of the United States.

1993: William Jefferson Clinton, pictured, was sworn in as the forty-second President of the United States.

On this day last year: Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called for the al Qaida suspects being held at the US base in Cuba must be treated "humanely and in accordance with customary international law".

BIRTHDAYS:

PATRICIA Neal, actress, 77; Dr Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, astronaut, 73; Tom Baker, actor, pictured, 67; Frances Shand Kydd, grandmother of Princes Harry and William, 67; Eddie Shah, publisher, 59; David Lynch, film director 57; Liza Goddard, actress, 53; The Countess of Wessex, 38; Heather Small, singer, 38; Nicky Wire, rock bassist (Manic Street Preachers), 34; Skeet Ulrich, actor, 33; Gary Barlow, singer, 32.