1431In a trial demanded by the English, French heroine Joan of Arc was accused of heresy before the judges in Rouen.

1437James I, King of Scotland, was assassinated by a group of dissident nobles led by the earl of Atholl. The crown went to his son, James II.

1741The death of Jethro Tull, English agricultural innovator. Born on 30th March 1674, he perfected a horse-drawn seed drill that economically sowed the seeds in neat rows, an invention that helped form the basis of modern British agriculture.

1804Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick demonstrated the world's first steam railway locomotive at Samuel Homfray's Penydaren Ironworks in South Wales. The engine won a wager for Homfray by hauling a load of 10 tons of iron and 70 men along 10 miles of tramway. This replica of Trevithick's locomotive (see picture)was presented to the Ironbridge museum (Shropshire) in 1990. This statue (see picture) of Richard Trevithick is at York Railway Museum.

1910The birth of Group Captain Sir Douglas Bader who lost both his legs while attempting aerobatics in 1931. As an RAF fighter ace during the Second World War he was credited with 20 aerial victories, many shared victories and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. As a POW he was a thorn in the side of the Germans and he made so many attempts at escape that the Germans threatened to take away his legs.

1916World War I: The start of the Battle of Verdun in NE France. It was the longest and one of the bloodiest engagements of World War I and continued until 16th December.

1917 The loss of SS Mendi, a British passenger steamship that was chartered as a troopship in the First World War. She was hit, (south of the Isle of Wight), in thick fog, by the cargo steamship Darro. The damaged Darro did not stay to assist. SS Mendi sank, killing 646 people, most of whom were black South African troops who were going to fight in France. The sinking was a major loss of life for the South African military, and one of the 20th century's worst maritime disasters in UK waters.

1952The government of Winston Churchill abolished Identity Cards - "to set the people free".

1952A year after her first divorce, Elizabeth Taylor was married for the second time. This husband (number two of eight) was Michael Wilding. The marriage lasted for five years.

1958The Peace symbol, commissioned by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament was designed and completed by Gerald Holtom. The logo was not copyrighted and later became known in the wider world as a general-purpose peace symbol. The design incorporated the semaphore signals for 'N' and 'D' standing for 'nuclear disarmament'.

1961The Beatles appeared for the very first time at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. (see picture) They went on to make a total of 292 other appearances there.

1988The grave of Boadicea, the warrior queen who fought the Romans in Britain nearly 2,000 years ago, was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station, London. British Rail said they had just refurbished the platform and anyone wanting to dig it up would have to come up with a strong case. And they did!

1995A man found a 40lb pike in a flooded bunker at Wetherby Golf Club in West Yorkshire while he was searching for a ball.

1997Three men (James Robinson and cousins Vincent and Michael Hickey) were released from prison after serving 18 years for the murder of Midland schoolboy Carl Bridgewater when the Court of Appeal ruled that their convictions were unsafe.

2001The European Commission banned all British milk, meat and livestock exports following the UK's first outbreak of foot and mouth disease for two decades.

2008The death of Sunny Lowry, the first British woman to swim the English Channel (1933). She was berated as being a 'harlot' as her light two-piece suit, which was considered very daring at the time, bared her knees.

2013Rhossili Bay (see picture) on the Gower peninsula, was listed as the best beach in Britain and third best of all European beaches. It was beaten only by Rabbit Beach in Sicily, and Playa de las Catedrales in Spain.

2014Chris Moyles, former BBC Radio 1 host and TV presenter attempted to use a tax avoidance scheme called Working Wheels to avoid a £1M tax bill. He told HM Revenue & Customs that he had spent a year 'engaged in self-employment as a used car trader'. Moyles claimed to have run up £1m of losses selling £3,731 worth of used cars. He then tried to offset the claimed £1m loss in the 2007-08 financial year against tax he owed on his other income, including an estimated £700,000 salary from the BBC, which is funded by licence fee payers.

2014 28 year old footballer Wayne Rooney's signed a new contract with Manchester United. The deal will earn him more than £70m over five-and-a-half years - (up to £300,000 a week)

2015 Mevagissey council in Cornwall abandoned plans to name a road "Hitler's Walk" after protests from across Britain. Councillors said the road has been called Hitler's Walk unofficially by locals for decades, not in memory of Adolf Hitler, but after a local man called called Wright Harris. In his self-appointed role as enforcer of harbour fees in the 1930s Councillor Harris was fond of recording the comings and goings of fishing vessels from a vantage point at the top of the Cornish village.

• Contact Form