On this day

1216 - King John died during a Civil War after he refused to recognize the Magna Carta signed the previous year.

1914 - The start of the Battle of Ypres in World War One which saw the British and French defeat repeated German attempts to break their lines in an attempt to capture the channel ports.

1977 - The body of kidnapped businessman Hanns-Martin Schleyer was found in the boot of a car in the French town of Mulhouse. Mr Schleyer's family had previously tried to pay his kidnapper's £5 million ransom.

1987 - Shares in America plunged in value, prompting the world's stock market to collapse. The calamity came after shares on Wall Street suffered a wave of panic selling. Losses were worse than the infamous 'Black Monday' in 1929.

1989 - The 'Guildford Four', jailed for life in 1975 for a fatal bombing campaign in the pubs of Guildford, were set free after their conviction was thrown out by the Court of Appeal. Gerard Conlon, Patrick Armstrong, Carole Richardson and Paul Hill had been found guilty of killing five people and injuring more than 100.