On This Day: Template

German and Spanish mercenaries sack Rome and deface Raphael cartoons – an event that many scholars regard as the end of the Renaissance		1527
Incan forces besiege the city of Cuzco in an attempt to retake it from the Spanish		1536
Henry VIII orders that a Bible should be placed in every English church		1536
Peter Minuit 'purchases' Manhattan Island from native Americans for trinkets worth about $25		1626
A faction of the British Army removes Richard Cromwell as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and reinstalls the Rump Parliament		1659
Louis XIV of France moves his court to the Palace of Versailles		1682
Britain's Bob Whittaker beats Italy's Tito di Carni, in the first international boxing match, in London		1733
Poet Christopher Smart is admitted into St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in London, beginning his six–year confinement to mental asylums		1757
Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke		1782
Captain Thomas Cochrane – nicknamed Le Loup des Mers ('The Sea Wolf') by Napoleon, and said to be the inspiration for C. S. Forester's Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey – captures the 32–gun Spanish frigate El Gamo, in the 14–gun HMS Speedy		1801
The first issue of the New York Herald is published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr.		1835
The first postage stamp – the penny black – issued		1840
Linus Yale patents his lock		1851
Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, ends; Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia routs the Unionist Army of the Potomac		1863
Sioux chief Crazy Horse surrenders all claim to territories in Nebraska		1877
Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke are stabbed to death in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by Fenian 'Invincibles'		1882
Queen Victoria dedicates Epping Forest for the perpetual use of the people		1882
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris		1889
London bus conductors strike over a new ticket–issuing system		1891
Edward VII dies, and is succeeded by his son George V		1910
Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, hits his first major league home run		1915
Twenty–one Lebanese nationalists are executed in Martyrs' Square, Beirut by Djemal Pasha		1916
Zeppelin Hindenburg destroyed by fire after crashing at Lakehurst, New Jersey; 36 lives are lost		1937
John Steinbeck wins the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath		1940
Josef Stalin becomes leader of the Soviet government		1941
Corregidor surrenders to the Japanese		1942
At Cambridge University, EDSAC – the first practical electronic digital stored–program computer – runs its first operation		1949
Liz Taylor marries first husband Nicky Hilton		1950
25–year–old medical student Roger Bannister runs the first sub–four–minute mile (3 minutes 59.4 seconds) at Iffley Road, Oxford		1954
Icelandic gunboats open fire on British trawlers		1959
Princess Margaret marries Anthony Armstrong–Jones in Westminster Abbey; more than 20 million watch on television		1960
Tottenham Hotspur beat Leicester City 2–1 in the FA Cup final, becoming the first side to win the double (Football League and FA Cup) in the 20^th century		1961
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley sentenced to life imprisonment for the Moors Murders		1966
Spain closes its border with Gibraltar to foreigners		1968
Willy Brandt resigns as Chancellor of West Germany after one of his staff is found to be an East German spy		1974
Vermeer's The Guitar Player found in a London churchyard after being stolen from Kenwood House, Hampstead		1974
Experts in Bonn declare the so–called 'Hitler diaries' to be a fake		1983
103 Korean martyrs, who died between 1791 and 1888, are canonised by Pope John Paul II in Seoul		1984
P. W. Botha resigns from the South African Nationalist Party in protest at negotiations with the ANC		1990
Queen Elizabeth II and President François Mitterrand officiate at the opening of the Channel Tunnel		1994
The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after his disappearance		1996
Chancellor Gordon Brown announces that the Bank of England is to be given responsibility for setting interest rates and controlling inflation, effectively freeing it from political control		1997
Hundreds die as mudslides and floods sweep away buildings and vehicles in the province of Salerno, southern Italy		1998
Scotland votes for its new parliament and Wales for its new Assembly – making Labour comfortably the largest party in both, but without an overall majority in either		1999
During a trip to Syria, John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque		2001
Dutch "right–wing populist" politician and gay rights activist Pim Fortuyn is assassinated following a radio interview at the Mediapark in Hilversum		2002
The Dow–Jones average plunges almost 1000 points in just 36 minutes, in what is known as the 2010 Flash Crash		2010
Three women, kidnapped more than a decade earlier by bus driver Ariel Castro, are found alive in Cleveland, Ohio, after one of them escapes with her six–year–old daughter		2013
The United Nations reports that human activity has caused a catastrophic decline in the Earth's biodiversity, unprecedented in human history		2019
Prince Archie Harrison Mountbatten–Windsor is born, becoming seventh in line to the throne		2019

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