Parliament annuls all honours granted by Charles I (1642), and Spain joins NATO (1982). Born on this day: Mikhail Bakunin, Steven Gerrard and Aleksei Leonov. Died: Voltaire, St. Joan of Arc and Peter Paul Rubens.
33 events, 60 births and 75 deaths on this date.
Parliament declared that every honour Charles I had handed out would be void, backdated to this day. It was one of many moves in the growing struggle between the king and Parliament that soon erupted into civil war.
Anthony van Dyck · Public domainSpain became the sixteenth member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a Western military alliance formed to counter the Soviet bloc. The move came just seven years after the death of Franco and marked a shift towards Western partnerships for the young democracy.
The Royal Navy cruiser HMS Cambrian struck a mine in the Solent, the strait between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland, and 23 sailors died. The sinking was one of many Allied warship losses to German mines laid in British coastal waters during the early war.
Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto arrived on Florida's Gulf coast with about 600 soldiers, hoping to find riches to match those of the Aztecs and Incas. His expedition went on to wander deep into what is now the American south-east for years.
As Victoria drove along Constitution Hill with Prince Albert, John Francis aimed a pistol at her carriage. The attempt failed, and it was one of several attacks on the queen during her reign.
Henry VIII wed Jane Seymour, a lady-in-waiting who had served his first two wives. She became his third queen just over a fortnight after Anne Boleyn was beheaded, and she died after giving birth to the longed-for son, Edward.
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Mikhail Bakunin was a Russian noble who turned into one of anarchism's most influential thinkers, a rival of Karl Marx within the International Workingmen's Association. He spent years imprisoned, sentenced to death and exiled before settling into revolutionary politics across Europe.
Nadar · Public domain
Steven Gerrard is an English football manager and former midfielder, best known for captaining Liverpool and England. He helped Liverpool win the 2005 Champions League, scoring a memorable comeback in the final.
Эдгар Брещанов · CC BY-SA 3.0
Aleksei Leonov was the first person to step outside a spacecraft, floating free for about twelve minutes during the Voskhod 2 mission in 1965. He later commanded the Soyuz craft on the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz mission, and also worked as a painter.
This image or video was catalogued by Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: S74-20824 . · Public domain
Voltaire, the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, was an Enlightenment writer whose wit targeted religious intolerance and slavery. He is remembered above all for Candide, a satirical novella that mocks the optimism of Leibniz.
Nicolas de Largillière · CC0
Joan of Arc was a peasant girl who led French forces at Orléans and saw Charles VII crowned at Reims. Captured by Burgundian allies of the English, she was burned for heresy in Rouen, and was made a saint five centuries later.
Clément de Fauquembergue · Public domain
Flemish painter and diplomat whose energetic Baroque canvases, full of movement, colour and sensuality, shaped European art. His large Antwerp workshop supplied paintings to nobles and collectors across the continent.
Peter Paul Rubens · Public domain
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