On this day – February 18

NATIONAL DAYS OF GAMBIA AND NEPAL

1478: George, Duke of Clarence, was murdered in the Tower of London. According to legend, he drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine.

1516: Mary I, Queen of England (1553-1558), daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, was born in Greenwich.

1546: Martin Luther, father of the Reformation, died at his birthplace at Eisleben, Germany, aged 62 – supposedly of overwork.

1564: The great Renaissance artist and sculptor Michelangelo died in Rome, aged 88.

1678: John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress was published.

1745: Count Alessandro Volta, physicist who devised the first battery, was born in Como, Italy. He gave his name to the electrical unit volt.

1911: More than 6,000 letters and postcards were flown five miles from Allahabad to Naini Junction in India by Henri Picquet – the first official airmail.

1915: Germany’s blockade of Britain by submarine began.

1930: American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto from a series of pictures taken the previous month at Lowell Observatory.

2005: Fox hunting became illegal in England and Wales. The Hunting Act outlawed hunting with dogs.

ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: Wallace Smith Broecker, a scientist who raised early alarms about climate change and popularised the term “global warming”, died aged 87.

BIRTHDAYS: Yoko Ono, artist/singer, 87; Graeme Garden, actor, comedian and presenter, 77; Michael Buerk, broadcaster, 74; Sinead Cusack, actress, 72; Cybill Shepherd, actress; 70; Randy Crawford, singer, 68; John Travolta, actor, 66; Greta Scacchi, actress, 60; Matt Dillon, actor, 56; Colin Jackson, athlete turned commentator/presenter, 53; Molly Ringwald, actress, 52; Gary Neville, former footballer, 45.