On This Day - 16th July
1377
The Coronation of Richard II,
aged 10. He was king of England until he was deposed in 1399.
1439Kissing was banned in England
because of the Plague.
1557 The death, aged 41, of Anne of Cleves, Queen of England and 4th wife of Henry VIII.
1723The birth of Sir Joshua
Reynolds, an influential English painter, specialising in portraits. He was
one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. King George
III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.
1902Eight bills for the building of
London underground lines received their second reading in the House of
Commons.
1915The American born writer Henry
James became a British citizen, to highlight his commitment to England
during the first World War.
1945The leaders of the three Allied
nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in
the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.
1955Stirling Moss won the British
Grand Prix at the Aintree track near Liverpool - the first time an
Englishman had triumphed in the race. His success in a variety of
categories placed him among the world's elite and he is often called 'the
greatest driver never to win the World Championship'.
1964The Rolling Stones had their
first UK No.1 single with It's All Over Now, although their American tour,
just a month earlier had been, in Bill Wyman's words, 'a disaster',
1970Prime Minister Edward Heath
declared a state of emergency following the start of a national dock strike
- the first state of emergency issued in Britain since 1926.
1987The two biggest airlines in the
UK (One time rivals British Caledonian and British Airways) merged in order
to compete with America's giant air corporations.
1988Lord Harewood, the
Queen’s cousin, brought in police to investigate the theft of the
world’s smallest horse, Pernod, a 27-inch-high Shetland stallion.
1993Britain's internal security
service, MI5, held the first photocall in its 84-year history when Stella
Rimington (Director General) posed openly for cameras at the launch of a
brochure outlining the organisation's activities.
1996Diana, Princess of Wales,
announced that she was severing links with more than 100 charities.
2000Footballer George Best's doctor
begged every barman in Britain to refuse to serve alcohol to the
footballing legend to help him beat his addiction. Best was controversially
granted an NHS liver transplant in 2002 and died in 2005, aged 59, due to
complications from a drug used to prevent the rejection of transplanted
organs.
2001Prime Minister Tony Blair
acknowledged that public services could not be transformed totally within
the coming Parliament.
2001The Labour Government was
defeated in the House of Commons for the first time since it came to power
in 1997.