1530: Cardinal Wolsey was arrested as a traitor and recalled to London. On the way he died at Leicester, and was buried there in Abbey Park.

1832: Louisa M Alcott, author of Little Women, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

1895: Busby Berkeley, choreographer and director who devised a style which revolutionised Hollywood musicals, was born. His kaleidoscopic ballets, with overhead shots to show the changing patterns his dancers could create, were his trademark in films such as 42nd Street and The Gold Diggers Of 1933.

1907: Florence Nightingale, the "Lady of the Lamp", was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work during the Crimean War.

1929: US admiral Richard Byrd, with pilot Bernt Balchen, became the first man to fly over the South Pole.

1932: The first performance took place of Cole Porter's The Gay Divorcee in New York starring Fred Astaire and featuring the song Night And Day.

1934: First broadcast of a royal wedding - that of the Duke of Kent and Princess Marina in Westminster Abbey.

1954: Sir George Robey, comedian and actor, died. He introduced the song If You Were The Only Girl In The World during World War One.

1965: Mary Whitehouse began her clean-up TV campaign by setting up the National Viewers and Listeners Association to tackle "bad taste and irresponsibility".

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Survivors and relatives of some of the 10 victims of the Selby train disaster wept as they heard a tape of the crash which happened after Gary Hart's Land Rover careered off a main road and on to the tracks.

BIRTHDAYS: Derek Jameson, journalist and broadcaster, 73; Dame Shirley Porter, politician, 72; Jacques Chirac, French politician, 70; Diane Ladd, actress, 70; John Mayall, blues singer, 67; David Rintoul, actor, 54; Lisa Maxwell, entertainer, 39; Don Cheadle, actor, 38; Ryan Giggs, footballer, 29.

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