On this day: Cassius Clay beats Henry Cooper to keep title

1966: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beat Henry Cooper to retain world heavyweight boxing title. Picture: Getty

1502: The South Atlantic island of St Helena was discovered by Portuguese explorer Joao de Nova.

1840: New Zealand was declared a colony of Britain.

1884: The Statue of Liberty was finished, work having been begun by Auguste Bartholdi in about 1874 in Paris.

1894: The 35-mile Manchester Ship Canal was formally opened by Queen Victoria.

1904: The football federation Fifa was founded in Paris to improve international control of the game.

1916: Daylight saving, advocated by William Willett, was introduced in Britain.

1927: Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh, United States airmail pilot, became the first to fly the Atlantic solo from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York to Le Bourget airfield, Paris, in 33 hours in a single-engined monoplane Spirit of St Louis, to win a prize of $25,000. Because of the weight of fuel he had no parachute, wireless, or window panes.

1944: Allied forces broke through Hitler Line in Italy.

1964: United States disclosed that its planes were making reconnaissance flights over central Laos to gain information on Communist forces.

1967: Department store fire in Brussels killed 332.

1966: Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) beat Henry Cooper to retain world heavyweight boxing title.

1982: British troops landed at Port San Carlos on Argentine-held Falkland Islands. Destroyer HMS Ardent sunk with loss of 22 lives. In air battle as liner Canberra was strafed, 17 Argentine planes were shot down.

1984: In Bombay, troops fought thousands of rioters in Hindu-Muslim violence that claimed 108 lives.

1989: Students occupying Tiananmen Square in Peking rejected government ultimatum to leave.

1990: The Labour Party warned members not to support the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, calling it a Militant front organisation.

1994: Dundee United beat Rangers 1-0 to win the Scottish Cup.

1995: Iran indicated that the six-year “death sentence” on author Salman Rushdie could be lifted.

2003: An earthquake hit northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.

2005: The tallest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka, opened at Six Flags Great Adventure, in New Jersey, United States.

2006: The Republic of Montenegro held a referendum proposing independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. The Montenegrin people chose independence with a majority of 55 per cent.

2011: The Rapture was predicted to take place.

2014: Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was jailed for three years by a court in Cairo after being found guilty of embezzlement.