On this day: Mary Queen of Scots death sentence announced

On this day in 1992 more than 100,000 protesters demonstrated against plans to close coal mines in the UK. Picture: Getty

1415: Battle of Agincourt at which England’s longbowmen defeated the French knights.

1586: Death sentence was pronounced against Mary Queen of Scots.

1854: Lord Cardigan led the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava.

1874: Britain annexed Fiji Islands.

1901: Joseph Chamberlain, colonial affairs secretary, made an anti-German speech in Edinburgh which led to a breakdown of the British-German Alliance.

1932: George Lansbury was elected leader of the Labour Party.

1938: Libya was declared part of Italy.

1941: Germany’s first offensive against Moscow in Second World War failed.

1951: Conservatives won general election Winston Churchill became prime minister. One of the unsuccessful Tories was Margaret Roberts (Baroness Thatcher), at 26 the youngest candidate.

1956: Egypt, Jordan and Syria formed unified military command.

1961: First issue of Private Eye was published.

1966: Indonesia’s former foreign minister Subandrio was sentenced to death.

1971: United Nations admitted China and expelled Nationalist Chinese.

1974: Foreign ministers of 19 Arab countries met in Rabat, Morocco, and voted strong support for Palestine Liberation Organisation.

1983: Six guests and hotel workers were killed and 15 injured when the Royal Darroch Hotel at Cults, Aberdeen, was destroyed by a gas explosion.

1987: Indian peacekeeping forces wrested control of most of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, but still faced Tamil rebel snipers.

1989: Soviet State Bank announced rouble would be devalued by nearly 90 per cent for tourists and businessmen.

1989: Britain agreed to repatriate 40,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong.

1990: Polly Peck International, one of Britain’s top 100 companies, with debts of more than £1.3 billion, called in administrators.

1992: About 100,000 protesters demonstrated in London against the government’s planned pit closures.

2007: Oil giant BP was fined a total of £182 million by the United States Department of Justice over a Texas refinery explosion in which 15 people died.

BIRTHDAYS

Katy Perry, American singer, 29; Imran Khan, cricketer and politician, 61; Fred Housego, Dundee-born taxi driver and Mastermind winner, 69; Jon Anderson, British rock singer (Yes), 69; Glynis Barber, actress (Dempsey and Makepeace), 58; Phil Daniels, actor, 55; Sir Martin Gilbert CBE, British historian, 77; Adam Goldberg, American actor, 43; Nick Hancock, TV presenter, 51; Mark McNulty, golfer, 60; Helen Reddy, Australian singer and songwriter, 72.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1340 Geoffrey Chaucer, author of Canterbury Tales; 1735 Dr James Beattie, Laurencekirk-born poet and philosopher; 1800 Thomas Babington (Lord) Macaulay, historian; 1838 Georges Bizet, composer (notably of the opera Carmen); 1881 Pablo Picasso, artist, and originator of Cubism;

Deaths: 1154 King Stephen of England; 1760 King George II; 1895 Sir Charles Hallé, conductor and pianist; 1989 Mary McCarthy, novelist; 1993 Vincent Price, actor; 2002 Richard Harris, actor; 2004 John Peel, disc jockey.

On this day: Mary Queen of Scots death sentence announced | Coal mines closure protest