On This Day - 16th February
1495
The execution of Sir William Stanley, best known for taking sides against Richard III, at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, which helped to secure Henry VII's victory. The new king bestowed many favours on Sir William, including the post of Lord Chamberlain and Chamberlain of the Exchequer. However, in 1495 Sir William was convicted of treason, on circumstantial evidence, and was executed for his support of the pretender Perkin Warbeck.
1646The Battle of Torrington, in Devon. It was the last major battle of the
first English Civil War and marked the end of the Royalist resistance in the west country.
1659The first British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker
and is now in the archives of the National Westminster Bank.
1801Pitt (the Younger) resigned as British Prime Minister when George III
rejected his plans for the emancipation of Irish Catholics.
1923Howard Carter, having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months
previously, lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.
1927The birth of actress June Muriel Brown, MBE. She is best known for her role
as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.
1940World War II: In a daring night raid, known as the Altmark incident, a
boarding party from HMS Cossack successfully rescued 299 British prisoners of war from the Altmark, a 12,000 ton
German tanker, in Norwegian waters. The Altmark was returning to Germany with the merchant sailors who had been
picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.
1946The birth of actor Ian Lavender. His best remembered role was as Private
Frank Pike, the youngest member and 'stupid boy' of the platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. Lavender has a 'cameo role' in the 2016 film adaptation of the series and the actor Frank William takes the role of the Reverend Timothy Farthing. The Dad's Army went on general release in cinemas on 5th February 2016.
1950The birth of Peter Hain Labour Party politician. He served in the Cabinets
of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and as both Secretary of
State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales under Brown.
1957Death of the politician Leslie Hore-Belisha, minister of Transport who
introduced the driving test, the Highway Code and the Belisha beacon used at zebra crossings.
1965A 2nd report from British Railways' Board chairman Dr. Richard Beeching
outlined transport needs for the following 25 years. The report followed his 1st controversial review of the state
of the railways, published in 1963 in which he said the system was uneconomic and under-used, and recommended that
a quarter of the railway system should be shut down.
1972Many homes and businesses were without electricity for up to nine hours a
day from this day. Miners, into the sixth week of their strike over pay, picketed power stations and all other
sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.
1985Ministry of Defence assistant secretary Clive Ponting resigned from his
post. He was charged with leaking two documents about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the
1982 Falklands War.
1989Dr. Raymond Crockett, a Harley Street nephrologist, resigned as the director
of the National Kidney Centre after revelations that kidneys had been purchased from impoverished Turks to be used
in transplants for wealthy patients.
1990Wives of Royal Navy seamen protested over a decision to allow WRENs (women
sailors) to go to sea.
2005The Kyoto Protocol that aimed to slow down global warming took effect, but
the US and Australia refused to support it.