978Edward the Martyr, King of England and the eldest son of King Edgar, was murdered at Corfe Castle. See picture. The murder is thought to have been ordered by his stepmother Aelfryth, mother of Ethelred the Unready who was eager to see her son crowned.

1745Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime Minister, died.

1766American Revolution: The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act. It was a direct tax imposed by the British Parliament specifically on the colonies of British America and required many printed materials in the colonies to be produced on stamped paper produced in London. The purpose of the tax was to help pay for troops stationed in North America after the British victory in the Seven Years' War.

1824 The birth of the brewer John Smith. The brewery's headquarters (see picture) are in Tadcaster where brewing began in 1758 as the area's hard water proved to be well-suited for brewing. John Smith's has been the biggest selling bitter in the United Kingdom since the mid-1990s.

1834Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset (see the picture of the monument and the picture of the sculpture) were sentenced to be transported to Australia for seven years for forming the first trade union and introducing collective bargaining for better wages. There was such an outcry that they were pardoned two years after sentencing and allowed to return to England. The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs' festival is held in the village of Tolpuddle in the third weekend of July. Each year a wreath is laid at the grave of James Hammett, one of the martyrs.

1869Neville Chamberlain, British prime minister was born. In 1938 he returned from Munich with the claim - 'peace in our time' but in less than a year Britain was at war with Germany. His appeasement policy towards Hitler led to his downfall in 1940, when he handed over to Churchill.

1891The London to Paris telephone link came into operation.

1922Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi was jailed for six years by the British authorities for encouraging public disorder. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years of his sentence.

1925Two floors of the Madame Tussaud’s waxworks in London were destroyed by fire.

1947The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, (born in Corfu - Greece on 10th June 1921), became a naturalized Briton On This Day.

1949NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) was proposed. The aim was to 'safeguard the freedom and security of its 26 member countries by political and military means.'

1960 The naming ceremony of the steam locomotive Evening Star, at the Swindon Works, where the locomotive was built. Evening Star (see picture) was the last steam locomotive built for British Rail and holds the distinction of being the only British main line steam locomotive that was earmarked for preservation from the date of its construction.

1967The Torrey Canyon oil tanker, with a cargo of 100,000 gallons of crude oil, ran aground on rocks between Land's End and the Scilly Isles and its cargo discharged into the sea. The RAF and the Royal Navy were called in to napalm bomb the slick in an attempt to reduce the risk of pollution. In the weeks that followed the accident, oil escaped and spread along the shores of the south coast of England and the Normandy coast of France. Worst hit were the Cornish beaches of Marazion and Prah Sands, where sludge was up to a foot deep.

1982Moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse brought a charge of gross indecency against a National Theatre director under the Sexual Offences Act 1956. The play, Romans in Britain featured male rape scenes. The trial was halted after intervention by the Attorney-General.

1992White South Africans backed a motion to end apartheid and create a multi-racial government.

1988The death of Percy Thrower, English gardener and radio and TV broadcaster. He was Parks Superintendent at Shrewsbury (see picture) from 1946 to 1974, becoming the youngest parks superintendent, aged 32.

2014The winner of the £107.9m EuroMillions jackpot was revealed as 41 year old mechanic Neil Trotter, from Coulsdon, Surrey.

2014 Rhossili Bay near Swansea plummeted in the TripAdvisor rankings of the world's best beaches after some visitors grumbled about dark sand, cloudy water and bad weather. See picture of Rhossili Bay and picture, but without the dark sand.

2015 Two Polish men were rescued after trying to paddle from Britain to Calais in a rowing boat, after failing to find jobs in Britain. Last year 28 illegal immigrants were caught trying to smuggle themselves out of Britain.

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