1919 – The birth of Ian (Douglas) Smith, Rhodesian Prime Minister who advocated white supremacy and unilaterally declared independence (UDI) from Britain in 1965. After the transfer of power to the black majority in 1979, he was elected a member of parliament in the government of Robert Mugabe.

1925 – The Australian Government and the British Colonial Office offered low interest loans to encourage Britons to borrow the money to emigrate to Australia.

1946 – The League of Nations held its last meeting in Geneva before dissolution. It was replaced by the United Nations (UN).

1953 – British colonial authorities in Kenya sentenced Jomo Kenyatta to seven years’ imprisonment. He allegedly organized the extremist Mau Mau in their violence against white settlers and the colonial government.

1968 – BOAC Flight 712 bound for Sydney caught fire shortly after take off from London Heathrow Airport. As a result of her heroic actions in the accident which claimed her life, Barbara Jane Harrison, a British air stewardess, was awarded a posthumous George Cross, the first GC awarded to a woman in peacetime.

1990 – British golfer Nick Faldo won his second successive US Masters after a play-off.

1995 – British-born Nicholas Ingram was executed in the electric chair in the US after two appeals to the US Supreme Court were turned down. He had been on death row since 1983 for murdering J C Sawyer and injuring his wife, Eunice Sawyer, during a robbery.

1997 – The results of the first ultrasonic scan of the front of the Titanic revealed a series of six short slits as the principal damage to the ship after it struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic in 1912. There is a memorial in Southampton to the 35 engineer officers who battled to keep Titanic afloat during her fated maiden voyage.

1988 – Alan Shearer makes his starting debut for Southampton against Arsenal and at 17 years 240 days becomes the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the top flight.

2012 – 35 year old Trenton Oldfield was charged over an incident which led to the 158th University Boat Race being halted halfway through. He swam in front of the boats, protesting about university elitism and narrowly avoided being hit by the oars of the Oxford crew.

2013 – The death of former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher, aged 87. She was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and the first woman to have held the role.

2014 – The start of the first state visit by an Irish head of state (President Michael D Higgins). A state banquet at Windsor Castle was also attended by former IRA commander Martin McGuinness.