On This Day - 1st June
1495
Friar John Cor recorded the
first known batch of Scotch whisky in Lindores Abbey, Fife.
1533Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's new
queen, was crowned.
1648The Roundheads defeated the
Cavaliers at the Battle of Maidstone in the Second English Civil War.
1831The magnetic North Pole was
located by Sir James Clark Ross on his Arctic exploration expedition with
Admiral Parry.
1878John Masefield, English poet
was born. He became Poet Laureate in 1930.
1879 The death of Napoléon, Prince Imperial (also known as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte), the last dynastic Bonaparte. After his father was dethroned in 1870, he relocated with his family to England and served with British forces in the Anglo-Zulu War. He was killed in a skirmish with a group of Zulus and is buried in Farnborough, Hampshire. His death destroyed the hope for the restoration of the House of Bonaparte to the throne of France.
1907Frank Whittle, English inventor
who developed the jet engine was born at Earlsdon, a suburb of Coventry This statue of Sir Frank Whittle (see 
picture) is outside Coventry's Transport Museum.
1935Britain introduced the
compulsory use of 'L' plates for learner drivers. Also On This Day, all
people who had started to drive on or after 1 April 1934 needed to have
passed the test. Legislation for compulsory testing was introduced for all
new drivers with the Road Traffic Act 1934 but the test was initially
voluntary to avoid a rush of candidates.
1938The Bren gun was issued to the
armed forces service. The name was derived from Brno, the Czech town where
it was first made, and Enfield, where it was made in Britain.
1939The sinking, during sea trials, of HMS Thetis, in Liverpool Bay. It was the Royal Navy's worst ever submarine disaster and 99 men lost their lives when the torpedo officer opened the test cocks on the torpedo tubes to add weight to the submarine as it was having difficulty diving. In the confusion, the inner door was then also opened and the inrush of water caused the submarine to sink to the seabed. Oxygen on board was quickly running out, levels of carbon dioxide became dangerously high and after 50 hours trapped inside their metal tomb, 99 died of carbon dioxide poisoning. Rescuers could have saved the crew by cutting air holes through the hull when it was resurfaced, but the Admiralty refused, because the submarine would have been permanently weakened.
1943BOAC Flight 777 was shot down
over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s, killing actor Leslie
Howard and leading to speculation that the downing was an attempt to kill
the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
1946Television licences were issued
in Britain for the first time. They cost £2.
1953Gordon Richards became the
first jockey to be knighted. Six days later he won the Derby at his 28th
attempt. On This Day in 1977 and 1983, Lester Piggott won his eighth and
ninth Derbys.
1957'ERNIE' drew the first premium
bond prizes in Britain. The first prize was £1000.
1958Britain introduced the Clean
Air Act, affecting industry as well as domestic uses of energy.
1968Britain and Iceland signed a
formal end to the 'Cod War' over fishing rights in the North Sea.
1977The maximum speed limits on
Britain's roads was changed to 70mph.
1979Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
formally ended nearly 90 years of white minority rule.
1997Prime Minister Tony Blair
apologised to the people of Ireland for British actions during the Potato
Famine 150 years earlier.
1999 The death of Christopher Cockerell, best known as the inventor of
the hovercraft. See 
picture of a hovercraft at Ryde and this stone memorial
(see 
picture) at Hythe, where he lived and died.
2020 As a further easing of the coronavirus lockdown rules, groups of up to six people could meet outdoors in England. The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, described it as a “long awaited and joyful moment” as family and friends reunite after 10 weeks in lockdown. He set out the next stage in the easing of restrictions with the caveat that “there may still be some anomalies or apparent inconsistencies in these rules”. Scientists warned that England should adopt a more cautious approach, as in the rest of the United Kingdom.
2020 The meteorological office announced that 2020 had been the sunniest spring on record for the UK and the driest May on record in England for 150 years. Wales reported its driest May since 1896, although Scotland saw near average rainfall.