1513 King Henry VIII of England and his troops defeated the French in the Battle of the Spurs, at Guinigatte, NW France.
1743 The earliest prize-ring code of boxing rules was formulated in England by the champion fighter Jack Broughton.
1819 The Peterloo massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester when militia, with sabres drawn, charged on a crowd of 60,000–80,000 gathered to hear discussion on the reform of parliamentary representation. 15 people were killed and 650 injured.
1858 A telegraphed message from Britain's Queen Victoria to US President Buchanan was transmitted over the recently laid trans-Atlantic cable.
1897 Endowed by the sugar merchant Henry Tate, the Tate Gallery, in London, was opened.
1900 Second Boer War: The Battle of Elands River (in western Transvaal) ended after a 13-day siege. The battle began when a force of 2,000 - 3,000 Boers had surrounded a force of 500 at a supply dump at Brakfontein Drift. Outnumbered and surrounded, the garrison was asked to surrender, but refused. The siege was lifted, with a 10,000-strong column led by Lord Kitchener.
1913 The completion of the Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Queen Mary, the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I.
1930 The birth, in Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, of Ted Hughes, English poet & former Poet Laureate.
1930 The first British Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games) were held at Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
1952 Twelve bodies were recovered and 24 people were missing, feared dead, in a flood which swept through Lynmouth in north Devon.
1960 Britain granted independence to the crown colony of Cyprus.
1984 John De Lorean was acquitted in Los Angeles of charges that he conspired to import 100 kg of cocaine, and used the proceeds to save his financially-troubled Northern Ireland sports car company.
2001 Paul Burrell, former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, was charged with theft from her estate relating to a total of 342 items, reportedly worth £5m.
2004 Flash floods devastated the north Cornwall coastal village of Boscastle after the area's average August rainfall fell in just two hours.
