On This Day - 24th February
616 The death of Æthelberht, King of Kent from about 589 until his death. He was the first English king to convert to Christianity.
1303
The Battle of Roslin - a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence.
The war itself lasted from the invasion by England in 1296 until the legal restoration of Scottish independence
with the Treaty of Edinburgh - Northampton in 1328.
1711The London première of Handel's 'Rinaldo'. It was the first Italian
opera written for the London stage.
1809The third Theatre Royal Drury Lane was destroyed by fire. It was uninsured
and still not paid for, so it was a financial disaster for the owners, who included Sheridan.
1909Suffragettes attempted to break into the Houses of Parliament. The police
made 29 arrests.
1920Lady Nancy Astor, (the first woman to ever hold a seat in the House of
Commons), became the first woman to speak in Parliament.
1923The Flying Scotsman began hauling scheduled services between London &
Scotland. After major restoration at York's National Railway Museum (see 
picture) and Bolton she returned to mainline working in
2016. Test runs were carried out in January 2016 on the East Lancashire Railway. See 
picture on her inaugural run, taken at
Rawtenstall Railway Station.
1926The birth of Jean Alexander, BAFTA Nominated English television actress. She
is best known for her role as Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played for 23 years and
also as Auntie Wainwright on the longest running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010.
1932Malcolm Campbell beat his own land speed record at Daytona Beach by reaching
253.96 mph.
1940The birth of Denis Law, Scottish footballer. He is the only Scottish player
in history to have won the prestigious European Footballer of the Year award, which he did in 1964. Law was
Manchester United's second highest goal scorer behind Bobby Charlton and holds a United record for scoring 46 goals
in a single season.
1950Clement Attlee was returned as prime minister, but with a single figure
majority.
1962The Beatles played a concert at the Birkenhead YMCA for a fee of £30.
The audience didn't enjoy the show and the Beatles were booed off stage. They left early for a second gig at
Liverpool's Cavern Club, and the rest, as they say, is history.
1971Commonwealth citizens lost their automatic right to remain in the UK under
the government's new Immigration Bill.
1981The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer ended months of speculation by
announcing that they would marry in the summer.
1988The first baby born from an embryo frozen after the fertilization of a
donated egg was delivered at Dulwich Hospital, south London, to Mrs. Ann Forrester, 37, by Caesarean section.
1993The famed English footballer Bobby Moore, died. He captained West Ham United
for more than ten years and was captain of the England team that won the 1966 World Cup. He is widely regarded as
one of the all-time greats of world football.
1999Home Secretary Jack Straw published the McPherson Report into the police
handling of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence. The Metropolitan Police were criticised for what the
report called 'institutionalised racism'.