On 18 November 1307 William Tell, a Swiss patriot, refused to pay homage to the Austrian Governor. As a punishment he was made to shoot an arrow through an apple placed on his son's head. Taking his bow, William Tell aimed. His arrow split the apple, and his son's life was spared.
1477 Caxton’s book, the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, was published. It was the first printed book in England bearing a date.
1906 Birth of Sir Alec Issigonis, born in Turkey of a Bavarian mother and a Greek father. He came to Britain in 1922 and made his way slowly in the motor industry, designing the Morris Minor in 1948, the first British car to sell more than a million. In 1959 he had his greatest triumph when he unveiled the Mini Minor ('the Mini') which ten years later became the first British car to sell over two million.
1916 General Douglas Haig called off the Battle of the Somme in Europe after five months of futile battle, a battle which included the first use of tanks. In 141 days the British had advanced just seven miles and failed to break the German defence. The Allied advance claimed 420,000 British and 195,000 French casualties. German losses were over 650,000.
1928 Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" released, first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon.
1959 "Ben-Hur" directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston premieres in New York City.
1963 Dartford-Purfleet tunnel under River Thames opens.
1967 A ban on the movement of farm animals across the whole of England and Wales came into effect at midnight, in a bid to curb the spread of foot and mouth disease.
1970 Joe Frazier KOs Bob Foster in 2 for heavyweight boxing title.
1974 "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by English progressive rock band Genesis is released, their last to feature original frontman Peter Gabriel.
1978 In Jonestown, Guyana, 918 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of cult leader Jim Jones.The Cult leader Jim Jones instructed over 900 members of his church, "People's Temple", to drink a soft drink brewed in a tub with cyanide and sedatives at a mass meeting at the Jonestown camp, the bodies were later discovered at a camp in the Jungle . The cult leader was being investigated by American Authorities for conditions at the camp and Jones was also being investigated for tax fraud . Prior to the mass suicide Jones had a number of his followers shoot reporters and the head of the investigation team Congressman Ryan.
1987 The worst fire in the history of the London Underground killed 30 people. The blaze began in the machinery below a wooden escalator in King’s Cross Underground station and soon filled the tunnels with dense, choking smoke and intense heat.
1991 Church envoy Terry Waite was freed by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him in Beirut in 1987.Terry Waite the special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, is released by Shiite Muslims after more than four years of captivity. Prior to his kidnapping he had secured the release of missionaries in Iran, British hostages in Libya and American hostages in Lebanon.
2002 United Nations weapons inspectors arrived in Iraq. It had been alleged that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction but no evidence was ever found. Nevertheless, on 20th March 2003, an alliance of primarily U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq with the authority of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2015 "Kangaroo Dundee" wildlife TV series premieres featuring Brolga and Roger the ripped Kangaroo on BBC Two.
Roger the Kangaroo was famous for his ripped physique and physical prowess. Rescued as a small joey after his mother was run over by a car near Alice Springs, Australia. A local man Chris Barnes then built a sanctuary for him and a few of his wives. An online clip of Roger crushing a tin bucket like a paper cup went viral in 2015 and brought him worldwide fame.
The Republic of Ireland were eliminated from the World Cup in the most controversial of circumstances. All square during extra time of their play off second leg against France in Paris Thierry Henry handled the ball twice before passing to William Gallas who headed the ball into the net. The 'goal' was allowed and France had won their place in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Thierry Henry was widely branded as a cheat but attempts to get the match replayed were rejected by FIFA. In June 2015 it emerged that FIFA had made a €5million payment to the FA of Ireland to prevent any legal action being taken against them over the incident. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLUxMRYJAso
1600 The birth of Charles I, King of England and Scotland who believed that the king ruled by Divine Right, until his action in dissolving Parliament led to the civil war with Cromwell and his eventual execution.
1620 The ship Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod, America. Its 87 passengers were a Protestant sect, known as The Pilgrim Fathers.The Pilgrim Fathers were thwarted in their first attempt to sail to America when they left from Havenside, near Boston, Lincolnshire in September 1607.
1863 The Gettysburg Address, in which President Abraham Lincoln spoke of all men being created equal and “government of the people, by the people, for the people” was delivered on this day.
1906 London selected to host 1908 Olympics.
1911 Doom Bar (previously known as Dunbar sands or Dune-bar) in Cornwall claimed two ships in a single day, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew, except the captain. There have been over 600 beachings, wrecks and capsizings at Doom Bar since records began early in the 19th century, with about 300 ships being wrecked.
1949 Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player, was born.
1951 The white football became official.
1960 The first VTOL (vertical take off and landing) aircraft P.1127, made by the British Hawker Siddeley Company was flown, untethered, for the first time. It's first conventional flight, (i.e. a horizontal take off) was on 13th March 1961.
1967 The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, stood by his decision to devalue the pound saying it would tackle the 'root cause' of Britain's economic problems. The Bank of England spent £200m in a single day trying to shore up the pound from its gold and dollar reserves.
1969 Apollo 12's Charles Conrad and Alan Bean become the 3rd and 4th humans on the Moon.
1969 Brazilian soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th professional goal in a game, against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium.
1975 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" based on book by Ken Kesey, directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher is released.
1987 A 1931 Bugatti Royale was sold for £5.5 million at an auction at the Royal Albert Hall, a record at that time for a car.
1990 Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning "Girl You Know Its True" album.
1994 Britain's first National Lottery draw. It had a jackpot of £7M and was shown live on BBC television. A £1 ticket gave a one in 14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers.
1996 A fire broke out in the Channel Tunnel, injuring 34 people and disrupting rail services.
1997 Police confiscated indecent videos and pictures of children in a series of raids on the homes and offices of British pop star Gary Glitter. Exactly six years later, American pop star Michael Jackson was arrested in California on charges of child molestation.
2009 Floods in Cumbria brought devastation to towns such as Cockermouth. In just 24-hours the total rainfall at Seathwaite was12.4 inches a UK record for a single location in any given 24-hour period.
2019 EPL club Tottenham sacks high profile manager Mauricio Pochettino after disappointing start to season his replacement is higher profile ex-Chelsea and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.
1911 Doom Bar (previously known as Dunbar sands or Dune-bar) in Cornwall claimed two ships in a single day, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew, except the captain. There have been over 600 beachings, wrecks and capsizings at Doom Bar since records began early in the 19th century, with about 300 ships being wrecked.
I knew that beer sometimes gives me a hangover if I drink too much of it......but never knew it was that strong.
Jimmy Greaves scored a hat-trick for Chelsea in their 6-3 thumping of Manchester City in a First Division fixture at Stamford Bridge. In doing so he scored his 100th League goal and, at 20 years 290 days old, he became the youngest player ever to score a century of League goals.
Arch-poacher Jimmy Greaves took home the match ball with three goals in Chelsea’s 6-3 thumping of Man City at Stamford Bridge on 19th November, 1960.
Greaves’s hat-trick saw him bring about a century of league goals and, aged just 20 years and 290 days, it’s perhaps unsurprising he was the youngest player ever to achieve the feat.
He would go on to score 124 goals in 157 games for the Blues, before moving to Italy where he bagged 9 in 12 games for AC Milan. He was then coaxed into returning to England by Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson.
At Spurs, Greaves scored 220 in 321 games and secured his place as one of the greatest goalscorers in football history and perhaps the most elegant finisher England have ever produced.
Latterly, 13 goals in 38 games for West Ham during the 1970/71 season took Greaves’s career record to 366 goals in a little over 500 appearances.
868 St. Edmund, Saxon king of East Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings, who tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, then beheaded him. He gave his name to the town Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk.
1620 The birth of Peregrine White a child of William and Susanna White, Mayflower passengers. He was the first English child born in the Plymouth Colony at Cape Cod Harbour.
1759 The British fleet, under Admiral Hawke, defeated the French at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, thwarting an invasion of England.
1787 Birth of Sir Samuel Cunard, a ship owner born in Nova Scotia who came to Britain in 1838 and, together with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line in 1839. Their first ship, the Britannia, set sail the following year taking 14 days and 8 hours to cross the Atlantic.
1815 The Treaty of Paris was signed, following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte's defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 ended his rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile on the island of Elba.
1886 Sherlock Holmes's first story "A Study in Scarlet" is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25.
1902 Geo Lefevre and Henri Desgrange create Tour de France bicycle race.
1917 1st successful tank use in battle, at the Battle of Cambrai in World War I as Britain uses the new technology to break through German lines.
1944 World War II: The end of the 'blackout' in London. After five years in the dark, the lights were switched back on in Piccadilly Circus, the Strand and in Fleet Street.
1947 Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. The BBC made the first tele-recording of the event, which was broadcast in the US 32 hours later.
1959 Ford Anglia 105E. The first British Ford to be marketed to Americans was the Ford Anglia 105E with a new overhead valve engine and a four-speed gearbox, it was like nothing else on the road with it distinctive rear-sloping back window, frog-like headlights, and stylish colors.
1970 The ten-shilling note (50p) was officially withdrawn by the Bank of England.
1978 The former leader of the Liberal party Jeremy Thorpe is charged with David Holmes, George Deakin and John le Mesurier of conspiracy to murder Jeremy Thorpe's former homosexual lover Norman Scott to protect his political career.
1979 Anthony Blunt, the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, was stripped of his knighthood after admitting to being a spy for Russia, thereby exposed as the Fourth Man in the Burgess, Maclean and Philby spy scandal.
1984 McDonald's makes its 50 billionth hamburger.
1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
1992 Fire severely damaged the 'Brunswick Tower', at Windsor Castle when a spotlight ignited a curtain. The castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of Queen Elizabeth II. The question of how the funds required should be found raised important issues about the financing of the monarchy, and led to Buckingham Palace being opened to the public for the first time to help to pay for the restoration.
1995 Princess Diana is interviewed on British Television by Martin Bashir for the Panorama programme about her life with the Royals,her separation and Prince Charles relationship and affair with his long term friend Camilla Parker-Bowles. During the one hour interview the princess admitted to an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.
2012 32 year old Kweku Adoboli, a City trader who lost £1.4bn of Swiss bank UBS's money was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.It was Britain's biggest banking fraud and a 'a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank'.
2013 Hull was chosen as the UK's city of culture for 2017, beating off challenges from Dundee, Leicester and Swansea.
2014 Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine was stopped on his way to work at the BBC by a police officer holding a speed radar gun. The device showed that he had been cycling at 16mph through Hyde Park, where the limit is 5mph.
Former Brazilian World Cup captain Sócrates made an unusual debut for his only English club side. He was 50, had been retired for 15 years and the club he played for was Garforth Town of the Northern Counties East Football League.His one game for the Yorkshire club saw him come on as a sub with 12 minutes remaining of the 2-2 draw with Tadcaster Albion. Garforth's boss explained why that was his only match for them - 'I decided not to play him in the next game because his warm-up had consisted of drinking two bottles of Budweiser and three cigarettes which we had in the changing rooms. I didn't think it was a good idea for him to carry on playing too much more though he was keen to."
1916 HMHS Britannic, the largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic was sunk, with the loss of 30 lives. There were a total of 1,066 people on board, with 1,036 survivors taken from the water and lifeboats, about two hours after the ship sank at 9:07 am. She was the largest ship lost during the First World War.
1918 The German High Seas Fleet of 5 battlecruisers, 9 battleships, 7 cruisers and 49 destroyers surrendered to the British Grand Fleet and were shepherded into the Firth of Forth.
1922 Ramsay MacDonald was elected leader of the Labour Party.
1936 The world's first gardening programme, 'In Your Garden, with Mr. Middleton', was broadcast by the BBC.
1953 The British Natural History Museum announced that the 'Piltdown Man' skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized skulls ever found, was a hoax.
1958 Work began on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland. It was the longest suspension bridge outside the United States and the fourth-largest in the world at the time of its construction.
1967 The number of animals slaughtered in the latest epidemic of foot and mouth disease reached a record high of 134,000.
1974 The IRA exploded two bombs in two Birmingham Pubs, killing 19 people and injuring 180 others. The Birmingham Six, as they were called by the media, were sentenced to life in prison for the crime but were subsequently acquitted.
1976 "Rocky" directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Sylvester Stallone premieres in New York.
1980 Dallas' "Who Shot JR?" episode (Kristen) gets a 53.3 rating (83 mill) in the US.
1980 Fire at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas kills 84.
2001 UK pop mogul Jonathan King was jailed for seven years for sex attacks on five boys.
2003 An acoustic guitar on which the late Beatle George Harrison learned to play, fetched £276,000 at a London auction.
2004 Donald Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts File For Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2012 Chelsea Manager Roberto Di Matteo is sacked and replaced by Rafael Benítez. In November 2013,it was reported that Di Matteo was still being paid £130,000-a-week by Chelsea because the two parties had never agreed on a pay-off settlement and that he would continue to be paid in full until June 2014 unless he took another job before then. On 7 October 2014, Di Matteo was hired as the successor to Jens Keller at Schalke.
This day 44 years ago Rocky the movie was released on November 21, 1976 by United Artists at Cinema II in New York City. How old does that make some of us feel .
It was announced that Peterborough United were to be relegated from the 3rd to the 4th Division at the end of the 1967/68 season after being found guilty of financial irregularities. One of those irregularities was offering Posh players an illegal bonus to beat Sunderland in an FA Cup tie the previous season - Posh had lost 7-1. At the time of the punishment Peterborough were still hopeful of a promotion challenge but the season became almost meaningless.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1974.
Peter Shilton joined Stoke City for a £325,000 transfer fee, at the time a world record for a goalkeeper. A week later the England international was part of a team - which included Mike Pejic, Jimmy Greenhoff, Alan Hudson, Jimmy Robertson and Geoff Hurst - that beat his former club Leicester City 1-0 to go top of the First Division. They finished the season in fifth place, four points behind League champions Derby County.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1977.
He was 37 and playing for a non-league club but you couldn't keep Jimmy Greaves out of the headlines. Playing for Barnet on this day in 1977 against Chelmsford City in an Eastern Floodlit League match he was sent off for using foul and abusive language. He refused to leave the pitch so the referee abandoned the match.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1979.
For the first time an England match at Wembley was postponed, the scheduled European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria being called off because of heavy fog. The match was played the following evening although without England captain Kevin Keegan who had to return to his club, Hamburg. England won 2-0 with Glenn Hoddle scoring on his international debut.
1718 Edward Teach, the English pirate who sailed under the name of Blackbeard, was killed in battle off the coast of North Carolina, with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
1774 Robert Clive, English soldier often referred to as 'Clive of India', died, possibly from an overdose of opium. It may have been suicide, but suicide was regarded as a sin, and if this had been admitted by his family he would not have been allowed a church burial. As it is, his grave was unmarked and remains so.
1808 Birth of Thomas Cook, the English travel agent. He began his pioneering tour business, Thomas Cook & Son, when he organized the first publicly advertised railway excursion from Leicester to a temperance meeting at Loughborough (11 miles away) on 5th July 1841.
1869 The clipper Cutty Sark was launched In Dumbarton, Scotland. She was one of the last clippers ever built, and is the only one still surviving today. She is preserved as a museum ship, located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London.
1946 The first Biro ballpoint pen went on sale, invented by Hungarian Laszlo Biro and manufactured by a British company.
1955 RCA Records make its best investment paying $35,000 to Sun Records for Elvis Presley's contract.
1957 Simon & Garfunkel appear on "American Bandstand" as "Tom & Jerry".
1963 US President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
1965 In his second title defence, Muhammad Ali scores 12th-round KO of Floyd Patterson at Las Vegas Convention Center to retain his world heavyweight boxing championship.
1967 BBC unofficially bans "I Am the Walrus" by Beatles.
1977 The world's first supersonic airliner, Concorde, was given permission to fly into New York's Kennedy Airport following an agreement over noise levels.
1986 20 year old Mike Tyson becomes youngest heavyweight champion in history when he stops Trevor Berbick in round 2 at Las Vegas Hilton to earn the WBC title.
1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdrew from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership that had begun in 1979.
1995 "Toy Story", the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, is released.
1997 Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of Australian rock band INXS and partner of British television star Paula Yates, was found dead in a hotel in Sydney.
2003 England's rugby team won the World Cup, beating Australia 20-17 in a nail biting final in Sydney.
The day after England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 ended with a 3-2 defeat against Croatia at a soggy Wembley England boss Steve McClaren was christened the 'Wally with a brolly' by the Daily Mail...and was sacked by the FA. McClaren had only been in charge of England for 18 matches. Also sacked was his assistant, Terry Venables.
Remembering the Wally with a Brolly, McClaren opened an umbrella at Wembley and the rest is history.
When Steve McClaren opened his umbrella on that fateful day in 2007, little did he know it would go on to represent his whole time as England manager.
“That might not look great boss”, assistant manager Terry Venables tried to warn him, but Second Choice Steve would not be told.
Post-Golden Generation England, a weird transitional puberty team, lost 3-2 at home to Croatia that night. In doing so sent England’s qualification hopes for Euro 2008 and McClaren’s England career the same way – down the pan.
Here’s seven things you will have forgotten about that tragic, rainy night.
1.Wally with the Brolly.
OK, this one you probably do remember.
How could you forget? It is the lasting image of McClaren with England.
After the farce of failing to qualify in a group with Croatia, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia and Andorra, McClaren was sacked the very next day.
Despite his 16-month tenure being the second shortest of any England manager after Big Sam’s 67 days, he still managed to make himself and England a laughing stock with his touchline antics and failure on the pitch.
2. Scott Carson’s mistake.
Butter fingers.
Five days after his international debut, Carson was thrown into England’s most crucial game in the qualifying campaign at the tender age of 22 – nice management Schteve.
It did not go well.
It started to go downhill in the eighth minute when Harry Redknapp’s bessie Niko Kranjcar sent in a speculative effort from 25 yards. Straight shot, no swerve.
Carson got down well but the ball span off his gloves into the net.
Ivica Olic rounded him to tap in six minutes later and that was essentially that.
3. Slaven Bilic managed Croatia.
Before Bilic was tainted by associating himself with West Ham, he was the rockstar manager of a slick Croatia side from 2006-2012.
First things first he stood up to the elements like a man, beanie on, no brolly in sight.
But let’s remember this tasty Croatia side he put together.
They floated through qualifying scoring 28 goals in 12 games and then beat Germany in the group stage to win Group D.
A loss to Turkey in the quarter finals sadly marked the end for Croatia at Euro 2008.
This match proved to be the nail in the coffin for Sol Campbell’s international career.
However, there was a classic moment in the first half.
Olic was bursting down the left and Campbell came across in typical English centre back fashion… with a perfectly timed slide tackle.
The rain causing McClaren such issues on the sidelines caused Campbell to slide so far he’s cropped up in people’s DMs recently.
5. Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic played for Croatia.
At the time Modric was playing for Dinamo Zagreb while Rakitic had just signed for Schalke.
22-year-old Modric was impressive in qualifying and the ‘Croatian Cruyff’ controlled the midfield against England – giving the world a taste of things to come.
Spurs signed him that summer and the rest is history.
Rakitic was just 19 at the time and came on as an 84th minute sub for Olic.
They didn’t know it then, but these two would go on to form the classiest international midfield in the world.
6. Peter Crouch was the best striker in England.
Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe and David Nugent had all scored for England in qualifying but it was left to one man to lead the attack in the final crunch game.
With goals against Estonia and Andorra, Crouch had a taste for finding the net.
David Beckham found the Liverpool striker with a lovely cross and Crouchy, making it look like he had all the time in the world, calmly took the ball on his chest and tucked it home.
That brought England level and they would have qualified on goal difference with a draw.
7. Mladen Petric’s glorious winner
Unfortunately a draw was not to be and it is all down to Mladen Petric.
He was banging them in for Borussia Dortmund at the time and England afforded him way too much space on his lethal left foot.
No one closed him down on the edge of the area so he lined up his pneumatic left and released a laser-guided shot which flew past the helpless Carson.
With one swift movement of his left peg he simultaneously sank England’s qualification hopes, fans’ hopes of going to a major tournament, Steve McClaren’s job and England’s record of qualifying for every Euros since 1984.
955 The death of Edred, King of England. The chief achievement of his reign was to bring the Kingdom of Northumbria under total English control.
1499 The Pretender to the throne, Flemish impostor Perkin Warbeck, was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV.
1852 Britain's first four pillar boxes came into service on the Channel Island of Jersey. The idea came from English novelist Anthony Trollope who worked for the General Post Office in London before becoming a writer.
1867 The Manchester Martyrs (William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) were hanged in Manchester for killing a police officer whilst freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
1889 Debut of 1st jukebox (Palais Royale Saloon, San Francisco).
1892 Pierre de Coubertin launches plan for modern Olympic Games at the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques AGM.
1896 The first Royal Command Performance for the British Sovereign. The event was in the Red Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, before H.M. Queen Victoria.
1910 American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London after being found guilty of poisoning his wife and dismembering her body.
1915 ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’, the famous First World War song, was published, by Felix Powell and George Asaf, who were really two brothers from Wales.
1963 The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Ann Ford as his first female companion. It is the world's longest running science fiction drama.The producer, Sydney Newman, thought the Daleks, designed by Ray Cusick, were ‘bug-eyed monsters’ and totally wrong for the series.
1976 British comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II.
1978 A Birmingham nightclub was ordered to open its doors to black and Chinese people.
1979 In Dublin, Thomas McMahon was found guilty of the murder of Lord Mountbatten, and given a life sentence.
1984 Almost 1,000 passengers were trapped in smoke filled tunnels for three hours after a fire at Oxford Circus underground station.
1990 The death of the author Roald Dahl. He was born in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents). His notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant.
On this date in 1978, IAN DURY & THE BLOCKHEADS released the single HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK / THERE AIN'T HALF BEEN SOME CLEVER BASTARDS (November 23rd 1978).
1542 The English army defeated the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss. It started as a family dispute when Henry VIII of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church and asked James V of Scotland, his nephew, to do the same, but James ignored his uncle's request.
1806 The birth of Reverend William Webb Ellis, Anglican clergyman and the alleged inventor of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School. According to legend, Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a school football match in 1823. The William Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup.
1859 Charles Darwin published his controversial and groundbreaking scientific work 'The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'. Darwin was born in Shewsbury, Shropshire.
1939 Imperial Airways and British Airways merged to become BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), which later merged with British European Airways and returned to one of the previous names, British Airways.
1951 Austin and Morris Motors agreed to merge.
1955 The birth of Ian Botham, former England Test cricketer and Test team captain. He played mainly for Somerset and the County Ground at Taunton has a stand called the Sir Ian Botham Stand.
Botham's 5 wickets for 1 run Edgbaston 1981 Ashes.
1962 ' That Was the Week That Was' went out live from the BBC, introduced by a new presenter, David Frost, and with some material written by an equally unknown John Cleese.
1971 American "Dan Cooper" hijacks plane, extorts $200,000 ransom before jumping out of plane over Washington State, never seen again.
1972 One of only eight 1933 pennies minted was auctioned at Sotherbys for £7,000.
1974 Police charged 6 men in connection with the Birmingham pub bombings 3 days previously.
1987 Free eye tests were abolished by the Conservative government.
1991 Freddie Mercury, English rock singer, died at the age of 45, just one day after he publicly announced that he was HIV positive.
1993 The last 14 bottles of Scotch whisky salvaged from the SS Politician, wrecked in 1941 and the inspiration of the book and film, Whisky Galore, were sold at auction for £11,462.
2005 New laws came in force in England and Wales allowing 'round-the-clock drinking'.
2010 Weather forecasters predicted that the UK would be entering a prolonged cold spell which could bring one of the earliest significant snowfalls since 1993. A few days later more than a thousand schools were closed across the UK and snow caused travel chaos in Scotland and the north of England.
TEARS OF A CLOWN, the debut single by THE BEAT turns 41 today!
On this date in 1979, THE BEAT released their debut single, a cover of Smokey Robinson's TEARS OF A CLOWN, (November 24th, 1979).
In the late 70s/early 80s The Beat mixed up a number of current fashions: they had their own self-run label distributed by a major; they were multi-racial; and they played a Jamaican ska instrumental sound.
On this date in 1978, THE CLASH released the single, TOMMY GUN, (November 24th, 1978). TOMMY GUN, an antiwar tract that was as musically lethal as is subject, was The Clash's first Top 20 hit in the UK and remained a firm favourite live. It was an obvious choice for a single with its sharp shooting, rifle repeating rhythms – Jones and Simonon standing astride the drum platform while Topper battered out the military riff from the rear, and upfront Strummer raged. The mythic international terrorist of 'Tommy Gun' helped fix the Clash's role as news commentators, making a musical issue of history with some sharp lyrical studies of the mercenary mentality.
1120 Henry I's only legitimate son, William, was drowned when The White Ship carrying him from Normandy to England sank off Barfleur. This set up a conflict, known as the Anarchy, for the English crown between Stephen and Henry's daughter, Matilda.
1703 The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reached its intensity which it maintained through to 27th November. Winds gusted up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died.
1783 Britain evacuates New York city, its last military position in the United States.
1823 The first pleasure pier, The Chain Pier at Brighton, opened. It closed in 1896 and was destroyed in a storm in the same year.
1896 William Marshall became the first person in Britain to receive a parking summons after leaving his car in Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London, but the case was dismissed.
1937 An inter-regional spelling competition became the first British quiz programme to be broadcast.
1940 Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock".
1940 World War II: The first flight of the deHavilland Mosquito aircraft. The Mosquito was one of the few operational, front-line aircraft to be constructed almost entirely of wood and, as such, was nicknamed 'The Wooden Wonder' or Mossie to its crews. When it entered production in 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world.
1952 The play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, opened in London, at the Ambassador's Theatre where it remained for 21 years. By Saturday 12th April 1958 it had become the longest running production of any kind in the history of British Theatre.
1953 Hungary, led by their talented footballer Ferenc Pushkas, beat England 6-3 at Wembley to become the first foreign team to achieve an away win at Wembley.
1969 John Lennon returned his MBE in protest against British involvement in Biafra and British support of US involvement in Vietnam.
1977 David Steed balanced stationary on a bike for 9 hrs 15 mins.
1980 Sugar Ray Leonard regains WBC welterweight boxing crown when Roberto Durán quits in the 8th round of infamous “no mas” fight at the Superdome, New Orleans.
1981 The inquiry into the Brixton riots in April blamed serious social and economic problems affecting Britain's cities.
1983 Larry Holmes TKOs Marvis Frazier in 1 for heavyweight boxing title.
1984 Band Aid rock stars gathered at Sarm Studios in London to record 'Do They Know It's Christmas', to aid famine relief in Ethiopia.
2005 Former football star George Best died in hospital at the age of 59 after suffering multiple organ failure. He was a talented and charismatic player and became one of the first celebrity footballers. Best's subsequent extravagant lifestyle led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered from for the rest of his adult life. A common description of his place in football history is summed up by the quote 'Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best.'
2012 34 year old former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton announced his retirement from boxing following his loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester. Quote by Hatton "A fighter knows and I know it isn't there any more. I have got to be a man and say it is the end of Ricky Hatton."
2018 EU leaders approve an agreement for Britain to leave the EU (Brexit).
1645 English Civil War - The third siege of Newark, which lasted from 26th November 1645 to 8th May 1646. Newark was important to both sides,as two important roads ran through the town - the Great North Way and Fosse Way.
1703 Henry Winstanley, the engineer who built the first Eddystone lighthouse, was among those who died when it was destroyed in the Great Storm that claimed 9000 lives and lasted from the 25th to the 27th November.
1789 1st national Thanksgiving in America.
1805 The offficial opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.
1836 The death of John Loudon McAdam. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface, using controlled materials. Modern road construction still reflects McAdam's influence.
1864 Oxford professor Charles Dodgson presented a little girl called Alice Liddell with a handwritten manuscript of a story she had inspired him to write. It was called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Dodgson's tale was published in 1865 as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll'.
1867 Mrs. Lily Maxwell of Manchester became the first ever woman to vote in a British election, due to a mistake in the electoral register. She had to be escorted to the polling station by a bodyguard to protect her from those opposed to women’s suffrage.
1922 Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon, Carter’s sponsor, became the first men to see inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun near Luxor since it was sealed 3,000 years previously. Having escaped detection by tomb robbers, it was complete with gold statues and a gold throne inlaid with gems.
1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hit a Woolworth's store on New Cross High Street in Lewisham and killed 168 shoppers.
1948 1st polaroid camera sold for $89.75 in Boston at the Jordan Marsh department store. The Land Camera model 95 becomes prototype for all Polaroid Land cameras for next 15 years.
1952 1st 3D feature film "Bwana Devil" directed by Arch Oboler premieres in Los Angeles, advertised as "The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!"
1954 Donald Campbell's new Bluebird K7 (a turbo jet engined hydroplane) was handed over to him On This Day. Campbell set seven world water speed records in Bluebird K7 and it was in her that he was killed on Coniston Water on 4th January 1967 whilst attempting another water speed record, his target being 300 mph.
1976 Sex Pistols release their debut single "Anarchy In The UK".
1983 The Brinks Mat security warehouse at London’s Heathrow Airport was robbed of £25 million worth of gold bars weighing three tons. The gang gained entry to the warehouse from an insider security guard called Anthony Black. The robbers expected to steal £3 million in cash, but when they arrived, they found the gold bullion, most of which was never recovered.
1992 It was announced that as from 1993 the Queen would make arrangements to pay income tax, the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s.
2003 Supersonic airplane Concorde made its last flight,returning to the airfield near Bristol, in southwest England, where it's remained since. As this marvel of modern engineering soared over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol,a landmark of Victorian engineering based on a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,it created a poignant moment witnessed by cheering crowds.
High in the sky,dangling out of a helicopter and buffeted by icy winds,photographer Lewis Whyld managed to capture it on camera -- an image that has become the defining shot of the golden age of faster-than-the-speed-of-sound travel.
An abandonment in the 1904/05 season changed the outcome of the League championship. Everton's match at Woolwich Arsenal on November 26th 1904 was abandoned after 76 minutes due to fog with the Merseysiders leading 3-1. When the match was eventually played again, just before the end of the season when they had to play 3 matches in 4 days, Everton lost 2-1. If the original match had been completed (and if the scoreline had remained the same), Everton would have pipped Newcastle to the League Championship by a point. Instead they finished second.
Football On This Day – 26th November 1992.
Manchester United bought Eric Cantona from Leeds United for £1.2m. Cantona left Leeds for Manchester United on 26 November 1992. Leeds chairman Bill Fotherby had telephoned Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards to enquire about the availability of Denis Irwin. Edwards was in a meeting with manager Alex Ferguson at the time, and both agreed that Irwin was not for sale. Ferguson had identified that his team was in need of a striker, having recently made unsuccessful bids for David Hirst, Matt Le Tissier and Brian Deane, and instructed his chairman to ask whether Cantona was for sale. Fotherby had to consult with Wilkinson, but within a few days the deal was complete.
Football On This Day – 26th November 2011.
Dreams can come true in football. On 26th November 2011 Jamie Vardy scored a goal for non-leaguers Fleetwood Town in front of a crowd of 768 in a Conference match at Gateshead. Four years later - almost to the day - on November 28th 2015 he scored for Leicester City against Manchester United. He had scored in 11 consecutive Premier League matches breaking the record of 10 set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003. Vardy increased the record to 12 in helping Leicester City's Premier League title challenge - surely another unlikely dream in itself.
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On 18 November 1307 William Tell, a Swiss patriot, refused to pay homage to the Austrian Governor. As a punishment he was made to shoot an arrow through an apple placed on his son's head.
Taking his bow, William Tell aimed. His arrow split the apple, and his son's life was spared.
1477 Caxton’s book, the Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, was published. It was the first printed book in England bearing a date.
1906 Birth of Sir Alec Issigonis, born in Turkey of a Bavarian mother and a Greek father. He came to Britain in 1922 and made his way slowly in the motor industry, designing the Morris Minor in 1948, the first British car to sell more than a million. In 1959 he had his greatest triumph when he unveiled the Mini Minor ('the Mini') which ten years later became the first British car to sell over two million.
1916 General Douglas Haig called off the Battle of the Somme in Europe after five months of futile battle, a battle which included the first use of tanks. In 141 days the British had advanced just seven miles and failed to break the German defence. The Allied advance claimed 420,000 British and 195,000 French casualties. German losses were over 650,000.
1928 Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" released, first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon.
1959 "Ben-Hur" directed by William Wyler and starring Charlton Heston premieres in New York City.
1963 Dartford-Purfleet tunnel under River Thames opens.
1967 A ban on the movement of farm animals across the whole of England and Wales came into effect at midnight, in a bid to curb the spread of foot and mouth disease.
1970 Joe Frazier KOs Bob Foster in 2 for heavyweight boxing title.
1974 "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" by English progressive rock band Genesis is released, their last to feature original frontman Peter Gabriel.
1978 In Jonestown, Guyana, 918 members of the Peoples Temple are murdered or commit suicide under the leadership of cult leader Jim Jones.The Cult leader Jim Jones instructed over 900 members of his church, "People's Temple", to drink a soft drink brewed in a tub with cyanide and sedatives at a mass meeting at the Jonestown camp, the bodies were later discovered at a camp in the Jungle . The cult leader was being investigated by American Authorities for conditions at the camp and Jones was also being investigated for tax fraud . Prior to the mass suicide Jones had a number of his followers shoot reporters and the head of the investigation team Congressman Ryan.
1987 The worst fire in the history of the London Underground killed 30 people. The blaze began in the machinery below a wooden escalator in King’s Cross Underground station and soon filled the tunnels with dense, choking smoke and intense heat.
1991 Church envoy Terry Waite was freed by the Islamic extremists who kidnapped him in Beirut in 1987.Terry Waite the special envoy of the archbishop of Canterbury, is released by Shiite Muslims after more than four years of captivity. Prior to his kidnapping he had secured the release of missionaries in Iran, British hostages in Libya and American hostages in Lebanon.
2002 United Nations weapons inspectors arrived in Iraq. It had been alleged that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction but no evidence was ever found. Nevertheless, on 20th March 2003, an alliance of primarily U.S. and British forces invaded Iraq with the authority of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2015 "Kangaroo Dundee" wildlife TV series premieres featuring Brolga and Roger the ripped Kangaroo on BBC Two.
Roger the Kangaroo was famous for his ripped physique and physical prowess. Rescued as a small joey after his mother was run over by a car near Alice Springs, Australia. A local man Chris Barnes then built a sanctuary for him and a few of his wives. An online clip of Roger crushing a tin bucket like a paper cup went viral in 2015 and brought him worldwide fame.
The Republic of Ireland were eliminated from the World Cup in the most controversial of circumstances. All square during extra time of their play off second leg against France in Paris Thierry Henry handled the ball twice before passing to William Gallas who headed the ball into the net. The 'goal' was allowed and France had won their place in the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. Thierry Henry was widely branded as a cheat but attempts to get the match replayed were rejected by FIFA. In June 2015 it emerged that FIFA had made a €5million payment to the FA of Ireland to prevent any legal action being taken against them over the incident.
1600 The birth of Charles I, King of England and Scotland who believed that the king ruled by Divine Right, until his action in dissolving Parliament led to the civil war with Cromwell and his eventual execution.
1620 The ship Mayflower arrived at Cape Cod, America. Its 87 passengers were a Protestant sect, known as The Pilgrim Fathers.The Pilgrim Fathers were thwarted in their first attempt to sail to America when they left from Havenside, near Boston, Lincolnshire in September 1607.
1863 The Gettysburg Address, in which President Abraham Lincoln spoke of all men being created equal and “government of the people, by the people, for the people” was delivered on this day.
1906 London selected to host 1908 Olympics.
1911 Doom Bar (previously known as Dunbar sands or Dune-bar) in Cornwall claimed two ships in a single day, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew, except the captain. There have been over 600 beachings, wrecks and capsizings at Doom Bar since records began early in the 19th century, with about 300 ships being wrecked.
1949 Dennis Taylor, Irish snooker player, was born.
1951 The white football became official.
1960 The first VTOL (vertical take off and landing) aircraft P.1127, made by the British Hawker Siddeley Company was flown, untethered, for the first time. It's first conventional flight, (i.e. a horizontal take off) was on 13th March 1961.
1967 The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, stood by his decision to devalue the pound saying it would tackle the 'root cause' of Britain's economic problems. The Bank of England spent £200m in a single day trying to shore up the pound from its gold and dollar reserves.
1969 Apollo 12's Charles Conrad and Alan Bean become the 3rd and 4th humans on the Moon.
1969 Brazilian soccer great Pele scores his 1,000th professional goal in a game, against Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium.
1975 "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" based on book by Ken Kesey, directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher is released.
1987 A 1931 Bugatti Royale was sold for £5.5 million at an auction at the Royal Albert Hall, a record at that time for a car.
1990 Pop duo Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award after it is learned they did not sing on their award-winning "Girl You Know Its True" album.
1994 Britain's first National Lottery draw. It had a jackpot of £7M and was shown live on BBC television. A £1 ticket gave a one in 14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers.
1996 A fire broke out in the Channel Tunnel, injuring 34 people and disrupting rail services.
1997 Police confiscated indecent videos and pictures of children in a series of raids on the homes and offices of British pop star Gary Glitter. Exactly six years later, American pop star Michael Jackson was arrested in California on charges of child molestation.
2009 Floods in Cumbria brought devastation to towns such as Cockermouth. In just 24-hours the total rainfall at Seathwaite was12.4 inches a UK record for a single location in any given 24-hour period.
2019 EPL club Tottenham sacks high profile manager Mauricio Pochettino after disappointing start to season his replacement is higher profile ex-Chelsea and Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho.
I knew that beer sometimes gives me a hangover if I drink too much of it......but never knew it was that strong.
Jimmy Greaves scored a hat-trick for Chelsea in their 6-3 thumping of Manchester City in a First Division fixture at Stamford Bridge. In doing so he scored his 100th League goal and, at 20 years 290 days old, he became the youngest player ever to score a century of League goals.
Arch-poacher Jimmy Greaves took home the match ball with three goals in Chelsea’s 6-3 thumping of Man City at Stamford Bridge on 19th November, 1960.
Greaves’s hat-trick saw him bring about a century of league goals and, aged just 20 years and 290 days, it’s perhaps unsurprising he was the youngest player ever to achieve the feat.
He would go on to score 124 goals in 157 games for the Blues, before moving to Italy where he bagged 9 in 12 games for AC Milan. He was then coaxed into returning to England by Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson.
At Spurs, Greaves scored 220 in 321 games and secured his place as one of the greatest goalscorers in football history and perhaps the most elegant finisher England have ever produced.
Latterly, 13 goals in 38 games for West Ham during the 1970/71 season took Greaves’s career record to 366 goals in a little over 500 appearances.
868 St. Edmund, Saxon king of East Anglia, was martyred by the Vikings, who tied him to a tree, shot at him with arrows, then beheaded him. He gave his name to the town Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk.
1620 The birth of Peregrine White a child of William and Susanna White, Mayflower passengers. He was the first English child born in the Plymouth Colony at Cape Cod Harbour.
1759 The British fleet, under Admiral Hawke, defeated the French at the Battle of Quiberon Bay, thwarting an invasion of England.
1787 Birth of Sir Samuel Cunard, a ship owner born in Nova Scotia who came to Britain in 1838 and, together with two partners, established what became the Cunard Line in 1839. Their first ship, the Britannia, set sail the following year taking 14 days and 8 hours to cross the Atlantic.
1815 The Treaty of Paris was signed, following the defeat and second abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte's defeat at Waterloo in June 1815 ended his rule as Emperor of the French and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile on the island of Elba.
1886 Sherlock Holmes's first story "A Study in Scarlet" is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25.
1902 Geo Lefevre and Henri Desgrange create Tour de France bicycle race.
1917 1st successful tank use in battle, at the Battle of Cambrai in World War I as Britain uses the new technology to break through German lines.
1944 World War II: The end of the 'blackout' in London. After five years in the dark, the lights were switched back on in Piccadilly Circus, the Strand and in Fleet Street.
1947 Princess Elizabeth (Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (Duke of Edinburgh) at Westminster Abbey. The BBC made the first tele-recording of the event, which was broadcast in the US 32 hours later.
1959 Ford Anglia 105E.
The first British Ford to be marketed to Americans was the Ford Anglia 105E with a new overhead valve engine and a four-speed gearbox, it was like nothing else on the road with it distinctive rear-sloping back window, frog-like headlights, and stylish colors.
1970 The ten-shilling note (50p) was officially withdrawn by the Bank of England.
1978 The former leader of the Liberal party Jeremy Thorpe is charged with David Holmes, George Deakin and John le Mesurier of conspiracy to murder Jeremy Thorpe's former homosexual lover Norman Scott to protect his political career.
1979 Anthony Blunt, the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, was stripped of his knighthood after admitting to being a spy for Russia, thereby exposed as the Fourth Man in the Burgess, Maclean and Philby spy scandal.
1984 McDonald's makes its 50 billionth hamburger.
1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.
1992 Fire severely damaged the 'Brunswick Tower', at Windsor Castle when a spotlight ignited a curtain. The castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of Queen Elizabeth II. The question of how the funds required should be found raised important issues about the financing of the monarchy, and led to Buckingham Palace being opened to the public for the first time to help to pay for the restoration.
1995 Princess Diana is interviewed on British Television by Martin Bashir for the Panorama programme about her life with the Royals,her separation and Prince Charles relationship and affair with his long term friend Camilla Parker-Bowles. During the one hour interview the princess admitted to an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.
2012 32 year old Kweku Adoboli, a City trader who lost £1.4bn of Swiss bank UBS's money was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of two counts of fraud.It was Britain's biggest banking fraud and a 'a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank'.
2013 Hull was chosen as the UK's city of culture for 2017, beating off challenges from Dundee, Leicester and Swansea.
2014 Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine was stopped on his way to work at the BBC by a police officer holding a speed radar gun. The device showed that he had been cycling at 16mph through Hyde Park, where the limit is 5mph.
Former Brazilian World Cup captain Sócrates made an unusual debut for his only English club side. He was 50, had been retired for 15 years and the club he played for was Garforth Town of the Northern Counties East Football League.His one game for the Yorkshire club saw him come on as a sub with 12 minutes remaining of the 2-2 draw with Tadcaster Albion. Garforth's boss explained why that was his only match for them - 'I decided not to play him in the next game because his warm-up had consisted of drinking two bottles of Budweiser and three cigarettes which we had in the changing rooms. I didn't think it was a good idea for him to carry on playing too much more though he was keen to."
1620 Pilgrim Fathers reach America: Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts.
1916 HMHS Britannic, the largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic was sunk, with the loss of 30 lives. There were a total of 1,066 people on board, with 1,036 survivors taken from the water and lifeboats, about two hours after the ship sank at 9:07 am. She was the largest ship lost during the First World War.
1918 The German High Seas Fleet of 5 battlecruisers, 9 battleships, 7 cruisers and 49 destroyers surrendered to the British Grand Fleet and were shepherded into the Firth of Forth.
1922 Ramsay MacDonald was elected leader of the Labour Party.
1936 The world's first gardening programme, 'In Your Garden, with Mr. Middleton', was broadcast by the BBC.
1953 The British Natural History Museum announced that the 'Piltdown Man' skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized skulls ever found, was a hoax.
1958 Work began on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland. It was the longest suspension bridge outside the United States and the fourth-largest in the world at the time of its construction.
1967 The number of animals slaughtered in the latest epidemic of foot and mouth disease reached a record high of 134,000.
1974 The IRA exploded two bombs in two Birmingham Pubs, killing 19 people and injuring 180 others. The Birmingham Six, as they were called by the media, were sentenced to life in prison for the crime but were subsequently acquitted.
1976 "Rocky" directed by John G. Avildsen and starring Sylvester Stallone premieres in New York.
1980 Dallas' "Who Shot JR?" episode (Kristen) gets a 53.3 rating (83 mill) in the US.
1980 Fire at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas kills 84.
2001 UK pop mogul Jonathan King was jailed for seven years for sex attacks on five boys.
2003 An acoustic guitar on which the late Beatle George Harrison learned to play, fetched £276,000 at a London auction.
2004 Donald Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts File For Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2012 Chelsea Manager Roberto Di Matteo is sacked and replaced by Rafael Benítez. In November 2013,it was reported that Di Matteo was still being paid £130,000-a-week by Chelsea because the two parties had never agreed on a pay-off settlement and that he would continue to be paid in full until June 2014 unless he took another job before then.
On 7 October 2014, Di Matteo was hired as the successor to Jens Keller at Schalke.
It was announced that Peterborough United were to be relegated from the 3rd to the 4th Division at the end of the 1967/68 season after being found guilty of financial irregularities. One of those irregularities was offering Posh players an illegal bonus to beat Sunderland in an FA Cup tie the previous season - Posh had lost 7-1. At the time of the punishment Peterborough were still hopeful of a promotion challenge but the season became almost meaningless.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1974.
Peter Shilton joined Stoke City for a £325,000 transfer fee, at the time a world record for a goalkeeper. A week later the England international was part of a team - which included Mike Pejic, Jimmy Greenhoff, Alan Hudson, Jimmy Robertson and Geoff Hurst - that beat his former club Leicester City 1-0 to go top of the First Division. They finished the season in fifth place, four points behind League champions Derby County.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1977.
He was 37 and playing for a non-league club but you couldn't keep Jimmy Greaves out of the headlines. Playing for Barnet on this day in 1977 against Chelmsford City in an Eastern Floodlit League match he was sent off for using foul and abusive language. He refused to leave the pitch so the referee abandoned the match.
Football On This Day – 21st November 1979.
For the first time an England match at Wembley was postponed, the scheduled European Championship qualifier against Bulgaria being called off because of heavy fog. The match was played the following evening although without England captain Kevin Keegan who had to return to his club, Hamburg. England won 2-0 with Glenn Hoddle scoring on his international debut.
1718 Edward Teach, the English pirate who sailed under the name of Blackbeard, was killed in battle off the coast of North Carolina, with a boarding party led by Royal Navy Lieutenant Robert Maynard.
1774 Robert Clive, English soldier often referred to as 'Clive of India', died, possibly from an overdose of opium. It may have been suicide, but suicide was regarded as a sin, and if this had been admitted by his family he would not have been allowed a church burial. As it is, his grave was unmarked and remains so.
1808 Birth of Thomas Cook, the English travel agent. He began his pioneering tour business, Thomas Cook & Son, when he organized the first publicly advertised railway excursion from Leicester to a temperance meeting at Loughborough (11 miles away) on 5th July 1841.
1869 The clipper Cutty Sark was launched In Dumbarton, Scotland. She was one of the last clippers ever built, and is the only one still surviving today. She is preserved as a museum ship, located near the centre of Greenwich, in south-east London.
1946 The first Biro ballpoint pen went on sale, invented by Hungarian Laszlo Biro and manufactured by a British company.
1955 RCA Records make its best investment paying $35,000 to Sun Records for Elvis Presley's contract.
1957 Simon & Garfunkel appear on "American Bandstand" as "Tom & Jerry".
1963 US President John F. Kennedy assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas.
1965 In his second title defence, Muhammad Ali scores 12th-round KO of Floyd Patterson at Las Vegas Convention Center to retain his world heavyweight boxing championship.
1967 BBC unofficially bans "I Am the Walrus" by Beatles.
1977 The world's first supersonic airliner, Concorde, was given permission to fly into New York's Kennedy Airport following an agreement over noise levels.
1986 20 year old Mike Tyson becomes youngest heavyweight champion in history when he stops Trevor Berbick in round 2 at Las Vegas Hilton to earn the WBC title.
1990 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdrew from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership that had begun in 1979.
1995 "Toy Story", the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery, directed by John Lasseter and starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, is released.
1997 Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of Australian rock band INXS and partner of British television star Paula Yates, was found dead in a hotel in Sydney.
2003 England's rugby team won the World Cup, beating Australia 20-17 in a nail biting final in Sydney.
2005 Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany.
The day after England's hopes of qualifying for Euro 2008 ended with a 3-2 defeat against Croatia at a soggy Wembley England boss Steve McClaren was christened the 'Wally with a brolly' by the Daily Mail...and was sacked by the FA. McClaren had only been in charge of England for 18 matches. Also sacked was his assistant, Terry Venables.
Remembering the Wally with a Brolly, McClaren opened an umbrella at Wembley and the rest is history.
When Steve McClaren opened his umbrella on that fateful day in 2007, little did he know it would go on to represent his whole time as England manager.
“That might not look great boss”, assistant manager Terry Venables tried to warn him, but Second Choice Steve would not be told.
Post-Golden Generation England, a weird transitional puberty team, lost 3-2 at home to Croatia that night.
In doing so sent England’s qualification hopes for Euro 2008 and McClaren’s England career the same way – down the pan.
Here’s seven things you will have forgotten about that tragic, rainy night.
1.Wally with the Brolly.
OK, this one you probably do remember.
How could you forget? It is the lasting image of McClaren with England.
After the farce of failing to qualify in a group with Croatia, Russia, Israel, Macedonia, Estonia and Andorra, McClaren was sacked the very next day.
Despite his 16-month tenure being the second shortest of any England manager after Big Sam’s 67 days, he still managed to make himself and England a laughing stock with his touchline antics and failure on the pitch.
2. Scott Carson’s mistake.
Butter fingers.
Five days after his international debut, Carson was thrown into England’s most crucial game in the qualifying campaign at the tender age of 22 – nice management Schteve.
It did not go well.
It started to go downhill in the eighth minute when Harry Redknapp’s bessie Niko Kranjcar sent in a speculative effort from 25 yards. Straight shot, no swerve.
Carson got down well but the ball span off his gloves into the net.
Ivica Olic rounded him to tap in six minutes later and that was essentially that.
3. Slaven Bilic managed Croatia.
Before Bilic was tainted by associating himself with West Ham, he was the rockstar manager of a slick Croatia side from 2006-2012.
First things first he stood up to the elements like a man, beanie on, no brolly in sight.
But let’s remember this tasty Croatia side he put together.
They floated through qualifying scoring 28 goals in 12 games and then beat Germany in the group stage to win Group D.
A loss to Turkey in the quarter finals sadly marked the end for Croatia at Euro 2008.
4. Sol Campbell’s never-ending slide tackle.
This match proved to be the nail in the coffin for Sol Campbell’s international career.
However, there was a classic moment in the first half.
Olic was bursting down the left and Campbell came across in typical English centre back fashion… with a perfectly timed slide tackle.
The rain causing McClaren such issues on the sidelines caused Campbell to slide so far he’s cropped up in people’s DMs recently.
5. Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic played for Croatia.
At the time Modric was playing for Dinamo Zagreb while Rakitic had just signed for Schalke.
22-year-old Modric was impressive in qualifying and the ‘Croatian Cruyff’ controlled the midfield against England – giving the world a taste of things to come.
Spurs signed him that summer and the rest is history.
Rakitic was just 19 at the time and came on as an 84th minute sub for Olic.
They didn’t know it then, but these two would go on to form the classiest international midfield in the world.
6. Peter Crouch was the best striker in England.
Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe and David Nugent had all scored for England in qualifying but it was left to one man to lead the attack in the final crunch game.
With goals against Estonia and Andorra, Crouch had a taste for finding the net.
David Beckham found the Liverpool striker with a lovely cross and Crouchy, making it look like he had all the time in the world, calmly took the ball on his chest and tucked it home.
That brought England level and they would have qualified on goal difference with a draw.
7. Mladen Petric’s glorious winner
Unfortunately a draw was not to be and it is all down to Mladen Petric.
He was banging them in for Borussia Dortmund at the time and England afforded him way too much space on his lethal left foot.
No one closed him down on the edge of the area so he lined up his pneumatic left and released a laser-guided shot which flew past the helpless Carson.
With one swift movement of his left peg he simultaneously sank England’s qualification hopes, fans’ hopes of going to a major tournament, Steve McClaren’s job and England’s record of qualifying for every Euros since 1984.
955 The death of Edred, King of England. The chief achievement of his reign was to bring the Kingdom of Northumbria under total English control.
1499 The Pretender to the throne, Flemish impostor Perkin Warbeck, was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in 1497, claiming to be Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York, the younger son of King Edward IV.
1852 Britain's first four pillar boxes came into service on the Channel Island of Jersey. The idea came from English novelist Anthony Trollope who worked for the General Post Office in London before becoming a writer.
1867 The Manchester Martyrs (William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) were hanged in Manchester for killing a police officer whilst freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
1889 Debut of 1st jukebox (Palais Royale Saloon, San Francisco).
1892 Pierre de Coubertin launches plan for modern Olympic Games at the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques AGM.
1896 The first Royal Command Performance for the British Sovereign. The event was in the Red Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, before H.M. Queen Victoria.
1910 American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London after being found guilty of poisoning his wife and dismembering her body.
1915 ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’, the famous First World War song, was published, by Felix Powell and George Asaf, who were really two brothers from Wales.
1963 The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Ann Ford as his first female companion. It is the world's longest running science fiction drama.The producer, Sydney Newman, thought the Daleks, designed by Ray Cusick, were ‘bug-eyed monsters’ and totally wrong for the series.
1976 British comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II.
1978 A Birmingham nightclub was ordered to open its doors to black and Chinese people.
1979 In Dublin, Thomas McMahon was found guilty of the murder of Lord Mountbatten, and given a life sentence.
1984 Almost 1,000 passengers were trapped in smoke filled tunnels for three hours after a fire at Oxford Circus underground station.
1990 The death of the author Roald Dahl. He was born in Cardiff, (to Norwegian parents). His notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant.
1542 The English army defeated the Scots at the Battle of Solway Moss. It started as a family dispute when Henry VIII of England broke from the Roman Catholic Church and asked James V of Scotland, his nephew, to do the same, but James ignored his uncle's request.
1806 The birth of Reverend William Webb Ellis, Anglican clergyman and the alleged inventor of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School. According to legend, Webb Ellis picked up the ball and ran with it during a school football match in 1823. The William Webb Ellis Cup is presented to the winners of the Rugby World Cup.
1859 Charles Darwin published his controversial and groundbreaking scientific work 'The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection'. Darwin was born in Shewsbury, Shropshire.
1939 Imperial Airways and British Airways merged to become BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation), which later merged with British European Airways and returned to one of the previous names, British Airways.
1951 Austin and Morris Motors agreed to merge.
1955 The birth of Ian Botham, former England Test cricketer and Test team captain. He played mainly for Somerset and the County Ground at Taunton has a stand called the Sir Ian Botham Stand.
Botham's 5 wickets for 1 run Edgbaston 1981 Ashes.
1962 ' That Was the Week That Was' went out live from the BBC, introduced by a new presenter, David Frost, and with some material written by an equally unknown John Cleese.
1971 American "Dan Cooper" hijacks plane, extorts $200,000 ransom before jumping out of plane over Washington State, never seen again.
1972 One of only eight 1933 pennies minted was auctioned at Sotherbys for £7,000.
1974 Police charged 6 men in connection with the Birmingham pub bombings 3 days previously.
1987 Free eye tests were abolished by the Conservative government.
1991 Freddie Mercury, English rock singer, died at the age of 45, just one day after he publicly announced that he was HIV positive.
1993 The last 14 bottles of Scotch whisky salvaged from the SS Politician, wrecked in 1941 and the inspiration of the book and film, Whisky Galore, were sold at auction for £11,462.
2005 New laws came in force in England and Wales allowing 'round-the-clock drinking'.
2010 Weather forecasters predicted that the UK would be entering a prolonged cold spell which could bring one of the earliest significant snowfalls since 1993. A few days later more than a thousand schools were closed across the UK and snow caused travel chaos in Scotland and the north of England.
On this date in 1979, THE BEAT released their debut single, a cover of Smokey Robinson's TEARS OF A CLOWN, (November 24th, 1979).
In the late 70s/early 80s The Beat mixed up a number of current fashions: they had their own self-run label distributed by a major; they were multi-racial; and they played a Jamaican ska instrumental sound.
TOMMY GUN, an antiwar tract that was as musically lethal as is subject, was The Clash's first Top 20 hit in the UK and remained a firm favourite live.
It was an obvious choice for a single with its sharp shooting, rifle repeating rhythms – Jones and Simonon standing astride the drum platform while Topper battered out the military riff from the rear, and upfront Strummer raged.
The mythic international terrorist of 'Tommy Gun' helped fix the Clash's role as news commentators, making a musical issue of history with some sharp lyrical studies of the mercenary mentality.
1120 Henry I's only legitimate son, William, was drowned when The White Ship carrying him from Normandy to England sank off Barfleur. This set up a conflict, known as the Anarchy, for the English crown between Stephen and Henry's daughter, Matilda.
1703 The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reached its intensity which it maintained through to 27th November. Winds gusted up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died.
1783 Britain evacuates New York city, its last military position in the United States.
1823 The first pleasure pier, The Chain Pier at Brighton, opened. It closed in 1896 and was destroyed in a storm in the same year.
1896 William Marshall became the first person in Britain to receive a parking summons after leaving his car in Tokenhouse Yard in the City of London, but the case was dismissed.
1937 An inter-regional spelling competition became the first British quiz programme to be broadcast.
1940 Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock".
1940 World War II: The first flight of the deHavilland Mosquito aircraft. The Mosquito was one of the few operational, front-line aircraft to be constructed almost entirely of wood and, as such, was nicknamed 'The Wooden Wonder' or Mossie to its crews. When it entered production in 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world.
1952 The play, The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, opened in London, at the Ambassador's Theatre where it remained for 21 years. By Saturday 12th April 1958 it had become the longest running production of any kind in the history of British Theatre.
1953 Hungary, led by their talented footballer Ferenc Pushkas, beat England 6-3 at Wembley to become the first foreign team to achieve an away win at Wembley.
1969 John Lennon returned his MBE in protest against British involvement in Biafra and British support of US involvement in Vietnam.
1977 David Steed balanced stationary on a bike for 9 hrs 15 mins.
1980 Sugar Ray Leonard regains WBC welterweight boxing crown when Roberto Durán quits in the 8th round of infamous “no mas” fight at the Superdome, New Orleans.
1981 The inquiry into the Brixton riots in April blamed serious social and economic problems affecting Britain's cities.
1983 Larry Holmes TKOs Marvis Frazier in 1 for heavyweight boxing title.
1984 Band Aid rock stars gathered at Sarm Studios in London to record 'Do They Know It's Christmas', to aid famine relief in Ethiopia.
2005 Former football star George Best died in hospital at the age of 59 after suffering multiple organ failure. He was a talented and charismatic player and became one of the first celebrity footballers. Best's subsequent extravagant lifestyle led to various problems, most notably alcoholism, which he suffered from for the rest of his adult life. A common description of his place in football history is summed up by the quote 'Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best.'
2012 34 year old former two-weight world champion Ricky Hatton announced his retirement from boxing following his loss to Vyacheslav Senchenko in Manchester. Quote by Hatton "A fighter knows and I know it isn't there any more. I have got to be a man and say it is the end of Ricky Hatton."
2018 EU leaders approve an agreement for Britain to leave the EU (Brexit).
1645 English Civil War - The third siege of Newark, which lasted from 26th November 1645 to 8th May 1646. Newark was important to both sides,as two important roads ran through the town - the Great North Way and Fosse Way.
1703 Henry Winstanley, the engineer who built the first Eddystone lighthouse, was among those who died when it was destroyed in the Great Storm that claimed 9000 lives and lasted from the 25th to the 27th November.
1789 1st national Thanksgiving in America.
1805 The offficial opening of Thomas Telford's Pontcysyllte Aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal over the valley of the River Dee in Wales. It is the longest and highest aqueduct in Britain, a Grade I Listed Building and a World Heritage Site.
1836 The death of John Loudon McAdam. He invented a new process, "macadamisation", for building roads with a smooth hard surface, using controlled materials. Modern road construction still reflects McAdam's influence.
1864 Oxford professor Charles Dodgson presented a little girl called Alice Liddell with a handwritten manuscript of a story she had inspired him to write. It was called Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Dodgson's tale was published in 1865 as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll'.
1867 Mrs. Lily Maxwell of Manchester became the first ever woman to vote in a British election, due to a mistake in the electoral register. She had to be escorted to the polling station by a bodyguard to protect her from those opposed to women’s suffrage.
1922 Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon, Carter’s sponsor, became the first men to see inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun near Luxor since it was sealed 3,000 years previously. Having escaped detection by tomb robbers, it was complete with gold statues and a gold throne inlaid with gems.
1944 World War II: A German V-2 rocket hit a Woolworth's store on New Cross High Street in Lewisham and killed 168 shoppers.
1948 1st polaroid camera sold for $89.75 in Boston at the Jordan Marsh department store. The Land Camera model 95 becomes prototype for all Polaroid Land cameras for next 15 years.
1952 1st 3D feature film "Bwana Devil" directed by Arch Oboler premieres in Los Angeles, advertised as "The Miracle of the Age!!! A LION in your lap! A LOVER in your arms!"
1954 Donald Campbell's new Bluebird K7 (a turbo jet engined hydroplane) was handed over to him On This Day. Campbell set seven world water speed records in Bluebird K7 and it was in her that he was killed on Coniston Water on 4th January 1967 whilst attempting another water speed record, his target being 300 mph.
1976 Sex Pistols release their debut single "Anarchy In The UK".
1983 The Brinks Mat security warehouse at London’s Heathrow Airport was robbed of £25 million worth of gold bars weighing three tons. The gang gained entry to the warehouse from an insider security guard called Anthony Black. The robbers expected to steal £3 million in cash, but when they arrived, they found the gold bullion, most of which was never recovered.
1992 It was announced that as from 1993 the Queen would make arrangements to pay income tax, the first British monarch to do so since the 1930s.
2003 Supersonic airplane Concorde made its last flight,returning to the airfield near Bristol, in southwest England, where it's remained since.
As this marvel of modern engineering soared over the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol,a landmark of Victorian engineering based on a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel,it created a poignant moment witnessed by cheering crowds.
High in the sky,dangling out of a helicopter and buffeted by icy winds,photographer Lewis Whyld managed to capture it on camera -- an image that has become the defining shot of the golden age of faster-than-the-speed-of-sound travel.
An abandonment in the 1904/05 season changed the outcome of the League championship. Everton's match at Woolwich Arsenal on November 26th 1904 was abandoned after 76 minutes due to fog with the Merseysiders leading 3-1. When the match was eventually played again, just before the end of the season when they had to play 3 matches in 4 days, Everton lost 2-1. If the original match had been completed (and if the scoreline had remained the same), Everton would have pipped Newcastle to the League Championship by a point. Instead they finished second.
Football On This Day – 26th November 1992.
Manchester United bought Eric Cantona from Leeds United for £1.2m.
Cantona left Leeds for Manchester United on 26 November 1992. Leeds chairman Bill Fotherby had telephoned Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards to enquire about the availability of Denis Irwin. Edwards was in a meeting with manager Alex Ferguson at the time, and both agreed that Irwin was not for sale. Ferguson had identified that his team was in need of a striker, having recently made unsuccessful bids for David Hirst, Matt Le Tissier and Brian Deane, and instructed his chairman to ask whether Cantona was for sale. Fotherby had to consult with Wilkinson, but within a few days the deal was complete.
Football On This Day – 26th November 2011.
Dreams can come true in football. On 26th November 2011 Jamie Vardy scored a goal for non-leaguers Fleetwood Town in front of a crowd of 768 in a Conference match at Gateshead. Four years later - almost to the day - on November 28th 2015 he scored for Leicester City against Manchester United. He had scored in 11 consecutive Premier League matches breaking the record of 10 set by Manchester United's Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2003. Vardy increased the record to 12 in helping Leicester City's Premier League title challenge - surely another unlikely dream in itself.