1174William I of Scotland, a key rebel in the Revolt of 1173–1174, was captured at Alnwick by forces loyal to Henry II of England. See picture of Alnwick Castle.

1643English Civil War: At the Battle of Roundway Down, (near Devizes, Wiltshire) Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, and commander of the Royalist forces, heavily defeated the Parliamentarian forces led by Sir William Waller. It was the greatest cavalry victory of the English Civil War.

1713A treaty signed between Great Britain and Spain at Utrecht ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity.

1811The birth, in Glasgow, of James Young a chemist best known for his method of distilling paraffin from coal. His works, at Bathgate in West Lothian became the first truly commercail oil works in the world.

1837Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to move into Buckingham Palace. A typical statue and pose (see picture) of Queen Victoria that abound throughout Britain. This one is in Nicholas Square at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

1911The night of the 1911 census. A suffragette hid in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons so that she could record The House of Commons as her address, ‘thus making my claim to the same right as men’.

1919The British airship R34 landed in Norfolk, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in a time of 182 hours.

1943The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft, ended in defeat for Germany.

1955Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain - executed at Holloway Prison for the murder of her lover David Blakely.

1967In the heat of the mountain stage of the Tour de France, British cyclist Tommy Simpson, 29, collapsed and died.

1983The House of Commons voted 361-245 against the restoration of the death penalty.

1985Two simultaneous 'Live Aid' concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa. Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid. The 16-hour 'super concert' was globally linked by satellite to more than a billion viewers in 110 nations.

1991Bryan Adams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with Everything I Do I Do It For You from the film Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. It stayed at No.1 for a record breaking 16 weeks, and was also a No.1 in the US and 16 other countries.

1993Officials in Manchester bidding to hold the 2000 Olympic Games were told that their chances were 'very, very high'. Their bid was not successful.

1995The first man in Britain to be prosecuted under the War Crimes Act appeared at Epsom Magistrates, when Szymon Serafimowicz, aged 84, was charged with murdering 4 million Jews in 1941 and 1942.

2002One man died and at least 100 people were injured in Brighton after more than 200,000 people attended a free concert on the beach, overwhelming emergency services.

2016 Theresa May, the former Home Secretary, became Prime Minister after David Cameron resigned (24th June) following a referendum that voted in favour of leaving the European Union.

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