1377 The Coronation of Richard II, aged 10. He was king of England until he was deposed in 1399.
1439 Kissing was banned in England because of the Plague.
1557 The death, aged 41, of Anne of Cleves, Queen of England and 4th wife of Henry VIII.
1661 1st banknotes in Europe are issued by Bank of Stockholm.
1945 The leaders of the three Allied nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1945 1st test detonation of an atomic bomb, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico as part of the US Manhattan Project.
1950 FIFA World Cup Final, Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Alcides Ghiggia scores a 79th minute winner as Uruguay beat Brazil, 2-1.
1955 Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix at the Aintree track near Liverpool - the first time an Englishman had triumphed in the race. His success in a variety of categories placed him among the world's elite and he is often called 'the greatest driver never to win the World Championship'.
1965 Mont Blanc Road tunnel between France & Italy opens.
1966 England won their first match at the 1966 World Cup finals, goals from Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt giving them a 2-0 victory over Mexico at Wembley in their second group fixture.
1969 Apollo 11 launched, carrying 1st men to land on Moon.
1970 Prime Minister Edward Heath declared a state of emergency following the start of a national dock strike - the first state of emergency issued in Britain since 1926.
1988 Lord Harewood, the Queen’s cousin, brought in police to investigate the theft of the world’s smallest horse, Pernod, a 27-inch-high Shetland stallion.
1990 Trial begins for Judas Priest after they are accused of implanting subliminal messages in their song "Better By You, Better Than Me." The suit alleges that the messages caused two teenage boys to enter a suicide pact (one of the boys killed himself instantly; the other died three years later from complications related to the suicide attempt). The case is dismissed August 24 after the judge determines that the supposed subliminal message is just an accidental recording oddity.
2005 "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the 6th book in the series by J. K. Rowling, is published worldwide. 9 million copies sell in 24 hrs.
2017 BBC announces first ever female Doctor Who will be played by Jodie Whittaker.
1841 The first issue of the humorous magazine Punch was published in London. It ceased publication in 1992 but was re-launched in 1996.
1858 Recovery of the bell of HMS Lutine from ship's wreck, hung from rostrum in Lloyd's of London's Underwriting Room.
1917 World War 1: The British Royal Family, in a proclamation issued by George V, adopted the name of the House of Windsor in place of their German family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha due to the anti-German sentiment at the time.
1918 The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, was sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55, with the loss of 5 lives.
1923 The birth of John Cooper. He developed the British Motor Corporation Mini Cooper, adored by rally racers and ordinary drivers.
1964 British speed pioneer Sir Donald Campbell set a new land speed world record of 403.10 mph in his car, Bluebird.
1968 The Beatles' animated film "Yellow Submarine" premieres in London.
1974 An explosion in the Tower of London left one person dead and 41 injured. The incident happened without the coded warning typical of the IRA.
1979 Sebastian Coe runs world record 3:49 mile in Oslo.
1981 The Humber Estuary Bridge was officially opened by the Queen. For 16 years after its construction it was the world's longest single-span structure.
1991 The day that the Premier League took a giant step to reality. The 22 clubs in the old First Division – led by the ‘big 5’ of Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – signed the Founder Members Agreement in which they agreed to set up a new league.
1994 The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, USA, saw the first World Cup final to be decided on a penalty shoot-out. After extra time had ended with the score at 0-0 Brazil beat Italy 3-2 on pens to win the title for the fourth time.
2005 British Open Golf, St. Andrews: Tiger Woods wins his 10th major title wire-to-wire by 5 shots from Scotsman Colin Montgomerie.
2011 British Open Men's Golf, Royal St George's GC: Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland claims his only major title; wins by 3 strokes from American pair Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
64 Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero.
1290 King Edward I orders expulsion of Jews from England, this edict will remain in place for 350 years.
1389 France and Britain agreed to the Truce of Leulinghem. It inaugurated a 13-year peace; the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years' War.
1817 Jane Austen, English novelist of Pride and Prejudice died, aged 41. She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.
1848 William Gilbert Grace, cricketing legend, was born. Grace was important in the development of the sport and was universally known as W.G. He played first-class cricket for a record-equalling 44 seasons, from 1865 to 1908, during which he captained England, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, the Gentlemen, MCC and the United South of England Eleven.
1872 Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot.
1901 The water supply was turned off in Manchester as a heat wave hit the U.K. with the temperature reaching 35 degrees Centigrade.
1920 The unveiling of the Cenotaph War memorial in Whitehall, London to commemorate the war dead. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and takes its name from the Greek words kenos and taphos meaning empty tomb.
1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice")
1934 The official opening, by King George V, of the first Mersey Road Tunnel in Liverpool.
1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland after a 28 hours flight, he supposedly left New York flying for California.
1953 18-year-old Elvis Presley, a truck driver by trade, stops into Memphis Recording Service (later renamed Sun Studios), and pays $3.98 to record two songs: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin."
1957 The birth of Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo (Nick Faldo), professional golfer who has won three Open Championships and three Masters. He was ranked the World's No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for a total of 98 weeks.
1970 Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett was sacked after he joked on air that the wife of the conservative transport minister Mary Peyton had 'crammed a fiver into the examiner's hand', when taking her driving test.
1975 Former British MP John Stonehouse was flown back from Australia to face charges relating to his attempt to falsify his own death.
1976 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 score (total 7) at Montreal Games.
1999 British Open Men's Golf, Carnoustie: Scotsman Paul Lawrie wins his only major title by 3 strokes in 4-hole aggregate playoff with Jean van de Velde & Justin Leonard; recovers from 10 shots behind after 3rd round for biggest comeback in major championship history; van de Velde famously triple-bogies last hole.
2003 The body of government scientist Dr. David Kelly was found in woodland, in Oxfordshire. Dr. Kelly had been at the centre of a row between the British Government and the BBC about the use of intelligence reports in the run up to the war against Iraq.
2009 Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, died, aged 113.
2015 "The Sun" newspaper in Britain controversially publishes old picture and video of Queen Elizabeth giving Nazi salute in 1933.
1333 Wars of Scottish Independence: The English won a decisive victory over the Scots at the Battle of Halidon Hill, near Berwick-upon-Tweed. In England the victory, the first for many years, brought a great boost to the morale of the nation. Bannockburn had finally been avenged.
1545 The Mary Rose, the pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives.The ship was raised on 11th October 1982 to be taken to Portsmouth Dockyard for restoration.
1553 Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I as Queen of England after having the title for just nine days.
1837 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 236 ft steamship, the Great Western, was launched at Bristol. She was the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and was also the largest vessel in the world. On the same day in 1843, Brunel's 'SS Great Britain', the first Atlantic liner built of iron, was also launched.
1877 1st Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 27-year-old English rackets player Spencer Gore wins inaugural event; beats William Marshall 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
1884 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Maud Watson becomes inaugural female champion by beating her sister Lillian Watson 6–8, 6–3, 6–3.
1903 1st Tour de France: French rider Maurice Garin wins inaugural event.
1918 The end of World War I approached as the German army began retreating across the Marne River in France.
1919 Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen, unhappy with unemployment and other grievances, rioted and burn down Luton Town Hall. During the riot people broke into Farmers Music Shop and dragged pianos into the streets for dancing and singing, including, ironically 'Keep the home fires burning'. The mayor at the time, Henry Impey was smuggled out of Luton never to return.
1940 Adolf Hitler orders Great Britain to surrender.
1941 Winston Churchill introduced his 'V for Victory" campaign which rapidly spread through Europe. The BBC took the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, and played it before news bulletins.
1941 Tom and Jerry first appear under their own names in cartoon "The Midnight Snack" by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
1954 Elvis Presley's debut single, a cover of Arthur Cruddup's "That's All Right" is released.
1966 In one of the all-time World Cup upsets North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in front of 17,829 at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough in their final group match. North Korea became the first Asian country to qualify for the knock-out stages of the World Cup Italy went home.
1969 British rower John Fairfax arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after becoming the first person to row across the Atlantic alone. He had left the Canary Islands on January 20th in a 24’ rowing boat and after 180 days and 4000 miles he had finished his journey.
1970 The SS Great Britain was finally welcomed home, back to Great Western Dockyard in Bristol where she was built, exactly 127 years to the day after her launch in 1843. Since 1937 the SS Great Britain had lain, scuttled in the shallow waters of Sparrow Cove, close to Port William in the Falkland Islands.
1972 The Battle of Mirbat, arguably the finest moment in SAS history. The battle was fought in the Gulf state of Oman, with British troops supporting the Sultan of Oman. Just nine Special Forces soldiers overcame 300 Communist guerrillas, known as the Adoo.
1980 XXII Summer Olympic Games open in Moscow, Russia; led by United States, 66 nations boycott event because of Soviet-Afghan war.
1985 Joan Jett calls up-and-coming heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson before his fight with Larry Sims, which Tyson wins handily. The superstitious Tyson insists on getting a call from Jett before every fight, which he does until breaking tradition for his bout against Buster Douglas on February 11, 1990 - Tyson's first loss.
1986 English boxer Frank Bruno was beaten in a heavyweight world championship contender fight by American Tim Witherspoon.
1987 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Britain's Nick Faldo wins his first major title.
1992 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Englishman Nick Faldo wins his 3rd Open title.
1993 Last day of 1st-class cricket for Ian Botham.
1996 XXVI Summer Olympic Games open in Atlanta, Georgia.
2001 Former Tory MP, Jeffrey Archer, was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison.
2013 Comic actor and writer Mel Smith died of a heart attack, aged 60. He was known for the sketch shows 'Alas Smith and Jones' and 'Not The Nine O'Clock News'.
2018 Airbus Beluga XL, painted to look like the whale, makes its first flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France.
The Airbus Beluga XL, built to transport large aircraft pieces.
2018 Brazilian soccer international goalkeeper Alisson transfers from Roma to Liverpool for a world record fee of £66.8m.
1304 Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of the war.
1807 Round-arm (over-arm) bowling was introduced to English cricket by John Willes in the Kent v England match at Fenenden Heath.
1837 London’s first railway station opened, in Euston Grove. The new Euston station was described as ‘mightier than the pyramids of Egypt’.
1871 The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition was formed, to become better known as the FA Cup. The first final saw the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by one goal to nil, watched by a crowd of 2,000.
1881 Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to US federal troops.
1885 The Football Association legalized professionalism in football under pressure from the British Football Association.
1944 World War II: Adolf Hitler escaped death after a third attempt on his life when a bomb exploded in Rastenberg.
1961 The Beatles, known as The Beat Brothers, get some press in the British paper Mersey Beat, which announces their first record deal.
1966 In their final group match Roger Hunt scored twice to give England a 2-0 victory over France at Wembley which saw them qualify for the quarter finals of the World Cup.
1969 Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lands on the surface of the Moon.
1976 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing.
1982 An IRA terrorist bomb in Hyde Park, London, killed 3 members of the Blues and Royals during the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Two hours later 8 bandsmen were killed by an IRA bomb planted at the bandstand in Regent's Park.
1986 British Open Men's Golf, Turnberry: Australian Greg Norman wins his first major championship.
2003 The BBC confirmed that weapons expert Dr David Kelly, found dead two days earlier, was the source for reports that the government had 'sexed up' an Iraq dossier.
2014 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Liverpool GC: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland wins wire-to-wire.
1403 In the Battle of Shrewsbury, King Henry IV defeated rebels led by Henry 'Hotspur' Percy from Northumberland. It was the first battle in which English archers fought each other on English soil and demonstrated the deadliness of the longbow.
1545 The French invaded the Isle of Wight. However the French had little local knowledge and as the attacks were expected, local forces reached the high grounds of Bembridge Down to oppose them. The French had a long history of attacking the Island and this was their last attempt at capture.
1796 Robert Burns, Scottish poet died, aged 37.
1865 In market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
1884 1st Test Cricket match played at Lord's.
1897 London's Tate Gallery built on the site of the Millbank Prison was opened with 67 paintings.
1925 Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150 mph land barrier, at Pendine Sands in Wales when he drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph.
1952 "The Quiet Man" film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara is released in the UK.
1960 English yachtsman Francis Chichester docked in New York in his boat Gypsy Moth II - setting a new record of 40 days for a solo crossing of the Atlantic.
1963 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Dallas Athletic Club: Jack Nicklaus wins first of 5 PGA Championships.
1969 Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT).
Buzz Aldrin's bootprint, one of the first steps taken on the Moon.
1972 'Blood y Friday' bombings by the Provisional IRA around Belfast in Northern Ireland killed 9 and seriously injuring 130. In all, 22 bombs were detonated.
1974 The Police national computer (PNC) began operating.
1979 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Lytham & St. Annes: Spaniard Seve Ballesteros wins by 3 from Jack Nicklaus & Ben Crenshaw; Nicklaus runner-up for record 7th time.
1981 Australia set 130 to win, all out 111 at Headingley Willis 8-43.
1982 The flagship of the British task force to the Falklands, HMS Hermes, arrived back in Portsmouth.
1985 British Open Men's Golf, Royal St George's GC: Scotsman Sandy Lyle wins his only Open.
1987 Guns & Roses debut album "Appetite for Destruction" is released, and becomes the best-selling debut album of all time with more than 30 million copies sold.
1989 Mike Tyson KOs Carl Williams in 1:33 for heavyweight boxing title.
1994 Tony Blair, was confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the unexpected death of John Smith.
2001 Police met community leaders in Brixton after a demonstration against the fatal shooting by police of a man waving a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun.
2005 London's underground network was plunged into chaos after explosions on two trains and a bus - exactly a fortnight after four suicide bomb blasted the capital. All four bombs failed to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers were captured and convicted.
2013 Britain's Chris Froome won the 100th Tour de France, making it Britain's second successive victory. Froome's Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the prestigious cycle race in 2012.
2014 Former Liverpool midfielder and England captain Steven Gerrard retired from international football, after a 14-year career representing his country and winning 114 caps.
1298 The English used longbows for the first time, when they defeated the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk. The Scottish pikemen were cut to pieces by Edward I's archers.
1706 The 'Acts of Union' were agreed by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by the countries' Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1844 The Rev. William Archibald Spooner, Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford, was born. He was famous for 'Spoonerisms' in which letters are switched to produce such expressions as - 'It is kisstomary to cuss the bride' (.... customary to kiss the bride) 'a well-boiled icicle' ( .... well-oiled bicycle) and ' Come into the arms of the shoving leopard' (.... loving shepherd).
1946 More than a year after the end of World War II, bread was rationed in Britain. The shortage was blamed on a poor harvest and drought.
1959 Ed Wood's cult classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space", called one of the worse films ever, premieres.
1972 Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Sweden for possession of drugs.
1984 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Seve Ballesteros of Spain wins his 2nd of 3 Open titles.
1986 MPs voted to abolish corporal punishment in state schools.
1990 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Englishman Nick Faldo wins the 2nd of his 3 Open Championships.
1992 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes prison.
1994 Former NFL running back, broadcaster and actor O.J. Simpson pleads "Absolutely 100% Not Guilty" of murder.
2002 After plenty of speculation Manchester United signed Rio Ferdinand from Leeds for a British record transfer fee of £29,100,000.
2005 Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was mistaken for a terrorist suspect and was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station in south London as the hunt was intensified for those responsible for the London bombings on the 7th and 21st July.
2012 Bradley Wiggins, aged 32, became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. He finished with a winning margin of 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
2016 Sam Allardyce was appointed as England’s new manager. 1 Match 1 Win. Left within two months, but Big Sam kept a 100% win rate.
2018 East Fife 4 Forfar 5 was the ultimate football tongue-twister for anyone trying to read out the football results. It became a long standing joke between comedian Eric Morecambe and James Alexander Gordon, voice of the classified football results for 40 years. On Sunday, 22nd July 2018 that result finally happened for the first time in the fixture's history when the Scottish League Cup Group B tie between the sides went to penalties after a 1-1 draw, leading to East Fife 4 Forfar 5.
2019 Marvel superhero film "Avengers: Endgame" becomes the world's highest-grossing film overtaking "Avatar" earning $2.9 billion.
2020 Liverpool FC lifted their first Premier League trophy.
1888 Scottish man, John Boyd Dunlop, applied to patent the pneumatic (inflatable) tyre as "an improvement in the tyres or wheels for bicycles, tricycles and other road tyres." Wheels before this time were made out of solid rubber. The pneumatic tyre was first used on cars, by Andre and Edouard Michelin.
1901 Tennis player Tim Henman's great-grandmother (Ellen Stawell Brown) became the first woman to serve overarm at the All England Tennis Club.
1904 Ice cream cone created during St Louis World Fair - the 1st cone reputedly by Charles E. Menches.
1940 The Local Defence Volunteers were renamed the Home Guard by Winston Churchill.
1955 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater, in the Lake District, when his jet-propelled hydroplane - Bluebird, reached 202.32mph.
1955 Chuck Berry releases his first single, "Maybellene."
1957 There were violent scenes around Britain as the strike by busmen entered its fourth day.
1966 Geoff Hurst replaced the injured Jimmy Greaves in the England side for the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina at Wembley – and scored the only goal. The Argentine captain Antonio Rattín was sent off and England manager Alf Ramsey refused to allow his players to exchange shirts with their opponents at the end of the match, later calling the Argentines ‘animals’.
1968 The Jackson 5 audition for Motown Records, with 9-year-old Michael singing lead and doing some sweet dance moves on James Brown's "I Got The Feelin'." The label signs them three days later.
1979 Iran's new leader, the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, bans rock and roll as a corruptive influence on the people, a decision that eventually inspires the Clash song "Rock The Casbah."
1986 Prince Andrew, the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey. Their divorce in May 1996 attracted a high level of media coverage.
2000 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Lytham & St. Annes: Tiger Woods beats Thomas Bjørn and Ernie Els by 8 shots to win his first Open title; becomes youngest player at 24 to win all 4 major titles.
2008 'Back-from-the-dead' canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne were jailed for more than six years for fraudulently claiming £250,000. The couple had conned family, friends, police and insurance companies into believing that Mr Darwin drowned in the North Sea off Teesside in 2002.
2011 Amy Winehouse dies in London of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.
2017 Women's Cricket World Cup: England beat India by 9 runs in the final at Lords in London.
2019 Boris Johnson is chosen the new British Prime Minister by the ruling Conservative Party to replace Theresa May.
1567 Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned at Lochlevan Castle, was forced to abdicate her throne to her 1 year old son, James VI of Scotland - (James I of England).
1837 Robert Coc king made a parachute jump from a hot air balloon 5,000 feet above Kennington Common. Unfortunately the cone-shaped parachute inverted and he became the first person to die in a parachute jump.
1851 The window tax in Britain was abolished.
1867 The opening of the Grand Hotel in Scarborough. At the time it was the largest hotel and the largest brick structure in Europe. The building is designed around the theme of time, with four towers to represent the seasons, 12 floors for the months of the year, 52 chimneys to symbolise the weeks, and originally there were 365 bedrooms, one for each day of the year.
1883 Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English channel (1875) drowned whilst attempting to swim the rapids at Niagara Falls.
1908 Fifty six runners began the London Marathon from Windsor Castle as part of the London Olympic Games.
1926 The first greyhound racing track in the UK was opened, at Belle Vue, in Manchester.
1936 The GPO (General Post Office) introduced TIM - the automated speaking clock using the voice of Miss Ethel Cain - a telephonist at the GPO's Victoria telephone exchange in London.
1966 After a local and national campaign, the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles first performed, was re-opened. Prime Minister Harold Wilson performed the opening ceremony.
1974 "Death Wish", starring Charles Bronson is released in the US.
1980 The death of Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor. He rose to fame on the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show and was the bumbling Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series.
1987 Former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Jeffrey Archer, was awarded record libel damages at the High Court. The Daily Star newspaper was ordered to pay the MP £500,000 damages, along with up to £700,000 costs, for a front-page story in November 1986 alleging that Mr. Archer had paid to have sex with a prostitute. (Note:- in July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial and was sentenced to four years in prison.)
1995 After a campaign by the Sun newspaper Southampton goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, Wimbledon keeper Hans Segers and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu were all charged with conspiracy to fix matches. After two trials the trio were cleared two years later.
1998 "Saving Private Ryan", is released.
2016 103rd Tour de France won by Chris Froome of Great Britain.
2019 10th million Mini car produced during its 60th anniversary year in Oxford,England.
The 25th July is St Christopher's day. He is the patron saint of travelling and travellers, mariners, ferrymen and also athletes.
1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned as King James I of England, bringing the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union with political union occurring in 1707.
1797 British naval commander Horatio Nelson's right arm was shattered by grapeshot during an assault on Tenerife in the battle of Santa Cruz. The injured arm was amputated later. This followed the loss of his sight in his right eye some three years earlier.
1814 The chief engineer at the Killingworth colliery, George Stephenson, unveiled Blücher, his steam powered locomotive that could haul eight carriages loaded with 30 tons of coal at the break-neck speed of 4 mph.
1843 The death of Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor. He invented waterproof clothing, hence the term macintosh or mac.
1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell began setting up his experimental camp on Brownsea Island near Poole to test the feasibility of Scouting.
1909 Frenchman Louis Blériot won the Daily Mail prize for the first successful flight across the English Channel. He made the trip in 37 minutes, landing close to Dover Castle. His success delighted the French but worried the British, who felt that they had suddenly become vulnerable to air attack.
1914 Last day of club cricket for English legend W. G. Grace at age 66: makes unbeaten 69 runs for Eltham against Grove Park.
1959 A hovercraft, the SR.N1, designed by Christopher Cockerell, made its first English Channel crossing from Dover to Calais. The acronym SR.N1 stood for Saunders-Roe Nautical 1.
1959 Introduced by Johnny Cash, 13-year-old Dolly Parton makes her Grand Ole Opry debut singing George Jones' "You Gotta Be My Baby." She receives three encores.
1965 Bob Dylan is booed by sections of the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival for performing with an electric guitar, beginning of folk-rock.
1969 Yes release their self-titled debut album, one of the first in the progressive rock genre.
1978 John Lydon forms rock group Public Ltd Image.
1978 Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby in Britain, was born at Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester, it had taken 12 years of research.
1985 Steve Cram runs world record mile (3:46.32).
1999 86th Tour de France: Lance Armstrong wins 1st of 7 consecutive Tour de France titles but is later disqualified for drug cheating.
2009 The last British survivor of the World War I trenches, Harry Patch, died, aged 111.
2013 The retirement, aged 77, of James Alexander Gordon, voice of the classified football results for 40 years. He pioneered the much-mimicked technique of raising his tone for the winning side's score, and dropping it in sympathy for the losers. He never officially read the scoreline with which he was indelibly associated - 'East Fife 4. Forfar 5.' but in October 2011 fans across the country raised their hopes during a clash which finished, disappointingly, East Fife 4 Forfar 3. On Sunday, 22nd July 2018 that result finally happened for the first time in the fixture's history when the Scottish League Cup Group B tie between the sides went to penalties after a 1-1 draw. The final score after the penalty shootout was East Fife 4 Forfar 5.
1469 Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Edgecote Moor took place. It pitted the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV and was considered to be an important turning point in the course of the war.
1609 English mathematician Thomas Harriot is the first person to draw a map of the Moon by looking through a telescope.
1745 The first recorded women's cricket match was played near Guildford, Surrey, between teams from Hambledon and Bramley.
1755 Casanova is arrested in Venice for affront to religion and common decency and imprisoned in the Doge's Palace.
1803 The Surrey Iron Railway opened in south London. It was the world's first railway to be publicly subscribed by Act of Parliament as a railway throughout. The 9 mile track was a horse-drawn plateway of approximately standard gauge that linked the former Surrey towns of Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham.
1814 The opening of Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight, it is Britain's oldest pier.
1845 The SS Great Britain, (the first iron ship designed by Brunel), sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage.
1890 From the roof of the General Post Office in Aldersgate, Marconi made the first public transmission of wireless (radio) signals.
1895 The birth, at Bartley Green - Birmingham, of Jane 'Jinny' Bunford, the tallest person in English medical history, who measured 2.41m. (7ft. 11in.) at the time of her death, aged 26. She was also the tallest person in the world during her lifetime, a record that stood for the next sixty years.
1943 Mick Jagger, British rock singer with the Rolling Stones, was born.
1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in a landslide victory. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister. He said: 'Labour can deliver the goods.'
1966 Bobby Charlton scored two and Eusébio one as England beat Portugal 2-1 at Wembley in the semi-final of the World Cup. England would play West Germany - who had beaten the Soviet Union 2-1 the previous evening at Goodison - in the World Cup Final.
2015 102nd Tour de France won by Chris Froome of Great Britain.
1214 The Battle of Bouvines, which the English lost, in a field next to what is now the airport of Lille. "Bouvines is the most important battle in English history that no-one has ever heard of," said John France, medieval history professor. "Without Bouvines there is no Magna Carta, and all the British and American law that stems from that. The armies are small, but everything depends on the struggle. It's one of the climactic moments of European history."
1377 First example of quarantine in Rugusa (now Dubroknik); city council passes law saying newcomers from plague areas must isolate for 30 days.
1586 Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England, from Virginia.
1663 The English Parliament passed the Second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies had to be sent in English ships from English ports.
1694 The Bank of England was founded by act of Parliament.
1866 The Great Eastern arrived at Heart's Content in Newfoundland, having successfully laid the transatlantic telegraph cable (1,686 miles long).
1890 Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in Auvers-sur-Oise, dies of injuries 2 days later.
1940 Bugs Bunny, cartoon character first debuts in "Wild Hare".
1949 The British De Havilland Comet, the first jet-propelled airliner, made its maiden flight. It was a 40-passenger airliner.
1956 England cricket spin bowler Jim Laker takes 9-37 in Australia's 1st innings in 4th Test at Manchester; best return ever in Test cricket; bettered in 2nd innings 10-53.
1974 At Ascot, English champion jockey Lester Piggott had 3 wins, bring his total to 3,001.
1990 Graham Gooch scores 333 v India at Lord's.
1992 A young and promising Southampton striker by the name of Alan Shearer was bought by Blackburn Rovers for a mahoosive £3.6 million, a record between British clubs at the time.
1996 "Wannabe" hits #1 in the UK, making the Spice Girls the first all-female group to top the chart with their debut single.
2003 The death of Bob Hope, the English-born American comedian and actor.
2012 The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. The official mascot for the Olympic Games was named Wenlock, as it was in the market town of Much Wenlock, Shropshire that doctor William Penny Brookes founded the Olympian Games in 1850.
1540 Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry VIII and his chief minister, was executed. He was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king's failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. Henry also married Catherine Howard (his 5th wife) on the same day.
1586 Thomas Harriot was credited with bringing the first potato to Britain, (from Colombia) ahead of Sir Walter Raleigh.
1707 During the reign of Queen Anne, the Union Flag was by royal proclamation made the National flag of Great Britain. The National Flags of Scotland and England were united to form the flag.
When the red cross of England was put onto the flag of Scotland, a white border was added around the red cross for reasons of heraldry. (The rules of heraldry demanded that two colours must never touch each other.)
1858 Fingerprints were first used as a means of identification by William Herschel, who later established a fingerprint register.
1865 A crowd of 100,000 watched the last public execution in Scotland when Dr. Edward Pritchard was hanged for poisoning his wife and mother-in-law.
1900 Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut.
1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, exactly one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie had been shot dead by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. Europe went from peaceful prosperity to the start of a world war that would bring down four empires and cost millions of lives, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
1943 The worst British bombing raid on Hamburg so far during World War II virtually set the city on fire. In just 43 minutes, 2,326 tons of bombs killed 42,000 German civilians.
1945 US Army B-25 crashes into 79th floor of Empire State Bldg, 14 die.
1945 "Elevator girl" Betty Lou Oliver survives falling 75 stories after fog causes a US bomber plane to crash into the Empire State Building, breaking the cables supporting the elevator she was operating. This remains a world record for the longest survived elevator fall.
1948 The Metropolitan Police Flying Squad foiled a bullion robbery in what became known as the 'Battle of London Airport' an operation that brought them to national prominence. The name Flying Squad was coined in 1920 by a Daily Mail journalist called Crook!
1951 Walt Disney's animated musical film "Alice In Wonderland" released.
1959 Postcodes were introduced in Britain.
1972 Thousands of British dockers began an official strike to safeguard jobs.
1977 England cricket all-rounder Ian Botham on his debut takes 5 for 74 in the Australian 1st innings in a 7 wicket 3rd Test win at Trent Bridge.
1979 "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats, a song about a real-life school shooting in America, goes to #1 in the UK for the first of four weeks.
1984 23rd modern Olympic Games open in Los Angeles.
1987 23 year old British golfer Laura Davis won the U.S. Women's Open, becoming the first British woman ever to win the event.
1988 The MP for Yeovil, Paddy Ashdown, was elected the first leader of the new Social and Liberal Democrat Party.
2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
1565 Mary, Queen of Scots married her cousin Lord Darnley (Henry Stuart) in the Old Abbey Chapel at Holyrood, Edinburgh, thus alienating Scottish protestants and England because Darnley was a Catholic heir to the throne.
1566 Great Britain executes Agnes Waterhouse, the first British woman convicted of witchcraft in Chelmsford, England.
1567 James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
1588 The Spanish Armada was sighted off the coast of Cornwall. The English fleet under the command of Charles Howard and Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, to establish the birth of British naval supremacy.
1751 1st international world title prize fight: Jack Stack of England, beats challenger M. Petit of France in 29 mins in England.
1928 Test footage first created for Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" with Mickey Mouse.
1948 King George VI opened the 14th Olympic Games in London - the first time the Games had been held in 12 years, due to World War II.
1958 NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on 29 July 1958. It is responsible for the USA’s space exploration programme.
1970 The Rolling Stones' contract with Decca expires, and the group takes the opportunity to split with notorious manager Allen Klein. Delivering one more song to the label to fulfill its obligation, the famously unreleasable "C--ksucker Blues" (aka Schoolboy Blues), they also begin the process of forming their own label, Rolling Stones Records (which features their new "tongue and lips" logo).
1976 Fire destroyed the famous pierhead at the end of the world's longest pier, in Southend, on England's south-east coast.
1981 The Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer at London's St Paul's Cathedral. The televised ceremony was watched by over 700 million viewers around the world.
1994 Spurs clinch a transfer coup when they sign one of the stars of the World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann. The German ‘Dive Bomber’ cost £2 million with the signing being completed on Alan Sugar’s yacht moored off Monte Carlo.
2005 An anonymous bidder pays one million dollars for the original handwritten lyrics to The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" at the Hippodrome nightclub in London.
2018 Tour de France: Geraint Thomas becomes the first Welshman to win the Tour.
1746 The death of Francis Towneley, English Jacobite who was executed for his role in the rebellion of 1745. His head was placed on a pike on Temple Bar, London but was secretly removed and has since been in possession of the Towneley family. The skull is now preserved in the chapel at Towneley Hall.
1869 The Charles, considered the world’s first "oil tanker", departs from the United States headed for Europe with a bulk capacity of 7,000 barrels of oil.
1900 London Underground's Central Line was opened by the Prince of Wales, with a two pence (tuppence) fare for all destinations.
1909 French chemist Eugène Schueller founds L'Oréal with his new range of hair dyes.
1930 1st FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay: Uruguay beats Argentina, 4-2 in the inaugural event.
1935 'Penguin' paperback books, founded by Allen Lane, went on sale in Britain starting the paperback revolution.
1938 The first edition of The Beano was published. It is the longest running British children's comic magazine, published by DC Thomson in Dundee. By April 1950 the weekly circulation was almost 2,000,000. The Beano reached its 4,000th issue on 28th August 2019.
1945 After delivering the Atomic Bomb across the Pacific, the cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-58. 880 of the crew died, many after being attacked by sharks, the inspiration for the movie Jaws.
1948 The world's first radar station was opened, to assist shipping at the port of Liverpool.
1958 Daley Thompson, British athlete was born. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times. With four world records, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth titles, and wins in the World and European Championships, Thompson is considered by many to be the greatest decathlete of all time.
1963 Kim Philby, British intelligence officer from 1940 and Soviet agent from 1933, fled to the USSR.
1966 England won the Football World Cup in London, beating West Germany 4 - 2. This was England's first (and only) win since the tournament began in 1930. England forward Geoff Hurst became the only man to score a hat-trick in a world cup final.
1968 The Beatles' Apple Boutique, a psychedelic clothing store located at 94 Baker Street in London, closes after seven months of bad business practices and rampant theft. With the group and its intimates having had the pick of the remaining inventory the night before, Apple Boutique employees are instructed to simply let people in off the street to take whatever merchandise they like. The store was closed that evening for good.
2006 The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2213 episodes were screened, the first being broadcast on New Year's Day 1964. Disc Jockey Jimmy Savile was the presenter of both the first and last shows.
2012 General Motors (Chevrolet) sign a record breaking 7 year $559 million sponsorship deal with EPL club Manchester United.
1423 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1703 English novelist Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire 'The Shortest Way With Dissenters'. Bystanders pelted him with flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects and drank to his health.
1910 Dr Crippen was arrested aboard the SS Montrose as it was docking at Quebec. He was charged with the murder of his wife and was the first criminal to be caught by the use of radio.
1917 The third Battle of Ypres (World War I) commenced as the British attacked the German lines. The Battle of Passchendaele became infamous not only for the scale of casualties, but also for the mud.
1941 World War II: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to 'submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question.' The demand led to the Holocaust and the genocide of approximately six million European Jews.
1942 The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (later called Oxfam) was founded.
1950 Britain's first self-service store, (Sainsbury's) opened in Croydon.
1956 Yorkshire born cricketer Jim Laker (who played for Surrey) became the first man to take all 10 wickets in a Test match innings as he returned figures of 10 wickets for 53 runs against Australia's in the second innings at Old Trafford, Manchester. His match figures for the two innings gave him an incredible 19 wickets for a mere 90 Australian runs.
1959 Cliff Richard had his first British No.1 with 'Living Doll'.
1965 Cigarette advertising on British television was banned.
1968 The first episode (entitled The Man and the Hour) of Dad's Army, a British comedy about the Home Guard in the Second World War. The TV series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers during the 1970s and is still repeated today.
1969 The half penny ceased being legal tender. It had been a regular feature of British coinage since the 13th century.
1970 Black Tot Day occurred On This Day. It was the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy that dated back to 1665. It was poured as usual at 6 bells in the forenoon watch (11am) after the pipe of 'up spirits'. Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were 'buried at sea' and in one navy training camp there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin and accompanying drummers and piper.
1990 In the England v India Test Match at Lords, a total of 1603 runs were scored, in exactly 1603 minutes.
2009 The death (aged 76) of Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson CBE, English footballer and football manager.
1740 Rule Britannia was sung for the first time, for the then Prince of Wales's daughter's third birthday.
1774 English chemist Joseph Priestley identified oxygen, which he called 'a new species of air'.
1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system.
1798 The English, under Nelson, destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay, stopping Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade the Middle East.
1800 The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1820 London's Regent's Canal opens.
1831 New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It lasted for 140 years and was sold and rebuilt in Arizona.
1834 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force throughout the British Empire and an estimated 770,000 slaves were freed.
1842 Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames opens.
1883 Parcel post started in Britain.
1900 The 1st Michelin Guide is published by the brothers Édouard and André Michelin as a hotel and restaurant reference guide to encourage more road travel and thus boost sales of their tyres.
1914 World War I began with Germany's invasion of Luxembourg. The same day Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in WWI.
1936 XI Summer Olympic Games are opened by Adolph Hitler in Berlin.
1965 Scottish Lotus driver Jim Clark wins the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring to clinch his second F1 World Drivers Championship.
1966 The British Empire officially came to an end as the Colonial Office closed its doors and lowered its flag, giving way to the Commonwealth.
1972 1st article exposing Watergate scandal by Bernstein and Woodward in "The Washington Post".
1975 In Britain, cigarette advertising was banned on television.
1976 Reigning world F1 champion Niki Lauda of Austria suffers a near fatal crash during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
1981 MTV goes on the air bringing music videos to the masses in America. The first music video played is "Video Killed The Radio Star" by British duo The Buggles.
1987 MTV Europe makes its debut. The first video shown is Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," a song where Sting proclaims, "I want my MTV."
1987 Mike Tyson outpoints Tony Tucker in 12 rounds in a heavyweight boxing unification match up in Las Vegas; first to own all 3 major belts WBA, WBC and IBF simultaneously.
1992 Linford Christie won the 100m gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.
1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce that they are married, having wed at a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic 11 weeks earlier.
1996 George R.R. Martin publishes the epic fantasy novel "A Game of Thrones".
2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and the women's rowing duo (Helen Glover and Heather Stanning) scooped Britain's first gold medals of the Olympic Games.
2015 The death (aged 72) of the English singer and television presenter Priscilla White, known by her stage name Cilla Black. She gained a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club and her impromptu performances impressed the Beatles, leading to an audition by the music entrepreneur Brian Epstein.
2020 Egypt tells Elon Musk its pyramids were not built by aliens, after Musk tweets in support of a conspiracy theory that they did.
1100 King William II of England, son of William the Conqueror, was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest after allegedly being mistaken for a deer.
1776 The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place. On 4th July earlier that year the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
1784 The first specially-built Royal Mail coach began its scheduled service from Bristol to London.
1790 1st US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves.
1798 John Palmer, a famous actor in London, performed the most impressive death ever seen in theatre history. On saying the words "There is another and better world", he collapsed. The audience applauded widely at such brilliant acting. It was no act, he died.
1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was published but was soon withdrawn because of bad printing. Only 21 copies of the first edition survived, making it one of the rarest 19th century books.
1865 Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern between Great Britain and America snaps and is lost.
1870 Tower Subway opened in London. It is cited as the world's first underground 'tube' railway.
1880 British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
1894 Death duties now known as inheritance tax were introduced in Britain.
1957 The official Elvis Presley Fan Club was launched in the UK.
1961 The Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.
1970 The British army used rubber bullets for the first time to quell a riot in Northern Ireland.
1977 In his comeback Test, England cricket batsman Geoff Boycott is unbeaten on 80 after a 1st innings 107 as England beats Australia by 7 wickets in the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge.
1981 England cricket all-rounder Ian Botham takes 5 for 11 to end Australia's chase of 151 target, all out 121 for 29 run defeat in 4th Test at Edgbaston.
1985 England captain David Gower scores his 5,000th run in Test cricket during the drawn 4th Test v Australia at Old Trafford.
1999 ‘Le Sulk’ was on his way from Highbury, Nicolas Anelka moves to Real Madrid in return for Davor Šuker and around £20m. But Arsenal’s big transfer news was to come the following day.
2014 49 year old Stuart Kettell completed his challenge to push a Brussels sprout up Snowdon using his nose. It took him 3 days and he raised more than £6000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
1492, Christopher Columbus left Spain with his fleet of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, to set sail across the Atlantic to America.
1805 The first recorded cricket match between English public schools Eton and Harrow.
1856 London was divided into postal districts, in order to speed up letter deliveries.
1858 Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, was discovered by the explorer John Speke.
1887 The birth of Rupert Brooke, the English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially ' The Soldier' that begins 'If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.'
1908 The Post Office sent its first parcel mail to the US on the White Star liner, Teutonic.
1914 British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey famously remarks "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time."
1926 Britain installed its first traffic lights - at Piccadilly Circus, in London.
1932 Official automatic timing & photo-finish camera for track events is used for the first time at Los Angeles Olympics.
1934 Adolf Hitler merges the offices of German Chancellor and President, declaring himself "Führer" (leader).
1936 American sprinter Jesse Owens wins the 100m (10.3 seconds) in front of Adolf Hitler in a famous race at the Berlin Olympics, first of 4 gold medals at the Games.
1957 Footballer John Charles was transferred from Leeds to Juventus for a £65,000 fee. He was the first British footballer to be transferred to a foreign club.
1963 Allan Sherman releases "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh"
1963 The Beatles performed at The Cavern Club for the 292nd and last time. They received a fee of £300 pounds for the performance.
1966 South African government bans Th Beatles records.
1971 Sanquhar Post Office in Dumfries and Galloway became a Category B Listed Building. It is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest post office in the world and has been in continuous service since 1712.
1971 Paul McCartney announces formation of his group Wings.
1986 The News Of The World breaks the story that Rolling Stones's bass player Bill Wyman, 49, is dating Mandy Smith, 16, and that they had been together since she was 13. No charges are pressed against Wyman, and in 1989, the couple get married in a union that lasts less than a year.
1999 Arsenal FC completes a huge signing coup snapping up ace French striker Thierry Henry for a bargain £10 million from Italian club Juventus.
2017 Brazilian soccer forward Neymar transfers from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record transfer fee of €222 on a 5-year deal.
Comments
1377 The Coronation of Richard II, aged 10. He was king of England until he was deposed in 1399.
1439 Kissing was banned in England because of the Plague.
1557 The death, aged 41, of Anne of Cleves, Queen of England and 4th wife of Henry VIII.
1661 1st banknotes in Europe are issued by Bank of Stockholm.
1945 The leaders of the three Allied nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1945 1st test detonation of an atomic bomb, Trinity Site, Alamogordo, New Mexico as part of the US Manhattan Project.
1950 FIFA World Cup Final, Estádio do Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Alcides Ghiggia scores a 79th minute winner as Uruguay beat Brazil, 2-1.
1955 Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix at the Aintree track near Liverpool - the first time an Englishman had triumphed in the race. His success in a variety of categories placed him among the world's elite and he is often called 'the greatest driver never to win the World Championship'.
1965 Mont Blanc Road tunnel between France & Italy opens.
1966 England won their first match at the 1966 World Cup finals, goals from Bobby Charlton and Roger Hunt giving them a 2-0 victory over Mexico at Wembley in their second group fixture.
1969 Apollo 11 launched, carrying 1st men to land on Moon.
1970 Prime Minister Edward Heath declared a state of emergency following the start of a national dock strike - the first state of emergency issued in Britain since 1926.
1988 Lord Harewood, the Queen’s cousin, brought in police to investigate the theft of the world’s smallest horse, Pernod, a 27-inch-high Shetland stallion.
1990 Trial begins for Judas Priest after they are accused of implanting subliminal messages in their song "Better By You, Better Than Me." The suit alleges that the messages caused two teenage boys to enter a suicide pact (one of the boys killed himself instantly; the other died three years later from complications related to the suicide attempt). The case is dismissed August 24 after the judge determines that the supposed subliminal message is just an accidental recording oddity.
2005 "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the 6th book in the series by J. K. Rowling, is published worldwide. 9 million copies sell in 24 hrs.
2017 BBC announces first ever female Doctor Who will be played by Jodie Whittaker.
1841 The first issue of the humorous magazine Punch was published in London. It ceased publication in 1992 but was re-launched in 1996.
1858 Recovery of the bell of HMS Lutine from ship's wreck, hung from rostrum in Lloyd's of London's Underwriting Room.
1917 World War 1: The British Royal Family, in a proclamation issued by George V, adopted the name of the House of Windsor in place of their German family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha due to the anti-German sentiment at the time.
1918 The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, was sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55, with the loss of 5 lives.
1923 The birth of John Cooper. He developed the British Motor Corporation Mini Cooper, adored by rally racers and ordinary drivers.
1964 British speed pioneer Sir Donald Campbell set a new land speed world record of 403.10 mph in his car, Bluebird.
1968 The Beatles' animated film "Yellow Submarine" premieres in London.
1974 An explosion in the Tower of London left one person dead and 41 injured. The incident happened without the coded warning typical of the IRA.
1979 Sebastian Coe runs world record 3:49 mile in Oslo.
1981 The Humber Estuary Bridge was officially opened by the Queen. For 16 years after its construction it was the world's longest single-span structure.
1991 The day that the Premier League took a giant step to reality. The 22 clubs in the old First Division – led by the ‘big 5’ of Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – signed the Founder Members Agreement in which they agreed to set up a new league.
1994 The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, USA, saw the first World Cup final to be decided on a penalty shoot-out. After extra time had ended with the score at 0-0 Brazil beat Italy 3-2 on pens to win the title for the fourth time.
2005 British Open Golf, St. Andrews: Tiger Woods wins his 10th major title wire-to-wire by 5 shots from Scotsman Colin Montgomerie.
2011 British Open Men's Golf, Royal St George's GC: Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland claims his only major title; wins by 3 strokes from American pair Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson.
64 Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero.
1290 King Edward I orders expulsion of Jews from England, this edict will remain in place for 350 years.
1389 France and Britain agreed to the Truce of Leulinghem. It inaugurated a 13-year peace; the longest period of sustained peace during the Hundred Years' War.
1817 Jane Austen, English novelist of Pride and Prejudice died, aged 41. She was buried at Winchester Cathedral.
1848 William Gilbert Grace, cricketing legend, was born. Grace was important in the development of the sport and was universally known as W.G. He played first-class cricket for a record-equalling 44 seasons, from 1865 to 1908, during which he captained England, Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, the Gentlemen, MCC and the United South of England Eleven.
1872 Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot.
1901 The water supply was turned off in Manchester as a heat wave hit the U.K. with the temperature reaching 35 degrees Centigrade.
1920 The unveiling of the Cenotaph War memorial in Whitehall, London to commemorate the war dead. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and takes its name from the Greek words kenos and taphos meaning empty tomb.
1925 Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf (original title was the catchy "Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice")
1934 The official opening, by King George V, of the first Mersey Road Tunnel in Liverpool.
1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland after a 28 hours flight, he supposedly left New York flying for California.
1953 18-year-old Elvis Presley, a truck driver by trade, stops into Memphis Recording Service (later renamed Sun Studios), and pays $3.98 to record two songs: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin."
1957 The birth of Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo (Nick Faldo), professional golfer who has won three Open Championships and three Masters. He was ranked the World's No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for a total of 98 weeks.
1970 Radio 1 DJ Kenny Everett was sacked after he joked on air that the wife of the conservative transport minister Mary Peyton had 'crammed a fiver into the examiner's hand', when taking her driving test.
1975 Former British MP John Stonehouse was flown back from Australia to face charges relating to his attempt to falsify his own death.
1976 Nadia Comăneci becomes the first gymnast in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 score (total 7) at Montreal Games.
1999 British Open Men's Golf, Carnoustie: Scotsman Paul Lawrie wins his only major title by 3 strokes in 4-hole aggregate playoff with Jean van de Velde & Justin Leonard; recovers from 10 shots behind after 3rd round for biggest comeback in major championship history; van de Velde famously triple-bogies last hole.
2003 The body of government scientist Dr. David Kelly was found in woodland, in Oxfordshire. Dr. Kelly had been at the centre of a row between the British Government and the BBC about the use of intelligence reports in the run up to the war against Iraq.
2009 Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, died, aged 113.
2015 "The Sun" newspaper in Britain controversially publishes old picture and video of Queen Elizabeth giving Nazi salute in 1933.
1333 Wars of Scottish Independence: The English won a decisive victory over the Scots at the Battle of Halidon Hill, near Berwick-upon-Tweed. In England the victory, the first for many years, brought a great boost to the morale of the nation. Bannockburn had finally been avenged.
1545 The Mary Rose, the pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives.The ship was raised on 11th October 1982 to be taken to Portsmouth Dockyard for restoration.
1553 Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I as Queen of England after having the title for just nine days.
1837 Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 236 ft steamship, the Great Western, was launched at Bristol. She was the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and was also the largest vessel in the world. On the same day in 1843, Brunel's 'SS Great Britain', the first Atlantic liner built of iron, was also launched.
1877 1st Wimbledon Men's Tennis: 27-year-old English rackets player Spencer Gore wins inaugural event; beats William Marshall 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
1884 Wimbledon Women's Tennis: Maud Watson becomes inaugural female champion by beating her sister Lillian Watson 6–8, 6–3, 6–3.
1903 1st Tour de France: French rider Maurice Garin wins inaugural event.
1918 The end of World War I approached as the German army began retreating across the Marne River in France.
1919 Following Peace Day celebrations marking the end of World War I, ex-servicemen, unhappy with unemployment and other grievances, rioted and burn down Luton Town Hall. During the riot people broke into Farmers Music Shop and dragged pianos into the streets for dancing and singing, including, ironically 'Keep the home fires burning'. The mayor at the time, Henry Impey was smuggled out of Luton never to return.
1940 Adolf Hitler orders Great Britain to surrender.
1941 Winston Churchill introduced his 'V for Victory" campaign which rapidly spread through Europe. The BBC took the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, and played it before news bulletins.
1941 Tom and Jerry first appear under their own names in cartoon "The Midnight Snack" by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
1954 Elvis Presley's debut single, a cover of Arthur Cruddup's "That's All Right" is released.
1966 In one of the all-time World Cup upsets North Korea beat Italy 1-0 in front of 17,829 at Ayresome Park, Middlesbrough in their final group match. North Korea became the first Asian country to qualify for the knock-out stages of the World Cup Italy went home.
1969 British rower John Fairfax arrived at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after becoming the first person to row across the Atlantic alone. He had left the Canary Islands on January 20th in a 24’ rowing boat and after 180 days and 4000 miles he had finished his journey.
1970 The SS Great Britain was finally welcomed home, back to Great Western Dockyard in Bristol where she was built, exactly 127 years to the day after her launch in 1843. Since 1937 the SS Great Britain had lain, scuttled in the shallow waters of Sparrow Cove, close to Port William in the Falkland Islands.
1972 The Battle of Mirbat, arguably the finest moment in SAS history. The battle was fought in the Gulf state of Oman, with British troops supporting the Sultan of Oman. Just nine Special Forces soldiers overcame 300 Communist guerrillas, known as the Adoo.
1980 XXII Summer Olympic Games open in Moscow, Russia; led by United States, 66 nations boycott event because of Soviet-Afghan war.
1985 Joan Jett calls up-and-coming heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson before his fight with Larry Sims, which Tyson wins handily. The superstitious Tyson insists on getting a call from Jett before every fight, which he does until breaking tradition for his bout against Buster Douglas on February 11, 1990 - Tyson's first loss.
1986 English boxer Frank Bruno was beaten in a heavyweight world championship contender fight by American Tim Witherspoon.
1987 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Britain's Nick Faldo wins his first major title.
1992 British Open Men's Golf, Muirfield: Englishman Nick Faldo wins his 3rd Open title.
1993 Last day of 1st-class cricket for Ian Botham.
1996 XXVI Summer Olympic Games open in Atlanta, Georgia.
2001 Former Tory MP, Jeffrey Archer, was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison.
2013 Comic actor and writer Mel Smith died of a heart attack, aged 60. He was known for the sketch shows 'Alas Smith and Jones' and 'Not The Nine O'Clock News'.
2018 Airbus Beluga XL, painted to look like the whale, makes its first flight, landing in Toulouse-Blagnac, France.
The Airbus Beluga XL, built to transport large aircraft pieces.
2018 Brazilian soccer international goalkeeper Alisson transfers from Roma to Liverpool for a world record fee of £66.8m.
1304 Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of the war.
1807 Round-arm (over-arm) bowling was introduced to English cricket by John Willes in the Kent v England match at Fenenden Heath.
1837 London’s first railway station opened, in Euston Grove. The new Euston station was described as ‘mightier than the pyramids of Egypt’.
1871 The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition was formed, to become better known as the FA Cup. The first final saw the Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers by one goal to nil, watched by a crowd of 2,000.
1881 Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull, surrenders to US federal troops.
1885 The Football Association legalized professionalism in football under pressure from the British Football Association.
1944 World War II: Adolf Hitler escaped death after a third attempt on his life when a bomb exploded in Rastenberg.
1961 The Beatles, known as The Beat Brothers, get some press in the British paper Mersey Beat, which announces their first record deal.
1966 In their final group match Roger Hunt scored twice to give England a 2-0 victory over France at Wembley which saw them qualify for the quarter finals of the World Cup.
1969 Apollo 11 lunar module carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lands on the surface of the Moon.
1976 US Viking 1 lands on Mars at Chryse Planitia, 1st Martian landing.
1982 An IRA terrorist bomb in Hyde Park, London, killed 3 members of the Blues and Royals during the Changing of the Guard ceremony. Two hours later 8 bandsmen were killed by an IRA bomb planted at the bandstand in Regent's Park.
1986 British Open Men's Golf, Turnberry: Australian Greg Norman wins his first major championship.
2003 The BBC confirmed that weapons expert Dr David Kelly, found dead two days earlier, was the source for reports that the government had 'sexed up' an Iraq dossier.
2014 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Liverpool GC: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland wins wire-to-wire.
1403 In the Battle of Shrewsbury, King Henry IV defeated rebels led by Henry 'Hotspur' Percy from Northumberland. It was the first battle in which English archers fought each other on English soil and demonstrated the deadliness of the longbow.
1545 The French invaded the Isle of Wight. However the French had little local knowledge and as the attacks were expected, local forces reached the high grounds of Bembridge Down to oppose them. The French had a long history of attacking the Island and this was their last attempt at capture.
1796 Robert Burns, Scottish poet died, aged 37.
1865 In market square of Springfield, Missouri, Wild Bill Hickok shoots and kills Davis Tutt in what is regarded as the first true western showdown.
1884 1st Test Cricket match played at Lord's.
1897 London's Tate Gallery built on the site of the Millbank Prison was opened with 67 paintings.
1925 Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150 mph land barrier, at Pendine Sands in Wales when he drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph.
1952 "The Quiet Man" film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara is released in the UK.
The Fight Scene.
1960 English yachtsman Francis Chichester docked in New York in his boat Gypsy Moth II - setting a new record of 40 days for a solo crossing of the Atlantic.
1963 PGA Championship Men's Golf, Dallas Athletic Club: Jack Nicklaus wins first of 5 PGA Championships.
1969 Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to step on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT).
Buzz Aldrin's bootprint, one of the first steps taken on the Moon.
1972 'Blood y Friday' bombings by the Provisional IRA around Belfast in Northern Ireland killed 9 and seriously injuring 130. In all, 22 bombs were detonated.
1974 The Police national computer (PNC) began operating.
1979 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Lytham & St. Annes: Spaniard Seve Ballesteros wins by 3 from Jack Nicklaus & Ben Crenshaw; Nicklaus runner-up for record 7th time.
1981 Australia set 130 to win, all out 111 at Headingley Willis 8-43.
1982 The flagship of the British task force to the Falklands, HMS Hermes, arrived back in Portsmouth.
1985 British Open Men's Golf, Royal St George's GC: Scotsman Sandy Lyle wins his only Open.
1987 Guns & Roses debut album "Appetite for Destruction" is released, and becomes the best-selling debut album of all time with more than 30 million copies sold.
1989 Mike Tyson KOs Carl Williams in 1:33 for heavyweight boxing title.
1994 Tony Blair, was confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the unexpected death of John Smith.
2001 Police met community leaders in Brixton after a demonstration against the fatal shooting by police of a man waving a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun.
2005 London's underground network was plunged into chaos after explosions on two trains and a bus - exactly a fortnight after four suicide bomb blasted the capital. All four bombs failed to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers were captured and convicted.
2013 Britain's Chris Froome won the 100th Tour de France, making it Britain's second successive victory. Froome's Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the prestigious cycle race in 2012.
2014 Former Liverpool midfielder and England captain Steven Gerrard retired from international football, after a 14-year career representing his country and winning 114 caps.
1298 The English used longbows for the first time, when they defeated the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk. The Scottish pikemen were cut to pieces by Edward I's archers.
1706 The 'Acts of Union' were agreed by commissioners from the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which, when passed by the countries' Parliaments, led to the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1844 The Rev. William Archibald Spooner, Anglican clergyman and warden of New College, Oxford, was born. He was famous for 'Spoonerisms' in which letters are switched to produce such expressions as - 'It is kisstomary to cuss the bride' (.... customary to kiss the bride) 'a well-boiled icicle' ( .... well-oiled bicycle) and ' Come into the arms of the shoving leopard' (.... loving shepherd).
1946 More than a year after the end of World War II, bread was rationed in Britain. The shortage was blamed on a poor harvest and drought.
1959 Ed Wood's cult classic "Plan 9 From Outer Space", called one of the worse films ever, premieres.
1972 Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Sweden for possession of drugs.
1984 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Seve Ballesteros of Spain wins his 2nd of 3 Open titles.
1986 MPs voted to abolish corporal punishment in state schools.
1990 British Open Men's Golf, St Andrews: Englishman Nick Faldo wins the 2nd of his 3 Open Championships.
1992 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar escapes prison.
1994 Former NFL running back, broadcaster and actor O.J. Simpson pleads "Absolutely 100% Not Guilty" of murder.
2002 After plenty of speculation Manchester United signed Rio Ferdinand from Leeds for a British record transfer fee of £29,100,000.
2005 Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was mistaken for a terrorist suspect and was shot dead at Stockwell Tube station in south London as the hunt was intensified for those responsible for the London bombings on the 7th and 21st July.
2012 Bradley Wiggins, aged 32, became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. He finished with a winning margin of 3 minutes and 21 seconds.
2016 Sam Allardyce was appointed as England’s new manager. 1 Match 1 Win. Left within two months, but Big Sam kept a 100% win rate.
2018 East Fife 4 Forfar 5 was the ultimate football tongue-twister for anyone trying to read out the football results. It became a long standing joke between comedian Eric Morecambe and James Alexander Gordon, voice of the classified football results for 40 years. On Sunday, 22nd July 2018 that result finally happened for the first time in the fixture's history when the Scottish League Cup Group B tie between the sides went to penalties after a 1-1 draw, leading to East Fife 4 Forfar 5.
2019 Marvel superhero film "Avengers: Endgame" becomes the world's highest-grossing film overtaking "Avatar" earning $2.9 billion.
2020 Liverpool FC lifted their first Premier League trophy.
1888 Scottish man, John Boyd Dunlop, applied to patent the pneumatic (inflatable) tyre as "an improvement in the tyres or wheels for bicycles, tricycles and other road tyres." Wheels before this time were made out of solid rubber. The pneumatic tyre was first used on cars, by Andre and Edouard Michelin.
1901 Tennis player Tim Henman's great-grandmother (Ellen Stawell Brown) became the first woman to serve overarm at the All England Tennis Club.
1904 Ice cream cone created during St Louis World Fair - the 1st cone reputedly by Charles E. Menches.
1940 The Local Defence Volunteers were renamed the Home Guard by Winston Churchill.
1955 British speed enthusiast Donald Campbell broke the world water speed record on Ullswater, in the Lake District, when his jet-propelled hydroplane - Bluebird, reached 202.32mph.
1955 Chuck Berry releases his first single, "Maybellene."
1957 There were violent scenes around Britain as the strike by busmen entered its fourth day.
1966 Geoff Hurst replaced the injured Jimmy Greaves in the England side for the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina at Wembley – and scored the only goal. The Argentine captain Antonio Rattín was sent off and England manager Alf Ramsey refused to allow his players to exchange shirts with their opponents at the end of the match, later calling the Argentines ‘animals’.
1968 The Jackson 5 audition for Motown Records, with 9-year-old Michael singing lead and doing some sweet dance moves on James Brown's "I Got The Feelin'." The label signs them three days later.
1979 Iran's new leader, the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, bans rock and roll as a corruptive influence on the people, a decision that eventually inspires the Clash song "Rock The Casbah."
1986 Prince Andrew, the second son, and third child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey. Their divorce in May 1996 attracted a high level of media coverage.
2000 British Open Men's Golf, Royal Lytham & St. Annes: Tiger Woods beats Thomas Bjørn and Ernie Els by 8 shots to win his first Open title; becomes youngest player at 24 to win all 4 major titles.
2008 'Back-from-the-dead' canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne were jailed for more than six years for fraudulently claiming £250,000. The couple had conned family, friends, police and insurance companies into believing that Mr Darwin drowned in the North Sea off Teesside in 2002.
2011 Amy Winehouse dies in London of alcohol poisoning at the age of 27.
2017 Women's Cricket World Cup: England beat India by 9 runs in the final at Lords in London.
2019 Boris Johnson is chosen the new British Prime Minister by the ruling Conservative Party to replace Theresa May.
1567 Mary Queen of Scots, imprisoned at Lochlevan Castle, was forced to abdicate her throne to her 1 year old son, James VI of Scotland - (James I of England).
1837 Robert Coc king made a parachute jump from a hot air balloon 5,000 feet above Kennington Common. Unfortunately the cone-shaped parachute inverted and he became the first person to die in a parachute jump.
1851 The window tax in Britain was abolished.
1867 The opening of the Grand Hotel in Scarborough. At the time it was the largest hotel and the largest brick structure in Europe. The building is designed around the theme of time, with four towers to represent the seasons, 12 floors for the months of the year, 52 chimneys to symbolise the weeks, and originally there were 365 bedrooms, one for each day of the year.
1883 Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English channel (1875) drowned whilst attempting to swim the rapids at Niagara Falls.
1908 Fifty six runners began the London Marathon from Windsor Castle as part of the London Olympic Games.
1926 The first greyhound racing track in the UK was opened, at Belle Vue, in Manchester.
1936 The GPO (General Post Office) introduced TIM - the automated speaking clock using the voice of Miss Ethel Cain - a telephonist at the GPO's Victoria telephone exchange in London.
1966 After a local and national campaign, the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where the Beatles first performed, was re-opened. Prime Minister Harold Wilson performed the opening ceremony.
1974 "Death Wish", starring Charles Bronson is released in the US.
1980 The death of Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor. He rose to fame on the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show and was the bumbling Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series.
1987 Former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, Jeffrey Archer, was awarded record libel damages at the High Court. The Daily Star newspaper was ordered to pay the MP £500,000 damages, along with up to £700,000 costs, for a front-page story in November 1986 alleging that Mr. Archer had paid to have sex with a prostitute. (Note:- in July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial and was sentenced to four years in prison.)
1995 After a campaign by the Sun newspaper Southampton goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, Wimbledon keeper Hans Segers and Aston Villa striker John Fashanu were all charged with conspiracy to fix matches. After two trials the trio were cleared two years later.
1998 "Saving Private Ryan", is released.
2016 103rd Tour de France won by Chris Froome of Great Britain.
2019 10th million Mini car produced during its 60th anniversary year in Oxford,England.
The 25th July is St Christopher's day. He is the patron saint of travelling and travellers, mariners, ferrymen and also athletes.
1603 James VI of Scotland was crowned as King James I of England, bringing the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into personal union with political union occurring in 1707.
1797 British naval commander Horatio Nelson's right arm was shattered by grapeshot during an assault on Tenerife in the battle of Santa Cruz. The injured arm was amputated later. This followed the loss of his sight in his right eye some three years earlier.
1814 The chief engineer at the Killingworth colliery, George Stephenson, unveiled Blücher, his steam powered locomotive that could haul eight carriages loaded with 30 tons of coal at the break-neck speed of 4 mph.
1843 The death of Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor. He invented waterproof clothing, hence the term macintosh or mac.
1907 Sir Robert Baden-Powell began setting up his experimental camp on Brownsea Island near Poole to test the feasibility of Scouting.
1909 Frenchman Louis Blériot won the Daily Mail prize for the first successful flight across the English Channel. He made the trip in 37 minutes, landing close to Dover Castle. His success delighted the French but worried the British, who felt that they had suddenly become vulnerable to air attack.
1914 Last day of club cricket for English legend W. G. Grace at age 66: makes unbeaten 69 runs for Eltham against Grove Park.
1959 A hovercraft, the SR.N1, designed by Christopher Cockerell, made its first English Channel crossing from Dover to Calais. The acronym SR.N1 stood for Saunders-Roe Nautical 1.
1959 Introduced by Johnny Cash, 13-year-old Dolly Parton makes her Grand Ole Opry debut singing George Jones' "You Gotta Be My Baby." She receives three encores.
1965 Bob Dylan is booed by sections of the crowd at the Newport Folk Festival for performing with an electric guitar, beginning of folk-rock.
1969 Yes release their self-titled debut album, one of the first in the progressive rock genre.
1978 John Lydon forms rock group Public Ltd Image.
1978 Louise Joy Brown, the first test-tube baby in Britain, was born at Oldham Hospital in Greater Manchester, it had taken 12 years of research.
1985 Steve Cram runs world record mile (3:46.32).
1999 86th Tour de France: Lance Armstrong wins 1st of 7 consecutive Tour de France titles but is later disqualified for drug cheating.
2009 The last British survivor of the World War I trenches, Harry Patch, died, aged 111.
2013 The retirement, aged 77, of James Alexander Gordon, voice of the classified football results for 40 years. He pioneered the much-mimicked technique of raising his tone for the winning side's score, and dropping it in sympathy for the losers. He never officially read the scoreline with which he was indelibly associated - 'East Fife 4. Forfar 5.' but in October 2011 fans across the country raised their hopes during a clash which finished, disappointingly, East Fife 4 Forfar 3. On Sunday, 22nd July 2018 that result finally happened for the first time in the fixture's history when the Scottish League Cup Group B tie between the sides went to penalties after a 1-1 draw. The final score after the penalty shootout was East Fife 4 Forfar 5.
1469 Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Edgecote Moor took place. It pitted the forces of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick against those of Edward IV and was considered to be an important turning point in the course of the war.
1609 English mathematician Thomas Harriot is the first person to draw a map of the Moon by looking through a telescope.
1745 The first recorded women's cricket match was played near Guildford, Surrey, between teams from Hambledon and Bramley.
1755 Casanova is arrested in Venice for affront to religion and common decency and imprisoned in the Doge's Palace.
1803 The Surrey Iron Railway opened in south London. It was the world's first railway to be publicly subscribed by Act of Parliament as a railway throughout. The 9 mile track was a horse-drawn plateway of approximately standard gauge that linked the former Surrey towns of Wandsworth and Croydon via Mitcham.
1814 The opening of Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight, it is Britain's oldest pier.
1845 The SS Great Britain, (the first iron ship designed by Brunel), sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage.
1890 From the roof of the General Post Office in Aldersgate, Marconi made the first public transmission of wireless (radio) signals.
1895 The birth, at Bartley Green - Birmingham, of Jane 'Jinny' Bunford, the tallest person in English medical history, who measured 2.41m. (7ft. 11in.) at the time of her death, aged 26. She was also the tallest person in the world during her lifetime, a record that stood for the next sixty years.
1943 Mick Jagger, British rock singer with the Rolling Stones, was born.
1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were defeated by the Labour Party in a landslide victory. Clement Attlee became Prime Minister. He said: 'Labour can deliver the goods.'
1966 Bobby Charlton scored two and Eusébio one as England beat Portugal 2-1 at Wembley in the semi-final of the World Cup. England would play West Germany - who had beaten the Soviet Union 2-1 the previous evening at Goodison - in the World Cup Final.
2015 102nd Tour de France won by Chris Froome of Great Britain.
1214 The Battle of Bouvines, which the English lost, in a field next to what is now the airport of Lille. "Bouvines is the most important battle in English history that no-one has ever heard of," said John France, medieval history professor. "Without Bouvines there is no Magna Carta, and all the British and American law that stems from that. The armies are small, but everything depends on the struggle. It's one of the climactic moments of European history."
1377 First example of quarantine in Rugusa (now Dubroknik); city council passes law saying newcomers from plague areas must isolate for 30 days.
1586 Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England, from Virginia.
1663 The English Parliament passed the Second Navigation Act requiring that all goods bound for the American colonies had to be sent in English ships from English ports.
1694 The Bank of England was founded by act of Parliament.
1866 The Great Eastern arrived at Heart's Content in Newfoundland, having successfully laid the transatlantic telegraph cable (1,686 miles long).
1890 Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh shoots himself in Auvers-sur-Oise, dies of injuries 2 days later.
1940 Bugs Bunny, cartoon character first debuts in "Wild Hare".
1949 The British De Havilland Comet, the first jet-propelled airliner, made its maiden flight. It was a 40-passenger airliner.
1956 England cricket spin bowler Jim Laker takes 9-37 in Australia's 1st innings in 4th Test at Manchester; best return ever in Test cricket; bettered in 2nd innings 10-53.
1974 At Ascot, English champion jockey Lester Piggott had 3 wins, bring his total to 3,001.
1990 Graham Gooch scores 333 v India at Lord's.
1992 A young and promising Southampton striker by the name of Alan Shearer was bought by Blackburn Rovers for a mahoosive £3.6 million, a record between British clubs at the time.
1996 "Wannabe" hits #1 in the UK, making the Spice Girls the first all-female group to top the chart with their debut single.
2003 The death of Bob Hope, the English-born American comedian and actor.
2012 The opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London. The official mascot for the Olympic Games was named Wenlock, as it was in the market town of Much Wenlock, Shropshire that doctor William Penny Brookes founded the Olympian Games in 1850.
1540 Thomas Cromwell, Chancellor to Henry VIII and his chief minister, was executed. He was beheaded on Tower Hill for promoting the king's failed marriage to Anne of Cleves. Henry also married Catherine Howard (his 5th wife) on the same day.
1586 Thomas Harriot was credited with bringing the first potato to Britain, (from Colombia) ahead of Sir Walter Raleigh.
1707 During the reign of Queen Anne, the Union Flag was by royal proclamation made the National flag of Great Britain. The National Flags of Scotland and England were united to form the flag.
When the red cross of England was put onto the flag of Scotland, a white border was added around the red cross for reasons of heraldry. (The rules of heraldry demanded that two colours must never touch each other.)
1858 Fingerprints were first used as a means of identification by William Herschel, who later established a fingerprint register.
1865 A crowd of 100,000 watched the last public execution in Scotland when Dr. Edward Pritchard was hanged for poisoning his wife and mother-in-law.
1900 Hamburger created by Louis Lassing in Connecticut.
1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, exactly one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie had been shot dead by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. Europe went from peaceful prosperity to the start of a world war that would bring down four empires and cost millions of lives, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
1943 The worst British bombing raid on Hamburg so far during World War II virtually set the city on fire. In just 43 minutes, 2,326 tons of bombs killed 42,000 German civilians.
1945 US Army B-25 crashes into 79th floor of Empire State Bldg, 14 die.
1945 "Elevator girl" Betty Lou Oliver survives falling 75 stories after fog causes a US bomber plane to crash into the Empire State Building, breaking the cables supporting the elevator she was operating. This remains a world record for the longest survived elevator fall.
1948 The Metropolitan Police Flying Squad foiled a bullion robbery in what became known as the 'Battle of London Airport' an operation that brought them to national prominence. The name Flying Squad was coined in 1920 by a Daily Mail journalist called Crook!
1951 Walt Disney's animated musical film "Alice In Wonderland" released.
1959 Postcodes were introduced in Britain.
1972 Thousands of British dockers began an official strike to safeguard jobs.
1977 England cricket all-rounder Ian Botham on his debut takes 5 for 74 in the Australian 1st innings in a 7 wicket 3rd Test win at Trent Bridge.
1979 "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats, a song about a real-life school shooting in America, goes to #1 in the UK for the first of four weeks.
1984 23rd modern Olympic Games open in Los Angeles.
1987 23 year old British golfer Laura Davis won the U.S. Women's Open, becoming the first British woman ever to win the event.
1988 The MP for Yeovil, Paddy Ashdown, was elected the first leader of the new Social and Liberal Democrat Party.
2005 The Provisional Irish Republican Army call an end to their thirty year long armed campaign in Northern Ireland.
1565 Mary, Queen of Scots married her cousin Lord Darnley (Henry Stuart) in the Old Abbey Chapel at Holyrood, Edinburgh, thus alienating Scottish protestants and England because Darnley was a Catholic heir to the throne.
1566 Great Britain executes Agnes Waterhouse, the first British woman convicted of witchcraft in Chelmsford, England.
1567 James VI was crowned King of Scotland at Stirling.
1588 The Spanish Armada was sighted off the coast of Cornwall. The English fleet under the command of Charles Howard and Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth, to establish the birth of British naval supremacy.
1751 1st international world title prize fight: Jack Stack of England, beats challenger M. Petit of France in 29 mins in England.
1928 Test footage first created for Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" with Mickey Mouse.
1948 King George VI opened the 14th Olympic Games in London - the first time the Games had been held in 12 years, due to World War II.
1958 NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on 29 July 1958. It is responsible for the USA’s space exploration programme.
1970 The Rolling Stones' contract with Decca expires, and the group takes the opportunity to split with notorious manager Allen Klein. Delivering one more song to the label to fulfill its obligation, the famously unreleasable "C--ksucker Blues" (aka Schoolboy Blues), they also begin the process of forming their own label, Rolling Stones Records (which features their new "tongue and lips" logo).
***WARNING EXPLICIT LYRICS***
1976 Fire destroyed the famous pierhead at the end of the world's longest pier, in Southend, on England's south-east coast.
1981 The Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer at London's St Paul's Cathedral. The televised ceremony was watched by over 700 million viewers around the world.
1994 Spurs clinch a transfer coup when they sign one of the stars of the World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann. The German ‘Dive Bomber’ cost £2 million with the signing being completed on Alan Sugar’s yacht moored off Monte Carlo.
2005 An anonymous bidder pays one million dollars for the original handwritten lyrics to The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" at the Hippodrome nightclub in London.
2018 Tour de France: Geraint Thomas becomes the first Welshman to win the Tour.
1746 The death of Francis Towneley, English Jacobite who was executed for his role in the rebellion of 1745. His head was placed on a pike on Temple Bar, London but was secretly removed and has since been in possession of the Towneley family. The skull is now preserved in the chapel at Towneley Hall.
1869 The Charles, considered the world’s first "oil tanker", departs from the United States headed for Europe with a bulk capacity of 7,000 barrels of oil.
1900 London Underground's Central Line was opened by the Prince of Wales, with a two pence (tuppence) fare for all destinations.
1909 French chemist Eugène Schueller founds L'Oréal with his new range of hair dyes.
1930 1st FIFA World Cup Final, Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay: Uruguay beats Argentina, 4-2 in the inaugural event.
1935 'Penguin' paperback books, founded by Allen Lane, went on sale in Britain starting the paperback revolution.
1938 The first edition of The Beano was published. It is the longest running British children's comic magazine, published by DC Thomson in Dundee. By April 1950 the weekly circulation was almost 2,000,000. The Beano reached its 4,000th issue on 28th August 2019.
1945 After delivering the Atomic Bomb across the Pacific, the cruiser USS Indianapolis is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-58. 880 of the crew died, many after being attacked by sharks, the inspiration for the movie Jaws.
1948 The world's first radar station was opened, to assist shipping at the port of Liverpool.
1958 Daley Thompson, British athlete was born. He won the decathlon gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984, and broke the world record for the event four times. With four world records, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth titles, and wins in the World and European Championships, Thompson is considered by many to be the greatest decathlete of all time.
1963 Kim Philby, British intelligence officer from 1940 and Soviet agent from 1933, fled to the USSR.
1966 England won the Football World Cup in London, beating West Germany 4 - 2. This was England's first (and only) win since the tournament began in 1930. England forward Geoff Hurst became the only man to score a hat-trick in a world cup final.
1968 The Beatles' Apple Boutique, a psychedelic clothing store located at 94 Baker Street in London, closes after seven months of bad business practices and rampant theft. With the group and its intimates having had the pick of the remaining inventory the night before, Apple Boutique employees are instructed to simply let people in off the street to take whatever merchandise they like. The store was closed that evening for good.
2006 The world's longest running music show Top of the Pops was broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2213 episodes were screened, the first being broadcast on New Year's Day 1964. Disc Jockey Jimmy Savile was the presenter of both the first and last shows.
2012 General Motors (Chevrolet) sign a record breaking 7 year $559 million sponsorship deal with EPL club Manchester United.
1423 Hundred Years' War: Battle of Cravant: The French army is defeated by the English at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.
1703 English novelist Daniel Defoe was made to stand in the pillory as punishment for offending the government and church with his satire 'The Shortest Way With Dissenters'. Bystanders pelted him with flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects and drank to his health.
1910 Dr Crippen was arrested aboard the SS Montrose as it was docking at Quebec. He was charged with the murder of his wife and was the first criminal to be caught by the use of radio.
1917 The third Battle of Ypres (World War I) commenced as the British attacked the German lines. The Battle of Passchendaele became infamous not only for the scale of casualties, but also for the mud.
1941 World War II: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring ordered SS General Reinhard Heydrich to 'submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question.' The demand led to the Holocaust and the genocide of approximately six million European Jews.
1942 The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (later called Oxfam) was founded.
1950 Britain's first self-service store, (Sainsbury's) opened in Croydon.
1956 Yorkshire born cricketer Jim Laker (who played for Surrey) became the first man to take all 10 wickets in a Test match innings as he returned figures of 10 wickets for 53 runs against Australia's in the second innings at Old Trafford, Manchester. His match figures for the two innings gave him an incredible 19 wickets for a mere 90 Australian runs.
1959 Cliff Richard had his first British No.1 with 'Living Doll'.
1965 Cigarette advertising on British television was banned.
1968 The first episode (entitled The Man and the Hour) of Dad's Army, a British comedy about the Home Guard in the Second World War. The TV series regularly gained audiences of 18 million viewers during the 1970s and is still repeated today.
1969 The half penny ceased being legal tender. It had been a regular feature of British coinage since the 13th century.
1970 Black Tot Day occurred On This Day. It was the last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy that dated back to 1665. It was poured as usual at 6 bells in the forenoon watch (11am) after the pipe of 'up spirits'. Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were 'buried at sea' and in one navy training camp there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin and accompanying drummers and piper.
1990 In the England v India Test Match at Lords, a total of 1603 runs were scored, in exactly 1603 minutes.
2009 The death (aged 76) of Sir Robert William "Bobby" Robson CBE, English footballer and football manager.
1740 Rule Britannia was sung for the first time, for the then Prince of Wales's daughter's third birthday.
1774 English chemist Joseph Priestley identified oxygen, which he called 'a new species of air'.
1793 France becomes 1st country to use the metric system.
1798 The English, under Nelson, destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay, stopping Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade the Middle East.
1800 The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1820 London's Regent's Canal opens.
1831 New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It lasted for 140 years and was sold and rebuilt in Arizona.
1834 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force throughout the British Empire and an estimated 770,000 slaves were freed.
1842 Rotherhithe Tunnel under the Thames opens.
1883 Parcel post started in Britain.
1900 The 1st Michelin Guide is published by the brothers Édouard and André Michelin as a hotel and restaurant reference guide to encourage more road travel and thus boost sales of their tyres.
1914 World War I began with Germany's invasion of Luxembourg. The same day Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany declares war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in WWI.
1936 XI Summer Olympic Games are opened by Adolph Hitler in Berlin.
1965 Scottish Lotus driver Jim Clark wins the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring to clinch his second F1 World Drivers Championship.
1966 The British Empire officially came to an end as the Colonial Office closed its doors and lowered its flag, giving way to the Commonwealth.
1972 1st article exposing Watergate scandal by Bernstein and Woodward in "The Washington Post".
1975 In Britain, cigarette advertising was banned on television.
1976 Reigning world F1 champion Niki Lauda of Austria suffers a near fatal crash during the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim.
1981 MTV goes on the air bringing music videos to the masses in America. The first music video played is "Video Killed The Radio Star" by British duo The Buggles.
1987 MTV Europe makes its debut. The first video shown is Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," a song where Sting proclaims, "I want my MTV."
1987 Mike Tyson outpoints Tony Tucker in 12 rounds in a heavyweight boxing unification match up in Las Vegas; first to own all 3 major belts WBA, WBC and IBF simultaneously.
1992 Linford Christie won the 100m gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.
1994 Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley announce that they are married, having wed at a secret ceremony in the Dominican Republic 11 weeks earlier.
1996 George R.R. Martin publishes the epic fantasy novel "A Game of Thrones".
2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and the women's rowing duo (Helen Glover and Heather Stanning) scooped Britain's first gold medals of the Olympic Games.
2015 The death (aged 72) of the English singer and television presenter Priscilla White, known by her stage name Cilla Black. She gained a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant at Liverpool's famous Cavern Club and her impromptu performances impressed the Beatles, leading to an audition by the music entrepreneur Brian Epstein.
2020 Egypt tells Elon Musk its pyramids were not built by aliens, after Musk tweets in support of a conspiracy theory that they did.
1100 King William II of England, son of William the Conqueror, was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest after allegedly being mistaken for a deer.
1776 The signing of the United States Declaration of Independence took place. On 4th July earlier that year the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the British Empire.
1784 The first specially-built Royal Mail coach began its scheduled service from Bristol to London.
1790 1st US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves.
1798 John Palmer, a famous actor in London, performed the most impressive death ever seen in theatre history. On saying the words "There is another and better world", he collapsed. The audience applauded widely at such brilliant acting. It was no act, he died.
1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was published but was soon withdrawn because of bad printing. Only 21 copies of the first edition survived, making it one of the rarest 19th century books.
1865 Trans Atlantic Cable being laid by SS Great Eastern between Great Britain and America snaps and is lost.
1870 Tower Subway opened in London. It is cited as the world's first underground 'tube' railway.
1880 British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
1894 Death duties now known as inheritance tax were introduced in Britain.
1957 The official Elvis Presley Fan Club was launched in the UK.
1961 The Beatles 1st gig as house band of Liverpool's Cavern Club.
1970 The British army used rubber bullets for the first time to quell a riot in Northern Ireland.
1977 In his comeback Test, England cricket batsman Geoff Boycott is unbeaten on 80 after a 1st innings 107 as England beats Australia by 7 wickets in the 3rd Test at Trent Bridge.
1981 England cricket all-rounder Ian Botham takes 5 for 11 to end Australia's chase of 151 target, all out 121 for 29 run defeat in 4th Test at Edgbaston.
1985 England captain David Gower scores his 5,000th run in Test cricket during the drawn 4th Test v Australia at Old Trafford.
1999 ‘Le Sulk’ was on his way from Highbury, Nicolas Anelka moves to Real Madrid in return for Davor Šuker and around £20m. But Arsenal’s big transfer news was to come the following day.
2014 49 year old Stuart Kettell completed his challenge to push a Brussels sprout up Snowdon using his nose. It took him 3 days and he raised more than £6000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
1492, Christopher Columbus left Spain with his fleet of three ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Niña, to set sail across the Atlantic to America.
1805 The first recorded cricket match between English public schools Eton and Harrow.
1856 London was divided into postal districts, in order to speed up letter deliveries.
1858 Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile, was discovered by the explorer John Speke.
1887 The birth of Rupert Brooke, the English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially ' The Soldier' that begins 'If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field that is forever England.'
1908 The Post Office sent its first parcel mail to the US on the White Star liner, Teutonic.
1914 British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey famously remarks "The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time."
1926 Britain installed its first traffic lights - at Piccadilly Circus, in London.
1932 Official automatic timing & photo-finish camera for track events is used for the first time at Los Angeles Olympics.
1934 Adolf Hitler merges the offices of German Chancellor and President, declaring himself "Führer" (leader).
1936 American sprinter Jesse Owens wins the 100m (10.3 seconds) in front of Adolf Hitler in a famous race at the Berlin Olympics, first of 4 gold medals at the Games.
1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp gases 4,000 gypsies.
1957 Footballer John Charles was transferred from Leeds to Juventus for a £65,000 fee. He was the first British footballer to be transferred to a foreign club.
1963 Allan Sherman releases "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh"
1963 The Beatles performed at The Cavern Club for the 292nd and last time. They received a fee of £300 pounds for the performance.
1966 South African government bans Th Beatles records.
1971 Sanquhar Post Office in Dumfries and Galloway became a Category B Listed Building. It is recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest post office in the world and has been in continuous service since 1712.
1971 Paul McCartney announces formation of his group Wings.
1986 The News Of The World breaks the story that Rolling Stones's bass player Bill Wyman, 49, is dating Mandy Smith, 16, and that they had been together since she was 13. No charges are pressed against Wyman, and in 1989, the couple get married in a union that lasts less than a year.
1999 Arsenal FC completes a huge signing coup snapping up ace French striker Thierry Henry for a bargain £10 million from Italian club Juventus.
2017 Brazilian soccer forward Neymar transfers from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain for a world-record transfer fee of €222 on a 5-year deal.