1141 The First Battle of Lincoln, during a 19 year period of conflict for the throne, between King Stephen and his cousin Empress Matilda. Prior to the battle, Stephen attended mass at the cathedral carrying a lighted candle, but the flame went out and the candle broke, which was considered a bad omen. After fierce fighting in the city's streets, the King was defeated, captured and imprisoned. After his release (1st November) he was restored to the throne and ..... the fighting continued as before!

1461 The Battle of Mortimer's Cross, near Wigmore in Herefordshire. It was part of the Wars of the Roses, with the Yorkists being the victors. The victory paved the way for Edward's crowning later in the year.

1650 The birth of Nell (Eleanor) Gwynne, former orange seller at Drury Lane Theatre, who became a comedy actress and later mistress of Charles II, by whom she had two sons.

1665 British forces captured New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan was renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor.

1876 The consecration of Bury Parish Church, (see picture) the garrison church for the Lancashire Fusiliers. In July 2013 a military funeral for the murdered British soldier Fusilier Lee Rigby took place at the church, attended by thousands of mourners, including the then Prime Minister, David Cameron.

1901 The state funeral of Queen Victoria. At the time of her death, her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history. (On 9th September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II overtook Queen Victoria as the longest serving monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.)

1914 The very first Cub Scout pack was formed in England, the first pack being in Robertsbridge, Sussex, although the Cub Scout movement was not formally founded until 1916. By the end of that year there were 6,000 Cub Scouts and now there are 137,000 in the UK. Girls were allowed to become Cub Scouts in 1991.

1920 The birth of Hughie Green, who became a 'household name' with his TV shows Double Your Money and Opportunity Knocks.

1940 The birth of Sir David John White OBE, better known by his stage name David Jason. He is best remembered as the main character Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. He also played detective Jack Frost on the ITV crime drama A Touch of Frost, Granville in the sitcom Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in the comedy drama The Darling Buds of May.

1943 The half-starved remnants of the German 6th Army gave themselves up after their five months of bloody fighting for Stalingrad ended in defeat.

1972 Angry demonstrators burned the British Embassy in Dublin to the ground in protest at the shooting dead of 13 people in Londonderry on the previous Sunday, known as Bloody Sunday.

1976 The Queen opened the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham. See picture. It is the largest and busiest exhibition centre in the UK and the seventh largest in Europe.

1987 Reports from Lebanon said that Church of England envoy Terry Waite had been kidnapped by an Islamic militia group.

1993 The Queen's solicitors began proceedings against the Sun newspaper for publishing the text of her 1992 Christmas Day broadcast two days before its transmission.

1995 The death of Fred Perry, English tennis and table tennis player. He won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row.

1999 Glenn Hoddle was sacked as England's football coach after his comments that disabled people were reaping the punishment for something done in a previous life.

2014 'The ruddy ducks with nowhere left to hide.' The Government wants to exterminate the entire British population, and in January 2014, having already spent £4 million on the job, announced that another £120,000 would be made available to track down and shoot the final few. The ducks’ downfall has been their fondness for breeding with an endangered Spanish species, the white-headed duck. The British Birding Association said 'It’s a total waste of public money, and all that will happen when the cull stops is that new ducks will fly over from the Continent, and we’ll be back to square one.'

2015 Bristol became the first city in the UK to ban smoking in some outdoor public places and Millennium Square and Anchor Square (see picture) became no smoking zones. The project, by Smokefree South West, was inspired by 33-year-old mother Kirsty Vass, who was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease a year previously.

2021 The death was announced of Captain Sir Tom Moore. He raised more than £32m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday and was knighted for his fundraising efforts by the Queen at Windsor Castle in July 2020. In December 2020, he took a family holiday to Barbados after British Airways paid for his flight and before the UK government's strict rules on travel came into place. On 31st January 2021, Sir Tom was admitted to Bedford Hospital after testing positive with COVID-19 and being treated for pneumonia. His family said that due to other medication he was receiving for pneumonia, he was unable to be vaccinated.

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