868: St Edmund, Saxon king of East Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings, who tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, then beheaded him. He was enshrined at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

1787: Sir Samuel Cunard, shipowner, was born in Nova Scotia. He came to Britain in 1838 and, with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line.

1818: Simon Bolivar declared Venezuela independent of Spain.

1906: Charles Rolls and Henry Royce collaborated to form the car company, Rolls-Royce Ltd. On the same day in 1931, the company bought Bentley Motors.

1944: After five years of blackout, the lights were switched on again in Piccadilly, Strand and Fleet Street.

1945: The Nuremberg War Crimes trial of Nazis, including Goering, Hess, and Ribbentrop, began. It lasted 218 days.

1947: Princess Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten. It was the most glamorous royal occasion since before the war and the BBC covered it in 42 different languages.

1951: Snowdonia in Wales was designated a National Park.

1975: General Franco, dictator of Spain for 35 years, died aged 82.

1979: Anthony Blunt, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, was stripped of his knighthood after being exposed as the Fourth Man in the Burgess, Maclean and Philby spy scandal.

On this day last year: Transport Secretary Stephen Byers gave the go-ahead to the proposed £2.5 billion fifth terminal at Heathrow airport, winning praise from industry and unions but condemnation from environmental groups.

BIRTHDAYS: Joe Walsh, rock musician (The Eagles), 55; Bo Derek, actress, 46; Sean Young, actress, 42; Dave Watson, footballer, 41.