Herbert Chapman became the manager of Arsenal. The most innovative manager of his time he turned the Gunners from a club who hadn’t won a thing into one of the leading clubs in the country.
Football On This Day - 11th June 1969.
A late finish to the season for Newcastle United who were in Hungary to play the second leg of their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final - a forerunner of the Europa League - against Újpesti Dózsa. They won 3-2 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate to win the competition in their debut season in Europe.
Football On This Day - 11th June 1990.
England played the Republic of Ireland in the group stage of the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy - and England striker Gary Lineker later admitted that he suffered the 'most horrendous' experience of his life in that match. No point beating about the bush - he didn't feel well and lost control of his bowels - and shite on the pitch! So lets have a look at that incredibly embarrassing moment.
Bobby Charlton became Sir Bobby Charlton with the announcement of a knighthood for the former Manchester United and England player in the Queen's Birthday honours list. The award was for services to football generally although he became the first England player from the 1966 World Cup winning team to be knighted. 'Everybody calls me Bobby and that won't change' he said.
Football On This Day - 11th June 2017.
At last some good news for England fans - England won the World Cup final! Well, the Under-20 version that is but a great achievement secured with a first-half goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and a brilliant second-half penalty save from Freddie Woodman. That saw England beat Venezuela 1-0 in the final in Suwon in South Korea to claim their first world footballing title since 1966. Inevitably the English press seemed to indicate the the winning players would do exactly the same in the grown-up World Cup of 2022. We live in hope - as always - but these are the players who won the 2017 final, let's see how they develop in the years to 2022....Freddie Woodman (Newcastle), Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), Lewis Cook (Bournemouth), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Jake Clarke-Salter (Chelsea), Josh Onomah (Tottenham), Dominic Solanke (Chelsea), Ademola Lookman (Everton), Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Kieran Dowell (Everton). The subs were Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal) for Lookman and Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool) for Dowell with Paul Simpson being the Alf Ramsey of the side.
1429 In the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc led the French army in their capture of the city of Jargeau (France) against the English commander, William de la Pole, the 1st Duke of Suffolk. The English suffered heavy losses.
1458 Magdalen College, Oxford, was founded.
1667 The Dutch fleet, under Admiral de Ruyter burned Sheerness, sailed up the River Medway, raided Chatham dockyard, and then escaped with the royal barge, the Royal Charles.
1889 Seventy eight people were killed and 260 injured, almost a third of them children, in the Armagh rail disaster in Northern Ireland. A crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline but the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stalled. The crew divided the train but the rear portion ran back down the gradient and collided with a following train. It was the worst rail disaster in the UK in the nineteenth century, and remains Ireland`s worst ever railway disaster.
1922 George Leigh Mallory and two British climbers reached a height of 25,800 feet on Mount Everest without the aid of oxygen; the highest point ever achieved. Two years later, this same month, Mallory made another attempt with Andrew Irvine. Less than 1,000 feet from the summit, they were trapped by bad weather and were never seen alive again. (His body was eventually found on 3rd May 1999).
1931 Al Capone is indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition and perjury.
1942 Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present in Amsterdam.
1954 Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" is originally released.
1963 "Cleopatra" directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton premieres in NYC, then most expensive film ever made.
1964 Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa.
1967 "You Only Live Twice", 5th James Bond film starring Sean Connery, screenplay by Roald Dahl, premieres in London.
1981 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the first Indiana Jones film) directed by Stephen Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford premieres.
1981 Larry Holmes TKOs Leon Spinks in 3 for WBC heavyweight boxing title.
1983 Following Mrs. Thatcher's landslide victory in the General Election, Michael Foot resigned as Leader of the Labour party.
1986 Goalkeeper Pat Jennings made his 119th and final appearance for Northern Ireland, a 3-0 defeat against Brazil in a group match at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico. It was his 41st birthday making him – at the time – the oldest player ever to appear in the World Cup.
1987 US President Ronald Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin wall.
1988 The Republic of Ireland beats England 1-0 at Euro88 thanks to a headed goal by Ray Houghton. This is Ireland's first competitive match at a major football tournament.
1665 The Great Plague began to take hold, as the official death toll reached 112.
1842 Queen Victoria travelled by train for the first time, from Slough (near Windsor Castle) to Paddington, accompanied by Prince Albert. A special coach had been built earlier but the Queen had been reluctant to try this new form of travel. On her first journey, the engine driver was assisted by the great civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
1895 Emile Levassor wins the first automobile race in history the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, taking 48 hours and 48 minutes.
1917 The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths including 46 children with a further 432 people injured.
1920 US Post Office says children cannot be sent by parcel post (after various instances). 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.
When the US postal service began parcel deliveries in 1913 it wasn't long before some ingenious parents cottoned on to the idea of mailing their children. A 10-month old baby boy, the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge from Batavia, Ohio, was posted for the cost of 15c in stamps, though his parents did insure him for $50. In the most famous case 5-year-old May Pierstorff was mailed via train from her home in Idaho, the stamps stuck to her coat.
1933 German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) established by Hermann Goering.
1922 Longest recorded attack of hiccups begins: Charlie Osborne gets the hiccups and continues for 68 years, dies 11 months after it stops.
1942 British forces lost 230 tanks in desert fighting.
1944 World War II: the first German V1 flying bomb, or 'doodlebug' landed in Britain - killing three people in a house in the coastal city of Southampton. Only four of the eleven bombs hit their targets.
1956 1st European Cup Final, Paris: Héctor Rial scores twice as Real Madrid beat Stade de Reims, 4-3 to claim inaugural title.
1970 "The Long and Winding Road' became the Beatles' last Number 1 single in the United States. McCartney originally wrote the song at his farm in Scotland saying 'I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found inspiration.' The released version of the song was very successful, but the post-production modifications to the song by producer Phil Spector angered McCartney to the point that when he made his case in court for breaking up The Beatles as a legal entity, McCartney cited the treatment of 'The Long and Winding Road' as one of six reasons for doing so.
1974 Prince Charles made his maiden speech in the House of Lords. It was the first such royal speech in 90 years.
1976 French Open Women's Tennis: Sue Barker of England claims her lone major singles title; beats Renáta Tomanová of Czechoslovakia 6-2, 0-6, 6-2.
1981 17 year-old Marcus Sarjeant was arrested for shooting a replica gun at the Queen as she rode past crowds in London during the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Sarjeant was prosecuted under the Treason Act 1842 and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
1987 Princess Anne was given the title Princess Royal.
1989 "Licence to Kill", 16th James Bond film, last directed by John Glen and starring Timothy Dalton premieres in London.
1995 "Jagged Little Pill", 3rd studio album by Alanis Morissette is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year, 1996).
2003 English county cricket teams play the 1st official Twenty20 matches.
2005 A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2013 A man was given a warning after he dialled 999 to complain about a prostitute's looks. A police spokesperson said "The caller claimed that the woman had made out that she was better looking than she actually was and he wished to report her for breaching the Sale of Goods Act." The Sale of Goods Act 1979 gives consumers legal rights, stipulating goods which are sold must be of satisfactory quality, be fit for purpose and must match the seller's description.
2018 FIFA Congress votes to award 2026 World Cup to joint bid by US, Canada & Mexico.
2018 Raccoon climbs 23 story office building in St Paul, Minnesota, becoming an internet sensation.
The first European Cup Final was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris between Real Madrid and French side Stade de Rheims. Real Madrid won 4-3 and went on to win the first five European Cup tournaments. The was no English team in the first competition although the first final did have an English presence – it was refereed by Arthur Ellis who was later to find fame in television’s It’s A Knockout.
Football On This Day – 13th June 1998.
Diego Maradona was a great footballer but he did have his dark side. He had a long-standing drug addiction and in February 1994 he made the news when he fired an air rifle into a group of reporters and photographers who had assembled outside his Buenos Aires home. Four of them were injured. It took four years for Maradona to appear before an Argentinan court charged with that offence and he denied the charge despite him having been filmed hiding behind a car a firing the weapon. On 13th June 1998 he was found guity and received a 2 year 10 month suspended prison sentence.
Football On This Day – 13th June 2017.
You’d think that politicians would realise by now that trying to be ‘one of the lads’ usually ends in disaster for them. Days after a disastrous General Election and burdened with all the Brexit problems our Prime Minister Theresa May joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the friendly match between France and England at the Stade de France in Paris. Sadly that wasn’t enough for her and she decided to join in a Mexican wave but got her timing wrong – as she did with the General Election! – and did her bit seconds after everyone else had done theirs. The general opinion was that she was a muppet…and England lost 3-2.
1381 Richard II met leaders of Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance. The revolt later came to be seen as a mark of the beginning of the end of serfdom in medieval England. Although the revolt itself was a failure it increased awareness in the upper classes of the need for the reform of feudalism in England and the appalling misery felt by the lower classes as a result of their enforced near-slavery.
1645 The Battle of Naseby (Northamptonshire) was fought. It was the key battle of the first English Civil War. 12,000 Royalist forces of King Charles I were beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.
1789 English Captain William Bligh and 18 others, cast adrift from the H.M.S. Bounty, reached the island of Timor (Southeast Asia) after travelling nearly 4,000 miles in a small, open boat. The Bounty had been sailing from Tahiti when crew members mutinied. In 1806 Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales in Australia, with orders to clean up the corrupt rum trade of the New South Wales Corps regiment. This led to the Rum Rebellion, during which Bligh was placed under arrest on 26th January 1808.
1822 Englishman Charles Babbage proposed an automatic, mechanical calculator (he called it a difference engine). He is considered a 'father of the computer' and is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
1839 First Henley Regatta held (it became the Henley Royal Regatta in 1851).
1919 At 14.13 GMT, Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten-Brown took off from Newfoundland on the first non-stop transatlantic flight to Galway, Ireland, in a Vickers Vimy. They landed safely 16 hours later, on the 15th and claimed a £10,000 prize from the Daily Mail. They were eventually knighted by King George V. When Alcock was killed in an air crash in France in December 1919 his partner, Brown, never flew again.
1928 The death of the British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst.
1940 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls).
1942 Anne Frank begins her diary.
1946 John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor who developed television died.
1964 Workers at a London railway station open a tea chest addressed to The Beatles and find 12-year-old Carol Dryden, a fan who'd decided to mail herself to the group.
1970 Manchester United footballer Bobby Charlton played his 106th and last international match for England against West Germany in the World Cup finals in Mexico. His first game had been in April 1958 against Scotland.
1982 Argentine forces surrendered at Port Stanley, ending the Falklands War. 255 Britons and 652 Argentines died in the conflict.
1991 "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" opens directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.
2017 Fire in Grenfell Tower block in London, England kills 79 and injures 37.
2018 21st FIFA World Cup opens at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia with British singer Robbie Williams and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina performing.
1215 King John agreed to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, or Great Charter of English liberties, at Runnymede, near Windsor. The document was the first to be forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects. It was essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed the nobles their feudal privileges and promised to maintain the nation's laws.
1219 Dannebrog is the flag of Denmark and the oldest national flag in the world. According to legend, it fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia, and turned the Danes' luck.
1330 The birth of Edward the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III. He married his cousin Joan, ‘The Fair Maid of Kent’, who gave him two sons, one of whom was the future Richard II.
1381 Wat Tyler - leader of the Peasants' Revolt, was killed at Smithfield in London. Richard II had agreed to meet the leaders of the revolt, and listen to their demands. What was said between Tyler and the king is largely conjecture but by all accounts the unarmed Tyler was suddenly attacked without warning and killed by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth, and John Cavendish, a member of the king's group. This unprovoked betrayal of the truce flag and Tyler's killing threw the people into a panic. Not being organized as a military force, they broke ranks and began to flee for their lives.
1667 1st fully documented human blood transfusion is performed by French physician, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, when a small amount of sheep blood is transfused into a 15-year old boy, who survives the procedure.
1785 2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident.
1825 The foundation stone of the New London Bridge was laid by ‘the grand old’ Duke of York. It now spans an artificial lake in Arizona.
1860 British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for tending British wounded during the Crimean War, opened a school for nurses at St Thomas's Hospital in London.
1876 The opening of the Newcastle Swing Bridge designed and constructed by Sir W.G. Armstrong. The bridge was first used for road traffic On This Day in 1876 and opened for river traffic on the 17th July in the same year. At the time of its construction it was the world's largest swing bridge.
1878 World's first moving pictures caught on camera (used 12 cameras, each taking 1 picture) done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground.
1909 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lords and formed the Imperial Cricket Conference. It was renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965. The ICC has 105 members including 10 Full Members that play official Test matches.
1910 British explorer Captain Robert Scott set sail on his expedition to reach the South Pole, Scott's ship the SS Terra Nova left Cardiff on its ill-fated voyage.
1929 British made Bentleys occupied the first four places at the finish of the Le Mans 24 hour race in France.
1954 UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland.
1965 Bob Dylan records single "Like a Rolling Stone" (#1 in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time").
1971 Opposition grew to Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's plans to end free school milk for children over the age of seven and some Labour controlled councils threatened to put up the rates in order to continue supplying free milk.
1974 Novelty song "The Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1982 Riots in Argentina after Falklands defeat.
1983 "Black Adder" TV comedy premieres starring Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson and written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson on BBC1.
1984 American boxer Thomas Hearns retains WBC light middleweight title with 2 round KO of Roberto Durán of Panama at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas; marks first time in his illustrious career Durán knocked out.
1985 Pinklon Thomas KOs Mike Weaver in 8 for heavyweight boxing title.
1993 James Hunt, English racing driver and 1976 Formula One world champion died from a heart attack, aged 45. His charisma and charm both on and off the track brought a whole new fanbase to the sport of Formula One.
1994 Disney's animated musical film "The Lion King" opens in theaters with $42 million.
1996 An IRA bomb the biggest ever to go off on the British mainland devastated the centre of Manchester. Miraculously no-one was killed but 200 people were taken to hospital. The explosion caused £100 million worth of damage.
1998 Britain introduced a £2 coin.
2017 New record set for price of a parking lot in Hong Kong - $664,000.
2018 World Cup: Portugal 3. Spain 3 - Cristiano Renaldo scores hat-trick - 4th player to score in 4 different WC's - 1st to score in 8 consecutive major tournaments.
2019 Baseball jersey belonging to Babe Ruth becomes most expensive sports memorabilia when it sells for $5.64 million at an auction in New York.
The highest score in a World Cup finals match was recorded. Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1 in a group match in Spain with László Kiss being the first substitute to score a hat-trick in the World Cup finals.
Football On This Day – 15th June 1996.
England met Scotland for the first time in seven years in a Euro 96 group match in front of 76,864 at Wembley. Alan Shearer gave England the lead and David Seaman saved a Gary McAllister penalty. England’s second was one of the best ever seen at Wembley – Paul Gascoigne chipped the ball over Colin Hendry and then volleyed the ball into the net. He then celebrated with the ‘dentist’s chair’ routine. 2-0 – happy days.
After previous spells in charge of Celtic and Jamaica John Barnes was appointed manager of Tranmere Rovers with Jason McAteer joining the club as his assistant. The two were sacked just four months later having achieved just two victories in the first eleven League matches of the new season.
1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in Lochleven Castle prison, Scotland.
1779 Spain declared war on Britain and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began. In February 1783 the siege was lifted and the French and Spanish troops retired, disheartened and defeated, after three years and seven months' conflict. The final peace treaty left Gibraltar with the British, but the victorious British garrison sustained a loss of 1,231 men, and expended 8,000 barrels of gunpowder.
1784 Holland forbids the wearing of orange clothes.
1824 The RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded.
1880 The distinctive Salvation Army ladies' bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in London.
1883 The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland killed 183 children. At the end of the show an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.
1890 Stan Laurel, (Arthur Jefferson) English born comedy actor of Laurel and Hardy fame was born at Ulverston Cumbria.
1902 "The Wizard of Oz" musical first opens in Chicago, Illinois.
1903 Pepsi Cola company forms.
1912 Enoch Powell British politician was born.
1915 The foundation of the Women's Institute, regularly referred to as simply the WI. Its two aims were to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. It is now the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK.
1930 Mixed bathing was permitted for the first time in Hyde Park, London.
1958 Yellow ‘No Waiting’ lines were introduced to British streets.
1960 "Psycho", psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, and Vera Miles, opens in New York City.
1974 French Open Men's Tennis: Björn Borg of Sweden wins first career Grand Slam title; beats Manuel Orantes of Spain 2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.
1978 Film "Grease" opens, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, based on the 1971 musical.
1980 Musical comedy film "The Blues Brothers" starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and directed by John Landis, premieres in Chicago.
1982 England international Bryan Robson scored a goal against France in Bilbao after just 27 seconds of the game. It was the quickest World Cup goal in history.
1984 Edwin Moses wins his 100th consecutive 400-meter hurdles race.
1992 An explosive new book about the Princess of Wales including claims that she attempted suicide was published by author Andrew Morton.
1995 "Batman Forever" opens with a record $528 million weekend starring Val Kilmer, Chris O'Donnell, Tommy Lee Jones and Nicole Kidman.
2013 US Open Men's Golf, Englishman Justin Rose wins his first major title, 2 strokes ahead of runners-up Jason Day and Phil Mickelson.
2015 TV personality and Real estate mogul Donald Trump launches his campaign for the Republican nomination for US President at Trump Towers.
2018 World Cup: Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology is used for the first time, awarding France a penalty in 2-1 win over Australia in Kazan.
2019 24 Hours of Le Mans: 2-time World F1 champion Fernando Alonso along with Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima win back-to-back titles for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
In England’s first match in the finals of the World Cup since 1974 Bryan Robson scored after just 27 seconds against France. England won the match 3-1, won all the three group matches and finished the tournament with an unbeaten record although, sadly, not as World Cup winners.
1239 The birth of King Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks (because of his height) and the Hammer of the Scots.
1497 The Battle of Deptford Bridge (also known as the Battle of Blackheath) took place On This Day. Forces under King Henry VII were victorious in what was the culminating event of the Cornish Rebellion. After carefully spreading rumours that he would attack on the following Monday, Henry moved against the Cornish at dawn on his 'lucky day' which was Saturday (17th June). By 2pm, Henry had returned to the City in triumph, knighting deserving parties on the way, and accepted the acclamation of the Mayor followed by a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's.
1579 Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind just north of what would one day be San Francisco Bay, California and proclaimed England's sovereignty over an area he named New Albion.
1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal in all its glory, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
1775 In the War of American Independence, British troops won a victory at Bunker Hill, north of Boston, Massachusetts.
1823 Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he used to make raincoats, after experimenting with waste rubber products from Glasgow's new gas works.
1867 Pioneer doctor Joseph Lister amputated a cancerous breast from his sister Isabella using carbolic acid as an antiseptic. The operation in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was the first under antiseptic conditions.
1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'.
1939 Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1940 World War II: In a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill urged Britain to conduct herself so that this would be remembered as her finest hour.
1962 US Open Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: Jack Nicklaus wins his first major title by 3 strokes in an 18-hole playoff with Arnold Palmer.
1962 FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile: Brazil go 1-down early but recover to beat Czechoslovakia, 3-1.
1964 The first purpose-built floating trade fair docked at Tilbury in London with 22,000 samples of Japanese goods on board.
1973 Dolly Parton records her song "I Will Always Love You" (later a huge hit for Whitney Houston) for RCA in Nashville.
1974 An IRA bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.
1980 The locations for the first US nuclear missiles to be stored on British soil (at Greenham Common and Molesworth military bases) were revealed by the government.
1982 Manchester United footballer Norman Whiteside became the youngest player to appear in the World Cup finals - playing for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia in Spain. He was aged 17 years and 41 days.
1994 O.J. Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA police chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours before he eventually gives up (seen live on national TV).
1994 With the United States hosting the World Cup, the opening ceremonies are held at Soldier Field in Chicago. In one of the production numbers, Diana Ross sings "I'm Coming Out" while she takes a penalty kick. She misses, but the goal splits open anyway and she runs through to complete the bit.
1429 French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeated the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay (slightly north of Orléans, France). The event turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
1583 The first Life Insurance policy was sold in London and when a claim was eventually made it was disputed.
1633 Charles I was crowned King of Scotland, at Holyrood, Edinburgh.
1815 The Battle of Waterloo:- Napoleon Bonaparte suffered defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.
1817 Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames was opened. Originally it was called Strand Bridge but was re-named in honour of the British victory at Waterloo in 1815.
1822 London unveiled its first nude statue - a bronze figure of Achilles in Hyde Park by sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott. The statue later acquired a discreet fig leaf.
1928 The keel was laid, at Harland & Wolff - Belfast, for the biggest ship to date, the 1,000 foot, 60,000 ton Oceanic (III). She was never completed. Her keel was dismantled and the steel was used in two new, smaller ships, RMS Georgic and RMS Britannic. Both of these ships entered service in 1930 and were the last liners White Star ever built.
1945 William Joyce (known as Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II, using the English language radio programme Germany Calling. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January 1946.
1963 Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.
1965 The government announced it would introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers, with penalties for those caught above it.
1970 Edward Heath's Conservative Party win the General Election in UK, replacing the Labour Party.
1972 A flight from London Heathrow to Brussels crashed minutes after take-off killing all 118 people on board.
1972 UEFA European Championship Final, Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium: Gerd Müller scores a brace as West Germany beats Soviet Union, 3-0.
1975 The first North Sea Oil was pumped ashore in Britain.
1980 Indian "human computer" Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds; She correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 = 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 !
1984 The 'Battle of Orgreave'. It was the most violent day of the year-long miners' strike and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history. The National Union of Mineworkers deployed 5,000 pickets from across the UK to stop lorry loads of coke leaving Orgreave coking plant for the British Steel Corporation's works in Scunthorpe. The number of police officers (6,000 from 18 different forces) was unprecedented in an industrial dispute, as was the use of dogs, horses and riot gear. 71 pickets were charged with riot and 24 with violent disorder. The trials collapsed when the evidence given by the police was deemed 'unreliable'. News footage of the confrontation was edited and broadcast out of chronological sequence, showing pickets throwing stones at the police and the police subsequently carrying out a mounted charge, when the reverse was true.
1991 "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" single released by Bryan Adams.
1995 All Black Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup, running over Mike Catt in New Zealand's 45-29 defeat of England.
1996 England recorded an impressive 4-1 win over Holland at Wembley to reach the quarter-finals of the Euro 96, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham scoring two apiece. The late goal scored by Holland also saw them through to the last 8, at the expense of Scotland.
2000 100th US Open Men's Golf, Pebble Beach GL: Tiger Woods wins his first US Open by a major championship record-setting 15 strokes over Ernie Els and Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
2005 David Tennant's first appearance as the Tenth Doctor in BBC "Doctor Who" episode "The Parting of the Ways".
2016 Tim Peake, the first British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and the seventh UK-born person in space, returned to earth after his 186 day Principia mission working on the International Space Station.
2020 The death, aged 103, of Dame Vera Lynn. She was known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" and her songs helped raise morale in World War Two.
1306 The Earl of Pembroke's army defeated Robert the Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, west of Perth. Robert the Bruce was King of the Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while it is believed his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey.
1829 Robert Peel's Act was passed, to establish a new police force in London and its suburbs. They were known as Peelers and then Bobbies, derived from his surname and Christian name respectively.
1861 Douglas Haig, British field-marshal was born. Haig became known as 'Butcher of the Somme', after he unnecessarily sent thousands of British troops to their deaths. After the war, he devoted himself to the care of ex-Servicemen.
1917 The British royal family renounced the German names and titles of Saxe-Coburg, (responding to anti-German sentiment) and became Windsor.
1925 The birth of Charlie Drake, slapstick English comedian. His catchphrase 'Hello, my darlings' came about because his short (5' 1")stature placed his eyes directly level with a lady's bosom!
1936 German boxer Max Schmeling KOs up-and-coming American heavyweight Joe Louis in 12 rounds at Yankee Stadium, New York.
1941 Soviet anthropologist Michael Gerasimov opens tomb of Timurid Empire founder Timur and allegedly finds the inscription that whoever opens the tomb shall "unleash an invader more terrible than I." Three days later Germany invades Russia.
1961 Kuwait declared its independence from the United Kingdom after which the state's oil industry saw unprecedented economic growth.
1970 Edward Heath became the new British prime minister after a surprise victory for the Conservatives and the defeat of Labour leader Harold Wilson.
1975 An inquest jury decided that the missing Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children.
1978 Cricketing star Ian Botham became the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.
1992 Evander Holyfield beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1992 "Batman Returns", starring Michael Keaton as Batman, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, is released.
1996 Britain offered to slaughter up to 67,000 more cattle in an effort to end the ban on British beef after cattle had become infected with BSE.
1997 William Hague became the youngest leader of the Conservative Party for 200 years. He beat Kenneth Clarke in the election following the resignation of John Major.
2017 Bexit negotiations begin between United Kingdom and the European Union in Brussels.
1214 The University of Oxford received its charter. Oxford is the second-oldest surviving university in the world (Bologna in Italy is the oldest) and the oldest in the English-speaking world.
1497 The consecration of St. Mary's Church, Fairford (Cotswolds), one of the finest 'wool churches' in England. Successful wool merchants lavished money on their parish churches and John Tame, a wealthy wool merchant completely rebuilt the church at his own expense. Unusually, the churchyard includes a stone memorial to Tiddles, the church cat who 'guarded' the church and its precincts from 1963 to 1980.
1756 In India, the night of the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta', where more than 140 British soldiers and civilians were placed in a small prison cell - 18 feet by 14 feet - by the Nawab of Bengal. The following morning only 23 emerged alive.
1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool. She was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.
1837 On the death of William IV, Queen Victoria, aged 18, acceded to the throne. At the time of Victoria's death her reign of 63 years and 7 months was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history.
1887 On Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Buffalo Bill Cody staged a Royal Command performance of his famous Wild West Show, and four European kings boarded the original Deadwood coach driven by Cody.
1949 American tennis player 'Gorgeous' Gussie Moran caused a sensation at the Wimbledon Championships by wearing lace-trimmed pants under a short skirt.
1967 Mohammed Ali [Cassius Clay] sentenced to 5 years by jury after 21 minutes of deliberation for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War.
1968 Jim Hines becomes 1st person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds.
1975 "Jaws", based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released.
1976 UEFA European Championship Final, Red Star Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Czechoslovakia upsets West Germany, 5-3 on penalties following 2-2 draw a.e.t.
1980 Film "Blues Brothers" with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi opens in 594 theaters.
1980 Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán takes WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal by unanimous points decision.
1984 The biggest exam shake up for over 10 years was announced with O Level and CSE exams to be replaced by new examinations, to be known as GCSEs.
1986 In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the government ordered a temporary ban on the slaughter and movement of lambs in some parts of the country.
1987 1st Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: New Zealand fly-half Grant Fox lands 4 penalties, a conversion and drop goal as the All Blacks beat France, 29-9.
1990 British Chancellor John Major proposed a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.
1995 Shell abandoned at the eleventh hour its plan to dump the disused Brent Spar rig in the Atlantic, provoking a furious reaction in the British government. Meanwhile, the environmental campaign group Greenpeace claimed victory in the high-profile battle.
1996 English cricket umpire Harold 'Dickie' Bird received a standing ovation by players and spectators at Lords when he took the field to officiate in his final Test Match.
2014 England were eliminated at the group stage of the Fifa World Cup for the first time since 1958. They were knocked out after just two matches, with Roy Hodgson's side beaten by Group D rivals Italy and Uruguay.
Alan Shearer made his England debut against France in February 1992 while on Tuesday 20th June 2000 he won his last cap for England having scored 30 goals in the 63 appearances for his country. Mind you, had England done a little better in that last match against Rumania in the 2000 European Championships Shearer might have won a cap or two more. It was the last group match for both sides and after England had beaten Germany but lost to Portugal in the first two group fixtures they needed a draw against Rumania to progress to the knockout stages. They looked to be getting that draw with just a couple of minutes of the match remaining - it was 2-2 with Shearer and Michael Owen the scorers - but then Phil Neville gave away a penalty and of course the Rumanians scored from it. So Rumania won 3-2, they progressed to the quarter-finals and Alan Shearer and his England team-mates were on there way home.
1377 The death of Edward III, King of England. His long reign of 50 years was the second longest in medieval England (after that of his great-grandfather Henry III). He transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English parliament.
1675 The laying of the foundation stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral in London. The cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the site faced that of the church destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
1706 The birth of John Dollond an English optician. Dollond & Aitchison opticians was established in 1750.
1809 The death (aged 39, at Stamford, Lincolnshire) of Daniel Lambert, a jailer and animal breeder from Leicester who was famous for his unusually large size. By the time he was aged 35 he weighed 50 stone and was the heaviest authenticated person at the time.
1854 The first Victoria Cross, Britain's highest medal for bravery, was awarded to Charles Lucas, who was awarded it during the Crimean War for conspicuous bravery. The medal was made from metal from a cannon captured at Sebastopol.
1879 Frank W. Woolworth opens his 1st successful "F. W. Woolworth Great Five Cent Store" on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1898 A reporter covering the launch of HMS Albion on the Thames was in such a hurry to file his story that he missed the fact that 38 people drowned when a temporary jetty collapsed.
1919 The German Navy, feeling betrayed by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, scuttles 72 of their warships at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys even though Germany had surrendered. It was the greatest act of self-destruction in modern military history.
1937 First televising of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships.
1942 German forces under Field-Marshal Rommel captured Tobruk.
1948 The first stored programme to run on a computer was put through its paces on the Small Scale Experimental Machine, known as Baby, at Manchester University.
1948 33 1/3 RPM LP record introduced and 78's planned to be phased out.
1948 HMS Empire Windrush with the first 800 emigrants from the West Indies to the UK arrives at Port of Tilbury,Essex.
1949 The Ancient Order of Druids gathered at Stonehenge for their annual summer solstice ceremony.
1964 UEFA European Championship Final, Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain: Marcelino scores the winner as Spain beats Soviet Union, 2-1.
1969 The BBC TV broadcast 'Royal Family' - a documentary going behind the public facade of the British Royal Family. This was the first time anyone had seen Queen Elizabeth II, her husband the Duke of Edinburgh and their children other than on official engagements.
1970 Tony Jacklin won the US Open at Hazeltine Golf Club, Minnesota. He was the first Briton to win since Ted Ray in 1920.
1970 FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City: Brazil and Pelé become first team and player to win World Cup 3 times, beating Italy, 4-1 in front of 107,412.
1975 British rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, forms Rainbow.
1975 Cricket World Cup, Lord's, London: Player of the Match Clive Lloyd scores 102 as West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs; first major limited overs One Day International (ODI) tournament.
1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical "Evita", starring Elaine Page, premieres at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
1982 Diana, Princess of Wales, gave birth to a boy, (Prince William) sixteen hours after checking in to St Mary's Hospital, in London.
1991 British Gas chairman Robert Evans came under fire for accepting a pay increase of 66%, taking his annual wage to £370,000.
1992 Last day of test cricket for English star players Ian Botham and Allan Lamb.
1996 Britain and other members of the EU reached an agreement for the phased lifting of the ban on British beef. French farmers, however, blockaded two channel ports.
2002 Lennox Lewis retains boxing's WBC world Heavyweight crown with an eighth round knockout over Mike Tyson.
2020 Kurt Cobain's guitar during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged show sells for a record $6 million.
Pele scored his first World Cup goal on June 19th 1958, against Wales, and a fraction over 12 years later, on 21st June 1970, he scored his last goal in the World Cup. This time the opposition was Italy in the World Cup final at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium in front of a 107,412 crowd. Pele scored the first goal in Brazil’s 4-1 victory. That victory saw Brazil become the first nation to win the World Cup three times with Pele the only player to appear in each of those three finals. The hat-trick of victories saw Brazil allowed to keep the original World Cup – the Jules Rimet trophy – although sadly that was stolen in 1983 and, with no Brazilian equivalent of Pickles the dog, it was never recovered and is believed to have been melted down.
Football On This Day – 21st June 2002.
Michael Owen gave England the lead against Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals in Shizuoka in Japan but goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho – a free-kick from over 40 yards which beat David Seaman – saw 10-man Brazil into the semis against Turkey.
1377 At the age of 10, Richard II became King of England following the death of his grandfather Edward III, the previous day.
1535 Cardinal John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
1611 Henry Hudson, English navigator, was cast adrift with some of his crew after a mutiny in the bay that now bears his name. It was the last time they were seen alive.
1633 Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (Vatican only admits it was wrong on Oct 31, 1992).
1675 Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II.
1802 Britain's Health and Morals of Apprentices Act limited children to a maximum twelve hour working day; whilst under nines were banned from the mills.
1814 The Marylebone Cricket Club and Hertfordshire played the first match at England's Lord's Cricket Ground.
1865 1st class cricket debut of Dr W. G. Grace.
1874 Game of lawn tennis introduced.
1893 The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria near Tripoli, Lebanon. HMS Victoria sank, taking 358 crew with her, including the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1911 King George V crowned King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and all his realms and territories beyond the sea.
1921 The first Northern Ireland Parliament was opened by King George V in Belfast. Sir James Craig was the first Prime Minister in a parliament that nobody wanted. Southern Irish leaders wanted a united Ireland.
1934 John Dillinger is informally named America's first Public Enemy Number One.
1939 Princess and future Queen Elizabeth meets future husband Prince Philip of Greece.
1959 Directors of Harrods urged shareholders to vote for a £34m merger with the Debenhams department chain.
1963 "Little" Stevie Wonder aged 13 releases his first single "Fingertips".
1965 Freddie Trueman ends his Test cricket career, v NZ at Lord's.
1979 Larry Holmes TKOs Mike Weaver in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1980 UEFA European Championship Final, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy: Horst Hrubesch scores a double as Germany beat Belgium, 2-1.
1981 John McEnroe's famous 'You cannot be serious' rant in 1st round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon.
1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon.
1984 The first Virgin Atlantic flight left Gatwick for New York, with a planeload of passengers who had paid just £99 for their tickets.
1986 The 'Hand of God' football match. England were beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. Both Argentine goals were scored by Diego Maradona - the first with the deliberate use of his hand which went unseen by the referee. It was the first match between the two countries since the Falklands War in 1982.
1995 John Major resigned as head of Britain's Conservative Party, but said that he would stay on as prime minister while he fought for re-election. He said he had been under attack for three years and told his critics to 'put up or shut up'.
2001 The Parole Board decided that Venables and Thompson, the two schoolboy murderers of 2 year old James Bulger should be released and their identities protected, after serving just 8 years for a crime that shocked the nation.
2010 In his budget, Chancellor George Osborne increased VAT from 17.5% to 20% and cut welfare spending as he moved 'decisively' to tackle Britain's record debts.
2012 Torrential downpours brought more flooding to swathes of the country. Music fans at the Isle of Wight Festival spent the night in their cars after traffic became gridlocked when heavy rain turned the festival site into a mudbath. The Environment Agency issued around 140 flood warnings throughout Britain.
Scotland and the USSR drew their final group match at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain 2-2 in the scorching heat of Malaga. That result saw Scotland pipped on goal difference by their opponents for a place in the next round but Scotland were to win a victory in doping control. John Robertson and a Russian player were required to provide an after-match sample but both being severely dehydrated needed to drink plenty of fluids before a sample could be given - and in those days it wasn't just soft drinks that were available to the players but alcohol as well. The Russian tried to match John Robertson drink for drink, but lost. He had to be carried out of doping control somewhat worse for wear singing White Christmas!
Football On This Day – 22nd June 1986.
England bowed out of the Mexico World Cup at the quarter-final stage thanks to two memorable goals from Diego Maradona. The first was the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal scored against Peter Shilton which he followed with one of the best individual goals ever seen at a World Cup. Gary Lineker scored one for England in the 2-1 defeat.
England showed that they can win a penalty shoot-out beating Spain 4-2 on penalties at Wembley to reach the Euro 96 semis.
Football On This Day – 22nd June 2004.
Fixtures between Denmark and Sweden are generally amongst the most competitive of matches but the Euro 2004 group match in Portugal between the countries was seen by many as lacking any of that competitive nature. The evening of Tuesday 22nd June 2004 saw the four countries play their last matches in the Euro Group C – Denmark v Sweden and Italy v Bulgaria. The table before kick off had Sweden and Denmark equal top with 4 points and Italy third on two points. Italy were expected to beat Bulgaria (they did) which would have meant that Italy would qualify for the quarter-finals with a winner from the Denmark-Sweden match. But if Italy were to win and Sweden and Denmark were to draw 2-2 (or higher) then all three countries would be equal until it got to goals each of the three countries scored against each other – which would see Denmark and Sweden through. Worries were expressed about this possible permutation before kick off time but of course the Scandinavian rivals denied there would be any collusion. That looked to be the case when Denmark led 2-1 with 90 minutes almost up – then Sweden equalised! Plenty of headlines about match-fixing but no complaint was made and Denmark and Sweden progressed to the quarter-finals – where they both lost.
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Herbert Chapman became the manager of Arsenal. The most innovative manager of his time he turned the Gunners from a club who hadn’t won a thing into one of the leading clubs in the country.
Football On This Day - 11th June 1969.
A late finish to the season for Newcastle United who were in Hungary to play the second leg of their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Final - a forerunner of the Europa League - against Újpesti Dózsa. They won 3-2 on the night and 6-2 on aggregate to win the competition in their debut season in Europe.
Football On This Day - 11th June 1990.
England played the Republic of Ireland in the group stage of the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy - and England striker Gary Lineker later admitted that he suffered the 'most horrendous' experience of his life in that match. No point beating about the bush - he didn't feel well and lost control of his bowels - and shite on the pitch! So lets have a look at that incredibly embarrassing moment.
Football On This Day - 11th June 1994.
Bobby Charlton became Sir Bobby Charlton with the announcement of a knighthood for the former Manchester United and England player in the Queen's Birthday honours list. The award was for services to football generally although he became the first England player from the 1966 World Cup winning team to be knighted. 'Everybody calls me Bobby and that won't change' he said.
Football On This Day - 11th June 2017.
At last some good news for England fans - England won the World Cup final! Well, the Under-20 version that is but a great achievement secured with a first-half goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin and a brilliant second-half penalty save from Freddie Woodman. That saw England beat Venezuela 1-0 in the final in Suwon in South Korea to claim their first world footballing title since 1966. Inevitably the English press seemed to indicate the the winning players would do exactly the same in the grown-up World Cup of 2022. We live in hope - as always - but these are the players who won the 2017 final, let's see how they develop in the years to 2022....Freddie Woodman (Newcastle), Jonjoe Kenny (Everton), Lewis Cook (Bournemouth), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Jake Clarke-Salter (Chelsea), Josh Onomah (Tottenham), Dominic Solanke (Chelsea), Ademola Lookman (Everton), Kyle Walker-Peters (Tottenham), Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton), Kieran Dowell (Everton). The subs were Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Arsenal) for Lookman and Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool) for Dowell with Paul Simpson being the Alf Ramsey of the side.
1429 In the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc led the French army in their capture of the city of Jargeau (France) against the English commander, William de la Pole, the 1st Duke of Suffolk. The English suffered heavy losses.
1458 Magdalen College, Oxford, was founded.
1667 The Dutch fleet, under Admiral de Ruyter burned Sheerness, sailed up the River Medway, raided Chatham dockyard, and then escaped with the royal barge, the Royal Charles.
1889 Seventy eight people were killed and 260 injured, almost a third of them children, in the Armagh rail disaster in Northern Ireland. A crowded Sunday school excursion train had to negotiate a steep incline but the steam locomotive was unable to complete the climb and the train stalled. The crew divided the train but the rear portion ran back down the gradient and collided with a following train. It was the worst rail disaster in the UK in the nineteenth century, and remains Ireland`s worst ever railway disaster.
1922 George Leigh Mallory and two British climbers reached a height of 25,800 feet on Mount Everest without the aid of oxygen; the highest point ever achieved. Two years later, this same month, Mallory made another attempt with Andrew Irvine. Less than 1,000 feet from the summit, they were trapped by bad weather and were never seen alive again. (His body was eventually found on 3rd May 1999).
1931 Al Capone is indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition and perjury.
1942 Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present in Amsterdam.
1954 Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" is originally released.
1963 "Cleopatra" directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton premieres in NYC, then most expensive film ever made.
1964 Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison in South Africa.
1967 "You Only Live Twice", 5th James Bond film starring Sean Connery, screenplay by Roald Dahl, premieres in London.
1981 "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (the first Indiana Jones film) directed by Stephen Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford premieres.
1981 Larry Holmes TKOs Leon Spinks in 3 for WBC heavyweight boxing title.
1983 Following Mrs. Thatcher's landslide victory in the General Election, Michael Foot resigned as Leader of the Labour party.
1986 Goalkeeper Pat Jennings made his 119th and final appearance for Northern Ireland, a 3-0 defeat against Brazil in a group match at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico. It was his 41st birthday making him – at the time – the oldest player ever to appear in the World Cup.
1987 US President Ronald Reagan challenges Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down" the Berlin wall.
1988 The Republic of Ireland beats England 1-0 at Euro88 thanks to a headed goal by Ray Houghton. This is Ireland's first competitive match at a major football tournament.
1989 Canadian Olympian Ben Johnson admits using steroids.
1989 Members of Parliament voted to allow television cameras to broadcast proceedings in the House of Commons.
1665 The Great Plague began to take hold, as the official death toll reached 112.
1842 Queen Victoria travelled by train for the first time, from Slough (near Windsor Castle) to Paddington, accompanied by Prince Albert. A special coach had been built earlier but the Queen had been reluctant to try this new form of travel. On her first journey, the engine driver was assisted by the great civil engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
1895 Emile Levassor wins the first automobile race in history the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris, taking 48 hours and 48 minutes.
1917 The deadliest German air raid on London during World War I was carried out by Gotha G bombers and resulted in 162 deaths including 46 children with a further 432 people injured.
1920 US Post Office says children cannot be sent by parcel post (after various instances).
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.
When the US postal service began parcel deliveries in 1913 it wasn't long before some ingenious parents cottoned on to the idea of mailing their children. A 10-month old baby boy, the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge from Batavia, Ohio, was posted for the cost of 15c in stamps, though his parents did insure him for $50. In the most famous case 5-year-old May Pierstorff was mailed via train from her home in Idaho, the stamps stuck to her coat.
1933 German Secret State Police (Gestapo - Geheime Staats Polizei) established by Hermann Goering.
1922 Longest recorded attack of hiccups begins: Charlie Osborne gets the hiccups and continues for 68 years, dies 11 months after it stops.
1942 British forces lost 230 tanks in desert fighting.
1944 World War II: the first German V1 flying bomb, or 'doodlebug' landed in Britain - killing three people in a house in the coastal city of Southampton. Only four of the eleven bombs hit their targets.
1956 1st European Cup Final, Paris: Héctor Rial scores twice as Real Madrid beat Stade de Reims, 4-3 to claim inaugural title.
1970 "The Long and Winding Road' became the Beatles' last Number 1 single in the United States. McCartney originally wrote the song at his farm in Scotland saying 'I have always found inspiration in the calm beauty of Scotland and again it proved the place where I found inspiration.' The released version of the song was very successful, but the post-production modifications to the song by producer Phil Spector angered McCartney to the point that when he made his case in court for breaking up The Beatles as a legal entity, McCartney cited the treatment of 'The Long and Winding Road' as one of six reasons for doing so.
1974 Prince Charles made his maiden speech in the House of Lords. It was the first such royal speech in 90 years.
1976 French Open Women's Tennis: Sue Barker of England claims her lone major singles title; beats Renáta Tomanová of Czechoslovakia 6-2, 0-6, 6-2.
1981 17 year-old Marcus Sarjeant was arrested for shooting a replica gun at the Queen as she rode past crowds in London during the Trooping the Colour ceremony. Sarjeant was prosecuted under the Treason Act 1842 and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
1987 Princess Anne was given the title Princess Royal.
1989 "Licence to Kill", 16th James Bond film, last directed by John Glen and starring Timothy Dalton premieres in London.
1995 "Jagged Little Pill", 3rd studio album by Alanis Morissette is released (Grammy Award Album of the Year, 1996).
2003 English county cricket teams play the 1st official Twenty20 matches.
2005 A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.
2013 A man was given a warning after he dialled 999 to complain about a prostitute's looks. A police spokesperson said "The caller claimed that the woman had made out that she was better looking than she actually was and he wished to report her for breaching the Sale of Goods Act." The Sale of Goods Act 1979 gives consumers legal rights, stipulating goods which are sold must be of satisfactory quality, be fit for purpose and must match the seller's description.
2018 FIFA Congress votes to award 2026 World Cup to joint bid by US, Canada & Mexico.
2018 Raccoon climbs 23 story office building in St Paul, Minnesota, becoming an internet sensation.
The first European Cup Final was played at the Parc des Princes in Paris between Real Madrid and French side Stade de Rheims. Real Madrid won 4-3 and went on to win the first five European Cup tournaments. The was no English team in the first competition although the first final did have an English presence – it was refereed by Arthur Ellis who was later to find fame in television’s It’s A Knockout.
Football On This Day – 13th June 1998.
Diego Maradona was a great footballer but he did have his dark side. He had a long-standing drug addiction and in February 1994 he made the news when he fired an air rifle into a group of reporters and photographers who had assembled outside his Buenos Aires home. Four of them were injured. It took four years for Maradona to appear before an Argentinan court charged with that offence and he denied the charge despite him having been filmed hiding behind a car a firing the weapon. On 13th June 1998 he was found guity and received a 2 year 10 month suspended prison sentence.
Football On This Day – 13th June 2017.
You’d think that politicians would realise by now that trying to be ‘one of the lads’ usually ends in disaster for them. Days after a disastrous General Election and burdened with all the Brexit problems our Prime Minister Theresa May joined French President Emmanuel Macron at the friendly match between France and England at the Stade de France in Paris. Sadly that wasn’t enough for her and she decided to join in a Mexican wave but got her timing wrong – as she did with the General Election! – and did her bit seconds after everyone else had done theirs. The general opinion was that she was a muppet…and England lost 3-2.
1381 Richard II met leaders of Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath. The Tower of London was stormed by rebels who entered without resistance. The revolt later came to be seen as a mark of the beginning of the end of serfdom in medieval England. Although the revolt itself was a failure it increased awareness in the upper classes of the need for the reform of feudalism in England and the appalling misery felt by the lower classes as a result of their enforced near-slavery.
1645 The Battle of Naseby (Northamptonshire) was fought. It was the key battle of the first English Civil War. 12,000 Royalist forces of King Charles I were beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.
1789 English Captain William Bligh and 18 others, cast adrift from the H.M.S. Bounty, reached the island of Timor (Southeast Asia) after travelling nearly 4,000 miles in a small, open boat. The Bounty had been sailing from Tahiti when crew members mutinied. In 1806 Bligh was appointed Governor of New South Wales in Australia, with orders to clean up the corrupt rum trade of the New South Wales Corps regiment. This led to the Rum Rebellion, during which Bligh was placed under arrest on 26th January 1808.
1822 Englishman Charles Babbage proposed an automatic, mechanical calculator (he called it a difference engine). He is considered a 'father of the computer' and is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.
1839 First Henley Regatta held (it became the Henley Royal Regatta in 1851).
1919 At 14.13 GMT, Captain John Alcock and Lt. Arthur Whitten-Brown took off from Newfoundland on the first non-stop transatlantic flight to Galway, Ireland, in a Vickers Vimy. They landed safely 16 hours later, on the 15th and claimed a £10,000 prize from the Daily Mail. They were eventually knighted by King George V. When Alcock was killed in an air crash in France in December 1919 his partner, Brown, never flew again.
1928 The death of the British suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst.
1940 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls).
1942 Anne Frank begins her diary.
1946 John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor who developed television died.
1964 Workers at a London railway station open a tea chest addressed to The Beatles and find 12-year-old Carol Dryden, a fan who'd decided to mail herself to the group.
1970 Manchester United footballer Bobby Charlton played his 106th and last international match for England against West Germany in the World Cup finals in Mexico. His first game had been in April 1958 against Scotland.
1982 Argentine forces surrendered at Port Stanley, ending the Falklands War. 255 Britons and 652 Argentines died in the conflict.
1991 "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" opens directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.
2017 Fire in Grenfell Tower block in London, England kills 79 and injures 37.
2018 21st FIFA World Cup opens at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia with British singer Robbie Williams and Russian soprano Aida Garifullina performing.
1215 King John agreed to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, or Great Charter of English liberties, at Runnymede, near Windsor. The document was the first to be forced onto an English King by a group of his subjects. It was essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed the nobles their feudal privileges and promised to maintain the nation's laws.
1219 Dannebrog is the flag of Denmark and the oldest national flag in the world. According to legend, it fell from the sky during the Battle of Lyndanisse (now Tallinn) in Estonia, and turned the Danes' luck.
1330 The birth of Edward the Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III. He married his cousin Joan, ‘The Fair Maid of Kent’, who gave him two sons, one of whom was the future Richard II.
1381 Wat Tyler - leader of the Peasants' Revolt, was killed at Smithfield in London. Richard II had agreed to meet the leaders of the revolt, and listen to their demands. What was said between Tyler and the king is largely conjecture but by all accounts the unarmed Tyler was suddenly attacked without warning and killed by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth, and John Cavendish, a member of the king's group. This unprovoked betrayal of the truce flag and Tyler's killing threw the people into a panic. Not being organized as a military force, they broke ranks and began to flee for their lives.
1667 1st fully documented human blood transfusion is performed by French physician, Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, when a small amount of sheep blood is transfused into a 15-year old boy, who survives the procedure.
1785 2 French balloonists die in world's 1st fatal aviation accident.
1825 The foundation stone of the New London Bridge was laid by ‘the grand old’ Duke of York. It now spans an artificial lake in Arizona.
1860 British nurse Florence Nightingale, famous for tending British wounded during the Crimean War, opened a school for nurses at St Thomas's Hospital in London.
1876 The opening of the Newcastle Swing Bridge designed and constructed by Sir W.G. Armstrong. The bridge was first used for road traffic On This Day in 1876 and opened for river traffic on the 17th July in the same year. At the time of its construction it was the world's largest swing bridge.
1878 World's first moving pictures caught on camera (used 12 cameras, each taking 1 picture) done to see if all 4 of a horse's hooves leave the ground.
1909 Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa met at Lords and formed the Imperial Cricket Conference. It was renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965. The ICC has 105 members including 10 Full Members that play official Test matches.
1910 British explorer Captain Robert Scott set sail on his expedition to reach the South Pole, Scott's ship the SS Terra Nova left Cardiff on its ill-fated voyage.
1929 British made Bentleys occupied the first four places at the finish of the Le Mans 24 hour race in France.
1954 UEFA (Union des Associations Européennes de Football) is formed in Basle, Switzerland.
1965 Bob Dylan records single "Like a Rolling Stone" (#1 in Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time").
1971 Opposition grew to Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher's plans to end free school milk for children over the age of seven and some Labour controlled councils threatened to put up the rates in order to continue supplying free milk.
1974 Novelty song "The Streak" by Ray Stevens hits #1 on UK pop chart.
1982 Riots in Argentina after Falklands defeat.
1983 "Black Adder" TV comedy premieres starring Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson and written by Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson on BBC1.
1984 American boxer Thomas Hearns retains WBC light middleweight title with 2 round KO of Roberto Durán of Panama at Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas; marks first time in his illustrious career Durán knocked out.
1985 Pinklon Thomas KOs Mike Weaver in 8 for heavyweight boxing title.
1993 James Hunt, English racing driver and 1976 Formula One world champion died from a heart attack, aged 45. His charisma and charm both on and off the track brought a whole new fanbase to the sport of Formula One.
1994 Disney's animated musical film "The Lion King" opens in theaters with $42 million.
1996 An IRA bomb the biggest ever to go off on the British mainland devastated the centre of Manchester. Miraculously no-one was killed but 200 people were taken to hospital. The explosion caused £100 million worth of damage.
1998 Britain introduced a £2 coin.
2017 New record set for price of a parking lot in Hong Kong - $664,000.
2018 World Cup: Portugal 3. Spain 3 - Cristiano Renaldo scores hat-trick - 4th player to score in 4 different WC's - 1st to score in 8 consecutive major tournaments.
2019 Baseball jersey belonging to Babe Ruth becomes most expensive sports memorabilia when it sells for $5.64 million at an auction in New York.
The highest score in a World Cup finals match was recorded. Hungary defeated El Salvador 10-1 in a group match in Spain with László Kiss being the first substitute to score a hat-trick in the World Cup finals.
Football On This Day – 15th June 1996.
England met Scotland for the first time in seven years in a Euro 96 group match in front of 76,864 at Wembley. Alan Shearer gave England the lead and David Seaman saved a Gary McAllister penalty. England’s second was one of the best ever seen at Wembley – Paul Gascoigne chipped the ball over Colin Hendry and then volleyed the ball into the net. He then celebrated with the ‘dentist’s chair’ routine. 2-0 – happy days.
Football On This Day – 15th June 2009.
After previous spells in charge of Celtic and Jamaica John Barnes was appointed manager of Tranmere Rovers with Jason McAteer joining the club as his assistant. The two were sacked just four months later having achieved just two victories in the first eleven League matches of the new season.
What a waste of Money.
1567 Mary, Queen of Scots, imprisoned in Lochleven Castle prison, Scotland.
1779 Spain declared war on Britain and the Great Siege of Gibraltar began. In February 1783 the siege was lifted and the French and Spanish troops retired, disheartened and defeated, after three years and seven months' conflict. The final peace treaty left Gibraltar with the British, but the victorious British garrison sustained a loss of 1,231 men, and expended 8,000 barrels of gunpowder.
1784 Holland forbids the wearing of orange clothes.
1824 The RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded.
1880 The distinctive Salvation Army ladies' bonnets were worn for the first time when they marched in procession in London.
1883 The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland killed 183 children. At the end of the show an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.
1890 Stan Laurel, (Arthur Jefferson) English born comedy actor of Laurel and Hardy fame was born at Ulverston Cumbria.
1902 "The Wizard of Oz" musical first opens in Chicago, Illinois.
1903 Pepsi Cola company forms.
1912 Enoch Powell British politician was born.
1915 The foundation of the Women's Institute, regularly referred to as simply the WI. Its two aims were to revitalise rural communities and to encourage women to become more involved in producing food during the First World War. It is now the largest women’s voluntary organisation in the UK.
1930 Mixed bathing was permitted for the first time in Hyde Park, London.
1958 Yellow ‘No Waiting’ lines were introduced to British streets.
1960 "Psycho", psychological horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, and Vera Miles, opens in New York City.
1974 French Open Men's Tennis: Björn Borg of Sweden wins first career Grand Slam title; beats Manuel Orantes of Spain 2-6, 6-7, 6-0, 6-1, 6-1.
1978 Film "Grease" opens, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, based on the 1971 musical.
1980 Musical comedy film "The Blues Brothers" starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and directed by John Landis, premieres in Chicago.
1982 England international Bryan Robson scored a goal against France in Bilbao after just 27 seconds of the game. It was the quickest World Cup goal in history.
1984 Edwin Moses wins his 100th consecutive 400-meter hurdles race.
1992 An explosive new book about the Princess of Wales including claims that she attempted suicide was published by author Andrew Morton.
1995 "Batman Forever" opens with a record $528 million weekend starring Val Kilmer, Chris O'Donnell, Tommy Lee Jones and Nicole Kidman.
2013 US Open Men's Golf, Englishman Justin Rose wins his first major title, 2 strokes ahead of runners-up Jason Day and Phil Mickelson.
2015 TV personality and Real estate mogul Donald Trump launches his campaign for the Republican nomination for US President at Trump Towers.
2018 World Cup: Video Assistant Referee (VAR) technology is used for the first time, awarding France a penalty in 2-1 win over Australia in Kazan.
2019 24 Hours of Le Mans: 2-time World F1 champion Fernando Alonso along with Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi and Japan's Kazuki Nakajima win back-to-back titles for Toyota Gazoo Racing.
In England’s first match in the finals of the World Cup since 1974 Bryan Robson scored after just 27 seconds against France. England won the match 3-1, won all the three group matches and finished the tournament with an unbeaten record although, sadly, not as World Cup winners.
Football On This Day – 16th June 1982.
Algeria hit the headlines when they played their first match in the World Cup finals – they beat West Germany 2-1.
1239 The birth of King Edward I of England, also known as Edward Longshanks (because of his height) and the Hammer of the Scots.
1497 The Battle of Deptford Bridge (also known as the Battle of Blackheath) took place On This Day. Forces under King Henry VII were victorious in what was the culminating event of the Cornish Rebellion. After carefully spreading rumours that he would attack on the following Monday, Henry moved against the Cornish at dawn on his 'lucky day' which was Saturday (17th June). By 2pm, Henry had returned to the City in triumph, knighting deserving parties on the way, and accepted the acclamation of the Mayor followed by a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's.
1579 Francis Drake anchored the Golden Hind just north of what would one day be San Francisco Bay, California and proclaimed England's sovereignty over an area he named New Albion.
1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
The Taj Mahal in all its glory, built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan I for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.
1775 In the War of American Independence, British troops won a victory at Bunker Hill, north of Boston, Massachusetts.
1823 Charles Macintosh patented the waterproof cloth he used to make raincoats, after experimenting with waste rubber products from Glasgow's new gas works.
1867 Pioneer doctor Joseph Lister amputated a cancerous breast from his sister Isabella using carbolic acid as an antiseptic. The operation in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary was the first under antiseptic conditions.
1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship `Isere'.
1939 Last public guillotining in France. Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
1940 World War II: In a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill urged Britain to conduct herself so that this would be remembered as her finest hour.
1962 US Open Men's Golf, Oakmont CC: Jack Nicklaus wins his first major title by 3 strokes in an 18-hole playoff with Arnold Palmer.
1962 FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile: Brazil go 1-down early but recover to beat Czechoslovakia, 3-1.
1964 The first purpose-built floating trade fair docked at Tilbury in London with 22,000 samples of Japanese goods on board.
1973 Dolly Parton records her song "I Will Always Love You" (later a huge hit for Whitney Houston) for RCA in Nashville.
1974 An IRA bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.
1980 The locations for the first US nuclear missiles to be stored on British soil (at Greenham Common and Molesworth military bases) were revealed by the government.
1982 Manchester United footballer Norman Whiteside became the youngest player to appear in the World Cup finals - playing for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia in Spain. He was aged 17 years and 41 days.
1994 O.J. Simpson doesn't turn himself in on murder charges, LA police chase his Ford Bronco for 1½ hours before he eventually gives up (seen live on national TV).
1994 With the United States hosting the World Cup, the opening ceremonies are held at Soldier Field in Chicago. In one of the production numbers, Diana Ross sings "I'm Coming Out" while she takes a penalty kick. She misses, but the goal splits open anyway and she runs through to complete the bit.
1429 French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeated the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay (slightly north of Orléans, France). The event turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War.
1583 The first Life Insurance policy was sold in London and when a claim was eventually made it was disputed.
1633 Charles I was crowned King of Scotland, at Holyrood, Edinburgh.
1815 The Battle of Waterloo:- Napoleon Bonaparte suffered defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.
1817 Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames was opened. Originally it was called Strand Bridge but was re-named in honour of the British victory at Waterloo in 1815.
1822 London unveiled its first nude statue - a bronze figure of Achilles in Hyde Park by sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott. The statue later acquired a discreet fig leaf.
1928 The keel was laid, at Harland & Wolff - Belfast, for the biggest ship to date, the 1,000 foot, 60,000 ton Oceanic (III). She was never completed. Her keel was dismantled and the steel was used in two new, smaller ships, RMS Georgic and RMS Britannic. Both of these ships entered service in 1930 and were the last liners White Star ever built.
1945 William Joyce (known as Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II, using the English language radio programme Germany Calling. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January 1946.
1963 Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.
1965 The government announced it would introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers, with penalties for those caught above it.
1970 Edward Heath's Conservative Party win the General Election in UK, replacing the Labour Party.
1972 A flight from London Heathrow to Brussels crashed minutes after take-off killing all 118 people on board.
1972 UEFA European Championship Final, Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium: Gerd Müller scores a brace as West Germany beats Soviet Union, 3-0.
1975 The first North Sea Oil was pumped ashore in Britain.
1980 Indian "human computer" Shakuntala Devi sets a world record by mentally multiplying two random 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds; She correctly answered that 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 = 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 !
1984 The 'Battle of Orgreave'. It was the most violent day of the year-long miners' strike and one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history. The National Union of Mineworkers deployed 5,000 pickets from across the UK to stop lorry loads of coke leaving Orgreave coking plant for the British Steel Corporation's works in Scunthorpe. The number of police officers (6,000 from 18 different forces) was unprecedented in an industrial dispute, as was the use of dogs, horses and riot gear. 71 pickets were charged with riot and 24 with violent disorder. The trials collapsed when the evidence given by the police was deemed 'unreliable'. News footage of the confrontation was edited and broadcast out of chronological sequence, showing pickets throwing stones at the police and the police subsequently carrying out a mounted charge, when the reverse was true.
1991 "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" single released by Bryan Adams.
1995 All Black Jonah Lomu scores the try of the Rugby World Cup, running over Mike Catt in New Zealand's 45-29 defeat of England.
1996 England recorded an impressive 4-1 win over Holland at Wembley to reach the quarter-finals of the Euro 96, Alan Shearer and Teddy Sheringham scoring two apiece. The late goal scored by Holland also saw them through to the last 8, at the expense of Scotland.
2000 100th US Open Men's Golf, Pebble Beach GL: Tiger Woods wins his first US Open by a major championship record-setting 15 strokes over Ernie Els and Miguel Ángel Jiménez.
2005 David Tennant's first appearance as the Tenth Doctor in BBC "Doctor Who" episode "The Parting of the Ways".
2016 Tim Peake, the first British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and the seventh UK-born person in space, returned to earth after his 186 day Principia mission working on the International Space Station.
2020 The death, aged 103, of Dame Vera Lynn. She was known as "The Forces' Sweetheart" and her songs helped raise morale in World War Two.
1306 The Earl of Pembroke's army defeated Robert the Bruce's Scottish army at the Battle of Methven, west of Perth. Robert the Bruce was King of the Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while it is believed his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey.
1829 Robert Peel's Act was passed, to establish a new police force in London and its suburbs. They were known as Peelers and then Bobbies, derived from his surname and Christian name respectively.
1861 Douglas Haig, British field-marshal was born. Haig became known as 'Butcher of the Somme', after he unnecessarily sent thousands of British troops to their deaths. After the war, he devoted himself to the care of ex-Servicemen.
1917 The British royal family renounced the German names and titles of Saxe-Coburg, (responding to anti-German sentiment) and became Windsor.
1925 The birth of Charlie Drake, slapstick English comedian. His catchphrase 'Hello, my darlings' came about because his short (5' 1")stature placed his eyes directly level with a lady's bosom!
1936 German boxer Max Schmeling KOs up-and-coming American heavyweight Joe Louis in 12 rounds at Yankee Stadium, New York.
1941 Soviet anthropologist Michael Gerasimov opens tomb of Timurid Empire founder Timur and allegedly finds the inscription that whoever opens the tomb shall "unleash an invader more terrible than I." Three days later Germany invades Russia.
1961 Kuwait declared its independence from the United Kingdom after which the state's oil industry saw unprecedented economic growth.
1970 Edward Heath became the new British prime minister after a surprise victory for the Conservatives and the defeat of Labour leader Harold Wilson.
1975 An inquest jury decided that the missing Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children.
1978 Cricketing star Ian Botham became the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.
1992 Evander Holyfield beats Larry Holmes in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1992 "Batman Returns", starring Michael Keaton as Batman, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, is released.
1996 Britain offered to slaughter up to 67,000 more cattle in an effort to end the ban on British beef after cattle had become infected with BSE.
1997 William Hague became the youngest leader of the Conservative Party for 200 years. He beat Kenneth Clarke in the election following the resignation of John Major.
2017 Bexit negotiations begin between United Kingdom and the European Union in Brussels.
1214 The University of Oxford received its charter. Oxford is the second-oldest surviving university in the world (Bologna in Italy is the oldest) and the oldest in the English-speaking world.
1497 The consecration of St. Mary's Church, Fairford (Cotswolds), one of the finest 'wool churches' in England. Successful wool merchants lavished money on their parish churches and John Tame, a wealthy wool merchant completely rebuilt the church at his own expense. Unusually, the churchyard includes a stone memorial to Tiddles, the church cat who 'guarded' the church and its precincts from 1963 to 1980.
1756 In India, the night of the infamous 'Black Hole of Calcutta', where more than 140 British soldiers and civilians were placed in a small prison cell - 18 feet by 14 feet - by the Nawab of Bengal. The following morning only 23 emerged alive.
1819 The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived at Liverpool. She was the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.
1837 On the death of William IV, Queen Victoria, aged 18, acceded to the throne. At the time of Victoria's death her reign of 63 years and 7 months was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history.
1887 On Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, Buffalo Bill Cody staged a Royal Command performance of his famous Wild West Show, and four European kings boarded the original Deadwood coach driven by Cody.
1949 American tennis player 'Gorgeous' Gussie Moran caused a sensation at the Wimbledon Championships by wearing lace-trimmed pants under a short skirt.
1967 Mohammed Ali [Cassius Clay] sentenced to 5 years by jury after 21 minutes of deliberation for refusing to be inducted into the armed forces during the Vietnam War.
1968 Jim Hines becomes 1st person to run 100 meters in under 10 seconds.
1975 "Jaws", based on the book by Peter Benchley, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider is released.
1976 UEFA European Championship Final, Red Star Stadium, Belgrade, Yugoslavia: Czechoslovakia upsets West Germany, 5-3 on penalties following 2-2 draw a.e.t.
1980 Film "Blues Brothers" with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi opens in 594 theaters.
1980 Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán takes WBC welterweight title from Sugar Ray Leonard at Olympic Stadium in Montreal by unanimous points decision.
1984 The biggest exam shake up for over 10 years was announced with O Level and CSE exams to be replaced by new examinations, to be known as GCSEs.
1986 In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, the government ordered a temporary ban on the slaughter and movement of lambs in some parts of the country.
1987 1st Rugby World Cup Final, Eden Park, Auckland: New Zealand fly-half Grant Fox lands 4 penalties, a conversion and drop goal as the All Blacks beat France, 29-9.
1990 British Chancellor John Major proposed a new European currency which would circulate alongside existing national currencies.
1995 Shell abandoned at the eleventh hour its plan to dump the disused Brent Spar rig in the Atlantic, provoking a furious reaction in the British government. Meanwhile, the environmental campaign group Greenpeace claimed victory in the high-profile battle.
1996 English cricket umpire Harold 'Dickie' Bird received a standing ovation by players and spectators at Lords when he took the field to officiate in his final Test Match.
2014 England were eliminated at the group stage of the Fifa World Cup for the first time since 1958. They were knocked out after just two matches, with Roy Hodgson's side beaten by Group D rivals Italy and Uruguay.
New Arsenal manager Bruce Rioch signed Dennis Bergkamp from Inter-Milan for £7.5 million.
Football On This Day – 20th June 2000.
Alan Shearer made his England debut against France in February 1992 while on Tuesday 20th June 2000 he won his last cap for England having scored 30 goals in the 63 appearances for his country. Mind you, had England done a little better in that last match against Rumania in the 2000 European Championships Shearer might have won a cap or two more. It was the last group match for both sides and after England had beaten Germany but lost to Portugal in the first two group fixtures they needed a draw against Rumania to progress to the knockout stages. They looked to be getting that draw with just a couple of minutes of the match remaining - it was 2-2 with Shearer and Michael Owen the scorers - but then Phil Neville gave away a penalty and of course the Rumanians scored from it. So Rumania won 3-2, they progressed to the quarter-finals and Alan Shearer and his England team-mates were on there way home.
1377 The death of Edward III, King of England. His long reign of 50 years was the second longest in medieval England (after that of his great-grandfather Henry III). He transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe and saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English parliament.
1675 The laying of the foundation stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral in London. The cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the site faced that of the church destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.
1706 The birth of John Dollond an English optician. Dollond & Aitchison opticians was established in 1750.
1809 The death (aged 39, at Stamford, Lincolnshire) of Daniel Lambert, a jailer and animal breeder from Leicester who was famous for his unusually large size. By the time he was aged 35 he weighed 50 stone and was the heaviest authenticated person at the time.
1854 The first Victoria Cross, Britain's highest medal for bravery, was awarded to Charles Lucas, who was awarded it during the Crimean War for conspicuous bravery. The medal was made from metal from a cannon captured at Sebastopol.
1879 Frank W. Woolworth opens his 1st successful "F. W. Woolworth Great Five Cent Store" on North Queen Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
1898 A reporter covering the launch of HMS Albion on the Thames was in such a hurry to file his story that he missed the fact that 38 people drowned when a temporary jetty collapsed.
1919 The German Navy, feeling betrayed by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, scuttles 72 of their warships at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys even though Germany had surrendered. It was the greatest act of self-destruction in modern military history.
1937 First televising of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships.
1942 German forces under Field-Marshal Rommel captured Tobruk.
1948 The first stored programme to run on a computer was put through its paces on the Small Scale Experimental Machine, known as Baby, at Manchester University.
1948 33 1/3 RPM LP record introduced and 78's planned to be phased out.
1948 HMS Empire Windrush with the first 800 emigrants from the West Indies to the UK arrives at Port of Tilbury,Essex.
1949 The Ancient Order of Druids gathered at Stonehenge for their annual summer solstice ceremony.
1964 UEFA European Championship Final, Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain: Marcelino scores the winner as Spain beats Soviet Union, 2-1.
1969 The BBC TV broadcast 'Royal Family' - a documentary going behind the public facade of the British Royal Family. This was the first time anyone had seen Queen Elizabeth II, her husband the Duke of Edinburgh and their children other than on official engagements.
1970 Tony Jacklin won the US Open at Hazeltine Golf Club, Minnesota. He was the first Briton to win since Ted Ray in 1920.
1970 FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Azteca, Mexico City: Brazil and Pelé become first team and player to win World Cup 3 times, beating Italy, 4-1 in front of 107,412.
1975 British rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore quits Deep Purple, forms Rainbow.
1975 Cricket World Cup, Lord's, London: Player of the Match Clive Lloyd scores 102 as West Indies beat Australia by 17 runs; first major limited overs One Day International (ODI) tournament.
1978 Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical "Evita", starring Elaine Page, premieres at the Prince Edward Theatre, London.
1982 Diana, Princess of Wales, gave birth to a boy, (Prince William) sixteen hours after checking in to St Mary's Hospital, in London.
1991 British Gas chairman Robert Evans came under fire for accepting a pay increase of 66%, taking his annual wage to £370,000.
1992 Last day of test cricket for English star players Ian Botham and Allan Lamb.
1996 Britain and other members of the EU reached an agreement for the phased lifting of the ban on British beef. French farmers, however, blockaded two channel ports.
2002 Lennox Lewis retains boxing's WBC world Heavyweight crown with an eighth round knockout over Mike Tyson.
2020 Kurt Cobain's guitar during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged show sells for a record $6 million.
Pele scored his first World Cup goal on June 19th 1958, against Wales, and a fraction over 12 years later, on 21st June 1970, he scored his last goal in the World Cup. This time the opposition was Italy in the World Cup final at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium in front of a 107,412 crowd. Pele scored the first goal in Brazil’s 4-1 victory. That victory saw Brazil become the first nation to win the World Cup three times with Pele the only player to appear in each of those three finals. The hat-trick of victories saw Brazil allowed to keep the original World Cup – the Jules Rimet trophy – although sadly that was stolen in 1983 and, with no Brazilian equivalent of Pickles the dog, it was never recovered and is believed to have been melted down.
Football On This Day – 21st June 2002.
Michael Owen gave England the lead against Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals in Shizuoka in Japan but goals from Rivaldo and Ronaldinho – a free-kick from over 40 yards which beat David Seaman – saw 10-man Brazil into the semis against Turkey.
1377 At the age of 10, Richard II became King of England following the death of his grandfather Edward III, the previous day.
1535 Cardinal John Fisher was beheaded on Tower Hill, London, for refusing to acknowledge Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
1611 Henry Hudson, English navigator, was cast adrift with some of his crew after a mutiny in the bay that now bears his name. It was the last time they were seen alive.
1633 Galileo Galilei forced to recant his Copernican views that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (Vatican only admits it was wrong on Oct 31, 1992).
1675 Royal Greenwich Observatory established in England by Charles II.
1802 Britain's Health and Morals of Apprentices Act limited children to a maximum twelve hour working day; whilst under nines were banned from the mills.
1814 The Marylebone Cricket Club and Hertfordshire played the first match at England's Lord's Cricket Ground.
1865 1st class cricket debut of Dr W. G. Grace.
1874 Game of lawn tennis introduced.
1893 The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria near Tripoli, Lebanon. HMS Victoria sank, taking 358 crew with her, including the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.
1911 King George V crowned King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and all his realms and territories beyond the sea.
1921 The first Northern Ireland Parliament was opened by King George V in Belfast. Sir James Craig was the first Prime Minister in a parliament that nobody wanted. Southern Irish leaders wanted a united Ireland.
1934 John Dillinger is informally named America's first Public Enemy Number One.
1939 Princess and future Queen Elizabeth meets future husband Prince Philip of Greece.
1959 Directors of Harrods urged shareholders to vote for a £34m merger with the Debenhams department chain.
1963 "Little" Stevie Wonder aged 13 releases his first single "Fingertips".
1965 Freddie Trueman ends his Test cricket career, v NZ at Lord's.
1979 Larry Holmes TKOs Mike Weaver in 12 for heavyweight boxing title.
1980 UEFA European Championship Final, Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy: Horst Hrubesch scores a double as Germany beat Belgium, 2-1.
1981 John McEnroe's famous 'You cannot be serious' rant in 1st round win over Tom Gullikson at Wimbledon.
1981 Mark David Chapman pleads guilty to killing John Lennon.
1984 The first Virgin Atlantic flight left Gatwick for New York, with a planeload of passengers who had paid just £99 for their tickets.
1986 The 'Hand of God' football match. England were beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. Both Argentine goals were scored by Diego Maradona - the first with the deliberate use of his hand which went unseen by the referee. It was the first match between the two countries since the Falklands War in 1982.
1995 John Major resigned as head of Britain's Conservative Party, but said that he would stay on as prime minister while he fought for re-election. He said he had been under attack for three years and told his critics to 'put up or shut up'.
2001 The Parole Board decided that Venables and Thompson, the two schoolboy murderers of 2 year old James Bulger should be released and their identities protected, after serving just 8 years for a crime that shocked the nation.
2010 In his budget, Chancellor George Osborne increased VAT from 17.5% to 20% and cut welfare spending as he moved 'decisively' to tackle Britain's record debts.
2012 Torrential downpours brought more flooding to swathes of the country. Music fans at the Isle of Wight Festival spent the night in their cars after traffic became gridlocked when heavy rain turned the festival site into a mudbath. The Environment Agency issued around 140 flood warnings throughout Britain.
Scotland and the USSR drew their final group match at the 1982 World Cup finals in Spain 2-2 in the scorching heat of Malaga. That result saw Scotland pipped on goal difference by their opponents for a place in the next round but Scotland were to win a victory in doping control. John Robertson and a Russian player were required to provide an after-match sample but both being severely dehydrated needed to drink plenty of fluids before a sample could be given - and in those days it wasn't just soft drinks that were available to the players but alcohol as well. The Russian tried to match John Robertson drink for drink, but lost. He had to be carried out of doping control somewhat worse for wear singing White Christmas!
Football On This Day – 22nd June 1986.
England bowed out of the Mexico World Cup at the quarter-final stage thanks to two memorable goals from Diego Maradona. The first was the infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal scored against Peter Shilton which he followed with one of the best individual goals ever seen at a World Cup. Gary Lineker scored one for England in the 2-1 defeat.
Football On This Day – 22nd June 1996.
England showed that they can win a penalty shoot-out beating Spain 4-2 on penalties at Wembley to reach the Euro 96 semis.
Football On This Day – 22nd June 2004.
Fixtures between Denmark and Sweden are generally amongst the most competitive of matches but the Euro 2004 group match in Portugal between the countries was seen by many as lacking any of that competitive nature. The evening of Tuesday 22nd June 2004 saw the four countries play their last matches in the Euro Group C – Denmark v Sweden and Italy v Bulgaria. The table before kick off had Sweden and Denmark equal top with 4 points and Italy third on two points. Italy were expected to beat Bulgaria (they did) which would have meant that Italy would qualify for the quarter-finals with a winner from the Denmark-Sweden match. But if Italy were to win and Sweden and Denmark were to draw 2-2 (or higher) then all three countries would be equal until it got to goals each of the three countries scored against each other – which would see Denmark and Sweden through. Worries were expressed about this possible permutation before kick off time but of course the Scandinavian rivals denied there would be any collusion. That looked to be the case when Denmark led 2-1 with 90 minutes almost up – then Sweden equalised! Plenty of headlines about match-fixing but no complaint was made and Denmark and Sweden progressed to the quarter-finals – where they both lost.