It happened today – this day in history – April 3

1043: Edward the Confessor is crowned King of England.

1367: Henry IV is born in Bolingbroke Castle, Lincs.

1721: Robert Walpole becomes Britain’s 1st Lord of the Treasury – effectively Prime Minister, although that term was never officially used.

1860: The Pony Express began between St Joseph Mo & Sacramento, California.

1882: Outlaw Jesse James is killed by Robert Ford at home in St Joseph, Missouri.

1913: Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is sentenced to three years in jail.

1920: Author F Scott Fitzgerald marries novelist Zelda Sayre in New York.

1922: Joseph Stalin is appointed General Secretary of the Russian Communist Party by an ailing Lenin.

1933: First airplane flight over Mt Everest.

1941: Churchill warns Stalin that a German invasion of Russia is imminent.

1948: President Truman signs the Marshall Plan which authorises $5billion in aid to 16 European countries.

1951: Film star Doris Day marries producer Martin Melcher in Burbank, California.

1957: Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame” premieres in London.

1958: Fidel Castro’s rebels attack Havana.

1964: The US and Panama agree to resume diplomatic relations.

1973: The first mobile phone call is made in Manhattan by Motorola employee Martin Cooper to the Bell Labs headquarters in New Jersey.

1975: Bobby Fischer is stripped of the world chess title for refusing to defend it.

1976: Brotherhood of Man win the Eurovision Song Contest in The Hague with “Save Your Kisses For Me.”

1979: Kate Bush kicked off her 28-date ‘Tour Of Life’ trek making her concert debut at Liverpool’s Empire Theatre.

1981: Race riots break out in Brixton

1982: The UN Security Council demands Argentina withdraw from the Falkland Islands.

1987: The Duchess of Windsor’s jewels are auctioned for £31,380,197.

1990: Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan died of lung cancer.

1993: The Grand National is declared void, after 30 of the 39 runners carried on racing despite a false start.

1999: Composer Lionel Bart died from cancer aged 69.

2003: Stax records songwriter Homer Banks died aged 61.

2004: Islamic terrorists involved in the March 11 Madrid attacks are trapped by the police in their apartment and kill themselves.

2007: Keith Richards denies saying he smoked his father’s ashes in an interview with New Musical Express.

2009: Australia formally adopts the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

2010: Matt Smith’s first appearance as Doctor Who.

2017: A bomb on the St Petersburg metro kills 11 people.

BIRTHDAYS: William Gaunt, actor, 83; Jeff Barry, songwriter, 82; Jonathan Lynn, writer, 77; Richard Thompson, guitarist/singer, 71; Sally Thomsett, actress, 70; Alec Baldwin, actor, 62; David Hyde Pierce, actor, 61; Eddie Murphy, comedian, 59; Simon Raymonde, musician (Cocteau Twins) 58; Nigel Farage, politician, 56; Jennie Garth, actress, 48; Adam Scott, actor, 47; Will Mellor, actor, 44; Matthew Goode, actor, 42; Cobie Smulders, actress, 38; Leona Lewis, singer, 35; Amanda Bynes, actress, 34; Tim Krul, Norwich goalkeeper, 32; Paris Jackson, model, 22.