1. 537 - The Goths begin their siege on Rome
2. 1302 - Romeo and Juliet are married (William Shakespeare play)
3. 1810 - The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte is married by proxy to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria
4. 1931 - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is born
5. 1935 - The German Air Force becomes an official organ of the Reich
6. 1955 - Sir Alexander Fleming - the man who first discovered the life-saving drug penicillin - dies of a heart attack
7. 1974 - Two self-proclaimed British Government spies escape from a top-security prison in Ireland where they were serving sentences for armed robbery.
8. 1977 - French film director Roman Polanski is charged with raping a 13-year- old girl in Hollywood
9. 1985 - There is a new man in charge at the Kremlin - Mikhail Gorbachev takes over following the death of Konstantin Chernenko
10. 1997 - Paul McCartney is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II
11. 2004 - At least 170 people are killed after powerful explosions tear through three Madrid train stations during the morning rush-hour
image: © World Economic Forum
The Alchemists: Three Central Bankers and a World on Fire
Hubris: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain
