1570 Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. He declared her a usurper for her severe persecution of Roman Catholics in England. It was the last such judgment made against a reigning monarch by any pope.
1723 The death of Sir Christopher Wren, highly acclaimed English architect and architect of St Paul's Cathedral.
1836 Showman P. T. Barnum exhibits African American slave Joice Heth, claiming she was the 161 year-old nursemaid to George Washington.
1836 Samuel Colt patents first multi-shot revolving-cylinder revolver, enabling the firearm to be fired multiple times without reloading.
1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole "Bill the Butcher" shot in the back by gang of archrival John Morrissey in New York (dies 8th March). He was the inspiration for the character of William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) in Martin Scorsese's 2002 film "Gangs of New York".
1859 1st use of "insanity plea" to prove innocence.
1897 The birth of Peter Llewelyn Davies, the namesake of Peter Pan. The author, J. M. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his famous play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. This identification as 'the original Peter Pan' plagued Davies throughout his life.
1913 English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst went on trial for a bomb attack on the home of David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1914 The birth of John Arlott, cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. The BBC referred to his 'wonderful gift for evoking cricketing moments'.
1932 Austrian immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship.
1939 The first Anderson air raid shelter appeared in an Islington garden. In all two and a half million were built.
1955 Britain's largest ever aircraft carrier the Ark Royal, was completed. She was the fourth ship of that name to have served the Crown.
1957 Buddy Holly & Crickets record "That'll Be the Day".
1963 Beatles release their 1st single in US "Please Please Me".
1964 Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay] wins his first world heavyweight boxing title when Sonny Liston fails to come out for round 7 at the Convention Center, Miami Beach.
1972 Miners voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay settlement after a seven week strike that seriously affected power supplies in Britain.
1978 Ian Botham scored his first test match century scoring 103 against New Zealand.
1980 British political comedy "Yes Minister" written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds premieres on BBC Two.
1982 The European Court of Human Rights ruled that corporal punishment in schools was a violation of the Human Rights Convention.
1989 Mike Tyson TKOs Frank Bruno in 5 for heavyweight boxing title.
1995 British super middleweight Nigel Benn puts opponent Gerard McClellan in hospital.
2013 British born actor Daniel Day-Lewis made Oscar history by becoming the first person to win the best actor prize three times. He was rewarded for his role in Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln'.
2015 Ministers confirmed that they would be changing the law to make it easier to levy tough penalties (up to £500,000) on companies that were behind persistent phone calls and texts that promised compensation for payment protection insurance, mis-selling and cold calls promoting solar panels.
1797 The Bank of England issued the first ever one pound note. Printed on watermark paper with a vignette of Britannia on the top left hand corner the hand-signed white £1 notes were withdrawn in the 1820s.
1839 The first Grand National Steeplechase was run at Aintree near Liverpool. The winner was ‘Lottery’ ridden by Jem Mason.
1851 Grand National Terry Abbott wins aboard Irish stallion Abd-El-Kader at 7/1; first dual winner and first to win back-to-back.
1881 P&O's SS Ceylon begins world's 1st round-the-world pleasure cruise from Liverpool.
1907 Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP).
1914 The launch of HMHS (Her Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She was the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. However, she was launched just before the start of the First World War and was laid up at her builders in Belfast for many months before being put to use as a hospital ship in 1915. She struck a mine off the Greek island of Keain in November 1916, and sank with the loss of 30 lives.
1935 Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire.
1935 Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to be re-formed violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1936 Adolf Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen".
1952 Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain now had an atomic bomb which it intended to test in Australia.
1962 The start of filming of Dr. No, the first film involving English agent 007 - James Bond.
1979 Accused of forging old masters painter Tom Keating’s trial at the Old Bailey was halted due to Keating’s ill health. Keating, a brilliant technician went on to present a television series on painters and became a celebrity in his remaining years.
1983 Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album goes #1 and stays #1 for 37 weeks.
1993 "World Trade Center bombing of 1993": truck bomb explodes in parking garage of NYC World Trade Center at 12:18pm, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000 in what was the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on US soil at the time.
1995 Barings, the country's oldest merchant bank declared bankruptcy after discovering that Nicholas Leeson, the firm's chief trader in Singapore, had lost approximately £625 million of the bank's assets on unauthorized futures and options transactions.
2002 London Mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed that motorists would be charged £5 per day to drive into London on weekdays.
2014 Michael Adebolajo (aged 29) was given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale (aged 22) was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering 25 year old Fusilier Lee Rigby. They had driven into Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, on 22nd May 2013. The two men claimed that they were 'soldiers of Allah' and that the killing was a legitimate act because Britain was at war with Muslim people.
2018 Cold weather nicknamed "the Beast from the East" hits Europe, killing 7 and covering Pompeii in snow.
2019 UK reaches its highest-ever winter temperature with 21.2°C (70.2F) in Kew Gardens, London.
1560 The Treaty of Berwick which would expel the French from Scotland was signed by England and the Protestant noblemen known as the Congregation of Scotland.
1594 Henry IV crowned King of France.
1700 The island of New Britain (close to New Guinea) was discovered by William Dampier, English buccaneer,sea captain,author and scientific observer. He dubbed the island with the Latin name Nova Britannia.
1827 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.
1848 The birth of Hubert Parry, English composer. As a composer he is best known for the choral song 'Jerusalem', based on Blake's poem that begins with the lines - 'And did those feet in ancient time. Walk upon England's mountains green.'
1856 18th Grand National: George Stevens wins aboard 25/1 Freetrader; first of Stevens' record 5 GN victories.
1874 Baseball 1st played in England at Lord's Cricket Ground.
1900 The British Labour Party was founded. Ramsay MacDonald became secretary.
1907 London's main criminal court the Old Bailey was built on the site of Newgate Prison.
1932 The birth in London of the film actress Elizabeth Taylor. Her first success was in the 1944 film National Velvet. One of her quotes "Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses."
1939 Borley Rectory, "the most haunted house in England", destroyed in a fire.
Local legend had it that a monastery had once been located on the site and that a 13th century monk and a beautiful young novice were killed while trying to run away from the place. The monk was hanged and his would-be bride was bricked up alive within the walls of her convent and starved to death.
1960 Five Nations Rugby Championship is won jointly by England and France with the pivotal game a 3-3 draw between the teams at Stade Colombes, Paris.
1984 Carl Lewis jumps world record indoor (8,675 m).
1987 Mike Conley triple jumps world indoor record (17.76m).
1991 The Gulf War came to an end with the liberation of Kuwait & the retreat of Iraqi forces.
1999 Aston Villa are the last Premier League team to play a match with an all-English starting XI in a 4-1 defeat by Coventry.
2002 Spike Milligan, Irish comedian and writer died aged 83. After the death of his friend Harry Secombe from cancer on 11th April 2001, Milligan said, "I'm glad he died before me because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." On his headstone is inscribed "I'Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", which is Irish for "I told you I was ill." He was the favourite comic of Prince Charles who wrote a letter congratulating Milligan on winning a Lifetime Achievement Award, whereupon the comic on live TV jokingly labelled the Prince a "grovelling little ****".
2012 The first 12 Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) were announced to help protect and enhance wildlife and ecosystems.
2015 Former pop star Gary Glitter was jailed for 16 years for having sex with a 12 year old girl, attempting to rape an 8 year old and repeatedly molesting a third.
1874 Arthur Orton, who claimed to be the long lost heir to the wealthy Tichborne estate in Hampshire, was found guilty of perjury after a trial of 260 days the longest trial in England. He was sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour as the real Sir Roger Tichborne had perished at sea in 1853.
1888 In a Belfast street a small boy named Johnny Dunlop was riding his tricycle under the supervision of his father. The two rear wheels of the tricycle were the world's first pneumatic tyres and he was testing them. The test was so successful that his father was granted patent number 10607 on 23rd July.
1900 The four-month siege of the British garrison at Ladysmith in Natal (South Africa) ended as a relief force broke through the Boers at Spion Kop. There were extraordinary scenes of jubilation in Britain, followed by much larger celebrations after the Siege of Mafeking. Four Victoria Crosses awarded during the siege.
1925 The birth of the actor Harry H. Corbett. In the early 1950s, he added the initial "H" to avoid confusion with the television entertainer Harry Corbett, who was known for his act with the glove-puppet Sooty. A chance meeting with writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who had been successful with Hancock's Half Hour changed Corbett's life. He is best known for his starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom Steptoe and Son. Early in his career he was dubbed 'the English Marlon Brando' by some sections of the British press.
1931 Having left the Labour Party, Sir Oswald Mosley formed the "New Party" which he said was dedicated to turning parliament "from a talk-shop into a workshop". The party later evolved into the British Union of Fascists.
1942 The birth of Brian Jones, English musician and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. He died at the age of 27 by drowning in the swimming pool at his home in East Sussex thus becoming a member of the so called '27 Club'. Members are all former musicians who died at the age of 27 and the list includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer).
1966 The Cavern Club, Liverpool, where the Beatles and other pop groups began was forced into liquidation.
1967 A West German court rules that impostor Anna Anderson failed to prove that she was missing Russian duchess Anastasia Romanov,ending a legal case that lasted almost 30 years.
1975 At 8.37 am in the London rush hour a Northern Line underground train crashed through the buffers at Moorgate station and hit a solid dead-end wall, killing 41 people and seriously injuring 50. The rescue operation took three days to complete.
1983 Final TV episode of "M*A*S*H" airs record 125 million watch in the US.
1984 British satirical puppet show "Spitting Image" premieres on ITV.
1986 European Economic Community signs "Special Act" for Europe free trade.
1993 Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas at Branch Davidian compound after FBI attempts a raid.
2001 A GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck between Goole and Selby, North Yorkshire, on the East Coast main line. Gary Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover and plunged 40ft down the railway embankment from the M62 into the path of an express train. The 4.45am Great North Eastern Intercity service from Newcastle to London King's Cross ploughed into the Land Rover before colliding with a coal train travelling north. 10 people including both train drivers died and more than 70 were injured. With an estimated closing speed of 142 mph the collision between the trains is the highest speed railway incident that has occurred in the UK. Hart was convicted of ten charges of causing death by dangerous driving, but served just 30 months of a five-year jail term.
When it comes to football controversies few would have expected TV chef Delia Smith to be at the centre of one, but at the centre of one she was on this day in 2005. The majority shareholder of Norwich City grabbed a microphone during the interval of the Premier League match between the Canaries and Manchester City and to drum up a bit of vocal support for the home side had this to say. ‘A message for the best football supporters in the world. We need a twelfth man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be having you. Come on." Was she drunk? Was it an undignified outburst or a genuine plea from a loyal supporter? The papers were full of it. Sadly though the words didn’t inspire the Canaries – the only goal after the break proved to be the winner for Manchester City and Norwich were relegated at the end of the season.
The National Day of Wales and the Feast Day of St. David. Tradition holds that he died On This Day in 589.
752 BC Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women.
1692 Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, & Tituba arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
1711 The first edition of London's - 'The Spectator', founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.
1784 Edward Kidder a London pie-maker opens the 1st formal cooking school, in London, Great Britain.
1843 5th Grand National: Tom Olliver aboard 12/1 Vanguard wins; first year race run as a handicap.
1854 SS City of Glasgow leaves Liverpool harbour and disappeared en route to Philadelphia with approximately 480 passengers and crew she was never seen again.
1910 The birth of David Niven, the Scottish-born film actor whose films included The Pink Panther and The Guns of Navarone.
1940 English actress Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind.
1946 The British Government took control of the Bank of England, after 252 years.
1947 The International Monetary Fund began financial operations. Its goal was to stabilize exchange rates and to assist the reconstruction of the world’s international payment system.
1949 Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires with a 66-3-0 record including 52 KOs; defended the title a record 25 times.
1966 James Callaghan, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that Britain would change over to decimal currency in 1971.
1971 Hundreds of thousands of workers across Britain took part in an unofficial day of protest against the government's new Industrial Relations Bill.
1973 Pink Floyd release their album "Dark Side of the Moon", since sold over 45 million copies.
1978 Charlie Chaplin's coffin and remains are stolen from a Swiss cemetery in an extortion plot.
1994 Fred West was charged with two further murders following more human remains found at his home. He had previously admitted murdering his 16 old daughter Heather.
1997 Puerto Rican boxer Héctor Camacho stops Sugar Ray Leonard in 5th round in Atlantic City, NJ to retain IBC middleweight title,the only time Leonard's is KO'ed and sends him into permanent retirement.
2020 The meteorological office announced that February had been the wettest in over 150 years. On a fourth consecutive weekend of terrible weather Storm Jorge prompted weather warnings stretching from Cornwall to the north of Scotland and across to Northern Ireland.
1629 English King Charles I dissolves Parliament against opposition imprisoning 9 members of parliament.
1882 An unsuccessful attempt was made by Scotsman Roderick Maclean to assassinate Queen Victoria. As she was leaving Windsor railway station he stepped forward from the cheering crowd, lifted a revolver and fired into her carriage. Before a second shot could be fired, he was overpowered by the crowd and arrested by Superintendent Hayes. Remaining calm, the Queen and her companions rode on to Windsor Castle.
1918 The birth in Kenmare, Ireland, of Sir Peter O'Sullevan, horse racing commentator for the BBC for fifty years from 1947 to 1997.
1933 "King Kong" film directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Fay Wray premieres at Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in NYC.
Poster for the 1933 film "King Kong", the first in a series of movies about the giant gorilla.
1947 The birth of Harry Redknapp, former English footballer with a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth.
1958 A British team led by explorer Vivian Fuchs, completed the first crossing of the Antarctic. His 12-man party endured severe hardships to travel the 2,500 from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound in just 99 days.
1965 One of the most popular musical films of all time, "The Sound of Music", starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer is released.
1969 The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline. The Anglo-French plane took off from Toulouse and was in the air for just 27 minutes.
1970 American Airlines' 1st flight of a Boeing 747.
1988 The Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party launched their new joint political party - the Social and Liberal Democrats.
1995 British financial dealer Nick Leeson, who bankrupted Barings Bank was arrested at Frankfurt Airport.
2011 One of cricket’s great upsets Kevin O’Brien hits fastest century in World Cup history off 50 balls (ends 113 off 63) to help Ireland beat England by 3 wickets in Bangalore.
1284 The Statute of Rhuddlan (also known as the Statutes of Wales) was enacted 'On This Day'. It introduced the English common law system to Wales, allowing the King to appoint royal officials such as sheriffs, coroners and bailiffs to collect taxes and administer justice.
1847 The birth in Edinburgh, of Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
1857 The Second Opium War: Britain and France declared war on China, using the killing of a missionary as the pretext.
1865 Opening of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.
1883 In the series decider England beats Scotland, 2 tries to 1 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh to win the inaugural Home Nations Rugby Championship with an undefeated record.
1891 The Penalty Spot Kick rule in Association Football is conceived but does not come into effect until the next season.
1931 "Star Spangled Banner" officially becomes US national anthem by congressional resolution.
1934 The largest ever English football crowd outside Wembley watched the match between Manchester United and Stoke City. Spectators numbered 84,569.
1943 World War II: 173 people were killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station, in London.
1955 A statement was made that London would become a smokeless zone at the beginning of October.
1955 Elvis Presley makes his 1st TV appearance on a broadcast of radio show "Louisiana Hayride".
1956 Elvis Presley's 1st hit in Billboard's top 10: "Heartbreak Hotel".
1966 The BBC announced that it would begin broadcasting television programmes in colour in 1967.
1974 A Turkish airliner en route to London crashed near Paris, killing all 345 people on board. Among the victims were 200 passengers many of them British, who had been transferred from British Airways flights cancelled because of a strike by engineers at London airport.
1982 The Queen opened the new £153m Barbican Arts Centre
1985 NUM members (National Union of Mineworkers) returned to work after their costly year long strike without a peace deal being won by their leader Arthur Scargill.
1985 "Moonlighting" with Cybill Shepard & Bruce Willis premieres on ABC TV in the US.
1991 The Queen needed three stitches in her hand after intervening in a corgi fight.
1991 Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving. The beating is famously captured on amateur video and later leads to riots when the police officers are acquitted.
1995 Camilla Parker Bowles and her husband Andrew divorced. She married Prince Charles on 9th April 2005.
1995 It was announced that British police were to be issued with stab proof vests in dangerous operations.
2018 The death of Sir Roger Bannister (aged 88), the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes, a feat he achieved at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, Oxford on 6th May 1954, in a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
1492 King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France against England.
1522 Anne Boleyn makes her debut at the English court at the Green Castle pageant.
1824 The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI was formed) by Sir William Hillary. Initially known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, Hillary was inspired to form the charitable organization when he saw a fishing fleet destroyed by a storm off the Isle of Man.
1882 The first electric trams in Britain ran, they ran from Leytonstone in East London.
1890 The Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland was opened by the Prince of Wales. The bridge is more than one and a half miles long and took six years to build.
1912 Suffragettes demanding votes for women smashed every window they passed in Knightsbridge as a protest at government inaction.
1923 Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer was born.
1936 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1951 The birth of former Scottish footballer and manager Kenny Dalgleish.
1965 David Attenbrough became the new controller of BBC2.
1966 Beatle, John Lennon, caused outrage amongst Christians by stating "We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now. I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity." Beatles' records were consequently banned in many US states and in South Africa.
1967 The first gas from the North Sea was piped ashore near Durham.
1969 The Kray twins Ronald and Reginald, were found guilty of murder.
1972 Kenneth Grimes, from Hampshire became the first individual to win more than £500,000 on the football pools.
1974 Following the election Edward Heath failed to persuade the Liberals to join a coalition and resigned. Harold Wilson would become Prime Minister for a third time but with a narrow majority.
1975 Charlie Chaplin was knighted after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
1997 In London, the match-fixing trial of footballers Bruce Grobbelar, John Fashanu and Hans Segers ended in deadlock with the jury failing to reach verdicts.
2015 The UK government announced that it was selling its 40% stake in the cross-Channel train operator Eurostar to an Anglo-Canadian consortium, for £757.1m.
2018 Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal are poisoned by nerve agent in Salisbury, England.
1133 The birth of King Henry II, who was to become the first Plantagenet king of England.
1461 Wars of the Roses: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin who then became King Edward IV.
1558 Smoking tobacco introduced into Europe by Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes.
1824 The First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declared war on Burma.
1850 Robert Stephenson's Britannia bridge linking Bangor, Wales to the Isle of Anglesey, was opened.
1857 James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.
1864 1st track meet between Oxford & Cambridge.
1868 Stapler patented in England by C H Gould.
1900 The British Government was offered peace proposals to end the Boer War but rejected them.
1936 The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
1943 The first flight of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines developed by Sir Frank Whittle.
1946 Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase 'The Iron Curtain' as the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.
1960 Elvis Presley ends 2-year hitch in US Army.
1971 "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin first played live at Ulster Hall, Belfast by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones.
1976 British pound falls below $2 for 1st time.
1977 The death (aged 27) of Thomas "Tom" Pryce, British racing driver and the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race. During the practice session for the 1977 South African Grand Prix, Pryce was faster than everyone including world champion drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt. During the race a safety marshal ran into the path of Pryce's car and both men were killed.
1986 "Today" tabloid launched (Britain's 1st national colour newspaper); it folded in 1995.
1994 Largest milkshake made 1,955 gallons of chocolate in Nelspruit, South Africa.
2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged by 39 MPs not to back military action in Iraq.
2002 American reality TV program The Osbournes" featuring family of Ozzy Osbourne premieres on MTV.
2006 Nature documentary "Planet Earth" narrated by David Attenborough premieres on the BBC.
2011 David Silva scores 38' winner as Manchester City scores 1-0 win over Wigan at City of Manchester Stadium to start EPL record 20 home game winning streak; streak ends 31/3/12.
2019 Bugatti announces the most expensive new car ever made - the La Voiture Noire costing €16.7 million only one will be made.
Juventus star player Cristiano Ronaldo has bought the world's most expensive car the Bugatti La Voiture Noire.
On this day, exactly 20 years ago, Roy Keane ended Alf-Inge Håland's career with one of the most horrific tackles you'll ever see on a football pitch. Pre-meditated revenge for an innocuous challenge from Håland on Roy in 1997. Challenges like Roy's on Alf-Inge would see you go to jail in today's world. Knee-high, nowhere near the ball. It was a straight red but Roy didn't care. He waited a long time for this moment and in his mind, the tackle was perfectly justified and here's why. September '97. Elland Road. Roy, was chasing a ball he had no chance of getting. The Irishman then whipped his left leg across Håland, who was sent tumbling to the turf. The Cork midfielder had snapped his cruciate ligament and was out for the season. The big Norwegian didn't realise the seriousness of the injury and stood over Keane, taunting him, shouting abuse to stop faking an injury. The United skipper would not forget. Fast forward four years and the two would meet again in an ill-fated clash at Old Trafford. Roy Keane: "I’d waited long enough. I **** hit him hard. Take that you ****. There are things I regret in life and he's not one. Even in the dressing room after, I had no remorse. My attitude was, **** him. He got his. He **** me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye."
1893 The opening of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella) which operated for 7 miles along the Liverpool Docks. The railway had a number of world firsts - it was the first electric elevated railway, the first to use automatic signalling, electric colour light signals and electric multiple units and was home to one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station.
1899 "Aspirin" (acetylsalicylic acid) patented by Felix Hoffmann at German company Bayer.
1944 658 U.S. bombers began a daylight attack on Berlin from bases in Britain and dropped 2,000 tons of bombs.
1951 The death of Ivor Novello, Cardiff born composer and actor. His first big hit was 'Keep the Home Fires Burning, which was very popular during World War I. The Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting were established in 1955 in Novello's memory and are awarded each year by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
1961 1st London minicabs introduced.
1964 Boxing legend Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to "Muhammad Ali", calling his former title a "slave name".
1970 The British Government announced a ban on the importation of domestic pets following the death from rabies of a dog imported from Pakistan.
1974 British coal workers called off a four-week strike following a 35% pay offer from the new Labour government.
1984 The National Coal Board announced a plan of massive job cuts & pit closures.
1984 Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
1985 Future undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson KOs Hector Mercedes at 1:47 in round 1 of 4 in Albany, NY in his first professional fight.
1985 The Conservative MP Ivar Lawrence made the longest speech of the 20th century in the House of Commons. He spoke for 4 hours and 23 minutes on the subject of the fluoridation of drinking water.
1987 The British-owned cross-channel ferry the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' left Zeebrugge, Belgium, with its bow doors open. The ferry capsized killing 193 passengers.
1988 Three IRA terrorists were shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar.
1992 Thousands of computers around the world were infected with a computer virus called Michelangelo. 6th March is the anniversary of Michelangelo's birth.
1996 Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams warned the public that the IRA was prepared for another 25 years of war.
1997 A £650,000 Picasso was stolen from a London art gallery. The thief escaped in a taxi.
2013 Microsoft is fined €561 by the Euro Commission for the EU for not providing option to chose an alternative web browser.
2018 World's oldest message in a bottle found in Western Australia, thrown from German ship Paula 132 years ago (12 June 1886).
321 Roman Emperor Constantine I decrees that the Dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire.
1530 When King Henry VIII's divorce request was denied by the Pope, Henry declared himself (not the Pope) as the supreme head of the English church.
1671 The birth of Robert Roy MacGregor, usually known simply as Rob Roy, the famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century.
1802 Edwin Henry Landseer English painter well known for his paintings of animals, particularly horses, dogs and stags was born. The best known of Landseer's works, however are the sculptures of the lions in Trafalgar Square.
1804 John Wedgwood, son of the pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood founded the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society.
1876 The Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the telephone. Bell's father, grandfather and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf factors that profoundly influenced Bell's life's work. Ironically, Bell considered the telephone an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and he refused to have a telephone in his study.
1926 The first transatlantic telephone call was made from London to New York.
1935 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 276.71 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car; last record set at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1946 Doctors mounted a campaign to oppose the introduction of a National Health Service.
1968 The first news programme in colour was broadcast on BBC2.
1969 Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Victoria Line on London's Underground.
1975 The body of Lesley Whittle, a 17-year-old heiress who had been kidnapped from her Shropshire home 52 days earlier was found at the bottom of a drain shaft. She had been held for 52 days then strangled by Donald Nielson, known as The Black Panther.
1987 Mike Tyson beats James 'Bonecrusher' Smith by unanimous decision in 12 rounds in Las Vegas for WBC / WBA heavyweight boxing titles.
1988 The IRA confirmed that the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar the previous day were members of an active service unit.
1990 The Egyptian Fayed brothers were allowed to keep Harrods despite an official report that branded them liars during their £615m takeover bid of the House of Fraser Stores.
1992 England routs Wales, 24-0 at Twickenham for it's 2nd straight outright Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam and Triple Crown titles; fullback Jonathan Webb 2 penalties and 3 conversions.
2015 The one millionth Morris Minor to be produced was sold at auction by Surrey-based specialist car auctioneers 'Historics at Brooklands' for £25,760. 55 years after it rolled off the production line. The classic British car had 23,364 miles 'on the clock' and was still registered on the original number plate 1 MHU, meaning one million in engineering terms.
1702 Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regent of England, Scotland, and Ireland after William III died in a riding accident.Despite seventeen pregnancies Anne died without surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover.
1765 Britain's House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.
1813 The London Royal Philharmonic Society staged its first concert.
1908 The House of Commons turned down the women's suffrage bill, thus denying the right for women to vote.
1910 The first pilots' licences were issued to an Englishman - J T C Moore Brabazon, and a Frenchwoman - Elise Deroche.
1937 The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell's book depicting life during 'The Depression' in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds - Liverpool canal.
The site of 'Wigan Pier', a coal loading staithe where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into waiting barges on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal. The original wooden pier is believed to have been demolished in 1929.
1950 Rover unveiled the world's first car to be powered with a gas turbine engine. Codenamed JET1 the two-seater model would be powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet aeroplane, with a fuel consumption of 5 to 7 miles per gallon.
1961 Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor and founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra died, aged 81.
1963 The first Ford Anglia was produced at Halewood, LIverpool.
1971 British postal workers returned to work after a strike lasting 7 weeks.
1971 Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali's 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC; retains heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in the "Fight of the Century". Muhammad Ali, had been stripped of his World Heavyweight Championship and suspended from boxing for three years after refusing to serve in the Vietnam war,prior to the bout both fighters were undefeated.
1972 The Goodyear airship Europa flew over Britain. It was the the first airship over Britain in 20 years.
1978 The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
1986 The Young Ones and Cliff Richard release new version of single "Living Doll" for Comic Relief charity.
2001 Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.
2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people loses contact and disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries.
1566 David Rizzio, Italian courtier and private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship because of rumours that he had made Mary pregnant and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him. The murder led to the downfall of Darnley who was himself murdered apparently by strangulation less than a year later.The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.
1834 French Foreign Legion is founded.
1839 Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours.
1891 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins in England and lasts until March 13; Kills 200 people and 6,000 animals.Snowdrifts as large as 15 feet buried trains and the passengers within them for days, ships were left stranded along the coast (such as the Bay of Panama, which was wrecked on the rocks of the Cornish coast, killing 23 people) and the telegraph system failed.
A train derailed in England due to the ferocious snowstorm of 1891.
Cornwall, Devon and Somerset were the worst affected areas, as roofs collapsed under the weight of snow and many people were trapped. Many workers trying to restore railroad lines and telegraph poles froze to death in the extreme temperatures.
1908 Italian football club Inter Milan founded as Foot-Ball Club Internazionale.
1946 33 fans were killed and hundreds injured when a barrier collapsed at the Bolton Wanderers' football ground. The dead and injured were taken from the stand with those who had perished lain along the touchline and covered in coats. Incredibly, a little under half an hour after leaving the pitch the game was restarted with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the bodies.
1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his wife. Three years later John Christie admitted killing her and several other women.
1952 Bill Beaumont, former British Lions and England international rugby captain was born.
1959 Barbie makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York. Over a billion have been sold worldwide since.
1964 1st Ford Mustang produced.
1973 Northern Ireland voted in favour (90:1) of staying in the United Kingdom.
1974 Last Japanese soldier a guerrilla operating in the Philippines,surrenders 29 years after World War II ended.
1984 Tim Witherspoon beats Greg Page in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1994 IRA terrorists launched a mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.
2011 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
2015 Archaeologists began excavating up to 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground under London's Liverpool Street station. The Bedlam burial ground was used from 1569 to at least 1738 and included bodies belonging to victims of the Black Death. The site is to serve the cross-London Crossrail line.
2020 Italy announces it is locking down the whole country due to a spike in COVID-19 cases with 10,040 cases and 630 deaths.
1629 Charles I dissolved the Parliament beginning an eleven year period known as the Personal Rule. He had been harshly criticized by Parliament and realized that as long as he could avoid war he could rule without them. It caused discontent among those who provided the ruling classes although the effects were more popular with the common people.
1801 Britain's first National Census. A census has taken place every ten years since 1801 with the exception of the 1941 census cancelled because of World War II.
1876 First telephone call; Alexander Graham Bell says "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" to his assistant Thomas Watson.
1886 Cruft's Dog Show was held in London for the first time. Previously it had been held in Newcastle. The organizer was Charles Cruft, general manager of a dog biscuit firm.
1906 Baker Street & Waterloo Railway opens constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The contraction Bakerloo became the official name in July 1906.
1919 The British Government decided in favour of building a tunnel linking England to France.
1920 Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament dividing Ireland into two parts,it is rejected by the southern counties where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year.
1922 Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British governors of India and sentenced to six years in prison.
1956 Peter Twiss a former Brooke Bond tea taster and later a test pilot became the first man to fly at more than 1,000 mph.
1964 Prince Edward, youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II was born.
1964 Simon and Garfunkel record the first version of "The Sound of Silence" at Columbia Studios in New York City.
1967 Singer Sandy Shaw released her record 'Puppet on a String' which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Britain.
1971 Cardiff City recorded one of their greatest victories when a Brian Clark headed goal saw the Bluebirds beat Real Madrid 1-0 before a near-50,000 crowd at Ninian Park in the ECWC quarter-final 1st leg. Sadly Cardiff lost the return leg 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu and Real went on to reach the final where they lost to Chelsea.
1978 "The Incredible Hulk", starring Bill Bixby as David Banner, premieres on CBS.
1988 Prince Charles narrowly escaped death in an avalanche at Kloisters (Switzerland). His friend Hugh Lindsay was killed.
1997 The Spice Girls made pop music history by becoming the first group to top the charts with every one of their first four singles.
2003 Former world motorcycle champion Barry Sheene died after a long battle against cancer.
2003 MP Clare Short threatened to resign from the Cabinet if Tony Blair led the country to war against Iraq without approval from the UN ..... and she did, on 12th May.
2015 The Queen officially named the new cruise superliner 'Britannia'. The 3,600 P&O passenger vessel is the largest cruise ship designed for the British holiday market. Its home port will be Southampton for the summer months, after being built in Italy at a cost of almost £0.5bn.
2017 The death (aged 83) of the former Formula 1 and motorcycling world champion John Surtees. Surtees is the only man to have won the grand prix world championship on both two wheels and four. He won four 500cc motorcycling titles - in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960 - and the F1 crown with Ferrari in 1964.
Comments
1570 Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. He declared her a usurper for her severe persecution of Roman Catholics in England. It was the last such judgment made against a reigning monarch by any pope.
1723 The death of Sir Christopher Wren, highly acclaimed English architect and architect of St Paul's Cathedral.
1751 1st performing monkey exhibited in America, NYC (admission 1 cent).
1836 Showman P. T. Barnum exhibits African American slave Joice Heth, claiming she was the 161 year-old nursemaid to George Washington.
1836 Samuel Colt patents first multi-shot revolving-cylinder revolver, enabling the firearm to be fired multiple times without reloading.
1855 Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole "Bill the Butcher" shot in the back by gang of archrival John Morrissey in New York (dies 8th March). He was the inspiration for the character of William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) in Martin Scorsese's 2002 film "Gangs of New York".
1859 1st use of "insanity plea" to prove innocence.
1897 The birth of Peter Llewelyn Davies, the namesake of Peter Pan. The author, J. M. Barrie publicly identified him as the source of the name for the title character in his famous play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. This identification as 'the original Peter Pan' plagued Davies throughout his life.
1913 English suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst went on trial for a bomb attack on the home of David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1914 The birth of John Arlott, cricket commentator for the BBC's Test Match Special. The BBC referred to his 'wonderful gift for evoking cricketing moments'.
1932 Austrian immigrant Adolf Hitler gets German citizenship.
1939 The first Anderson air raid shelter appeared in an Islington garden. In all two and a half million were built.
1955 Britain's largest ever aircraft carrier the Ark Royal, was completed. She was the fourth ship of that name to have served the Crown.
1957 Buddy Holly & Crickets record "That'll Be the Day".
1963 Beatles release their 1st single in US "Please Please Me".
1964 Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay] wins his first world heavyweight boxing title when Sonny Liston fails to come out for round 7 at the Convention Center, Miami Beach.
1972 Miners voted overwhelmingly in favour of a pay settlement after a seven week strike that seriously affected power supplies in Britain.
1978 Ian Botham scored his first test match century scoring 103 against New Zealand.
1980 British political comedy "Yes Minister" written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, starring Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds premieres on BBC Two.
1982 The European Court of Human Rights ruled that corporal punishment in schools was a violation of the Human Rights Convention.
1989 Mike Tyson TKOs Frank Bruno in 5 for heavyweight boxing title.
1995 British super middleweight Nigel Benn puts opponent Gerard McClellan in hospital.
2013 British born actor Daniel Day-Lewis made Oscar history by becoming the first person to win the best actor prize three times. He was rewarded for his role in Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln'.
2015 Ministers confirmed that they would be changing the law to make it easier to levy tough penalties (up to £500,000) on companies that were behind persistent phone calls and texts that promised compensation for payment protection insurance, mis-selling and cold calls promoting solar panels.
1797 The Bank of England issued the first ever one pound note. Printed on watermark paper with a vignette of Britannia on the top left hand corner the hand-signed white £1 notes were withdrawn in the 1820s.
1839 The first Grand National Steeplechase was run at Aintree near Liverpool. The winner was ‘Lottery’ ridden by Jem Mason.
1851 Grand National Terry Abbott wins aboard Irish stallion Abd-El-Kader at 7/1; first dual winner and first to win back-to-back.
1881 P&O's SS Ceylon begins world's 1st round-the-world pleasure cruise from Liverpool.
1907 Royal Oil & Shell merge to form British Petroleum (BP).
1914 The launch of HMHS (Her Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, at Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She was the third and largest Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. However, she was launched just before the start of the First World War and was laid up at her builders in Belfast for many months before being put to use as a hospital ship in 1915. She struck a mine off the Greek island of Keain in November 1916, and sank with the loss of 30 lives.
1935 Robert Watson-Watt first demonstrated RADAR (radio detection and ranging) at Daventry, Northamptonshire.
1935 Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to be re-formed violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
1936 Adolf Hitler introduces Ferdinand Porsche's "Volkswagen".
1952 Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain now had an atomic bomb which it intended to test in Australia.
1962 The start of filming of Dr. No, the first film involving English agent 007 - James Bond.
1979 Accused of forging old masters painter Tom Keating’s trial at the Old Bailey was halted due to Keating’s ill health. Keating, a brilliant technician went on to present a television series on painters and became a celebrity in his remaining years.
1983 Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album goes #1 and stays #1 for 37 weeks.
1993 "World Trade Center bombing of 1993": truck bomb explodes in parking garage of NYC World Trade Center at 12:18pm, killing 6 and injuring over 1,000 in what was the deadliest act of terrorism perpetrated on US soil at the time.
1995 Barings, the country's oldest merchant bank declared bankruptcy after discovering that Nicholas Leeson, the firm's chief trader in Singapore, had lost approximately £625 million of the bank's assets on unauthorized futures and options transactions.
2002 London Mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed that motorists would be charged £5 per day to drive into London on weekdays.
2014 Michael Adebolajo (aged 29) was given a whole-life term and Michael Adebowale (aged 22) was jailed for a minimum of 45 years for murdering 25 year old Fusilier Lee Rigby. They had driven into Fusilier Rigby with a car before hacking him to death in Woolwich, south-east London, on 22nd May 2013. The two men claimed that they were 'soldiers of Allah' and that the killing was a legitimate act because Britain was at war with Muslim people.
2018 Cold weather nicknamed "the Beast from the East" hits Europe, killing 7 and covering Pompeii in snow.
2019 UK reaches its highest-ever winter temperature with 21.2°C (70.2F) in Kew Gardens, London.
1560 The Treaty of Berwick which would expel the French from Scotland was signed by England and the Protestant noblemen known as the Congregation of Scotland.
1594 Henry IV crowned King of France.
1700 The island of New Britain (close to New Guinea) was discovered by William Dampier, English buccaneer,sea captain,author and scientific observer. He dubbed the island with the Latin name Nova Britannia.
1827 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans.
1848 The birth of Hubert Parry, English composer. As a composer he is best known for the choral song 'Jerusalem', based on Blake's poem that begins with the lines - 'And did those feet in ancient time. Walk upon England's mountains green.'
1856 18th Grand National: George Stevens wins aboard 25/1 Freetrader; first of Stevens' record 5 GN victories.
1874 Baseball 1st played in England at Lord's Cricket Ground.
1900 The British Labour Party was founded. Ramsay MacDonald became secretary.
1907 London's main criminal court the Old Bailey was built on the site of Newgate Prison.
1932 The birth in London of the film actress Elizabeth Taylor. Her first success was in the 1944 film National Velvet. One of her quotes "Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses."
1939 Borley Rectory, "the most haunted house in England", destroyed in a fire.
Local legend had it that a monastery had once been located on the site and that a 13th century monk and a beautiful young novice were killed while trying to run away from the place. The monk was hanged and his would-be bride was bricked up alive within the walls of her convent and starved to death.
1960 Five Nations Rugby Championship is won jointly by England and France with the pivotal game a 3-3 draw between the teams at Stade Colombes, Paris.
1984 Carl Lewis jumps world record indoor (8,675 m).
1987 Mike Conley triple jumps world indoor record (17.76m).
1991 The Gulf War came to an end with the liberation of Kuwait & the retreat of Iraqi forces.
1999 Aston Villa are the last Premier League team to play a match with an all-English starting XI in a 4-1 defeat by Coventry.
2002 Spike Milligan, Irish comedian and writer died aged 83. After the death of his friend Harry Secombe from cancer on 11th April 2001, Milligan said, "I'm glad he died before me because I didn't want him to sing at my funeral." On his headstone is inscribed "I'Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite", which is Irish for "I told you I was ill." He was the favourite comic of Prince Charles who wrote a letter congratulating Milligan on winning a Lifetime Achievement Award, whereupon the comic on live TV jokingly labelled the Prince a "grovelling little ****".
2012 The first 12 Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs) were announced to help protect and enhance wildlife and ecosystems.
2015 Former pop star Gary Glitter was jailed for 16 years for having sex with a 12 year old girl, attempting to rape an 8 year old and repeatedly molesting a third.
1874 Arthur Orton, who claimed to be the long lost heir to the wealthy Tichborne estate in Hampshire, was found guilty of perjury after a trial of 260 days the longest trial in England. He was sentenced to 14 years’ hard labour as the real Sir Roger Tichborne had perished at sea in 1853.
1888 In a Belfast street a small boy named Johnny Dunlop was riding his tricycle under the supervision of his father. The two rear wheels of the tricycle were the world's first pneumatic tyres and he was testing them. The test was so successful that his father was granted patent number 10607 on 23rd July.
1900 The four-month siege of the British garrison at Ladysmith in Natal (South Africa) ended as a relief force broke through the Boers at Spion Kop. There were extraordinary scenes of jubilation in Britain, followed by much larger celebrations after the Siege of Mafeking. Four Victoria Crosses awarded during the siege.
1925 The birth of the actor Harry H. Corbett. In the early 1950s, he added the initial "H" to avoid confusion with the television entertainer Harry Corbett, who was known for his act with the glove-puppet Sooty. A chance meeting with writers Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who had been successful with Hancock's Half Hour changed Corbett's life. He is best known for his starring role in the popular and long-running BBC Television sitcom Steptoe and Son. Early in his career he was dubbed 'the English Marlon Brando' by some sections of the British press.
1931 Having left the Labour Party, Sir Oswald Mosley formed the "New Party" which he said was dedicated to turning parliament "from a talk-shop into a workshop". The party later evolved into the British Union of Fascists.
1942 The birth of Brian Jones, English musician and a founding member of The Rolling Stones. He died at the age of 27 by drowning in the swimming pool at his home in East Sussex thus becoming a member of the so called '27 Club'. Members are all former musicians who died at the age of 27 and the list includes Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.
1953 Francis Crick and James Watson discover the chemical structure of DNA-molecule (double-helix polymer).
1966 The Cavern Club, Liverpool, where the Beatles and other pop groups began was forced into liquidation.
1967 A West German court rules that impostor Anna Anderson failed to prove that she was missing Russian duchess Anastasia Romanov,ending a legal case that lasted almost 30 years.
1975 At 8.37 am in the London rush hour a Northern Line underground train crashed through the buffers at Moorgate station and hit a solid dead-end wall, killing 41 people and seriously injuring 50. The rescue operation took three days to complete.
1983 Final TV episode of "M*A*S*H" airs record 125 million watch in the US.
1984 British satirical puppet show "Spitting Image" premieres on ITV.
1986 European Economic Community signs "Special Act" for Europe free trade.
1993 Gun battle erupts near Waco, Texas at Branch Davidian compound after FBI attempts a raid.
2001 A GNER train from York to London King's Cross crashed at Great Heck between Goole and Selby, North Yorkshire, on the East Coast main line. Gary Hart fell asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover and plunged 40ft down the railway embankment from the M62 into the path of an express train. The 4.45am Great North Eastern Intercity service from Newcastle to London King's Cross ploughed into the Land Rover before colliding with a coal train travelling north. 10 people including both train drivers died and more than 70 were injured. With an estimated closing speed of 142 mph the collision between the trains is the highest speed railway incident that has occurred in the UK. Hart was convicted of ten charges of causing death by dangerous driving, but served just 30 months of a five-year jail term.
When it comes to football controversies few would have expected TV chef Delia Smith to be at the centre of one, but at the centre of one she was on this day in 2005. The majority shareholder of Norwich City grabbed a microphone during the interval of the Premier League match between the Canaries and Manchester City and to drum up a bit of vocal support for the home side had this to say. ‘A message for the best football supporters in the world. We need a twelfth man here. Where are you? Where are you? Let's be having you. Come on." Was she drunk? Was it an undignified outburst or a genuine plea from a loyal supporter? The papers were full of it. Sadly though the words didn’t inspire the Canaries – the only goal after the break proved to be the winner for Manchester City and Norwich were relegated at the end of the season.
The National Day of Wales and the Feast Day of St. David. Tradition holds that he died On This Day in 589.
752 BC Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women.
1692 Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, & Tituba arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts.
1711 The first edition of London's - 'The Spectator', founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele.
1784 Edward Kidder a London pie-maker opens the 1st formal cooking school, in London, Great Britain.
1843 5th Grand National: Tom Olliver aboard 12/1 Vanguard wins; first year race run as a handicap.
1854 SS City of Glasgow leaves Liverpool harbour and disappeared en route to Philadelphia with approximately 480 passengers and crew she was never seen again.
1910 The birth of David Niven, the Scottish-born film actor whose films included The Pink Panther and The Guns of Navarone.
1940 English actress Vivien Leigh won an Oscar for her performance as Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind.
1946 The British Government took control of the Bank of England, after 252 years.
1947 The International Monetary Fund began financial operations. Its goal was to stabilize exchange rates and to assist the reconstruction of the world’s international payment system.
1949 Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis retires with a 66-3-0 record including 52 KOs; defended the title a record 25 times.
1966 James Callaghan, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that Britain would change over to decimal currency in 1971.
1971 Hundreds of thousands of workers across Britain took part in an unofficial day of protest against the government's new Industrial Relations Bill.
1973 Pink Floyd release their album "Dark Side of the Moon", since sold over 45 million copies.
1978 Charlie Chaplin's coffin and remains are stolen from a Swiss cemetery in an extortion plot.
1994 Fred West was charged with two further murders following more human remains found at his home. He had previously admitted murdering his 16 old daughter Heather.
1997 Puerto Rican boxer Héctor Camacho stops Sugar Ray Leonard in 5th round in Atlantic City, NJ to retain IBC middleweight title,the only time Leonard's is KO'ed and sends him into permanent retirement.
2020 The meteorological office announced that February had been the wettest in over 150 years. On a fourth consecutive weekend of terrible weather Storm Jorge prompted weather warnings stretching from Cornwall to the north of Scotland and across to Northern Ireland.
1629 English King Charles I dissolves Parliament against opposition imprisoning 9 members of parliament.
1882 An unsuccessful attempt was made by Scotsman Roderick Maclean to assassinate Queen Victoria. As she was leaving Windsor railway station he stepped forward from the cheering crowd, lifted a revolver and fired into her carriage. Before a second shot could be fired, he was overpowered by the crowd and arrested by Superintendent Hayes. Remaining calm, the Queen and her companions rode on to Windsor Castle.
1918 The birth in Kenmare, Ireland, of Sir Peter O'Sullevan, horse racing commentator for the BBC for fifty years from 1947 to 1997.
1933 "King Kong" film directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Fay Wray premieres at Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy in NYC.
Poster for the 1933 film "King Kong", the first in a series of movies about the giant gorilla.
1947 The birth of Harry Redknapp, former English footballer with a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth.
1958 A British team led by explorer Vivian Fuchs, completed the first crossing of the Antarctic. His 12-man party endured severe hardships to travel the 2,500 from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound in just 99 days.
1965 One of the most popular musical films of all time, "The Sound of Music", starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer is released.
1969 The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline. The Anglo-French plane took off from Toulouse and was in the air for just 27 minutes.
1970 American Airlines' 1st flight of a Boeing 747.
1988 The Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party launched their new joint political party - the Social and Liberal Democrats.
1995 British financial dealer Nick Leeson, who bankrupted Barings Bank was arrested at Frankfurt Airport.
2011 One of cricket’s great upsets Kevin O’Brien hits fastest century in World Cup history off 50 balls (ends 113 off 63) to help Ireland beat England by 3 wickets in Bangalore.
When I go Benidorm with the lads every year (well, nearly every year), a FULL English Breakfast is a must......whatever time we might start our day
1284 The Statute of Rhuddlan (also known as the Statutes of Wales) was enacted 'On This Day'. It introduced the English common law system to Wales, allowing the King to appoint royal officials such as sheriffs, coroners and bailiffs to collect taxes and administer justice.
1847 The birth in Edinburgh, of Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Bell. He was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
1857 The Second Opium War: Britain and France declared war on China, using the killing of a missionary as the pretext.
1865 Opening of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group.
1883 In the series decider England beats Scotland, 2 tries to 1 at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh to win the inaugural Home Nations Rugby Championship with an undefeated record.
1891 The Penalty Spot Kick rule in Association Football is conceived but does not come into effect until the next season.
1931 "Star Spangled Banner" officially becomes US national anthem by congressional resolution.
1934 The largest ever English football crowd outside Wembley watched the match between Manchester United and Stoke City. Spectators numbered 84,569.
1943 World War II: 173 people were killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station, in London.
1955 A statement was made that London would become a smokeless zone at the beginning of October.
1955 Elvis Presley makes his 1st TV appearance on a broadcast of radio show "Louisiana Hayride".
1956 Elvis Presley's 1st hit in Billboard's top 10: "Heartbreak Hotel".
1966 The BBC announced that it would begin broadcasting television programmes in colour in 1967.
1974 A Turkish airliner en route to London crashed near Paris, killing all 345 people on board. Among the victims were 200 passengers many of them British, who had been transferred from British Airways flights cancelled because of a strike by engineers at London airport.
1982 The Queen opened the new £153m Barbican Arts Centre
1985 NUM members (National Union of Mineworkers) returned to work after their costly year long strike without a peace deal being won by their leader Arthur Scargill.
1985 "Moonlighting" with Cybill Shepard & Bruce Willis premieres on ABC TV in the US.
1991 The Queen needed three stitches in her hand after intervening in a corgi fight.
1991 Rodney King was beaten by LAPD officers after a high-speed chase during his arrest for drunk driving. The beating is famously captured on amateur video and later leads to riots when the police officers are acquitted.
1995 Camilla Parker Bowles and her husband Andrew divorced. She married Prince Charles on 9th April 2005.
1995 It was announced that British police were to be issued with stab proof vests in dangerous operations.
2018 The death of Sir Roger Bannister (aged 88), the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes, a feat he achieved at the Iffley Road Sports Ground, Oxford on 6th May 1954, in a time of 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.
1492 King James IV of Scotland concludes an alliance with France against England.
1522 Anne Boleyn makes her debut at the English court at the Green Castle pageant.
1824 The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI was formed) by Sir William Hillary. Initially known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck, Hillary was inspired to form the charitable organization when he saw a fishing fleet destroyed by a storm off the Isle of Man.
1882 The first electric trams in Britain ran, they ran from Leytonstone in East London.
1890 The Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland was opened by the Prince of Wales. The bridge is more than one and a half miles long and took six years to build.
1912 Suffragettes demanding votes for women smashed every window they passed in Knightsbridge as a protest at government inaction.
1923 Sir Patrick Moore, astronomer was born.
1936 1st flight of the airship Hindenburg at Friedrichshafen, Germany.
1951 The birth of former Scottish footballer and manager Kenny Dalgleish.
1965 David Attenbrough became the new controller of BBC2.
1966 Beatle, John Lennon, caused outrage amongst Christians by stating "We're more popular than Jesus Christ right now. I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity." Beatles' records were consequently banned in many US states and in South Africa.
1967 The first gas from the North Sea was piped ashore near Durham.
1969 The Kray twins Ronald and Reginald, were found guilty of murder.
1972 Kenneth Grimes, from Hampshire became the first individual to win more than £500,000 on the football pools.
1974 Following the election Edward Heath failed to persuade the Liberals to join a coalition and resigned. Harold Wilson would become Prime Minister for a third time but with a narrow majority.
1975 Charlie Chaplin was knighted after a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
1997 In London, the match-fixing trial of footballers Bruce Grobbelar, John Fashanu and Hans Segers ended in deadlock with the jury failing to reach verdicts.
2015 The UK government announced that it was selling its 40% stake in the cross-Channel train operator Eurostar to an Anglo-Canadian consortium, for £757.1m.
2018 Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal are poisoned by nerve agent in Salisbury, England.
1133 The birth of King Henry II, who was to become the first Plantagenet king of England.
1461 Wars of the Roses: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin who then became King Edward IV.
1558 Smoking tobacco introduced into Europe by Spanish physician Francisco Fernandes.
1824 The First Anglo-Burmese War: The British officially declared war on Burma.
1850 Robert Stephenson's Britannia bridge linking Bangor, Wales to the Isle of Anglesey, was opened.
1857 James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.
1864 1st track meet between Oxford & Cambridge.
1868 Stapler patented in England by C H Gould.
1900 The British Government was offered peace proposals to end the Boer War but rejected them.
1936 The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
1943 The first flight of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines developed by Sir Frank Whittle.
1946 Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase 'The Iron Curtain' as the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.
1960 Elvis Presley ends 2-year hitch in US Army.
1971 "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin first played live at Ulster Hall, Belfast by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Bonham and John Paul Jones.
1976 British pound falls below $2 for 1st time.
1977 The death (aged 27) of Thomas "Tom" Pryce, British racing driver and the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race. During the practice session for the 1977 South African Grand Prix, Pryce was faster than everyone including world champion drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt. During the race a safety marshal ran into the path of Pryce's car and both men were killed.
1986 "Today" tabloid launched (Britain's 1st national colour newspaper); it folded in 1995.
1994 Largest milkshake made 1,955 gallons of chocolate in Nelspruit, South Africa.
2002 Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged by 39 MPs not to back military action in Iraq.
2002 American reality TV program The Osbournes" featuring family of Ozzy Osbourne premieres on MTV.
2006 Nature documentary "Planet Earth" narrated by David Attenborough premieres on the BBC.
2011 David Silva scores 38' winner as Manchester City scores 1-0 win over Wigan at City of Manchester Stadium to start EPL record 20 home game winning streak; streak ends 31/3/12.
2019 Bugatti announces the most expensive new car ever made - the La Voiture Noire costing €16.7 million only one will be made.
Juventus star player Cristiano Ronaldo has bought the world's most expensive car the Bugatti La Voiture Noire.
Challenges like Roy's on Alf-Inge would see you go to jail in today's world. Knee-high, nowhere near the ball. It was a straight red but Roy didn't care. He waited a long time for this moment and in his mind, the tackle was perfectly justified and here's why.
September '97. Elland Road. Roy, was chasing a ball he had no chance of getting. The Irishman then whipped his left leg across Håland, who was sent tumbling to the turf. The Cork midfielder had snapped his cruciate ligament and was out for the season.
The big Norwegian didn't realise the seriousness of the injury and stood over Keane, taunting him, shouting abuse to stop faking an injury. The United skipper would not forget. Fast forward four years and the two would meet again in an ill-fated clash at Old Trafford.
Roy Keane: "I’d waited long enough. I **** hit him hard. Take that you ****. There are things I regret in life and he's not one. Even in the dressing room after, I had no remorse. My attitude was, **** him. He got his. He **** me over and my attitude is an eye for an eye."
1893 The opening of the Liverpool Overhead Railway (known locally as the Dockers' Umbrella) which operated for 7 miles along the Liverpool Docks. The railway had a number of world firsts - it was the first electric elevated railway, the first to use automatic signalling, electric colour light signals and electric multiple units and was home to one of the first passenger escalators at a railway station.
1899 "Aspirin" (acetylsalicylic acid) patented by Felix Hoffmann at German company Bayer.
1944 658 U.S. bombers began a daylight attack on Berlin from bases in Britain and dropped 2,000 tons of bombs.
1951 The death of Ivor Novello, Cardiff born composer and actor. His first big hit was 'Keep the Home Fires Burning, which was very popular during World War I. The Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting were established in 1955 in Novello's memory and are awarded each year by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors
1961 1st London minicabs introduced.
1964 Boxing legend Cassius Clay joins the Nation of Islam and changes his name to "Muhammad Ali", calling his former title a "slave name".
1970 The British Government announced a ban on the importation of domestic pets following the death from rabies of a dog imported from Pakistan.
1974 British coal workers called off a four-week strike following a 35% pay offer from the new Labour government.
1984 The National Coal Board announced a plan of massive job cuts & pit closures.
1984 Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
1985 Future undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson KOs Hector Mercedes at 1:47 in round 1 of 4 in Albany, NY in his first professional fight.
1985 The Conservative MP Ivar Lawrence made the longest speech of the 20th century in the House of Commons. He spoke for 4 hours and 23 minutes on the subject of the fluoridation of drinking water.
1987 The British-owned cross-channel ferry the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' left Zeebrugge, Belgium, with its bow doors open. The ferry capsized killing 193 passengers.
1988 Three IRA terrorists were shot dead by SAS men in Gibraltar.
1992 Thousands of computers around the world were infected with a computer virus called Michelangelo. 6th March is the anniversary of Michelangelo's birth.
1996 Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams warned the public that the IRA was prepared for another 25 years of war.
1997 A £650,000 Picasso was stolen from a London art gallery. The thief escaped in a taxi.
2013 Microsoft is fined €561 by the Euro Commission for the EU for not providing option to chose an alternative web browser.
2018 World's oldest message in a bottle found in Western Australia, thrown from German ship Paula 132 years ago (12 June 1886).
321 Roman Emperor Constantine I decrees that the Dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire.
1530 When King Henry VIII's divorce request was denied by the Pope, Henry declared himself (not the Pope) as the supreme head of the English church.
1671 The birth of Robert Roy MacGregor, usually known simply as Rob Roy, the famous Scottish folk hero and outlaw of the early 18th century.
1802 Edwin Henry Landseer English painter well known for his paintings of animals, particularly horses, dogs and stags was born. The best known of Landseer's works, however are the sculptures of the lions in Trafalgar Square.
1804 John Wedgwood, son of the pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood founded the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society.
1876 The Scottish-born inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, patented the telephone. Bell's father, grandfather and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech and both his mother and wife were deaf factors that profoundly influenced Bell's life's work. Ironically, Bell considered the telephone an intrusion on his real work as a scientist and he refused to have a telephone in his study.
1926 The first transatlantic telephone call was made from London to New York.
1935 Malcolm Campbell sets world land speed record speed of 276.71 mph driving his famous Blue Bird car; last record set at Daytona Beach, Florida.
1946 Doctors mounted a campaign to oppose the introduction of a National Health Service.
1968 The first news programme in colour was broadcast on BBC2.
1969 Queen Elizabeth II opened the new Victoria Line on London's Underground.
1975 The body of Lesley Whittle, a 17-year-old heiress who had been kidnapped from her Shropshire home 52 days earlier was found at the bottom of a drain shaft. She had been held for 52 days then strangled by Donald Nielson, known as The Black Panther.
1987 Mike Tyson beats James 'Bonecrusher' Smith by unanimous decision in 12 rounds in Las Vegas for WBC / WBA heavyweight boxing titles.
1988 The IRA confirmed that the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar the previous day were members of an active service unit.
1990 The Egyptian Fayed brothers were allowed to keep Harrods despite an official report that branded them liars during their £615m takeover bid of the House of Fraser Stores.
1992 England routs Wales, 24-0 at Twickenham for it's 2nd straight outright Five Nations Rugby Championship, Grand Slam and Triple Crown titles; fullback Jonathan Webb 2 penalties and 3 conversions.
2015 The one millionth Morris Minor to be produced was sold at auction by Surrey-based specialist car auctioneers 'Historics at Brooklands' for £25,760. 55 years after it rolled off the production line. The classic British car had 23,364 miles 'on the clock' and was still registered on the original number plate 1 MHU, meaning one million in engineering terms.
1702 Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regent of England, Scotland, and Ireland after William III died in a riding accident.Despite seventeen pregnancies Anne died without surviving children and was the last monarch of the House of Stuart. She was succeeded by her second cousin George I of the House of Hanover.
1765 Britain's House of Lords passed the Stamp Act to tax the American colonies.
1813 The London Royal Philharmonic Society staged its first concert.
1908 The House of Commons turned down the women's suffrage bill, thus denying the right for women to vote.
1910 The first pilots' licences were issued to an Englishman - J T C Moore Brabazon, and a Frenchwoman - Elise Deroche.
1937 The Road To Wigan Pier, George Orwell's book depicting life during 'The Depression' in the north of England, was published. Wigan pier was simply a place for loading coal onto canal boats on the Leeds - Liverpool canal.
The site of 'Wigan Pier', a coal loading staithe where wagons from a nearby colliery were unloaded into waiting barges on the Leeds to Liverpool Canal. The original wooden pier is believed to have been demolished in 1929.
1950 Rover unveiled the world's first car to be powered with a gas turbine engine. Codenamed JET1 the two-seater model would be powered by the same kind of engine used in a jet aeroplane, with a fuel consumption of 5 to 7 miles per gallon.
1961 Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor and founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra died, aged 81.
1963 The first Ford Anglia was produced at Halewood, LIverpool.
1971 British postal workers returned to work after a strike lasting 7 weeks.
1971 Joe Frazier ends Muhammad Ali's 31-fight winning streak at Madison Square Garden, NYC; retains heavyweight boxing title by unanimous points decision over 15 rounds in the "Fight of the Century". Muhammad Ali, had been stripped of his World Heavyweight Championship and suspended from boxing for three years after refusing to serve in the Vietnam war,prior to the bout both fighters were undefeated.
1972 The Goodyear airship Europa flew over Britain. It was the the first airship over Britain in 20 years.
1978 The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
1986 The Young Ones and Cliff Richard release new version of single "Living Doll" for Comic Relief charity.
2001 Donald Campbell's boat, Bluebird, was recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water in Cumbria. Campbell was killed on 4th January 1967 at more than 300 mph whilst attempting to break his own water speed record.
2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 with 239 people loses contact and disappears, prompting the most expensive search effort in history and one of the most enduring aviation mysteries.
1566 David Rizzio, Italian courtier and private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots, was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. Mary's husband, Lord Darnley, is said to have been jealous of their friendship because of rumours that he had made Mary pregnant and he joined in a conspiracy of Protestant nobles to murder him. The murder led to the downfall of Darnley who was himself murdered apparently by strangulation less than a year later.The Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is the Queen's official residence in Scotland.
1834 French Foreign Legion is founded.
1839 Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours.
1891 Great Blizzard of 1891 begins in England and lasts until March 13; Kills 200 people and 6,000 animals.Snowdrifts as large as 15 feet buried trains and the passengers within them for days, ships were left stranded along the coast (such as the Bay of Panama, which was wrecked on the rocks of the Cornish coast, killing 23 people) and the telegraph system failed.
A train derailed in England due to the ferocious snowstorm of 1891.
Cornwall, Devon and Somerset were the worst affected areas, as roofs collapsed under the weight of snow and many people were trapped. Many workers trying to restore railroad lines and telegraph poles froze to death in the extreme temperatures.
1908 Italian football club Inter Milan founded as Foot-Ball Club Internazionale.
1946 33 fans were killed and hundreds injured when a barrier collapsed at the Bolton Wanderers' football ground. The dead and injured were taken from the stand with those who had perished lain along the touchline and covered in coats. Incredibly, a little under half an hour after leaving the pitch the game was restarted with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the bodies.
1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his wife. Three years later John Christie admitted killing her and several other women.
1952 Bill Beaumont, former British Lions and England international rugby captain was born.
1959 Barbie makes her debut at the American Toy Fair in New York. Over a billion have been sold worldwide since.
1964 1st Ford Mustang produced.
1973 Northern Ireland voted in favour (90:1) of staying in the United Kingdom.
1974 Last Japanese soldier a guerrilla operating in the Philippines,surrenders 29 years after World War II ended.
1984 Tim Witherspoon beats Greg Page in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1994 IRA terrorists launched a mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.
2011 Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights.
2015 Archaeologists began excavating up to 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground under London's Liverpool Street station. The Bedlam burial ground was used from 1569 to at least 1738 and included bodies belonging to victims of the Black Death. The site is to serve the cross-London Crossrail line.
2020 Italy announces it is locking down the whole country due to a spike in COVID-19 cases with 10,040 cases and 630 deaths.
1629 Charles I dissolved the Parliament beginning an eleven year period known as the Personal Rule. He had been harshly criticized by Parliament and realized that as long as he could avoid war he could rule without them. It caused discontent among those who provided the ruling classes although the effects were more popular with the common people.
1801 Britain's first National Census. A census has taken place every ten years since 1801 with the exception of the 1941 census cancelled because of World War II.
1876 First telephone call; Alexander Graham Bell says "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" to his assistant Thomas Watson.
1886 Cruft's Dog Show was held in London for the first time. Previously it had been held in Newcastle. The organizer was Charles Cruft, general manager of a dog biscuit firm.
1906 Baker Street & Waterloo Railway opens constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London. The contraction Bakerloo became the official name in July 1906.
1919 The British Government decided in favour of building a tunnel linking England to France.
1920 Home Rule Act passed by the British Parliament dividing Ireland into two parts,it is rejected by the southern counties where the Ango-Irish war continues for a year.
1922 Mahatma Gandhi was arrested by the British governors of India and sentenced to six years in prison.
1956 Peter Twiss a former Brooke Bond tea taster and later a test pilot became the first man to fly at more than 1,000 mph.
1964 Prince Edward, youngest son of Queen Elizabeth II was born.
1964 Simon and Garfunkel record the first version of "The Sound of Silence" at Columbia Studios in New York City.
1967 Singer Sandy Shaw released her record 'Puppet on a String' which won the Eurovision Song Contest for Britain.
1971 Cardiff City recorded one of their greatest victories when a Brian Clark headed goal saw the Bluebirds beat Real Madrid 1-0 before a near-50,000 crowd at Ninian Park in the ECWC quarter-final 1st leg. Sadly Cardiff lost the return leg 2-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu and Real went on to reach the final where they lost to Chelsea.
1978 "The Incredible Hulk", starring Bill Bixby as David Banner, premieres on CBS.
1988 Prince Charles narrowly escaped death in an avalanche at Kloisters (Switzerland). His friend Hugh Lindsay was killed.
1997 The Spice Girls made pop music history by becoming the first group to top the charts with every one of their first four singles.
2003 Former world motorcycle champion Barry Sheene died after a long battle against cancer.
2003 MP Clare Short threatened to resign from the Cabinet if Tony Blair led the country to war against Iraq without approval from the UN ..... and she did, on 12th May.
2015 The Queen officially named the new cruise superliner 'Britannia'. The 3,600 P&O passenger vessel is the largest cruise ship designed for the British holiday market. Its home port will be Southampton for the summer months, after being built in Italy at a cost of almost £0.5bn.
2017 The death (aged 83) of the former Formula 1 and motorcycling world champion John Surtees. Surtees is the only man to have won the grand prix world championship on both two wheels and four. He won four 500cc motorcycling titles - in 1956, 1958, 1959 and 1960 - and the F1 crown with Ferrari in 1964.