Some notable facts about this date, for more, visit http://www.onthisday.com
Facts
1661 Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years
1815 Burned US Library of Congress re-established with Thomas Jefferson's 6,500 volumes
1933 President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor of Germany who forms a government with Franz von Papen
1939 Hitler threatens the Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament)
1948 Mahatma Gandhi assassinated by Nathuram Godse
1965 State funeral of Winston Churchill at St Paul's Cathedral in London. Then world's largest ever state funeral.
1972 'Bloody Sunday': 27 unarmed civilians are shot (of whom 14 were killed) by the British Army during a civil rights march in Derry; this is the highest death toll from a single shooting incident during 'the Troubles'
2003 Richard Reid sentenced to life in prison for attempting to bomb an American Airlines flight with 197 on board
2017 Scientists in central China reveal oldest known human ancestor - 540-million-year-old Saccorhytus in a fossil
Deaths
1181 Emperor Takakura of Japan (b. 1161)
1649 Charles I, King of Great Britain (1625-49), beheaded for treason by Parliament at 48
1836 Betsy Ross [Elizabeth Griscom], American seamstress widely credited with making the first American flag, dies at 84
1926 Barbara La Marr, American actress (The White Moth), dies at 29
1948 Mahatma Gandhi, India's political and spiritual leader, assassinated in New Delhi by Hindu extremists at 78
1948 Orville Wright, US aviation pioneer, dies at 76
1956 Jane Seymour, actress (Young Mr Bobbin), dies at 56
1970 Malcolm Keen, British actor ( The Lodger, The Manxman, The Murder Party), dies at 82
1982 Lightnin' [Sam] Hopkins, American blues musician (Ball of Twine), dies of esophageal cancer at 69
1991 John Bardeen, American physicist, electrical engineer and co-inventor of the transistor (Nobel 1956, 1972), dies of heart disease at 82
2007 Sidney Sheldon, American novelist and playwright (Master of the Game, Bloodline, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer), dies of pneumonia at 89
2008 Jeremy Beadle, British television host (Beadle's About), dies of pneumonia at 59
2015 Geraldine McEwan, English actress (Agatha Christie's Miss Marple), dies at 82
2016 Frank Finlay, English actor (Bouquet of Barbed Wire), dies at 89
Sport
1928 21st Women's Australian Championships: Daphne Akhurst beats Esna Boyd (7-5, 6-2)
1956 44th Men's Australian Championships: Lew Hoad beats Ken Rosewall (6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5)
1967 55th Men's Australian Championships: Roy Emerson beats Arthur Ashe (6-4, 6-1, 6-4)
1983 Hilbert van Thumb becomes European skating champ
1994 Kapil Dev equals Richard Hadlee's world record of 431 Test wkts
2011 99th Men's Australian Open: Novak Đoković beats Andy Murray (6-4, 6-2, 6-3)
Films and TV
1931 "City Lights", American silent romantic comedy film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring himself and Virginia Cherrill, premieres at Los Angeles Theater
1933 "Lone Ranger" begins a 21-year run on ABC radio
1981 8th American Music Awards: Barbra Streisand & Kenny Rogers win
1995 Belgium's TV channel 2 in Flanders goes on the air
Born on this day
1981 Dimitar Berbatov, Bulgarian footballer
1981 Peter Crouch, English footballer
A Couple of Pics from those no longer with us
Jeremy Beadle
Frank Finlay
