On this day: Battle of Bannockburn | King Henry VIII coronation

Midsummer Day.

1314: King Robert the Bruce inflicted a crushing defeat on Edward II of England at the Battle of Bannockburn.

1348: The Order of the Garter was instituted.

1497: John Cabot, explorer and navigator, landed at Cape Breton Island.

1509: The coronation of King Henry VIII took place.

1722: Queen Anne ordered French people in Nova Scotia to take oath of allegiance to her government within a year or leave.

1859: Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman travelling through Italy, saw the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino and was inspired to found the International Red Cross.

1887: The St John Ambulance Brigade was established by bringing under central control several local corps, which had been formed by people qualified in first aid under the St John Ambulance Association (formed ten years earlier).

1917: Russian Black Sea fleet mutinied at Sebastopol.

1948: Russia began the blockade of Berlin, stopping all land traffic between the capital and the west.

1952: United States Air Force bombed hydro-electric plants in North Korea.

1953: The Honours of Scotland, Crown, Sword of State and Sceptre, were carried in procession before the Queen on her first state visit to Scotland after her accession. It was the first occasion that the regalia had been borne in public since the visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822.

1989: British television series Thomas The Tank Engine won an Emmy Award in United States for outstanding direction.

1990: The Reverend Irene Templeton and the Reverend Kathleen Young became first women to be ordained as Anglican priests, at St Anne’s Cathedral, Belfast.

1995: South Africa won the Rugby Union World Cup, beating New Zealand 15-12 in extra time.

2002: The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania killed 281, the worst train accident in African history.

2004: In New York state, capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.

2007: Gordon Brown vowed to deliver “power to the people” when he was confirmed as Labour Party leader at a party conference in Manchester, three days before taking over from Tony Blair as prime minister.

2007: The Angora Fire started near South Lake Tahoe, California, destroying over 200 structures in its first 48 hours

2010: American John Isner of the defeated Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.