The Triple Crown of Motorsport does not include the F1 World Championship because it actually comprises of 3 races - the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. The latter was won 5 times by Graham Hill and he was known as Mr Monaco.
Hill remains the only driver to win the Triple Crown however Fernando Alonso is close having won at Monaco and Le Mans. He has competed at Indy but is yet to taste the victor's milk there. (To promote the local dairy industry, the trandition is for the winner of the 500 mile event to receive a bottle of milk rather than champagne.)
An alternative definition as espoused by Triple Crown winner Graham Hill and Jacques Villeneuve replaces the Monaco Grand Prix with the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill is also the only driver to have accomplished this winning the F1 Drivers' Title in 1962 and 1968.
600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze.
1646 The Battle of Torrington, in Devon. It was the last major battle of the first English Civil War and marked the end of the Royalist resistance in the west country.
1659 The first British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker and is now in the archives of the National Westminster Bank.
1801 Pitt (the Younger) resigned as British Prime Minister when George III rejected his plans for the emancipation of Irish Catholics.
1923 Howard Carter having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months previously lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.
1927 The birth of actress June Muriel Brown, MBE. She is best known for her role as the busy-body chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.
1933 England regains the Ashes, thanks to "bodyline" tactics.
1940 World War II: In a daring night raid known as the Altmark incident a boarding party from HMS Cossack successfully rescued 299 British prisoners of war from the Altmark,a 12,000 ton German tanker in Norwegian waters.The Altmark was returning to Germany with the merchant sailors who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
1946 The birth of actor Ian Lavender.His best remembered role was as Private Frank Pike the youngest member and 'stupid boy' of the platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army.
1957 The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television close down between 6 and 7 pm, abolished in the United Kingdom.
1965 A 2nd report from British Railways' Board chairman Dr. Richard Beeching outlined transport needs for the following 25 years.The report followed his 1st controversial review of the state of the railways published in 1963 in which he said the system was uneconomic and under-used and recommended that a quarter of the railway system should be shut down.
1972 Many homes and businesses were without electricity for up to nine hours a day from this day. Miners into the sixth week of their strike over pay picketed power stations and all other sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.
1989 Dr. Raymond Crockett,a Harley Street nephrologist resigned as the director of the National Kidney Centre after revelations that kidneys had been purchased from impoverished Turks to be used in transplants for wealthy patients.
1990 Wives of Royal Navy seamen protested over a decision to allow WRENs (women sailors) to go to sea.
2005 The UK version of "The Apprentice" with British business magnate Alan Sugar premieres on the BBC.
1461 In the Second Battle of St. Albans, Lancastrians defeated Yorkists in England's War of the Roses.
1876 Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine.
1883 Mr. A. Ashwell of Herne Hill, south London, patented Vacant - Engaged signs for toilet doors.
1914 Women suffragettes in Britain turned violent. They set fire to the Lawn Tennis Club and broke windows at the residence of the Home Secretary.
1936 The world's first superhero The Phantom,a cartoon strip by Lee Falk,makes his first appearance in comics.
1938 A surprise item was shown at the Dominion Theatre, London. It was the first public experimental demonstration of Baird colour television on a big 12 ft x 9 ft screen. Transmitted from Crystal Palace, the short programme consisted of fashion plates and a cartoon.
1941 World War 2: The first postwomen began work in Salford,due to lack of men.
1955 Fan ny Cradock's first cookery programme Kitchen Magic,was broadcast on television.
1958 The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was formed in Britain.
1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win.
1972 The British parliament voted to join the European Common Market.
Margaret Thatcher campaigning to stay in Europe during the 1975 referendum.
2003 The London Congestion Charge scheme began with a fee charged for some categories of motor vehicle to travel at certain times within Charge Zone. The charge aimed to reduce congestion and raise investment funds for London's transport system.
2005 Hunting with dogs became illegal in Britain at midnight.
1478 George,Duke of Clarence, impeached for treason by his brothers Edward IV and Richard III, was (so legend decrees) secretly drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine at the Tower of London. The allegations may have originated as a joke based on his reputation as a heavy drinker. However a butt was equal to 105 imperial gallons enough to easily drown a man. A body believed to be that of Clarence was later exhumed and showed no indications of beheading the normal method of execution for those of noble birth at that time.
1517 The birth of Mary I, Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
1871 The birth in Sheffield,of Harry Brearley who is credited with the invention of "rustless steel" (later to be called "stainless steel").
1882 Oliver Vaughton (5 goals) and Arthur Brown (4 goals) became the first English players to score hat tricks in a full football international when England beat Ireland 13-0.
1885 Mark Twain publishes the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the US.
1901 Winston Churchill made his maiden speech in the House of Commons.
1911 The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet a 23-year-old pilot delivers 6,500 letters to Naini,about 10 km away.
1933 The birth in Sacriston (County Durham), of Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson CBE, English footballer and football manager. Appointed (in 1999) as Newcastle's manager at the age of 66 he was the oldest manager in the league.
1949 Opportunity Knocks was presented for the first time (on BBC radio) by its creator Hughie Greene. It later transferred to Radio Luxembourg then went on to become a popular television programme on ITV.
1968 David Gilmour joins rock group Pink Floyd.
1969 Hundreds of people clamoured to see the marriage of pop stars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a Buckinghamshire church.
1977 Space Shuttle above a Boeing 747 goes on its maiden flight.
1981 Mrs. Thatcher's Conservative Government withdrew plans to close 23 pits in its first major U-turn since coming to power two years previously.
1981 Oxford University announced that Sue Brown would become the first woman cox in the history of the University Boat Race.
2003 The Hutton inquiry heard that No.10 Downing Street authorised a substantial rewrite of its Iraq arms dossier before publication.
2012 Bill Cooper (83) and his wife Laurel (82), who had spent the previous 36 years sailing round the world and clocked up 100,000 nautical miles returned to the UK to retire because their health was starting to fail. They had sold their home in Chatham, Kent, and set off from Lowestoft, Suffolk, in June 1976 on their 50ft vessel Fare Well.
1408 The Battle of Bramham Moor in which King Henry IV defeated the rebellious Percy family. The death of Percy removed the threat of rebellion in the North of England and allowed Henry to focus more fully on Wales.
1674 England and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transferred the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England and it was renamed New York.
1906 Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company,now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's.
1910 Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is freed from her first periods of forced isolation and goes on to cause several further outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area.
1910 Manchester United played its first game at Old Trafford. The Sporting Chronicle said "The most handsomest, the most spacious and the most remarkable arena I have ever seen. As a football ground it is unrivalled in the world, it is an honour to Manchester and the home of a team who can do wonders when they are so disposed."
1914 Four-year old Charlotte May Pierstorff mailed by train from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house 73 miles away in most famous 'child in the post' instance.
Children "mailed" by their parents because it was cheaper to mail them - if a child came in under the 50 pound parcel weight limit than other ways to travel.
1945 980 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days on Ramree Island, Burma.
1945 US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 US Marines. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
United States Marines raise the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
1957 The beginning of British TV's first medical soap opera series 'Emergency Ward 10' which ran twice a week for 10 years.
1959 The United Kingdom granted Cyprus independence which was then formally proclaimed on 16th August 1960.
1971 British TV chat show "Parkinson" debuts on BBC1 presented by Michael Parkinson.
1973 "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" single released by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.
1975 The Queen knighted cricketer Gary Sobers on her visit to Barbados his birth place.
1976 Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the ‘cod war’ fishing dispute.
1980 Ian Botham scores a century & takes 13 wickets in Jubilee Test Cricket at Bombay.
1981 George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" of his song "My Sweet Lord" with Ronnie Mack's song "He's So Fine".
1985 The first episode of the BBC soap opera EastEnders was screened.
1985 Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola.
1996 The oil tanker Sea Empress grounded near Milford Haven. 3,500 dead sea birds were washed ashore and the disaster had a devastating impact on the fishing industry.
2001 A five-mile exclusion zone was placed around an abattoir in Essex after a suspected case of foot and mouth disease was detected. By the end of March the disease was at its peak, with up to fifty new cases a day. The final case was reported on Whygill Head Farm near Appleby in Cumbria on 30th September. Tourism and farming were severely affected.
On Saturday 19 February 1910 Old Trafford staged its first match when Manchester United met Liverpool in a First Division match. Not that it was called Old Trafford in those days but the ‘United Football Ground’ which just hasn’t got the same ring about it has it! Originally planned as a 100,000 capacity stadium by the time it was built the capacity of the vast terraces had been reduced to 80,000 with about 45,000 present at that match against Liverpool. United’s Sandy Turnbull scored the first goal at the new ground but visitors Liverpool spoiled the party, winning 4-3.
1472 Orkney and Shetland were pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Princess Margaret, daughter of Christian I, the King of Norway and Denmark. As the wife of King James III of Scotland she was the Queen Consort and the mother of the future King James IV of Scotland.
1547 Edward VI, aged 9 years old was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Edward, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant.
1712 The last recorded witchcraft trial in England took place. Jane Wenham, ‘the Witch of Walkern’, was found guilty and sentenced to death.However no execution took place as she was given a Royal pardon from Queen Anne.The last execution in England took place in 1684. Alice Molland at Exeter was hanged.
A popular test for witches was to immerse the suspect three times in water.There seems to have been two ways of performing the test but both ways had the same outcome.If the person floated they were obviously a witch. If they sank they were innocent but also dead from drowning. 1. The right thumb of the person was tied to their left toe before they were dunked.
2. The Dunking Stool - The device was a chair which was hung from the end of a free-moving arm. The 'witch' was strapped into the chair which was situated by the side of a river.
3. The Lords Prayer Test - It was thought that no witch could say the Lords Prayer.
1725 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100 a scalp bounty.
1856 The steam packet-ship John Rutledge, en route from Liverpool to New York, hits an iceberg and sinks with the loss of 120 passengers and 19 crew.
1940 The birth of Jimmy Greaves, England's third highest international goalscorer and the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club.
1944 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers.
1958 The government announced the closure of Sheerness docks one of the oldest naval dockyards in the UK.
1959 Jimi Hendrix (16) plays his first gig in the Temple De Hirsch synagogue basement, Seattle. He is fired from the band after the 1st set due to "wild" playing.
1982 US entrepreneur John de Lorean’s luxury sports car project in Belfast, set up with over £17 million of British taxpayers’ money went into receivership. On his return to the US he was asked bluntly, ‘Are you a con man?’
2015 Chelsea Football Club suspended three supporters as the club investigated racist chanting and phone footage of commuter Sylla Souleymane being pushed and prevented access to a carriage on the Paris Metro.
After non-leaguers Sutton United played Arsenal in the 5th Round of the FA Cup amazingly the main talking point was about a photograph….of a bloke eating a pie! The gentleman in question was the 46-year-old 23-stone Wayne Shaw,who was probably no stranger to the eating of pies but the photograph was taken during the match while he sat on the subs bench – he was the Sutton substitute goalkeeper! The story soon became less humorous when it was claimed that it was a publicity stunt for a bookmaker and that bets had been made that he would be photographed eating a pie during the match. The FA launched an investigation,Shaw resigned from Sutton the day after the match and was offered a pie-tasting job at Morrison’s supermarket.
1431 In a trial demanded by the English, French heroine Joan of Arc was accused of heresy before the judges in Rouen.
1437 James I, King of Scotland, was assassinated by a group of dissident nobles led by the earl of Atholl. The crown went to his son, James II.
1741 The death of Jethro Tull, English agricultural innovator. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows an invention that helped form the basis of modern British agriculture.
1804 Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the world's first steam railway locomotive at Samuel Homfray's Penydaren Ironworks in South Wales. The engine won a wager for Homfray by hauling a load of 10 tons of iron and 70 men along 10 miles of tramway.
1910 The birth of Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader who lost both his legs while attempting aerobatics in 1931. As an RAF fighter ace during the Second World War he was credited with 20 aerial victories,many shared victories and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. As a POW he was a thorn in the side of the Germans and he made so many attempts at escape that the Germans threatened to take away his legs.
1931 Alka Seltzer introduced.
1937 Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1952 The government of Winston Churchill abolished Identity Cards - "to set the people free".
1958 The Peace symbol,commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom. The logo was not copyrighted and later became known in the wider world as a general-purpose peace symbol. The design incorporated the semaphore signals for 'N' and 'D' standing for 'nuclear disarmament'.
The vertical line in the center represents the flag semaphore signal for the letter D, and the downward lines on either side represent the semaphore signal for the letter N.
1965 Rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
1970 Jackson 5 make TV debut on "American Bandstand".
1980 British figure skater Robin Cousins wins men's singles gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.
1988 The grave of Boadicea,the warrior queen who fought the Romans in Britain nearly 2,000 years ago was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station, London. British Rail said they had just refurbished the platform and anyone wanting to dig it up would have to come up with a strong case. And they did!
1995 A man found a 40lb pike in a flooded bunker at Wetherby Golf Club in West Yorkshire while he was searching for a ball.
2001 The European Commission banned all British milk,meat and livestock exports following the UK's first outbreak of foot and mouth disease for two decades.
2008 The death of Sunny Lowry, the first British woman to swim the English Channel (1933). She was berated as being a 'harlot' as her light two-piece suit which was considered very daring at the time bared her knees.
2013 Rhossili Bay on the Gower peninsula, was listed as the best beach in Britain and third best of all European beaches. It was beaten only by Rabbit Beach in Sicily, and Playa de las Catedrales in Spain.
2014 Chris Moyles, former BBC Radio 1 host and TV presenter attempted to use a tax avoidance scheme called Working Wheels to avoid a £1M tax bill. He told HM Revenue & Customs that he had spent a year 'engaged in self-employment as a used car trader'. Moyles claimed to have run up £1m of losses selling £3,731 worth of used cars. He then tried to offset the claimed £1m loss in the 2007-08 financial year against tax he owed on his other income,including an estimated £700,000 salary from the BBC, which is funded by licence fee payers.
2014 28 year old footballer Wayne Rooney's signed a new contract with Manchester United. The deal will earn him more than £70m over five-and-a-half years.
A Third Division side staging a friendly on a cold Monday night in February doesn't sound the sort of match that would excite the imagination does it. But 54,437 turned up at Villa Park to see a friendly between Aston Villa and Brazilian side Santos...for perhaps more accurately to see Pele play! And the Brazil legend didn't disappoint putting on a dazzling display for the Villa faithful although it was Edu who scored the Santos goal in their 2-1 defeat.
Football On this Day – 21st February 1995.
Arsenal sacked manager George Graham after a Premier League investigation had found that he had taken a £425,000 ‘bung’ from agent Rune Hauge when arranging the transfer of two players to Arsenal, John Jensen and Pal Lyderson, who were both clients of Hauge. Later that day under caretaker manager Stewart Houston Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest 1-0, their first home League win since October.
1371 King Robert II of Scotland succeeded to the throne beginning the Stuart dynasty. Following a palace coup he lost control of the country. He died in Dundonald Castle in 1390 and lies buried at Scone Abbey.
1630 Native American Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn.
1732 George Washington, 1st President of the United States (1789-97) and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, born in Westmoreland, Virginia.
1797 Over 1,000 French troops attempted to invade Britain and landed at Fishguard but were soon captured by the brave ladies of the town. No other foreign force has managed to invade mainland Britain since.
1857 The birth of Sir Robert (Stephenson Smyth) Baden-Powell, English hero of the siege of Mafeking during the Boer War. His innovative approach to the situation kept morale high and his experiences led to the founding of the Boy Scouts.
1889 The birth of Lady Olave Baden-Powell, wife of Robert Baden-Powell. She was Chief Guide for Britain in 1918 and World Chief Guide in 1930.
1903 The Cunard Liner Etruria arrived in New York with a copy of the first newspaper ever published in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It featured news reports transmitted from Britain by wireless while the ship was at sea. Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy,was one of the ship's passengers.
1907 1st cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London.
1933 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 272.46 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1944 World War II: Allied American aircraft mistakenly bombed the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
1956 The first football league match to be played under floodlighting took place at Portsmouth. The home side lost 2-0 to Newcastle United.
1968 Rock group Genesis release their 1st record "Silent Sun".
1969 The last time all four Beatles were together for a recording session.
1997 Dolly the Sheep, world's first cloned mammal is announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
2006 At least six men staged Britain's biggest ever robbery, stealing £53m from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
2020 Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo marks his 1,000th senior appearance by scoring in Juventus' 2-1 Serie A win over SPAL. 725 career goals in 836 club games and 164 internationals.
’King Kenny’ abdicated at Anfield. Kenny Dalglish resigning at Liverpool was the shock news of the day – if not the season. He had first joined Liverpool in 1977 when Bob Paisley paid a British record transfer fee of £440,000 to Celtic for him and had become player-manager in 1985, just before the Heysel tragedy. During his career at Liverpool the club had won practically everything many times over but it seems that the stress of the job finally took its toll on the Scot.
Football On This Day – 22nd February 2003.
Leicester fans had an unusual decision to make during half-time in the match against Wimbledon on Saturday 22nd February 2003 - the name of their club! Until 1919 the club had been known as Leicester Fosse and they were considering reverting to that name. But the fans were given the final say - each was given a card showing a C for City on one side and an F for Fosse on the other. In a show of cards at half-time the Cs won by a mile...and Leicester City they remained.
On this date in 1980, THE SELECTER released their debut album TOO MUCH PRESSURE.
TOO MUCH PRESSURE saw The Selecter build on an excellent rhythm section and Desmond Brown's Hammond hammering to produce an irresistible set of songs. Pauline Black's vocals were a passionate contrast to the male singers of the Ska revival.
303 Roman Emperor Diocletian begins his policy of persecuting Christians razing the church at Nicomedia.
1633 The birth of Samuel Pepys, London diarist, Secretary to the Admiralty and creator of the modern Royal Navy.
1689 Dutch prince William III proclaimed King of England.
1820 British police uncovered 'The Cato Street Conspiracy', planned by Arthur Thistlewood to assassinate Cabinet ministers. Five of the eighteen conspirators were publicly hanged outside Newgate prison on 1st May 1820, six were transported to Australia for life and the rest were either rewarded or released due to their status as spies, agent provocateurs or men who had turned King's Evidence.
1836 Battle of the Alamo, besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army under General Santa Anna entire Texan garrison eventually killed,which included American folk hero Davy Crockett.
1863 Lake Victoria, in Africa, was declared to be the source of the River Nile by British explorers John Speke and J.A. Grant.
1874 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented an outdoor game he called ‘Sphairistike’, later known as lawn tennis. Eventually it was adopted by the All England Croquet Club which sponsored the first Wimbledon championships in 1877.
1886 "The Times" of London publishes world's 1st classified ad.
1920 The first regular broadcasting service in Britain started from Marconi’s studio in Writtle, near Chelmsford. The 30-minute programme was transmitted twice daily. Peter Eckersley opened with 'Hello! Hello! This is Two-Emma-Toc, Writtle testing.' Two-Emma-Toc stood for 2MT, the licence granted to Marconi by the General Post Office.
1940 Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" released.
1945 World War II: The German town of Pforzheim was almost completely destroyed in a raid by 379 British bombers. About one quarter of the town's population (over 17,000 people) were killed in the air raid. The town was thought by the Allies to be producing precision instruments for use in the German war effort and to be a transport centre for the movement of German troops.
1953 In Britain, an amnesty offered to World War II deserters brought in applications from more than 3000 servicemen.
1958 5-time F1 World Drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by Cuban rebels from Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement released soon after Cuban GP.
1963 Peter Hicks, a farmer who electrified his car to ward off traffic wardens in London's Covent Garden had to wait nine months before police returned his electric device and told him they would not be prosecuting.
1963 Luciano Pavarotti makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera in "La traviata".
1965 The death of Stan Laurel, film comedian born in Ulverston (which was then in Lancashire but now lies in Cumbria) in 1890. Ulverston has a Laurel & Hardy Museum.
1996 "Trainspotting" directed by Danny Boyle based on the book by Irvine Welsh, starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller opens in cinemas in the UK and Ireland.
1998 Osama bin Laden published a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders". The term Crusaders is commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States.
1995 The death of James Alfred Wight (James Herriot ), vet and author of 'All Creatures Great & Small'.
1999 Hip Hop artist Eminem releases his first major record album 'The Slim Shady LP'.
2012 Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland announced a full year loss of nearly £2bn further fuelling the debate about bankers' pay and bonuses. Nevertheless, £390m in bonuses was still paid to RBS's 17,000 investment bankers.
2020 First major COVID-19 outbreak in Europe in Italy with 152 cases and three deaths, prompting emergency measures, locking down 10 towns in Lombardy.
After managing unfashionable 5000-1 outsiders Leicester City to the Premier League title in 2015/16 you would have thought that Claudio Ranieri would have had a job at Leicester for life – but he was sacked just 9 months later! Apart from leading Leicester to the title he had increased expectations at the King Power Stadium and in February 2017 with defending champions Leicester hovering just above the relegation area and with no league win or even league goal since December pressure on him grew. On February 23rd, just two weeks after the City owners had offered him their ‘unwavering support’ and despite club vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha describing him as ‘the most successful Leicester City manager of all time’, Ranieri was sacked. The decision was widely condemned with Gary Lineker describing it as ‘inexplicable, unforgivable and gut-wrenchingly sad’. Rumours were rife that Ranieri had ‘lost’ the dressing room and that certainly looked the case when the same players won their first six matches for new manager Craig Shakespeare – a winning run they didn’t even manage in the title-winning season. Leicester finished safely in a mid-table position and they were ordinary again!
616 The death of Ethelberht, King of Kent from about 589 until his death. He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.
1303 The Battle of Roslin - a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. The war itself lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the legal restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh - Northampton in 1328.
1807 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England.
1809 The third Theatre Royal Drury Lane was destroyed by fire. It was uninsured and still not paid for so it was a financial disaster for the owners who included Sheridan.
1909 Suffragettes attempted to break into the Houses of Parliament. The police made 29 arrests.
1920 Lady Nancy Astor,(the first woman to ever hold a seat in the House of Commons), became the first woman to speak in Parliament.
1923 The Flying Scotsman began hauling scheduled services between London & Scotland.
1932 Malcolm Campbell beat his own land speed record at Daytona Beach by reaching 253.96 mph.
1940 The birth of Denis Law, Scottish footballer.He is the only Scottish player in history to have won the prestigious European Footballer of the Year award, which he did in 1964. Law was Manchester United's second highest goal scorer behind Bobby Charlton and holds a United record for scoring 46 goals in a single season.
1962 The Beatles played a concert at the Birkenhead YMCA for a fee of £30. The audience didn't enjoy the show and the Beatles were booed off stage.They left early for a second gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club and the rest as they say is history.
1971 Commonwealth citizens lost their automatic right to remain in the UK under the government's new Immigration Bill.
1981 The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer ended months of speculation by announcing that they would marry in the summer.
1993 The famed English footballer Bobby Moore died. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of world football.
Comments
Hill remains the only driver to win the Triple Crown however Fernando Alonso is close having won at Monaco and Le Mans. He has competed at Indy but is yet to taste the victor's milk there. (To promote the local dairy industry, the trandition is for the winner of the 500 mile event to receive a bottle of milk rather than champagne.)
Graham Hill is also the only driver to have accomplished this winning the F1 Drivers' Title in 1962 and 1968.
600 Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze.
1646 The Battle of Torrington, in Devon. It was the last major battle of the first English Civil War and marked the end of the Royalist resistance in the west country.
1659 The first British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker and is now in the archives of the National Westminster Bank.
1801 Pitt (the Younger) resigned as British Prime Minister when George III rejected his plans for the emancipation of Irish Catholics.
1923 Howard Carter having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months previously lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.
1927 The birth of actress June Muriel Brown, MBE. She is best known for her role as the busy-body chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.
1933 England regains the Ashes, thanks to "bodyline" tactics.
1940 World War II: In a daring night raid known as the Altmark incident a boarding party from HMS Cossack successfully rescued 299 British prisoners of war from the Altmark,a 12,000 ton German tanker in Norwegian waters.The Altmark was returning to Germany with the merchant sailors who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
1946 The birth of actor Ian Lavender.His best remembered role was as Private Frank Pike the youngest member and 'stupid boy' of the platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army.
1957 The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television close down between 6 and 7 pm, abolished in the United Kingdom.
1965 A 2nd report from British Railways' Board chairman Dr. Richard Beeching outlined transport needs for the following 25 years.The report followed his 1st controversial review of the state of the railways published in 1963 in which he said the system was uneconomic and under-used and recommended that a quarter of the railway system should be shut down.
1972 Many homes and businesses were without electricity for up to nine hours a day from this day. Miners into the sixth week of their strike over pay picketed power stations and all other sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.
1989 Dr. Raymond Crockett,a Harley Street nephrologist resigned as the director of the National Kidney Centre after revelations that kidneys had been purchased from impoverished Turks to be used in transplants for wealthy patients.
1990 Wives of Royal Navy seamen protested over a decision to allow WRENs (women sailors) to go to sea.
2005 The UK version of "The Apprentice" with British business magnate Alan Sugar premieres on the BBC.
1461 In the Second Battle of St. Albans, Lancastrians defeated Yorkists in England's War of the Roses.
1876 Sardines first canned by Julius Wolff in Eastport, Maine.
1883 Mr. A. Ashwell of Herne Hill, south London, patented Vacant - Engaged signs for toilet doors.
1914 Women suffragettes in Britain turned violent. They set fire to the Lawn Tennis Club and broke windows at the residence of the Home Secretary.
1936 The world's first superhero The Phantom,a cartoon strip by Lee Falk,makes his first appearance in comics.
1938 A surprise item was shown at the Dominion Theatre, London. It was the first public experimental demonstration of Baird colour television on a big 12 ft x 9 ft screen. Transmitted from Crystal Palace, the short programme consisted of fashion plates and a cartoon.
1941 World War 2: The first postwomen began work in Salford,due to lack of men.
1955 Fan ny Cradock's first cookery programme Kitchen Magic,was broadcast on television.
1958 The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) was formed in Britain.
1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win.
1972 The British parliament voted to join the European Common Market.
Margaret Thatcher campaigning to stay in Europe during the 1975 referendum.
2003 The London Congestion Charge scheme began with a fee charged for some categories of motor vehicle to travel at certain times within Charge Zone. The charge aimed to reduce congestion and raise investment funds for London's transport system.
2005 Hunting with dogs became illegal in Britain at midnight.
1478 George,Duke of Clarence, impeached for treason by his brothers Edward IV and Richard III, was (so legend decrees) secretly drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine at the Tower of London. The allegations may have originated as a joke based on his reputation as a heavy drinker. However a butt was equal to 105 imperial gallons enough to easily drown a man. A body believed to be that of Clarence was later exhumed and showed no indications of beheading the normal method of execution for those of noble birth at that time.
1517 The birth of Mary I, Queen of England, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.
1871 The birth in Sheffield,of Harry Brearley who is credited with the invention of "rustless steel" (later to be called "stainless steel").
1882 Oliver Vaughton (5 goals) and Arthur Brown (4 goals) became the first English players to score hat tricks in a full football international when England beat Ireland 13-0.
1885 Mark Twain publishes the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the US.
1901 Winston Churchill made his maiden speech in the House of Commons.
1911 The first official flight with air mail takes place in Allahabad, British India, when Henri Pequet a 23-year-old pilot delivers 6,500 letters to Naini,about 10 km away.
1933 The birth in Sacriston (County Durham), of Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson CBE, English footballer and football manager. Appointed (in 1999) as Newcastle's manager at the age of 66 he was the oldest manager in the league.
1949 Opportunity Knocks was presented for the first time (on BBC radio) by its creator Hughie Greene. It later transferred to Radio Luxembourg then went on to become a popular television programme on ITV.
1968 David Gilmour joins rock group Pink Floyd.
1969 Hundreds of people clamoured to see the marriage of pop stars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a Buckinghamshire church.
1977 Space Shuttle above a Boeing 747 goes on its maiden flight.
1981 Mrs. Thatcher's Conservative Government withdrew plans to close 23 pits in its first major U-turn since coming to power two years previously.
1981 Oxford University announced that Sue Brown would become the first woman cox in the history of the University Boat Race.
2003 The Hutton inquiry heard that No.10 Downing Street authorised a substantial rewrite of its Iraq arms dossier before publication.
2012 Bill Cooper (83) and his wife Laurel (82), who had spent the previous 36 years sailing round the world and clocked up 100,000 nautical miles returned to the UK to retire because their health was starting to fail. They had sold their home in Chatham, Kent, and set off from Lowestoft, Suffolk, in June 1976 on their 50ft vessel Fare Well.
1408 The Battle of Bramham Moor in which King Henry IV defeated the rebellious Percy family. The death of Percy removed the threat of rebellion in the North of England and allowed Henry to focus more fully on Wales.
1674 England and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Westminster ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transferred the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England and it was renamed New York.
1906 Will Keith Kellogg and Charles D. Bolin found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company,now the multinational food manufacturer Kellogg's.
1910 Typhoid Mary [Mary Mallon] is freed from her first periods of forced isolation and goes on to cause several further outbreaks of typhoid in the New York area.
1910 Manchester United played its first game at Old Trafford. The Sporting Chronicle said "The most handsomest, the most spacious and the most remarkable arena I have ever seen. As a football ground it is unrivalled in the world, it is an honour to Manchester and the home of a team who can do wonders when they are so disposed."
1914 Four-year old Charlotte May Pierstorff mailed by train from Grangeville, Idaho to her grandparents’ house 73 miles away in most famous 'child in the post' instance.
Children "mailed" by their parents because it was cheaper to mail them - if a child came in under the 50 pound parcel weight limit than other ways to travel.
1945 980 Japanese soldiers reportedly killed by crocodiles in 2 days on Ramree Island, Burma.
1945 US 5th Fleet launches invasion of Iwo Jima against the Japanese with 30,000 US Marines. Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.
United States Marines raise the U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima.
1957 The beginning of British TV's first medical soap opera series 'Emergency Ward 10' which ran twice a week for 10 years.
1959 The United Kingdom granted Cyprus independence which was then formally proclaimed on 16th August 1960.
1971 British TV chat show "Parkinson" debuts on BBC1 presented by Michael Parkinson.
1973 "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" single released by Dawn featuring Tony Orlando.
1975 The Queen knighted cricketer Gary Sobers on her visit to Barbados his birth place.
1976 Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Britain after the two countries failed to agree on limits in the ‘cod war’ fishing dispute.
1980 Ian Botham scores a century & takes 13 wickets in Jubilee Test Cricket at Bombay.
1981 George Harrison is ordered to pay ABKCO Music $587,000 for "subconscious plagiarism" of his song "My Sweet Lord" with Ronnie Mack's song "He's So Fine".
1985 The first episode of the BBC soap opera EastEnders was screened.
1985 Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola.
1996 The oil tanker Sea Empress grounded near Milford Haven. 3,500 dead sea birds were washed ashore and the disaster had a devastating impact on the fishing industry.
2001 A five-mile exclusion zone was placed around an abattoir in Essex after a suspected case of foot and mouth disease was detected. By the end of March the disease was at its peak, with up to fifty new cases a day. The final case was reported on Whygill Head Farm near Appleby in Cumbria on 30th September. Tourism and farming were severely affected.
On Saturday 19 February 1910 Old Trafford staged its first match when Manchester United met Liverpool in a First Division match. Not that it was called Old Trafford in those days but the ‘United Football Ground’ which just hasn’t got the same ring about it has it! Originally planned as a 100,000 capacity stadium by the time it was built the capacity of the vast terraces had been reduced to 80,000 with about 45,000 present at that match against Liverpool. United’s Sandy Turnbull scored the first goal at the new ground but visitors Liverpool spoiled the party, winning 4-3.
1472 Orkney and Shetland were pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Princess Margaret, daughter of Christian I, the King of Norway and Denmark. As the wife of King James III of Scotland she was the Queen Consort and the mother of the future King James IV of Scotland.
1547 Edward VI, aged 9 years old was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Edward, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant.
1712 The last recorded witchcraft trial in England took place. Jane Wenham, ‘the Witch of Walkern’, was found guilty and sentenced to death.However no execution took place as she was given a Royal pardon from Queen Anne.The last execution in England took place in 1684. Alice Molland at Exeter was hanged.
A popular test for witches was to immerse the suspect three times in water.There seems to have been two ways of performing the test but both ways had the same outcome.If the person floated they were obviously a witch. If they sank they were innocent but also dead from drowning.
1. The right thumb of the person was tied to their left toe before they were dunked.
2. The Dunking Stool - The device was a chair which was hung from the end of a free-moving arm. The 'witch' was strapped into the chair which was situated by the side of a river.
3. The Lords Prayer Test - It was thought that no witch could say the Lords Prayer.
1725 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100 a scalp bounty.
1856 The steam packet-ship John Rutledge, en route from Liverpool to New York, hits an iceberg and sinks with the loss of 120 passengers and 19 crew.
1940 The birth of Jimmy Greaves, England's third highest international goalscorer and the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club.
1944 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers.
1958 The government announced the closure of Sheerness docks one of the oldest naval dockyards in the UK.
1959 Jimi Hendrix (16) plays his first gig in the Temple De Hirsch synagogue basement, Seattle. He is fired from the band after the 1st set due to "wild" playing.
1982 US entrepreneur John de Lorean’s luxury sports car project in Belfast, set up with over £17 million of British taxpayers’ money went into receivership. On his return to the US he was asked bluntly, ‘Are you a con man?’
2015 Chelsea Football Club suspended three supporters as the club investigated racist chanting and phone footage of commuter Sylla Souleymane being pushed and prevented access to a carriage on the Paris Metro.
After non-leaguers Sutton United played Arsenal in the 5th Round of the FA Cup amazingly the main talking point was about a photograph….of a bloke eating a pie! The gentleman in question was the 46-year-old 23-stone Wayne Shaw,who was probably no stranger to the eating of pies but the photograph was taken during the match while he sat on the subs bench – he was the Sutton substitute goalkeeper! The story soon became less humorous when it was claimed that it was a publicity stunt for a bookmaker and that bets had been made that he would be photographed eating a pie during the match. The FA launched an investigation,Shaw resigned from Sutton the day after the match and was offered a pie-tasting job at Morrison’s supermarket.
1431 In a trial demanded by the English, French heroine Joan of Arc was accused of heresy before the judges in Rouen.
1437 James I, King of Scotland, was assassinated by a group of dissident nobles led by the earl of Atholl. The crown went to his son, James II.
1741 The death of Jethro Tull, English agricultural innovator. He perfected a horse-drawn seed drill that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows an invention that helped form the basis of modern British agriculture.
1804 Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the world's first steam railway locomotive at Samuel Homfray's Penydaren Ironworks in South Wales. The engine won a wager for Homfray by hauling a load of 10 tons of iron and 70 men along 10 miles of tramway.
1910 The birth of Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader who lost both his legs while attempting aerobatics in 1931. As an RAF fighter ace during the Second World War he was credited with 20 aerial victories,many shared victories and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. As a POW he was a thorn in the side of the Germans and he made so many attempts at escape that the Germans threatened to take away his legs.
1931 Alka Seltzer introduced.
1937 Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile.
1952 The government of Winston Churchill abolished Identity Cards - "to set the people free".
1958 The Peace symbol,commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom. The logo was not copyrighted and later became known in the wider world as a general-purpose peace symbol. The design incorporated the semaphore signals for 'N' and 'D' standing for 'nuclear disarmament'.
The vertical line in the center represents the flag semaphore signal for the letter D, and the downward lines on either side represent the semaphore signal for the letter N.
1965 Rights activist Malcolm X is shot dead by Nation of Islam followers at Audubon Ballroom in New York City.
1970 Jackson 5 make TV debut on "American Bandstand".
1980 British figure skater Robin Cousins wins men's singles gold medal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics.
1988 The grave of Boadicea,the warrior queen who fought the Romans in Britain nearly 2,000 years ago was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station, London. British Rail said they had just refurbished the platform and anyone wanting to dig it up would have to come up with a strong case. And they did!
1995 A man found a 40lb pike in a flooded bunker at Wetherby Golf Club in West Yorkshire while he was searching for a ball.
2001 The European Commission banned all British milk,meat and livestock exports following the UK's first outbreak of foot and mouth disease for two decades.
2008 The death of Sunny Lowry, the first British woman to swim the English Channel (1933). She was berated as being a 'harlot' as her light two-piece suit which was considered very daring at the time bared her knees.
2013 Rhossili Bay on the Gower peninsula, was listed as the best beach in Britain and third best of all European beaches. It was beaten only by Rabbit Beach in Sicily, and Playa de las Catedrales in Spain.
2014 Chris Moyles, former BBC Radio 1 host and TV presenter attempted to use a tax avoidance scheme called Working Wheels to avoid a £1M tax bill. He told HM Revenue & Customs that he had spent a year 'engaged in self-employment as a used car trader'. Moyles claimed to have run up £1m of losses selling £3,731 worth of used cars. He then tried to offset the claimed £1m loss in the 2007-08 financial year against tax he owed on his other income,including an estimated £700,000 salary from the BBC, which is funded by licence fee payers.
2014 28 year old footballer Wayne Rooney's signed a new contract with Manchester United. The deal will earn him more than £70m over five-and-a-half years.
A Third Division side staging a friendly on a cold Monday night in February doesn't sound the sort of match that would excite the imagination does it. But 54,437 turned up at Villa Park to see a friendly between Aston Villa and Brazilian side Santos...for perhaps more accurately to see Pele play! And the Brazil legend didn't disappoint putting on a dazzling display for the Villa faithful although it was Edu who scored the Santos goal in their 2-1 defeat.
Football On this Day – 21st February 1995.
Arsenal sacked manager George Graham after a Premier League investigation had found that he had taken a £425,000 ‘bung’ from agent Rune Hauge when arranging the transfer of two players to Arsenal, John Jensen and Pal Lyderson, who were both clients of Hauge. Later that day under caretaker manager Stewart Houston Arsenal beat Nottingham Forest 1-0, their first home League win since October.
1371 King Robert II of Scotland succeeded to the throne beginning the Stuart dynasty. Following a palace coup he lost control of the country. He died in Dundonald Castle in 1390 and lies buried at Scone Abbey.
1630 Native American Indians introduce pilgrims to popcorn.
1732 George Washington, 1st President of the United States (1789-97) and Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, born in Westmoreland, Virginia.
1797 Over 1,000 French troops attempted to invade Britain and landed at Fishguard but were soon captured by the brave ladies of the town. No other foreign force has managed to invade mainland Britain since.
1857 The birth of Sir Robert (Stephenson Smyth) Baden-Powell, English hero of the siege of Mafeking during the Boer War. His innovative approach to the situation kept morale high and his experiences led to the founding of the Boy Scouts.
1889 The birth of Lady Olave Baden-Powell, wife of Robert Baden-Powell. She was Chief Guide for Britain in 1918 and World Chief Guide in 1930.
1903 The Cunard Liner Etruria arrived in New York with a copy of the first newspaper ever published in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. It featured news reports transmitted from Britain by wireless while the ship was at sea. Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy,was one of the ship's passengers.
1907 1st cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London.
1933 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 272.46 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1944 World War II: Allied American aircraft mistakenly bombed the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
1956 The first football league match to be played under floodlighting took place at Portsmouth. The home side lost 2-0 to Newcastle United.
1968 Rock group Genesis release their 1st record "Silent Sun".
1969 The last time all four Beatles were together for a recording session.
1997 Dolly the Sheep, world's first cloned mammal is announced by the Roslin Institute in Scotland.
2006 At least six men staged Britain's biggest ever robbery, stealing £53m from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
2020 Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo marks his 1,000th senior appearance by scoring in Juventus' 2-1 Serie A win over SPAL. 725 career goals in 836 club games and 164 internationals.
’King Kenny’ abdicated at Anfield. Kenny Dalglish resigning at Liverpool was the shock news of the day – if not the season. He had first joined Liverpool in 1977 when Bob Paisley paid a British record transfer fee of £440,000 to Celtic for him and had become player-manager in 1985, just before the Heysel tragedy. During his career at Liverpool the club had won practically everything many times over but it seems that the stress of the job finally took its toll on the Scot.
Football On This Day – 22nd February 2003.
Leicester fans had an unusual decision to make during half-time in the match against Wimbledon on Saturday 22nd February 2003 - the name of their club! Until 1919 the club had been known as Leicester Fosse and they were considering reverting to that name. But the fans were given the final say - each was given a card showing a C for City on one side and an F for Fosse on the other. In a show of cards at half-time the Cs won by a mile...and Leicester City they remained.
TOO MUCH PRESSURE saw The Selecter build on an excellent rhythm section and Desmond Brown's Hammond hammering to produce an irresistible set of songs. Pauline Black's vocals were a passionate contrast to the male singers of the Ska revival.
303 Roman Emperor Diocletian begins his policy of persecuting Christians razing the church at Nicomedia.
1633 The birth of Samuel Pepys, London diarist, Secretary to the Admiralty and creator of the modern Royal Navy.
1689 Dutch prince William III proclaimed King of England.
1820 British police uncovered 'The Cato Street Conspiracy', planned by Arthur Thistlewood to assassinate Cabinet ministers. Five of the eighteen conspirators were publicly hanged outside Newgate prison on 1st May 1820, six were transported to Australia for life and the rest were either rewarded or released due to their status as spies, agent provocateurs or men who had turned King's Evidence.
1836 Battle of the Alamo, besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army under General Santa Anna entire Texan garrison eventually killed,which included American folk hero Davy Crockett.
1863 Lake Victoria, in Africa, was declared to be the source of the River Nile by British explorers John Speke and J.A. Grant.
1874 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented an outdoor game he called ‘Sphairistike’, later known as lawn tennis. Eventually it was adopted by the All England Croquet Club which sponsored the first Wimbledon championships in 1877.
1886 "The Times" of London publishes world's 1st classified ad.
1920 The first regular broadcasting service in Britain started from Marconi’s studio in Writtle, near Chelmsford. The 30-minute programme was transmitted twice daily. Peter Eckersley opened with 'Hello! Hello! This is Two-Emma-Toc, Writtle testing.' Two-Emma-Toc stood for 2MT, the licence granted to Marconi by the General Post Office.
1940 Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" released.
1945 World War II: The German town of Pforzheim was almost completely destroyed in a raid by 379 British bombers. About one quarter of the town's population (over 17,000 people) were killed in the air raid. The town was thought by the Allies to be producing precision instruments for use in the German war effort and to be a transport centre for the movement of German troops.
1953 In Britain, an amnesty offered to World War II deserters brought in applications from more than 3000 servicemen.
1958 5-time F1 World Drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio is kidnapped by Cuban rebels from Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement released soon after Cuban GP.
1963 Peter Hicks, a farmer who electrified his car to ward off traffic wardens in London's Covent Garden had to wait nine months before police returned his electric device and told him they would not be prosecuting.
1963 Luciano Pavarotti makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera in "La traviata".
1965 The death of Stan Laurel, film comedian born in Ulverston (which was then in Lancashire but now lies in Cumbria) in 1890. Ulverston has a Laurel & Hardy Museum.
1996 "Trainspotting" directed by Danny Boyle based on the book by Irvine Welsh, starring Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller opens in cinemas in the UK and Ireland.
1998 Osama bin Laden published a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders". The term Crusaders is commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States.
1995 The death of James Alfred Wight (James Herriot ), vet and author of 'All Creatures Great & Small'.
1999 Hip Hop artist Eminem releases his first major record album 'The Slim Shady LP'.
2012 Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland announced a full year loss of nearly £2bn further fuelling the debate about bankers' pay and bonuses. Nevertheless, £390m in bonuses was still paid to RBS's 17,000 investment bankers.
2020 First major COVID-19 outbreak in Europe in Italy with 152 cases and three deaths, prompting emergency measures, locking down 10 towns in Lombardy.
After managing unfashionable 5000-1 outsiders Leicester City to the Premier League title in 2015/16 you would have thought that Claudio Ranieri would have had a job at Leicester for life – but he was sacked just 9 months later! Apart from leading Leicester to the title he had increased expectations at the King Power Stadium and in February 2017 with defending champions Leicester hovering just above the relegation area and with no league win or even league goal since December pressure on him grew. On February 23rd, just two weeks after the City owners had offered him their ‘unwavering support’ and despite club vice-chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha describing him as ‘the most successful Leicester City manager of all time’, Ranieri was sacked. The decision was widely condemned with Gary Lineker describing it as ‘inexplicable, unforgivable and gut-wrenchingly sad’. Rumours were rife that Ranieri had ‘lost’ the dressing room and that certainly looked the case when the same players won their first six matches for new manager Craig Shakespeare – a winning run they didn’t even manage in the title-winning season. Leicester finished safely in a mid-table position and they were ordinary again!
616 The death of Ethelberht, King of Kent from about 589 until his death. He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.
1303 The Battle of Roslin - a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. The war itself lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the legal restoration of Scottish independence with the Treaty of Edinburgh - Northampton in 1328.
1807 17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England.
1809 The third Theatre Royal Drury Lane was destroyed by fire. It was uninsured and still not paid for so it was a financial disaster for the owners who included Sheridan.
1909 Suffragettes attempted to break into the Houses of Parliament. The police made 29 arrests.
1920 Lady Nancy Astor,(the first woman to ever hold a seat in the House of Commons), became the first woman to speak in Parliament.
1923 The Flying Scotsman began hauling scheduled services between London & Scotland.
1932 Malcolm Campbell beat his own land speed record at Daytona Beach by reaching 253.96 mph.
1940 The birth of Denis Law, Scottish footballer.He is the only Scottish player in history to have won the prestigious European Footballer of the Year award, which he did in 1964. Law was Manchester United's second highest goal scorer behind Bobby Charlton and holds a United record for scoring 46 goals in a single season.
1962 The Beatles played a concert at the Birkenhead YMCA for a fee of £30. The audience didn't enjoy the show and the Beatles were booed off stage.They left early for a second gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club and the rest as they say is history.
1971 Commonwealth citizens lost their automatic right to remain in the UK under the government's new Immigration Bill.
1981 The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer ended months of speculation by announcing that they would marry in the summer.
1993 The famed English footballer Bobby Moore died. He captained West Ham United for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of world football.
5th October 1965,that picture, below, exactly where misterpj entered the World.