1066The death of Edward the Confessor, usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex. He was called ‘the Confessor’ because of his great piety. He died childless, sparking a succession crisis that led to the Norman Conquest

1531Pope Clemens VII forbade English King Henry VIII to re-marry. The event led to the creation of the Church of England.

1900Irish leader John Redmond called for a revolt against British rule. He attained the twin dominant objectives of his political life i.e. party unity and (in September 1914) achieving Irish Home Rule under an Act which granted an interim form of self-government to Ireland. Unfortunately for Redmond, implementation of the Act was suspended by the intervention of World War I, and it was ultimately made untenable after the Conscription Crisis of 1918.

1906Kathleen Kenyon, British archaeologist, was born. She used radio carbon dating to date the remains of Jericho.

1922Sir Ernest Shackleton, British Antarctic explorer, died of a heart attack off South Georgia. At his wife's request he was buried there. It was his fourth expedition, aimed at circumnavigating the Antarctic in what he described as the one remaining object of Antarctic journeying; the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, via the pole.

1938The BBC began broadcasting Bandwagon, its first radio comedy series, with Arthur Askey and Richard ‘Stinker’ Murdoch.

1941Amy Johnson, record-breaking English aviator, died whilst flying an aircraft from Blackpool to Kidlington (Oxfordshire) in foggy conditions as her role in the Air Transport Auxiliary that ferried new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between UK departments. Her plane was found, 100 miles off course, in the muddy water of the Thames, but her body was never recovered. Reportedly out of fuel she had been seen alive in the water, but a rescue attempt failed and the incident also led to the death of her would-be rescuer, Lt. Cmdr. Walter Fletcher. Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia in 1930 and she also set numerous long-distance records during the 1930s. She was born on 1st July 1903 at this house (see picture) on St. Georges Road in Hull which has a commemorative blue plaque. (see picture)

1960The last journey of the Mumbles Railway, the oldest in the world. It was set up in 1804 as a goods railway running from Swansea to Mumbles Head, Wales, and began carrying passengers in 1807. The railway still holds the record for the highest number of forms of traction of any railway in the world - horse-drawn, sail power, steam power, electric power, petrol and diesel.

1971One-day cricket was born when 46,000 turned up to watch England play Australia at Melbourne. The test match had been rained off for several days previously. Australia won by 5 wickets (with 42 balls remaining)

1976Ten Protestants were brutally gunned down in Northern Ireland, in what was believed to be a revenge killing after the murder of five Catholics.

1981Peter Sutcliffe, a 35-year-old lorry driver from Bradford, suspected of carrying out 13 murders across West Yorkshire over a period of five years, was formally charged in court.

1993The oil tanker 'Braer' was wrecked in hurricane force winds off the Shetland Islands, discharging large amounts of crude oil.

2001A report funded by The Department of Health found that the convicted serial killer, former GP Harold Shipman, may have killed in excess of 300 of his patients. The official inquiry concluded that up to 15 patients who died between 1971 and 1974 at the former Pontefract general infirmary (see picture) West Yorkshire could have been killed by Shipman, based on the investigation into 137 deaths at Pontefract that occurred while Shipman was a junior doctor there.

2013The death in Wirksworth - Derbyshire, of Britain's oldest man, Reg Dean aged 110 years and 63 days. He was a former church minister and lived through two world wars and 24 British prime ministers.

2021 Scots were ordered to stay at home and work from home where possible amid a fresh Covid-19 lockdown which saw schools closed to most pupils until 1st February. Similarly a new lockdown in England saw schools and colleges closed to most pupils, with a switch to remote learning until after the February half-term holiday. Mark Drakeford, Wales' first minister, said that Wales was likely to remain in lockdown for the rest of January as there was "not much headroom for change".

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