This Day in History - 15th May

1464 The Battle of Hexham (Northumberland). It marked the end of significant Lancastrian resistance in the north of England during the early part of the reign of Edward IV.

1536The trial of Anne Boleyn. She was accused of incest, sleeping with 4 men and an assassination plot against her husband, King Henry VIII. She was found guilty by a specially-selected jury and executed four days later.

1567Mary Queen of Scots married James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, just three months after the assassination of her husband, Lord Darnley. 

1568 Mary Queen of Scots spent her last night on Scottish soil here at Dundrennan Abbey. The next morning she boarded a fishing boat bound for Workington in England and for imprisonment and eventual execution.

1718The first machine gun was patented by London lawyer James Puckle who, as a keen fisherman, intended to use it at sea! He began to manufacture it in London in 1721.

1740Ephraim Chambers, the English encyclopaedist died.

1800George III survived two assassination attempts in one day, the second coming from James Hadfield who fired a shot at the King during a performance at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. Hadfield was later acquitted by reason of insanity.

1858The present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London was opened.

1895The death of Joseph Whitaker, English publisher of Whitaker's Almanac.

1909The birth, in Huddersfield, of James Mason, British actor who appeared in more than 80 films. His distinctive voice enabled him to play a menacing villain as greatly as his good looks assisted him as a leading man. His roles include Brutus in Julius Caesar, Field Marshal Rommel in The Desert Fox and Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

1929In the first football international, England lost to Spain 4-3, in Madrid.

1936Aviator Amy Johnson arrived in England after a record-breaking 12 day, 15 hour flight from London to Cape Town and back. She was born on 1st July 1903 at this house on St. Georges Road in Hull which has a commemorative blue plaque.

1941The first flight of Britain's first jet propelled aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39. It was designed to test the Whittle jet engine in flight, leading to the development of the Gloster Meteor.

1957Britain's first hydrogen bomb was exploded on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The effect of the radiation on some of the British soldiers who watched the test only came to light many years later.

1981The birth of Zara Phillips, daughter of Anne, the Princess Royal and Mark Phillips.

1990Home produced beef was banned in UK schools and hospitals as a result of concern over 'mad cow disease' (BSE).

1995The British Police Federation voted against the routine arming of police officers.

2010 Lydia Eva, the world's last surviving steam-powered herring drifter steamed back to Great Yarmouth for the first time in many years. Built in 1930 she was purchased by the Maritime Trust in 1971 and , until 1986 she was part of the Maritime Trust exhibition at St Katherine's Dock next to London's Tower Bridge.