On this day: Braveheart won five Academy Awards

1780: The first Sunday newspaper in Britain was published: the British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.

1793: Holy Roman Empire declared war on France.

1805: Herbal pills to alleviate rheumatism, leprosy and scurvy were patented by Richard Brandon.

1839: The Henley Rowing Regatta at Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, was inaugurated.

1885: The first cremation in Britain took place at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.

1918: Allies appointed Marshal Foch as Allied commander-in-chief.

1923: Regular daily weather forecasting began on BBC radio.

1927: Gaumont-British Film Corporation was founded.

1931: Treaty of friendship was signed between Iraq and Transjordan.

1934: Driving tests were introduced in Britain.

1937: Popeye the Sailor Man became the first cartoon character to have a statue erected. The residents of Crystal City, Texas, raised one to him because the principal crop grown in the area is his favourite spinach.

1942: Nazis began deportation of Jews to Auschwitz.

1945: Battle of Iwo Jima ended.

1953: In the US, Doctor Jonas E Salk announced new vaccine to immunise against polio.

1972: Britain and Malta signed new seven-year agreement on use of strategic military facilities on the island.

1973: Susan Shaw became the first woman to set foot on the floor of the 171-year-old London Stock Exchange.

1981: The “Gang of Four” Labour dissidents started the Social Democratic Party with the Limehouse Declaration.

1986: Libyan radio called for Arab suicide squads to strike American embassies and other interests “wherever they may be”.

1990: Police fired on demonstrators in Sebokeng, South Africa, killing 11 people and wounding hundreds.

1992: The former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was jailed for six years for raping a beauty queen, Desiree Washington.

1996: Mel Gibson’s film about William Wallace, Braveheart, won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, at the Oscars.

1997: Thirty-nine members of the Heavens Gate cult committed mass suicide near San Diego.

2006: A ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces came into effect in Scotland. Smokers breaking the law faced a £50 fine.

2009: Police in Scotland revealed that there were 74 domestic abuse attacks each day; or 270,000 a year.

BIRTHDAYS

Alan Arkin, actor, 79; Pierre Boulez, conductor and composer, 88; James Caan, actor, 73; Kyung-Wha Chung, Korean violinist, 65; Jennifer Grey, actress, 53; William Hague, Foreign Secretary, 52; Elizabeth Jane Howard CBE, novelist, 90; Erica Jong, writer, 71; Keira Knightley, actress, 28; Leonard Nimoy, actor (Mr Spock) and producer, 82; Ian Tough, Glasgow-born actor (The Krankies), 66.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1887 “Chico” Marx, film comedian; 1911 Tennessee Williams, dramatist; 1916 WJ Edrich, cricketer; 1923 Sir Charles Wheeler, journalist and broadcaster.

Deaths: 1726 Sir John Vanbrugh, playwright and architect of Blenheim Palace; 1797 James Hutton, Edinburgh-born geologist; 1827 Ludwig van Beethoven, composer; 1834 Jean Armour, widow of Robert Burns; 1923 Sarah Bernhardt, actress.

On this day: Braveheart won five Academy Awards | Ludwig van Beethoven died