ON THIS DAY
■■ 1431: Joan of Arc, French peasant girl who became a national heroine, was burned at the stake in Rouen for heresy. She was canonised in 1920 on the anniversary of her death.
■■1498: Christopher Columbus set sail on his third voyage of discovery in which he would discover the South American mainland.
■■ 1536: King Henry VIII married Jane Seymour, the third of his six wives, in the Queen’s Chapel, Whitehall, 11 days after the execution of Anne Boleyn.
■■1593: Christopher Marlowe, English playwright who greatly influenced Shakespeare, was killed in a tavern brawl.
■■ 1656: The Grenadier Guards, the senior regiment of the British Army, was formed.
■■1672: Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, was born in Moscow. He decided that all Russians should be clean-shaven. Those exempted had to pay a beard tax.
■■ 1842: An attempt was made on the life of Queen Victoria as she drove down Constitution Hill with Prince Albert. The would-be assassin was John Francis.
■■1946: Labour minister of food John Strachey announced that bread would be rationed, with the greatest allowance going to manual workers in heavy industry.
■■ 1959: The first full-sized experimental hovercraft, built by Saunders-Roe, was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
■■1989: Cliff Richard released his 100th pop single.
■■ ON THIS DAY LAST YEAR: A group of leading technology experts warned that artificial intelligence technology should be considered a societal risk, prioritised in the same class as pandemics and nuclear wars.
■■BIRTHDAYS: Harry Enfield, comedian, 63; Wynonna Judd, country singer/actress, 60; Tim Burgess, rock singer (The Charlatans), 57; Andy Farrell, former rugby player, 49; Steven Gerrard, former footballer, 44; Jennifer Ellison, actress, 41, above; Jonathan Fox, swimmer, 33.
■■ The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2021 was 65.7%