EVENTS: In 1215, at Runnymede, an assembly of barons demanded that King John accede to a document setting out his duties and the rights and liberties of his subjects — the Magna Carta; in 1825 the Lord Mayor of London laid the foundation stone of a new London Bridge; in 1844 Charles Goodyear patented vulcanised rubber; in 1896 a 110ft wave struck Sanriku, Japan, sweeping more than 170 miles of coastline and killing thousands.
BIRTHS: Hablot K. Browne, the illustrator known as Phiz, born in London, 1815; Edvard Grieg, composer, born in Bergen, Norway, 1843; Ion Antonescu, Romanian general and Fascist dictator 1940-44, born in Pitesti, 1882; Harry Langdon, silent film comedian, born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, 1884; Yuri Andropov, head of the KGB 1967-82 and General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party 1982-84, born in Nagutskaya, Russia, 1914.
DEATHS: Wat Tyler, leader of the Peasants’ Revolt, was killed in London, 1381; Thomas Campbell, poet, died in Boulogne, France, 1844; Carl Wernicke, neurologist who related nerve disorders to specific areas of the brain and was known for his descriptions of aphasias, died in Thuringia, Germany, 1905.