1865: Ohio in America was the location for the world's first train robbery. The bandits derailed the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad engine and looted the express car and stole cash from the male passengers.

1945: The Germans had their last U-boat success of the Second World War when they sank the SS Blackpoint off the coast of America.

1961: Alan Shepard became the first American in space.

1821: Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died on this day at the age of 51. A few months before his death, the Corsican presented the XXth Foot, later to become the Lancashire Fusiliers, with his won three volumes of Cox's Life of Marlborough. He also give Captain Lutyens of the XX, who was his Orderly Officer, with a brace of pistols.

1818: The father of communism Karl Marx was born in Trier.

1930: Amy Johnson began her historic flight to Australia when she took off from Croydon.