A look back at events in history on November 12 with Mike Badham

1035: King Canute died in Dorset. He was a Dane who conquered England in 1013 - and turned out to be a wise ruler. For in those days, the royals actually had to run the country, so it was better if they weren't chinless wonders.

1660: John Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a licence. He refused to give it up, and was jailed for 12 years. In jail, he wrote Pilgrim's Progress.

1834: Russian composer Alexander Borodin was born. As the illegitimate son of a prince, he came in for a posh education, and became a chemist. He later joined a group of amateur musicians which included Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Borodin's tunes gained a wider public when they were used in the musical Kismet.

1859: Jules Leotard, 21, made his circus debut in Paris on the flying trapeze. As well as inventing the leotard, he was commemorated in the song: The daring young man on the flying trapeze.

1904: In Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, a hotelier chopped off a chicken's head - and it lived! Well, it did last 17 days until its windpipe healed up and it suffocated.

1912: The remains of Captain Scott's expedition were found in Antarctica. 1929: Film actress Grace Kelly was born in Philadelphia, daughter of a millionaire property developer. Renowned for bedding her co-stars, she later retired from movies and married Prince Rainier of Monaco.

1933: As Hugh Gray was walking by Loch Ness, the dreaded monster appeared and he took its picture. Zoologists have since denied that the image could be a monster. They say it might be a tree.

1978: In Mexico, a police raid freed Brianda Rodriguez, of the wealthy sherry family. Her kidnappers had been demanding a million-pound ransom.

1936: The first TV gardening programme was broadcast from Alexandra Palace, North London.

1944: Winston Churchill was awarded the Freedom of Paris.

But last week the French were throwing paint on his statue because of their anger over British beef.

1944: RAF Lancasters sank the battleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian fjord. They used special armour-piercing bombs designed by Barnes Wallis.

1974: A salmon was caught in the Thames, after a 130-year gap.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.