1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle aged 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot

1672: Isaac Newton reads first optics paper before the Royal Society in London

1807: Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon’s forces and the Russian Empire, first battle Napoleon isn’t victorious

1960: Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”

1971: Nasdaq Composite stock market index debuts with 50 companies and a starting value of 100

Source: Onthisday.com