On this day: Henry Cooper v Joe Bugner at Wembley

Boxers Henry Cooper (left) and Joe Bugner before the fight at Wembley in 1971 which proved to be Coopers last. Picture: Getty

Events, birthdays and anniversaries for 16 March

1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached Philippine Islands.

1660: England’s Long Parliament was dissolved after sitting for 20 years.

1802: The United States Military Academy at West Point was established.

1872: The first English FA Cup final took place. Wanderers, a team formed by university and ex-public school players, beat the Royal Engineers 1-0 at The Oval in London.

1888: The first recorded sale of a manufactured motor car was made to Emile Roger of Paris, who bought a petrol-driven Benz.

1900: Sir Arthur Evans uncovered the ancient city of Knossos on Crete.

1904: The first books of stamps were issued by the GPO. They cost two shillings-and-a-halfpenny for 24 penny stamps.

1926: The first liquid-fuelled rocket was demonstrated in America, by Doctor Robert H Goddard.

1935: Hitler renounced the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription.

1947: Almost 600,000 acres of farming land were submerged by floodwater on the Fens and a million sheep died as the River Ouse overflowed. Storm damage came to more than £20 million.

1971: Boxer Henry Cooper announced his retirement after losing his title to Joe Bugner.

1973: The Queen opened the new London Bridge. The old one was sold to an oil tycoon for £1 million, and rebuilt at Lake Havasu in America.

1976: Harold Wilson retired as prime minister after leading the Labour Party for 13 years.

1980: Alan Minter outpointed Vito Antuofermo of the United States to win the world middleweight title.

1988: A Loyalist gunman opened fire indiscriminately and hurled grenades into a crowd of mourners at an IRA funeral for three people killed by the SAS in Gibraltar ten days previously.

1995: Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865.

1998: Pope John Paul II asked God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust.

2005: Israel officially handed over Jericho to Palestinian control.

2009: Robin Barr announced that he was to retire as chairman of AG Barr, the makers of Irn-Bru, after more than 50 years at the family business.

2010: Scotland approved ten marine energy projects in the Pentland Firth which would have the potential to power a third of the country’s homes.

2011: The world’s largest online child abuse ring, with up to 70,000 followers, was smashed, police revealed.

2012: Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar became the first player to score 100 international centuries by compiling a ton in a one-day defeat against Bangladesh in Dhaka.

2014: Following a referendum in Crimea, 97 per cent of voters backed a proposal to join Russia.

BIRTHDAYS

Isabelle Huppert, actress, 62; Teresa Berganza, Spanish mezzo-soprano, 80; Bernardo Bertolucci, film director, 74; Graham Cole OBE, actor, 63; Erik Estrada, actor, 66; Jerry Lewis, film comedian, 89; Jimmy Nail, actor and singer, 61; Kate Nelligan, actress, 65; Sir Roger Norrington CBE, conductor, 81; Anne Mather Smith, Lady Smith, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 60; Theo Walcott, footballer, 26; Simon Zebo, Irish rugby union player, 25.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1581 Pieter Hooft, Dutch historian and lyric poet; 1750 Caroline Herschel, astronomer; 1751 James Madison, 4th United States president; 1774 Matthew Flinders, naval officer and navigator; 1787 Georg Ohm, physicist specialising in electricity; 1823 William Henry Monk, organist and first editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern; 1839 Modest Mussorgsky, composer; 1908 Robert Rosen, film director; 1920 Leo McKern, actor; 1969 Alexander McQueen CBE, British fashion designer.

Deaths: 455 Pope Velentinian III; 1741 Jean Baptiste Rousseau, poet; 1792 King Gustav III of Sweden (assassinated); 1878 William Banting, pioneer of slimming by diet control; 1898 Aubrey Beardsley, author and illustrator; 1935 John James Macleod, physiologist, pioneer of insulin and Nobel laureate (in Aberdeen); 1937 Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, Conservative statesman who negotiated the signing of the Locarno Pact; 1940 Selma Lagerlof, novelist (first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature); 1963 Lord Beveridge, social security pioneer; 1971 Thomas Dewey, Republican prematurely proclaimed victor over Harry Truman in 1948 United States presidential election.