In a Fourth Round FA Cup replay Southern League Hereford United defeated First Division Newcastle United 2-1 on a quagmire of a pitch at Edgar Street. It was the first time in 23 years that a non-league side had defeated a First Division side in the FA Cup. Newcastle took the lead in the 82nd minute, against the run of play, with a goal from Malcolm Macdonald. With only 4 minutes remaining Ronnie Radford equalised with a spectacular 30-yard effort and during extra time Ricky George hit the winner. The famous 'Oh, what a goal! Radford the scorer, Ronnie Radford' quote was said by John Motson in his Match of the Day commentary that evening. The 26-year-old Motty was in his very early days on TV and later credited that match as being his big break-through in TV. He later wrote is his autobiography 'It changed my life because my boss on Match of the Day realised I could be trusted to commentate on a big match.'
1649 The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.
1665 The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. She bore Prince George of Denmark 17 children, but 16 died in infancy and the remaining child died when aged 12. Her desire for national unity led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.
1685 Charles II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died after several days of revelry with his concubines and his favourite mistresses. Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses but as illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother to look after his mistresses and told his courtiers: 'I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.'
1840 The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand.
1894 Bottle opener patented by William Painter.
1918 The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.
1931 Fred Trueman former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described him as the 'greatest living Yorkshireman', yet Trueman was omitted from numerous Test teams because he was frequently in conflict with the cricket establishment.
1935 "Monopoly" board game goes on sale for 1st time.
1952 Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.
1958 Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured but survived. Of the 44 passengers and crew on board 8 United players were killed and there were 15 other fatalities including 8 journalists.
1964 France & Great-Britain sign accord over building channel tunnel.
1971 1st time a golf ball is hit on Moon (by Alan Shepard).
1965 Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" hits #1.
1990 Steve Briers of Wales recites entire lyrics of Queen's album "A Night At The Opera" in 9 minutes 58.44 seconds backwards!
1995 The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land.
2005 Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10 making him the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not!
2015 26 year old Royal Marine Andy Grant woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You'll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording "You'll Never Walk" as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run,won two gold medals at the Invictus Games,abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.
A First Division match at Plough Lane on this day in 1988 brought together opposing clubs Wimbledon and Newcastle United and opposing players Paul Gascoigne and Vinnie Jones. The clubs fought out a forgettable 0-0 draw but the meeting of the players resulted in an iconic image that will never be forgotten. Much has been said about the incident that must have been reproduced a million times on everything from posters to t-shirts but the best quote I think came from George Best - "Hard men? Well, there was that picture of Vinnie Jones holding Gazza's wotsits. In my day we called someone who did that a poof."
Football On This Day - 6th February 1999.
On the 41st anniversary of Munich top of the table Manchester United visited bottom of the table Nottingham Forest in a Premier League fixture. United brought on Ole Gunnar Solskjær as a sub in the 72nd minute with the Norwegian scoring 4 times in a 10 minute spell to help United to a 8-1 away victory. United went on to win the title Forest finished bottom with the scoreline remaining a record Premier League away win until Leicester won 9-0 at Southampton in 2019.
1301 Edward of Caernarfon (later King Edward II) became the first Prince of Wales a title traditionally given to the English royal heir.
1812 Charles Dickens,English journalist and novelist was born. He is considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. He created characters such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield and amongst his other works were The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Bleak House and many, many more.
1845 The Portland Vase thought to date to the 1st century BC is shattered into more than 80 pieces by a drunken visitor to the British Museum.William Lloyd had been drinking for several days and was intoxicated when he hurled a sculpture at the glass case containing the Portland Vase.
Lloyd,who said he was a student at Trinity College,Dublin was arrested and later appeared in court charged with causing wilful damage.But his lawyers argued that the law under which he was being prosecuted applied only to the destruction of objects worth no more than five pounds.As a result he was convicted only of destroying the glass case and was fined three pounds.
Investigations by the British Museum led to a twist in the story.It was learned that although the vandal had been living in London under the name of William Lloyd,his real name was William Mulcahy. And although as he claimed he was a student he had gone missing some time before from Trinity College. Fortunately for him the Duke of Portland decided not to bring a civil action for damages because he did not want Mulcahy’s impoverished family to suffer for “an act of folly or madness which they could not control”. The priceless Portland Vase restored and back on display in the British Museum.
1886 While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman George Walker found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.
1914 Charlie Chaplin debuts silent film character The Tramp in "Kid Auto Races at Venice".
1928 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later).
1937 Britain's first dive-bomber the prototype B-24 Skua made its maiden flight over Yorkshire, piloted by Dasher Blake.
1940 Walt Disney's second feature length movie "Pinocchio" premieres (NYC).
1964 The Beatles pop group arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.
1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath announced a general election and appealed to the miners to suspend their planned strike.
1976 Joan Bazeley became the first woman to referee a men's football match and Diana Thorne became the first woman jockey to win under National Hunt Rules (on ‘Ben Ruler’ at Stratford).
1979 Pink Floyd premiere their live version of "The Wall" in Los Angeles.
1991 Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.
1992 The European Union was formed.
1994 It was reported that 13.1 million television viewers watched British boxer Chris Eubank beat German Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin. It was the most watched programme of the year.
1995 Last day of Test Cricket cricket for Graham Gooch & Mike Gatting.
2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world taking 71 days,14 hours,18 minutes 33 seconds.
1587 After 19 years imprisonment Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay Castle Northamptonshire. She had been implicated in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1601 Robert Devereux the 2nd Earl of Essex rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I. The revolt was quickly crushed. Essex was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on Tower Green on 25th February 1601 becoming the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading.
1836 The first London railway train ran from Spa Road to Deptford. There were fears that the 'great speed' of 16 miles an hour would break passengers' necks.
1855 The 'Devil's Footprints' mysteriously appeared in southern Devon when trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow. Estimates of the total distance covered by the prints ranged from 40 to 100 miles. Houses,rivers,haystacks and other obstacles were allegedly travelled straight over and the footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes with a diameter as small as 4 inches.
1886 A peaceful demonstration by unemployed people started in Trafalgar Square and turned into a riot with looting in Oxford Street and Pall Mall.
1952 Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith.
1965 Health Minister Kenneth Robinson announced that cigarette advertisements were to be banned from British television.
1968 "Planet of the Apes" premieres in New York City.
1971 At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair a British plastics firm making educational toys was shown a board game which had been rejected by established companies. Invented by an Israeli telecommunications expert Mordecai Meirowitz the game renamed ‘Mastermind’ by Invicta Plastics sold over 55 million sets in some 80 countries making it the most successful new game of the 70s.
1972 The Albert Hall management cancelled a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert because of the ‘obscene lyrics’ of one of their songs. Fans demonstrated outside the hall.
1976 "Taxi Driver" directed by Martin Scorsese starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster is released.
1983 Shergar the Aga Khan's Derby winner was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million which was never paid,the horse was never seen again.
1998 The death of the controversial politician Enoch Powell aged 85. He warned in 1968 of the perils of high immigration with his 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
The day of the match that led to a favourite newspaper headline being printed - mighty Celtic were beaten 3-1 at home by part-timers minnows Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a Scottish Cup tie. In a take on the song in Mary Poppins - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - the headline read 'Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious'. In addition to the headline the result also saw the sacking of the Celtic manager John Barnes with the former England player being replaced by Kenny Dalglish.
Football On This Day – 8th February 2012.
Two stories dominated the sporting news on this day in 2012. First of all Fabio Capello resigned as manager of England. The FA had gone over the Italian’s head to deprive John Terry of the England captaincy following the controversial Anton Ferdinand incident and Capello believing his authority had been undermined resigned as a result. On the same day at Southwark Crown Court Harry Redknapp was cleared of tax evasion having been accused of accepting secret untaxed bonus payments while manager of Portsmouth. Inevitably the press connected the two stories believing that ‘Arry’s acquittal removed the only obstacle to him becoming the new England manager. Well,it didn’t quite happen like that,as Roy Hodgson was appointed the next permanent manager after Stuart Pearce's one game in caretaker charge.
1540 The first recorded horse racing meeting in Britain held at the Roodeye Field, Chester.Chester Racecourse is according to official records the oldest racecourse still in use in England and it is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile 1 furlong long.
1846 The birth in Stafford of Whitaker Wright an exceptionally wealthy but corrupt English mining company owner. In1904 he was convicted of fraud and given a seven year prison sentence.He committed suicide immediately afterwards by swallowing cyanide in a court anteroom.The inquest also revealed that he had been carrying a revolver in his pocket presumably as a backup.
1942 World War Two, Soap rationing began in Britain.
1961 The Beatles first gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club they would play there nearly 300 times over the next two years.
1964 Seventy three million Americans tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four youths from Liverpool (the Beatles) appear in America for the first time.
1966 The government announced that a £30M Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor would be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland. Minister for Technology Frank Cousins said the new reactors were 'the future'. Nuclear power generation at the site ended in 1994.
1972 The British Government declared a 'state of emergency' three months into a National Miners' Strike.
1979 Football club Nottingham Forest clinched Britain's first £1m transfer deal when England forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough's League and Cup winning side after eight seasons with Birmingham City.
1979 Walter Hill's drama film "The Warriors" is released in the United States sparking gang violence at many theatres and a halt to the film's marketing campaign.
1988 The House of Commons voted to allow experimental televising of selected debates.
1995 Irish music and dance show "Riverdance" first opens in Dublin, Ireland with lead dancer Michael Flatley.
1996 The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands,effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain.
2001 Lance Corporal Roberta Winterton became the first serving soldier to pose topless on Page Three of The Sun newspaper.
2002 The Queen's sister Princess Margaret aged 71 died in her sleep after suffering a stroke and a heart attack.
2006 The death of Freddie Laker British airline entrepreneur. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the 'no-frills' airline business model that is now used worldwide with companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet.
1306 In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries,Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn,his leading political rival sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
1355 The St. Scholastica's Day Riots began in Oxford when University students clashed with townspeople in a three-day street battle,following a dispute about beer in The Swindlestock Tavern. 64 students were killed and 30 locals.The dispute was settled in favour of the university with a special charter. Annually thereafter on 10th February the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed. The penance ended in 1825 when the mayor refused to take part.
1567 An explosion destroyed the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary Queen of Scots (Lord Darnly) was found strangled in what many believe to be an assassination.
1763 Following the Seven Years War the Treaty of Paris was signed with France ceding Canada to Britain.
1774 Andrew Baker demonstrated his practical diving suit in the River Thames.
1787 The birth of William Bradley often known as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant. He was the tallest recorded British man measuring 7 feet 9 inches tall.This full size oak statue of him is close to the house where he was born.
1824 The birth of Samuel Plimsoll British politician and social reformer.He devised the Plimsoll Line to thwart unscrupulous ship owners who regularly overloaded their 'coffin ships'. His safe loading line painted on the ships acted as a regulation for the weight that ships could safely carry. Rope sandals for sailors were also named after him.
1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, both aged 20, were married in St James' Palace, London.
1846 The birth of Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician. He was a well-known and popular figure who courted publicity and was widely known to the British public as 'Charlie B'. He was considered by many to be a personification of John Bull and was normally accompanied by his trademark a bulldog.
1906 Britain's first modern & largest battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched. It established the pattern of the turbine-powered “all-big-gun” warship a type that dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.
1916 Military conscription begins in Britain.
1940 "Tom & Jerry" cartoon created by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera debut by MGM.
1942 Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
1972 BBC bans "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" by Wings.
1990 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on February 11th.
1996 IBM computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against a reigning (human) chess champion, Gary Kasparov.
2005 Clarence House announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles.
2013 The Department for Transport announced that TV advertisements which have been shown since the 60s with characters such as Tufty the squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man would no longer be broadcast because of 're-prioritised' budgets.
1466 The birth of Elizabeth of York,wife of Henry VII and mother of King Henry VIII. She died on her birthday in 1503 aged 37. In the children's nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' Elizabeth is reportedly the queen in the parlour while her husband with a reputation for thrift is the king counting his money.
1531 Henry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
1542 Catherine Howard,the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII,was confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later. Henry learned that Catherine had had several affairs before their marriage and had Parliament declare it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. The night before her execution Catherine spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block.
1852 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street,London).
1878 1st weekly weather report published in UK.
1895 The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.
1929 Vatican City,the world's smallest country is made an enclave of Rome.
1934 The birth of the racing driver John Surtees.He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.
1956 Two British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean,who had vanished in mysterious circumstances five years previously re-appeared in the Soviet Union.
1971 Eighty-seven countries including the UK,the United States and the USSR,sign the Seabed Treaty. It outlawed nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
1975 Margaret Thatcher won the Conservative Party Leadership and became the first woman leader of a British political party.
1976 John Curry became the first Briton to win a gold medal for men’s figure skating.
1977 David Bowie released the single SOUND AND VISION.The song was Bowie's initial response at retreating from America in an attempt to get away from his drug addiction.
Backing vocals on the track were provided by Welsh folk singer and Eurovision star Mary Hopkin (Those Were The Days) who was the wife of the producer Tony Visconti.
1983 Single "Total Eclipse of the Heart" sung by Bonnie Tyler and composed by Jim Steinman is released.
1983 Police launched a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains.Civil servant Dennis Andrew Nilsen 37 was later charged with 12 murders and sentenced to six life sentences.
1990 Nelson Mandela released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa.
1990 In a huge upset, James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson in 10th round in Tokyo, Japan to win the world heavyweight boxing title.
One of the great grounds in English football - Molineux - recorded its record attendance with 61,315 being present to see Wolves defeat Liverpool 4-1 in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup.That beat the previous record attendance set against Arsenal in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup a year previously by just 48 fans.
Football On This Day - 11th February 1998.
At just over 18 years of age Liverpool striker Michael Owen became England’s youngest international of the 20th Century when he made his debut against Chile at Wembley. Chile won 2-0 Owen went on to score 40 goals in 89 England appearances his last appearance being against France in 2008.
1554 At the tender age of 16, the ‘nine days queen’ Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were beheaded,he on Tower Hill,she on Tower Green, after being implicated in the Wyatt's rebellion.The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain,which was an unpopular policy with the English.
1688 The conclusion of the ‘Glorious Revolution’. James II fled with his family to France and the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary were declared King and Queen of England, France and Ireland.
1808 A mortar-fired lifeline was used for the first time to save a person from a shipwreck at Gorleston. It was invented by George William Manby who lived in the Norfolk village of Hilgay. He also invented the first modern form of fire extinguisher and built an 'unsinkable' ship but the boatmen rocked his boat back and forth so that it eventually turned over.It's said that the men thought Manby's mortar a threat to their livelihood as they depended on the cargo left over from shipwrecks.
1809 Charles Darwin, English naturalist and author of The Origin of Species was born in Shrewsbury.He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry and proposed that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.By the 1870s the scientific community and much of the general public accepted evolution as a fact.
1843 The birth of John Graham Chambers who codified the "Marquess of Queensberry rules" upon which modern-day boxing is based. It is thought that boxing's Marquess of Queensberry rules were created within the compounds of Lockerbie House, Dumfriesshire possibly within the room now known as "The Queensbury Dining Room".
1914 "The Squaw Man", 1st feature-length film shot in Hollywood directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel is released in the US.
1932 Ramsey MacDonald introduced a bill to improve youth courts,raise the age of juveniles and ban whipping of under 14s.
1935 First secret demonstration of radio signals detecting aircraft by Robert Watson-Watt at Daventry, England.
1943 William Morris (Lord Nuffield), the founder of Morris Motors created the Nuffield Foundation, Britain's biggest charitable trust with a gift of £10 million. The Nuffield Foundation's income comes from the interest on its investments. It does not fund raise or receive funding from the Government. It is financially and politically independent.
1954 The British Standing Advisory Committee on cancer claimed that the illness had a definite link with cigarette smoking.
1974 An old,saggy cloth cat,baggy and a bit loose at the seams - Bagpuss made his television debut.
1993 A 2 year old boy James Bulger was abducted from the Strand Shopping Centre Bootle and later killed by two 10 year old boys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.They were the youngest people to be charged with murder in England and Wales during the 20th century. A mere eight years later in June 2001 the parole board ruled that the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released.They were given new identities and moved to secret residence locations but on 2nd March 2010 Jon Venables was returned to prison short term for a violation of the terms of his licence of release.
1994 One hundred people made history by walking from France to England for the first time in millions of years.Each represented charities and voluntary organisations and walked the 31 mile Channel Tunnel which took on average 13 hours to complete.
1997 Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O.J. Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgement.
1999 US President Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.
2019 The death aged 81 of Gordon Banks English goal keeper.He made 628 appearances during a 15-year career in the Football League and won 73 caps for England.He retired in August 1973 after losing the sight in his right eye in a motoring accident the previous year.
Duncan Edwards of Manchester United and England was regarded as the superstar of his generation – but forget the wealth of the modern star player. After playing in a local derby against Manchester City at Old Trafford on 12th February 1955 (which City won 5-0) he was later caught by the police riding home on his bike without lights. He was fined five bob (25p) by the courts and two weeks wages by Manchester United for bringing their name into disrepute.
Football On This Day – 12th February 2003.
Seventeen-year-old Wayne Rooney became the youngest English international – a record since beaten by Theo Walcott – when he made his England debut in the friendly against Australia at Upton Park. The first England v Australia international played in England is perhaps best remembered as the match in which England fielded two teams – all 11 players who started the match were substituted at half time. Australia won the match 3-1.
1542 Catherine Howard,the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.
1692 The massacre of the MacDonalds at Glencoe,for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king William of Orange.The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen - Invercoe, Inverrigan and Achnacon, although the killing took place all over the glen as the fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed and another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned.
1866 Jesse James holds up his first bank, stealing $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri.
1938 The birth of Oliver Reed, English actor. His films included Oliver, Women in Love and The Three Musketeers. His final role was as the elderly slave dealer Proximo in Gladiator in which he played alongside Richard Harris,an actor whom Reed admired greatly.
1942 Hitler's Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, is cancelled.
1945 1400 RAF and 450 US Airforce planes bombed Dresden in three waves over a 14-hour period,devastating one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Over a three-day period 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiaries reduced much of the city to smouldering rubble and killed between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians.
1948 The Science Museum in London announced that it would return the Wright Brothers’ biplane Kitty Hawk the first to fly,to the Smithsonian Institution. It had been sent to England in 1928 by Orville Wright when he found that the Smithsonian had labelled another plane as the first capable of sustained flight.
1969 An announcement stated that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilized in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with Dr. P. Steptoe at Oldham General Hospital.
1975 British mineworkers' leaders agreed to accept the coal board's latest pay offer of up to 35%.
1975 The birth of Ben Collins,British racing driver. On 1st September 2010 the BBC was refused a court injunction to prevent the revelation that 'Stig',Top Gear's racing driver was in fact Ben Collins.In future Top Gear programmes the team regularly referred to him as 'sacked Stig'.
1978 Tomorrow's World presenter Anna Ford was officially announced as ITN's first female newsreader.
1982 Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side of the Moon" marks 402 weeks in the album charts.
1987 London’s property boom resulted in a 5ft 6in x 11ft broom cupboard opposite Harrods being offered for sale at £36,500 - over £600 per square foot.
1988 The Winter Olympics opened in Calgary,Canada.English ski-jumper and plasterer Eddie Edwards,became the surprise sensation of the Games.The fearless contestant came last but won all the headlines and the nickname The Eagle. His life story was made into a film, Eddie the Eagle, in 2016.
A unique match in the history of the FA Cup. Arsenal beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Fifth Round at Highbury but at Arsenal’s request the match was replayed. Just before Arsenal’s winner Sheffield United goalkeeper Alan Kelly had kicked the ball out of play to allow an injured player to receive treatment. Ray Parlour restarted the match with a throw-in intended for a Sheffield United player but Arsenal’s Kanu intercepted the ball and centred for Marc Overmars to score the winner. Kanu was making his debut for Arsenal which was his first match in English football and later said he was unaware of the circumstances and believed it was an attacking move. Although no actual law had been broken an unwritten rule had been and the match was replayed. Arsenal won that one 2-1 again, fairly this time.
The Feast Day of St. Valentine,patron saint of lovers. In fact there were fourteen Saint Valentines of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14th February nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome 'on this day'. The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages,when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Gretna Green,historically the first village in Scotland,has been performing weddings since 1754. They originated from cross-border elopements stemming from differences between Scottish marriage laws and those in neighbouring countries.
1400 The death of King Richard II at Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire. Sources think that the king was either intentionally neglected until he starved to death or that he was cruelly murdered in the dungeons.
1477 Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk,addressed - Be my olde Valentine. It is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in the English language and was uncovered by the British Library.
1779 Captain Cook, British explorer,navigator and cartographer was stabbed to death on the beach at Kealakekua (Hawaii) by the Polynesian natives.
1797 The Spanish fleet was defeated off Cape St. Vincent by Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson.
1852 London’s famous children’s hospital in Great Ormond Street accepted its first patient,three year-old Eliza Armstrong. It was the first hospital in the English speaking world providing in-patient beds specifically for children.
1876 Alexander G. Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor.
1922 Marconi began regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex.
1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed allegedly on Al Capone's orders.
1931 The original "Dracula" film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire is released.
1946 The Bank of England was nationalized by the Atlee government.
1963 British politician Harold Wilson was elected leader of the Labour Party following the death of former leader Hugh Gaitskell.
1973 Muhammad Ali beats British heavyweight boxing champion Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in 12 rounds at Las Vegas Convention Centre.
1984 Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously dominate the ice dancing at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics,perform to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" in free dance routine, record 9-of-9 perfect scores for artistic impression.
1989 The spiritual leader of Iran,Ayatollah Khomeini,condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.
1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene a carcinogen are found in some.
1991 "The Silence of the Lambs" film based on the book by Thomas Harris,directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins is released.
2003 Dolly the sheep,the first cloned mammal was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.
2006 Chip and PIN was introduced. UK cardholders had to use their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to be sure that they could pay for goods.
2013 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.
2014 Britain's Lizzy Yarnold wins her first of 2 consecutive Olympic women's skeleton gold medals in Sochi; also wins event in Pyeongchang (2018).
2014 The death (aged 91) of former Preston and England footballer Sir Tom Finney. Finney scored 210 goals in 473 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England. He twice won the footballer of the year title in 1953-54 and 1956-57.
2020 UEFA places 2 year ban on Manchester City from European club competition for committing "serious breaches" of club licensing and financial fair play regulations, EPL champions also fined €30million. In July later that year Manchester City’s two-year suspension from European football was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),allowing the club to compete in next season’s elite Champions League competition.
1882 SS Dunedin leaves New Zealand for Britain with the first cargo of frozen meat.
1901 Winston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.
1928 After some 70 years of work the 1st Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed.
1929 Graham Hill,British motor racing world champion was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.
1936 Adolf Hitler announces construction of the Volkswagen Beetle (the People's Car, aka the Käfer/Beetle).
1942 World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
1950 Walt Disney's animated film "Cinderella" premieres in Boston.
1952 The Queen's father King George VI was was laid to rest in St .George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
1955 The Government unveiled plans to construct 12 nuclear power stations in the following decade at a cost of £300 million.
1965 Red Maple Leaf Flag becomes the official flag of Canada.
1971 The British Government launched a new decimal currency across the country.The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.
1978 New Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time after 48 years of matches.England all out for 64 and 1st loss to NZ (Geoffrey Boycott captain).
1978 Leon Spinks beats Muhammad Ali in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1986 Eight police officers were injured in an outbreak of violence outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London. Similar mass protests had taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant since the start of a strike three weeks previously over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street.
1998 The Angel of the North a large-scale steel sculpture 20 m (66 ft) tall by Antony Gormley is installed at Gateshead, England.
2005 YouTube, Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.
2015 Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware,which lurked in the networks for months gathering information and feeding it back to the gang.The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices as they gathered the data they needed to steal.
2020 Beijing orders people returning to the city after Lunar New Year holiday to self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent spread of Covid-19.
England fans disgraced themselves in Dublin forcing the friendly match between the Republic of Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road to be abandoned. When Ireland took a 1-0 lead with a David Kelly goal in the 23rd minute a section of England ‘fans’ ripped up seats in the upper stand and threw them onto spectators below. No further play was possible and for only the third time an England match was abandoned.
Football On This Day – 15th February 2003.
It's rare for a footballing injury to make the front pages - but this one was bound to. After Arsenal had beaten Manchester United 2-0 at Old Trafford in the Third Round of the FA Cup United manager Alex Ferguson had kicked a boot in the changing-room in frustration. Nothing newsworthy in that - he was well remembered for his moments of anger. But the boot hit 'Golden Balls' David Beckham in the face causing a cut over his left eye which needed stitches.
Decimalisation took place on 15 February 1971,when the United Kingdom moved from the centuries-old system of pounds,shillings and pence to a new future-ready decimal currency.
The changeover was no easy task.Far from being an overnight switch Decimal Day took months of careful planning. The sheer volume of coins required for the changeover meant that The Royal Mint needed to move location from Tower Hill to a new home with new production techniques,processes and machinery. Llantrisant, South Wales, was chosen as The Royal Mint’s new home and the new site in was opened on 17 December 1968 by Her Majesty The Queen.
A huge information campaign was also needed to communicate all the necessary information to the people and businesses of Britain. Leaflets and posters were distributed and television broadcasts helped to explain the new system. The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes known as Decimal Five and ITV broadcast Granny Gets The Point a short drama where a grandson taught his grandmother to use the new decimal system.
The opportunity to create the reverse designs for the whole new suite of coinage was offered as a public competition. More than 80 artists took part generating around 900 designs and Christopher Ironside was selected as the winner.
As an experienced artist with a diverse background Ironside had worked on everything from stamps to stage design.He took six long years to perfect the designs in secret working closely with The Royal Mint Advisory Committee.The resulting coins were ‘clear of clutter’ as had been stated in the brief and celebrated traditional British symbols including Britannia.
The 5p and the 10p were the first of the new coins to enter circulation and were introduced in April 1968. They featured new heraldic designs but corresponded exactly in size and value to shillings and florins so they were able to run easily alongside them as their ‘decimal twins’. Not all the coins were that familiar though and the new 50p the world’s first seven-sided coin that replaced the 10-shilling note in 1969 was very new and very different serving as a reminder of the looming change.To overcome confusion during the changeover the old and new currencies ran alongside each other while publicity and information campaigns continued. When Decimal Day itself came the country was well prepared and the new coins took their place in numismatic history.
Since decimalisation the coinage has been reviewed several times and has continued to evolve.The sixpence was finally demonetised in 1980 and the decimal halfpenny disappeared in 1984.The 20p was introduced in 1982 and the £1 coin made its debut in 1983.The 5p and 10p were resized in 1990 and 1992 respectively resulting in the shilling and florin finally being demonetised while the smaller 50p coin entered circulation in 1997.
In 2008, 40 years after the first decimal coins entered circulation it was time for a refresh. Matt Dent created a suite of new designs for the coins from the 1p to the £1. The coins from the 1p to the 50p feature a picture-puzzle style design and when the coins are placed together they form the shield of the Royal Arms – the same shield that appeared in full on the £1 coin until it was replaced with a new 12-sided coin in 2017.
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In a Fourth Round FA Cup replay Southern League Hereford United defeated First Division Newcastle United 2-1 on a quagmire of a pitch at Edgar Street. It was the first time in 23 years that a non-league side had defeated a First Division side in the FA Cup. Newcastle took the lead in the 82nd minute, against the run of play, with a goal from Malcolm Macdonald. With only 4 minutes remaining Ronnie Radford equalised with a spectacular 30-yard effort and during extra time Ricky George hit the winner. The famous 'Oh, what a goal! Radford the scorer, Ronnie Radford' quote was said by John Motson in his Match of the Day commentary that evening. The 26-year-old Motty was in his very early days on TV and later credited that match as being his big break-through in TV. He later wrote is his autobiography 'It changed my life because my boss on Match of the Day realised I could be trusted to commentate on a big match.'
1649 The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.
1665 The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. She bore Prince George of Denmark 17 children, but 16 died in infancy and the remaining child died when aged 12. Her desire for national unity led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.
1685 Charles II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died after several days of revelry with his concubines and his favourite mistresses. Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses but as illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother to look after his mistresses and told his courtiers: 'I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.'
1840 The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand.
1894 Bottle opener patented by William Painter.
1918 The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.
1931 Fred Trueman former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described him as the 'greatest living Yorkshireman', yet Trueman was omitted from numerous Test teams because he was frequently in conflict with the cricket establishment.
1935 "Monopoly" board game goes on sale for 1st time.
1952 Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.
1958 Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured but survived. Of the 44 passengers and crew on board 8 United players were killed and there were 15 other fatalities including 8 journalists.
1964 France & Great-Britain sign accord over building channel tunnel.
1971 1st time a golf ball is hit on Moon (by Alan Shepard).
1965 Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" hits #1.
1990 Steve Briers of Wales recites entire lyrics of Queen's album "A Night At The Opera" in 9 minutes 58.44 seconds backwards!
1995 The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land.
2005 Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10 making him the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not!
2015 26 year old Royal Marine Andy Grant woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You'll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording "You'll Never Walk" as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run,won two gold medals at the Invictus Games,abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.
A First Division match at Plough Lane on this day in 1988 brought together opposing clubs Wimbledon and Newcastle United and opposing players Paul Gascoigne and Vinnie Jones. The clubs fought out a forgettable 0-0 draw but the meeting of the players resulted in an iconic image that will never be forgotten. Much has been said about the incident that must have been reproduced a million times on everything from posters to t-shirts but the best quote I think came from George Best - "Hard men? Well, there was that picture of Vinnie Jones holding Gazza's wotsits. In my day we called someone who did that a poof."
Football On This Day - 6th February 1999.
On the 41st anniversary of Munich top of the table Manchester United visited bottom of the table Nottingham Forest in a Premier League fixture. United brought on Ole Gunnar Solskjær as a sub in the 72nd minute with the Norwegian scoring 4 times in a 10 minute spell to help United to a 8-1 away victory. United went on to win the title Forest finished bottom with the scoreline remaining a record Premier League away win until Leicester won 9-0 at Southampton in 2019.
1301 Edward of Caernarfon (later King Edward II) became the first Prince of Wales a title traditionally given to the English royal heir.
1812 Charles Dickens,English journalist and novelist was born. He is considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. He created characters such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield and amongst his other works were The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Bleak House and many, many more.
1845 The Portland Vase thought to date to the 1st century BC is shattered into more than 80 pieces by a drunken visitor to the British Museum.William Lloyd had been drinking for several days and was intoxicated when he hurled a sculpture at the glass case containing the Portland Vase.
Lloyd,who said he was a student at Trinity College,Dublin was arrested and later appeared in court charged with causing wilful damage.But his lawyers argued that the law under which he was being prosecuted applied only to the destruction of objects worth no more than five pounds.As a result he was convicted only of destroying the glass case and was fined three pounds.
Investigations by the British Museum led to a twist in the story.It was learned that although the vandal had been living in London under the name of William Lloyd,his real name was William Mulcahy. And although as he claimed he was a student he had gone missing some time before from Trinity College.
Fortunately for him the Duke of Portland decided not to bring a civil action for damages because he did not want Mulcahy’s impoverished family to suffer for “an act of folly or madness which they could not control”.
The priceless Portland Vase restored and back on display in the British Museum.
1886 While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman George Walker found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.
1914 Charlie Chaplin debuts silent film character The Tramp in "Kid Auto Races at Venice".
1928 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later).
1937 Britain's first dive-bomber the prototype B-24 Skua made its maiden flight over Yorkshire, piloted by Dasher Blake.
1940 Walt Disney's second feature length movie "Pinocchio" premieres (NYC).
1964 The Beatles pop group arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.
1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath announced a general election and appealed to the miners to suspend their planned strike.
1976 Joan Bazeley became the first woman to referee a men's football match and Diana Thorne became the first woman jockey to win under National Hunt Rules (on ‘Ben Ruler’ at Stratford).
1979 Pink Floyd premiere their live version of "The Wall" in Los Angeles.
1991 Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.
1992 The European Union was formed.
1994 It was reported that 13.1 million television viewers watched British boxer Chris Eubank beat German Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin. It was the most watched programme of the year.
1995 Last day of Test Cricket cricket for Graham Gooch & Mike Gatting.
2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world taking 71 days,14 hours,18 minutes 33 seconds.
1587 After 19 years imprisonment Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay Castle Northamptonshire. She had been implicated in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1601 Robert Devereux the 2nd Earl of Essex rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I. The revolt was quickly crushed. Essex was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on Tower Green on 25th February 1601 becoming the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading.
1836 The first London railway train ran from Spa Road to Deptford. There were fears that the 'great speed' of 16 miles an hour would break passengers' necks.
1855 The 'Devil's Footprints' mysteriously appeared in southern Devon when trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow. Estimates of the total distance covered by the prints ranged from 40 to 100 miles. Houses,rivers,haystacks and other obstacles were allegedly travelled straight over and the footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes with a diameter as small as 4 inches.
1886 A peaceful demonstration by unemployed people started in Trafalgar Square and turned into a riot with looting in Oxford Street and Pall Mall.
1952 Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith.
1965 Health Minister Kenneth Robinson announced that cigarette advertisements were to be banned from British television.
1968 "Planet of the Apes" premieres in New York City.
1971 At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair a British plastics firm making educational toys was shown a board game which had been rejected by established companies. Invented by an Israeli telecommunications expert Mordecai Meirowitz the game renamed ‘Mastermind’ by Invicta Plastics sold over 55 million sets in some 80 countries making it the most successful new game of the 70s.
1972 The Albert Hall management cancelled a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert because of the ‘obscene lyrics’ of one of their songs. Fans demonstrated outside the hall.
1976 "Taxi Driver" directed by Martin Scorsese starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster is released.
1978 Grange Hill first shown on BBC.
1983 Shergar the Aga Khan's Derby winner was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million which was never paid,the horse was never seen again.
1998 The death of the controversial politician Enoch Powell aged 85. He warned in 1968 of the perils of high immigration with his 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
The day of the match that led to a favourite newspaper headline being printed - mighty Celtic were beaten 3-1 at home by part-timers minnows Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a Scottish Cup tie. In a take on the song in Mary Poppins - Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious - the headline read 'Super Caley Go Ballistic Celtic Are Atrocious'. In addition to the headline the result also saw the sacking of the Celtic manager John Barnes with the former England player being replaced by Kenny Dalglish.
Football On This Day – 8th February 2012.
Two stories dominated the sporting news on this day in 2012. First of all Fabio Capello resigned as manager of England. The FA had gone over the Italian’s head to deprive John Terry of the England captaincy following the controversial Anton Ferdinand incident and Capello believing his authority had been undermined resigned as a result. On the same day at Southwark Crown Court Harry Redknapp was cleared of tax evasion having been accused of accepting secret untaxed bonus payments while manager of Portsmouth. Inevitably the press connected the two stories believing that ‘Arry’s acquittal removed the only obstacle to him becoming the new England manager. Well,it didn’t quite happen like that,as Roy Hodgson was appointed the next permanent manager after Stuart Pearce's one game in caretaker charge.
1540 The first recorded horse racing meeting in Britain held at the Roodeye Field, Chester.Chester Racecourse is according to official records the oldest racecourse still in use in England and it is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile 1 furlong long.
1846 The birth in Stafford of Whitaker Wright an exceptionally wealthy but corrupt English mining company owner. In1904 he was convicted of fraud and given a seven year prison sentence.He committed suicide immediately afterwards by swallowing cyanide in a court anteroom.The inquest also revealed that he had been carrying a revolver in his pocket presumably as a backup.
1942 World War Two, Soap rationing began in Britain.
1961 The Beatles first gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club they would play there nearly 300 times over the next two years.
1964 Seventy three million Americans tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four youths from Liverpool (the Beatles) appear in America for the first time.
1966 The government announced that a £30M Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor would be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland. Minister for Technology Frank Cousins said the new reactors were 'the future'. Nuclear power generation at the site ended in 1994.
1972 The British Government declared a 'state of emergency' three months into a National Miners' Strike.
1979 Football club Nottingham Forest clinched Britain's first £1m transfer deal when England forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough's League and Cup winning side after eight seasons with Birmingham City.
1979 Walter Hill's drama film "The Warriors" is released in the United States sparking gang violence at many theatres and a halt to the film's marketing campaign.
1988 The House of Commons voted to allow experimental televising of selected debates.
1995 Irish music and dance show "Riverdance" first opens in Dublin, Ireland with lead dancer Michael Flatley.
1996 The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands,effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain.
2001 Lance Corporal Roberta Winterton became the first serving soldier to pose topless on Page Three of The Sun newspaper.
2002 The Queen's sister Princess Margaret aged 71 died in her sleep after suffering a stroke and a heart attack.
2006 The death of Freddie Laker British airline entrepreneur. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the 'no-frills' airline business model that is now used worldwide with companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet.
1306 In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries,Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn,his leading political rival sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence.
1355 The St. Scholastica's Day Riots began in Oxford when University students clashed with townspeople in a three-day street battle,following a dispute about beer in The Swindlestock Tavern. 64 students were killed and 30 locals.The dispute was settled in favour of the university with a special charter. Annually thereafter on 10th February the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed. The penance ended in 1825 when the mayor refused to take part.
1567 An explosion destroyed the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary Queen of Scots (Lord Darnly) was found strangled in what many believe to be an assassination.
1763 Following the Seven Years War the Treaty of Paris was signed with France ceding Canada to Britain.
1774 Andrew Baker demonstrated his practical diving suit in the River Thames.
1787 The birth of William Bradley often known as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant. He was the tallest recorded British man measuring 7 feet 9 inches tall.This full size oak statue of him is close to the house where he was born.
1824 The birth of Samuel Plimsoll British politician and social reformer.He devised the Plimsoll Line to thwart unscrupulous ship owners who regularly overloaded their 'coffin ships'. His safe loading line painted on the ships acted as a regulation for the weight that ships could safely carry. Rope sandals for sailors were also named after him.
1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, both aged 20, were married in St James' Palace, London.
1846 The birth of Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician. He was a well-known and popular figure who courted publicity and was widely known to the British public as 'Charlie B'. He was considered by many to be a personification of John Bull and was normally accompanied by his trademark a bulldog.
1906 Britain's first modern & largest battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched. It established the pattern of the turbine-powered “all-big-gun” warship a type that dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.
1916 Military conscription begins in Britain.
1940 "Tom & Jerry" cartoon created by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera debut by MGM.
1942 Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo".
1972 BBC bans "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" by Wings.
1990 South African President F. W. de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on February 11th.
1996 IBM computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against a reigning (human) chess champion, Gary Kasparov.
2005 Clarence House announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles.
2013 The Department for Transport announced that TV advertisements which have been shown since the 60s with characters such as Tufty the squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man would no longer be broadcast because of 're-prioritised' budgets.
1466 The birth of Elizabeth of York,wife of Henry VII and mother of King Henry VIII. She died on her birthday in 1503 aged 37. In the children's nursery rhyme 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' Elizabeth is reportedly the queen in the parlour while her husband with a reputation for thrift is the king counting his money.
1531 Henry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
1542 Catherine Howard,the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII,was confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later. Henry learned that Catherine had had several affairs before their marriage and had Parliament declare it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. The night before her execution Catherine spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block.
1852 First British public female toilet opens (Bedford Street,London).
1878 1st weekly weather report published in UK.
1895 The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.
1929 Vatican City,the world's smallest country is made an enclave of Rome.
1934 The birth of the racing driver John Surtees.He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.
1956 Two British spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean,who had vanished in mysterious circumstances five years previously re-appeared in the Soviet Union.
1971 Eighty-seven countries including the UK,the United States and the USSR,sign the Seabed Treaty. It outlawed nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.
1975 Margaret Thatcher won the Conservative Party Leadership and became the first woman leader of a British political party.
1976 John Curry became the first Briton to win a gold medal for men’s figure skating.
1977 David Bowie released the single SOUND AND VISION.The song was Bowie's initial response at retreating from America in an attempt to get away from his drug addiction.
Backing vocals on the track were provided by Welsh folk singer and Eurovision star Mary Hopkin (Those Were The Days) who was the wife of the producer Tony Visconti.
1983 Single "Total Eclipse of the Heart" sung by Bonnie Tyler and composed by Jim Steinman is released.
1983 Police launched a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains.Civil servant Dennis Andrew Nilsen 37 was later charged with 12 murders and sentenced to six life sentences.
1990 Nelson Mandela released after 27 years imprisonment in South Africa.
1990 In a huge upset, James "Buster" Douglas KOs Mike Tyson in 10th round in Tokyo, Japan to win the world heavyweight boxing title.
One of the great grounds in English football - Molineux - recorded its record attendance with 61,315 being present to see Wolves defeat Liverpool 4-1 in the Fifth Round of the FA Cup.That beat the previous record attendance set against Arsenal in the Fourth Round of the FA Cup a year previously by just 48 fans.
Football On This Day - 11th February 1998.
At just over 18 years of age Liverpool striker Michael Owen became England’s youngest international of the 20th Century when he made his debut against Chile at Wembley. Chile won 2-0 Owen went on to score 40 goals in 89 England appearances his last appearance being against France in 2008.
1554 At the tender age of 16, the ‘nine days queen’ Lady Jane Grey and her husband Lord Guildford Dudley were beheaded,he on Tower Hill,she on Tower Green, after being implicated in the Wyatt's rebellion.The rebellion arose out of concern over Queen Mary I's determination to marry Philip II of Spain,which was an unpopular policy with the English.
1688 The conclusion of the ‘Glorious Revolution’. James II fled with his family to France and the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary were declared King and Queen of England, France and Ireland.
1808 A mortar-fired lifeline was used for the first time to save a person from a shipwreck at Gorleston. It was invented by George William Manby who lived in the Norfolk village of Hilgay. He also invented the first modern form of fire extinguisher and built an 'unsinkable' ship but the boatmen rocked his boat back and forth so that it eventually turned over.It's said that the men thought Manby's mortar a threat to their livelihood as they depended on the cargo left over from shipwrecks.
1809 Charles Darwin, English naturalist and author of The Origin of Species was born in Shrewsbury.He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry and proposed that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.By the 1870s the scientific community and much of the general public accepted evolution as a fact.
1843 The birth of John Graham Chambers who codified the "Marquess of Queensberry rules" upon which modern-day boxing is based. It is thought that boxing's Marquess of Queensberry rules were created within the compounds of Lockerbie House, Dumfriesshire possibly within the room now known as "The Queensbury Dining Room".
1914 "The Squaw Man", 1st feature-length film shot in Hollywood directed by Cecil B. DeMille and Oscar Apfel is released in the US.
1932 Ramsey MacDonald introduced a bill to improve youth courts,raise the age of juveniles and ban whipping of under 14s.
1935 First secret demonstration of radio signals detecting aircraft by Robert Watson-Watt at Daventry, England.
1943 William Morris (Lord Nuffield), the founder of Morris Motors created the Nuffield Foundation, Britain's biggest charitable trust with a gift of £10 million. The Nuffield Foundation's income comes from the interest on its investments. It does not fund raise or receive funding from the Government. It is financially and politically independent.
1954 The British Standing Advisory Committee on cancer claimed that the illness had a definite link with cigarette smoking.
1974 An old,saggy cloth cat,baggy and a bit loose at the seams - Bagpuss made his television debut.
1993 A 2 year old boy James Bulger was abducted from the Strand Shopping Centre Bootle and later killed by two 10 year old boys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.They were the youngest people to be charged with murder in England and Wales during the 20th century. A mere eight years later in June 2001 the parole board ruled that the boys were no longer a threat to public safety and could be released.They were given new identities and moved to secret residence locations but on 2nd March 2010 Jon Venables was returned to prison short term for a violation of the terms of his licence of release.
1994 One hundred people made history by walking from France to England for the first time in millions of years.Each represented charities and voluntary organisations and walked the 31 mile Channel Tunnel which took on average 13 hours to complete.
1997 Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O.J. Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgement.
1999 US President Bill Clinton acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial.
2019 The death aged 81 of Gordon Banks English goal keeper.He made 628 appearances during a 15-year career in the Football League and won 73 caps for England.He retired in August 1973 after losing the sight in his right eye in a motoring accident the previous year.
Duncan Edwards of Manchester United and England was regarded as the superstar of his generation – but forget the wealth of the modern star player. After playing in a local derby against Manchester City at Old Trafford on 12th February 1955 (which City won 5-0) he was later caught by the police riding home on his bike without lights. He was fined five bob (25p) by the courts and two weeks wages by Manchester United for bringing their name into disrepute.
Football On This Day – 12th February 2003.
Seventeen-year-old Wayne Rooney became the youngest English international – a record since beaten by Theo Walcott – when he made his England debut in the friendly against Australia at Upton Park. The first England v Australia international played in England is perhaps best remembered as the match in which England fielded two teams – all 11 players who started the match were substituted at half time. Australia won the match 3-1.
1542 Catherine Howard,the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.
1692 The massacre of the MacDonalds at Glencoe,for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king William of Orange.The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen - Invercoe, Inverrigan and Achnacon, although the killing took place all over the glen as the fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed and another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned.
1866 Jesse James holds up his first bank, stealing $15,000 from the Clay County Savings Association in Liberty, Missouri.
1938 The birth of Oliver Reed, English actor. His films included Oliver, Women in Love and The Three Musketeers. His final role was as the elderly slave dealer Proximo in Gladiator in which he played alongside Richard Harris,an actor whom Reed admired greatly.
1942 Hitler's Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, is cancelled.
1945 1400 RAF and 450 US Airforce planes bombed Dresden in three waves over a 14-hour period,devastating one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Over a three-day period 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiaries reduced much of the city to smouldering rubble and killed between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians.
1948 The Science Museum in London announced that it would return the Wright Brothers’ biplane Kitty Hawk the first to fly,to the Smithsonian Institution. It had been sent to England in 1928 by Orville Wright when he found that the Smithsonian had labelled another plane as the first capable of sustained flight.
1969 An announcement stated that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilized in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with Dr. P. Steptoe at Oldham General Hospital.
1975 British mineworkers' leaders agreed to accept the coal board's latest pay offer of up to 35%.
1975 The birth of Ben Collins,British racing driver. On 1st September 2010 the BBC was refused a court injunction to prevent the revelation that 'Stig',Top Gear's racing driver was in fact Ben Collins.In future Top Gear programmes the team regularly referred to him as 'sacked Stig'.
1978 Tomorrow's World presenter Anna Ford was officially announced as ITN's first female newsreader.
1982 Pink Floyd's album "Dark Side of the Moon" marks 402 weeks in the album charts.
1987 London’s property boom resulted in a 5ft 6in x 11ft broom cupboard opposite Harrods being offered for sale at £36,500 - over £600 per square foot.
1988 The Winter Olympics opened in Calgary,Canada.English ski-jumper and plasterer Eddie Edwards,became the surprise sensation of the Games.The fearless contestant came last but won all the headlines and the nickname The Eagle. His life story was made into a film, Eddie the Eagle, in 2016.
1990 US, Britain & France give Germany OK to reunify.
1996 British boy band Take That officially announce that they are disbanding,prompting UK government to set up counselling phone lines.
13th February 1999.
A unique match in the history of the FA Cup. Arsenal beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Fifth Round at Highbury but at Arsenal’s request the match was replayed. Just before Arsenal’s winner Sheffield United goalkeeper Alan Kelly had kicked the ball out of play to allow an injured player to receive treatment. Ray Parlour restarted the match with a throw-in intended for a Sheffield United player but Arsenal’s Kanu intercepted the ball and centred for Marc Overmars to score the winner. Kanu was making his debut for Arsenal which was his first match in English football and later said he was unaware of the circumstances and believed it was an attacking move. Although no actual law had been broken an unwritten rule had been and the match was replayed. Arsenal won that one 2-1 again, fairly this time.
The Feast Day of St. Valentine,patron saint of lovers. In fact there were fourteen Saint Valentines of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14th February nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome 'on this day'. The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages,when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Gretna Green,historically the first village in Scotland,has been performing weddings since 1754. They originated from cross-border elopements stemming from differences between Scottish marriage laws and those in neighbouring countries.
1400 The death of King Richard II at Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire. Sources think that the king was either intentionally neglected until he starved to death or that he was cruelly murdered in the dungeons.
1477 Margery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk,addressed - Be my olde Valentine. It is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in the English language and was uncovered by the British Library.
1779 Captain Cook, British explorer,navigator and cartographer was stabbed to death on the beach at Kealakekua (Hawaii) by the Polynesian natives.
1797 The Spanish fleet was defeated off Cape St. Vincent by Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson.
1852 London’s famous children’s hospital in Great Ormond Street accepted its first patient,three year-old Eliza Armstrong. It was the first hospital in the English speaking world providing in-patient beds specifically for children.
1876 Alexander G. Bell & Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor.
1922 Marconi began regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex.
1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed allegedly on Al Capone's orders.
1931 The original "Dracula" film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire is released.
1946 The Bank of England was nationalized by the Atlee government.
1951 Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta & takes middleweight title.
1963 British politician Harold Wilson was elected leader of the Labour Party following the death of former leader Hugh Gaitskell.
1973 Muhammad Ali beats British heavyweight boxing champion Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in 12 rounds at Las Vegas Convention Centre.
1984 Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously dominate the ice dancing at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics,perform to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" in free dance routine, record 9-of-9 perfect scores for artistic impression.
1989 The spiritual leader of Iran,Ayatollah Khomeini,condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.
1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene a carcinogen are found in some.
1991 "The Silence of the Lambs" film based on the book by Thomas Harris,directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins is released.
2003 Dolly the sheep,the first cloned mammal was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.
2006 Chip and PIN was introduced. UK cardholders had to use their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to be sure that they could pay for goods.
2013 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp.
2014 Britain's Lizzy Yarnold wins her first of 2 consecutive Olympic women's skeleton gold medals in Sochi; also wins event in Pyeongchang (2018).
2014 The death (aged 91) of former Preston and England footballer Sir Tom Finney. Finney scored 210 goals in 473 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England. He twice won the footballer of the year title in 1953-54 and 1956-57.
2020 UEFA places 2 year ban on Manchester City from European club competition for committing "serious breaches" of club licensing and financial fair play regulations, EPL champions also fined €30million. In July later that year Manchester City’s two-year suspension from European football was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS),allowing the club to compete in next season’s elite Champions League competition.
1882 SS Dunedin leaves New Zealand for Britain with the first cargo of frozen meat.
1901 Winston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.
1928 After some 70 years of work the 1st Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed.
1929 Graham Hill,British motor racing world champion was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.
1936 Adolf Hitler announces construction of the Volkswagen Beetle (the People's Car, aka the Käfer/Beetle).
1942 World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
1950 Walt Disney's animated film "Cinderella" premieres in Boston.
1952 The Queen's father King George VI was was laid to rest in St .George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
1955 The Government unveiled plans to construct 12 nuclear power stations in the following decade at a cost of £300 million.
1965 Red Maple Leaf Flag becomes the official flag of Canada.
1971 The British Government launched a new decimal currency across the country.The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.
1978 New Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time after 48 years of matches.England all out for 64 and 1st loss to NZ (Geoffrey Boycott captain).
1978 Leon Spinks beats Muhammad Ali in 15 for heavyweight boxing title.
1986 Eight police officers were injured in an outbreak of violence outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London. Similar mass protests had taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant since the start of a strike three weeks previously over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street.
1998 The Angel of the North a large-scale steel sculpture 20 m (66 ft) tall by Antony Gormley is installed at Gateshead, England.
2005 YouTube, Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States.
2015 Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware,which lurked in the networks for months gathering information and feeding it back to the gang.The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices as they gathered the data they needed to steal.
2020 Beijing orders people returning to the city after Lunar New Year holiday to self-quarantine for 14 days to prevent spread of Covid-19.
England fans disgraced themselves in Dublin forcing the friendly match between the Republic of Ireland and England at Lansdowne Road to be abandoned. When Ireland took a 1-0 lead with a David Kelly goal in the 23rd minute a section of England ‘fans’ ripped up seats in the upper stand and threw them onto spectators below. No further play was possible and for only the third time an England match was abandoned.
Football On This Day – 15th February 2003.
It's rare for a footballing injury to make the front pages - but this one was bound to. After Arsenal had beaten Manchester United 2-0 at Old Trafford in the Third Round of the FA Cup United manager Alex Ferguson had kicked a boot in the changing-room in frustration. Nothing newsworthy in that - he was well remembered for his moments of anger. But the boot hit 'Golden Balls' David Beckham in the face causing a cut over his left eye which needed stitches.
Decimalisation took place on 15 February 1971,when the United Kingdom moved from the centuries-old system of pounds,shillings and pence to a new future-ready decimal currency.
The changeover was no easy task.Far from being an overnight switch Decimal Day took months of careful planning. The sheer volume of coins required for the changeover meant that The Royal Mint needed to move location from Tower Hill to a new home with new production techniques,processes and machinery. Llantrisant, South Wales, was chosen as The Royal Mint’s new home and the new site in was opened on 17 December 1968 by Her Majesty The Queen.
A huge information campaign was also needed to communicate all the necessary information to the people and businesses of Britain. Leaflets and posters were distributed and television broadcasts helped to explain the new system. The BBC broadcast a series of five-minute programmes known as Decimal Five and ITV broadcast Granny Gets The Point a short drama where a grandson taught his grandmother to use the new decimal system.
The opportunity to create the reverse designs for the whole new suite of coinage was offered as a public competition. More than 80 artists took part generating around 900 designs and Christopher Ironside was selected as the winner.
As an experienced artist with a diverse background Ironside had worked on everything from stamps to stage design.He took six long years to perfect the designs in secret working closely with The Royal Mint Advisory Committee.The resulting coins were ‘clear of clutter’ as had been stated in the brief and celebrated traditional British symbols including Britannia.
The 5p and the 10p were the first of the new coins to enter circulation and were introduced in April 1968. They featured new heraldic designs but corresponded exactly in size and value to shillings and florins so they were able to run easily alongside them as their ‘decimal twins’. Not all the coins were that familiar though and the new 50p the world’s first seven-sided coin that replaced the 10-shilling note in 1969 was very new and very different serving as a reminder of the looming change.To overcome confusion during the changeover the old and new currencies ran alongside each other while publicity and information campaigns continued. When Decimal Day itself came the country was well prepared and the new coins took their place in numismatic history.
Since decimalisation the coinage has been reviewed several times and has continued to evolve.The sixpence was finally demonetised in 1980 and the decimal halfpenny disappeared in 1984.The 20p was introduced in 1982 and the £1 coin made its debut in 1983.The 5p and 10p were resized in 1990 and 1992 respectively resulting in the shilling and florin finally being demonetised while the smaller 50p coin entered circulation in 1997.
In 2008, 40 years after the first decimal coins entered circulation it was time for a refresh. Matt Dent created a suite of new designs for the coins from the 1p to the £1. The coins from the 1p to the 50p feature a picture-puzzle style design and when the coins are placed together they form the shield of the Royal Arms – the same shield that appeared in full on the £1 coin until it was replaced with a new 12-sided coin in 2017.