On this day: Harold Wilson retired | Sachin Tendulkar’s 100 centuries

16 MARCH

1521: Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached Philippine Islands.

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

1872: The first English FA Cup final took place. Wanderers, a team formed by university and former 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 to Emile Roger of Paris, who bought a petrol-driven Benz.

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

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

1935: Hitler renounced the Versailles Treaty and introduced conscription in Germany.

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 the United States.

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

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 before.

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 handed over Jericho to Palestinian control.

2009: Robin Barr revealed 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.

BIRTHDAYS

Richard Noble OBE, former world land speed record holder 1983-97, 67; Graham Cole OBE, actor, 61; Erik Estrada, actor, 64; Peaches Geldof, socialite, 24; Isabelle Huppert, actress, 60; Jerry Lewis, film comedian, 87; Jimmy Nail, actor and singer, 58; Kate Nelligan, actress, 63; Sir Roger Norrington CBE, conductor, 79; Anne Mather Smith, Lady Smith, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 58.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1750 Caroline Herschel, astronomer sister of Sir William Herschel, with whom she collaborated; 1787 Georg Ohm, physicist specialising in electricity; 1969 Alexander McQueen CBE, fashion designer.

Deaths: 1741 Jean Baptiste Rousseau, poet; 1898 Aubrey Beardsley, author and illustrator; 1935 John James Macleod, physiologist, pioneer of insulin and Nobel laureate (in Aberdeen).