1066 Claiming his right to the English throne, William, Duke of Normandy (or William the Bastard, as he was often called at the time, due to his illegitimate status ) landed at Pevensey in East Sussex to begin his invasion of England.

1106 Henry I of England defeated his brother, Robert Curthose, the Duke of Normandy at the Battle of Tinchebray, in Normandy. It was a decisive victory and the battle lasted just one hour. The Duke was captured and imprisoned in England and then at Cardiff Castle until his death. England and Normandy remained under a single ruler until 1204.

1725 The birth, at this house (see picture), Styche Hall, near Market Drayton, Shropshire of Robert Clive (often referred to as Clive of India). Clive was Commander-in-Chief of British India, a British military officer and an East India Company official who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal. In the process, he also became a multi-millionaire. On his return from India in 1760, he decided to rebuild the old timber framed house of Styche Hall.

1745 At the Drury Lane Theatre, London, God Save the King, the national anthem, was sung for the first time. The score used was prepared by Thomas Augustine Arne (1710-1778) leader of the orchestra and composer of Rule Britannia.

1864 'The First International' was founded in London, when Karl Marx proposed the formation of an International Working Men's Association.

1865 Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first qualified woman physician in Britain. Along with Benjamin Britten, artist J.M.W. Turner and the poet George Crabbe, she had connections with Aldeburgh in Suffolk. See picture.

1884 Michael Marks, a Polish immigrant, and Yorkshireman Tom Spencer opened their Penny Bazaar in Leeds, setting the foundations for the Marks and Spencer chain.

1912 Unionists in Northern Ireland signed the Solemn League and Covenant, pledging resistance to Home Rule for Ireland.

1918 World War I: The start of the Fifth Battle of Ypres. The British sustained almost 5,000 casualties but advanced the front line by up to 18 miles and captured approximately 10,000 German soldiers, 300 guns and 600 machine guns.

1923 The Radio Times was first published.

1928 Parliament passed the Dangerous Drugs Act outlawing cannabis.

1928 Scottish born pharmacologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered what later became known as penicillin when he found that a mould had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. His 'bacteria killer' discovery changed the world of modern medicine and has saved millions of people around the world. Fleming was born here at Lochfield Farm (see picture) at Darvel in Ayrshire on 6th August 1881.

1946 Future England football captain Billy Wright played in his first England international.

1984 A high court judge ruled that the miners' strike was unlawful because a union ballot was never held.

1985 Riots broke out on the streets of south London after a woman was shot and seriously injured in a house search. Local people had already been very critical of police tactics in Brixton and a mood of tension exploded into violence as night fell.

1986 British boxer Lloyd Honeyghan won the world welterweight title.

1996 At Ascot, Frankie Dettori became the first jockey to win all seven races at a meeting. The odds on this happening were 25,095 to 1. Bookmakers lost over £18 million pounds as a result.

2013 Baroness Thatcher's ashes were laid to rest in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London. Lady Thatcher died, aged 87, on 8th April. A simple headstone bore the inscription Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013. She was Britain's first woman prime minister and the longest-serving prime minister of the twentieth century,

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