1487The ten-year-old Lambert Simnel was crowned in Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, with the name of Edward VI in a bid to threaten King Henry VII's reign.

1530A list of heretical books was drawn up in London. Tyndale's Bible was burnt.

1689 Parliament introduced the Toleration Act. The Act granted freedom of worship to Nonconformists (i.e. dissenting Protestants) and granted them their own places of worship and their own teachers and preachers, subject to acceptance of certain oaths of allegiance. It enabled this building, Farfield Friends' Meeting House (see picture), to be erected (1689) and licensed as a place of worship. The building is one of the earliest Quaker Meeting Houses in the world and has been chosen by Historic England as 'One of the 10 most significant Faith and Belief places in England'.

1738John Wesley first attended evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, then went on to a meeting at Aldersgate where he experienced his conversion. This was the start of Wesley’s Methodism, and over 270 years later there are 54 million Methodists in 60 countries. The design and construction of the octagon Heptonstall Chapel in West Yorkshire were overseen by John Wesley. He laid the foundation stone and preached in the unfinished shell of the church. The chapel (see picture), is the oldest Methodist church in continuous use and was founded in 1742.

1809Dartmoor Prison (see picture) was opened to accommodate French prisoners of war. From 1850 it becomes a prison for convicts.

1819Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent. As Queen Victoria, she reigned for 63 years, from 1837 until her death in 1901. She married Prince Albert in 1840 and had four sons and five daughters. After Albert’s death in 1861, she went into virtual retirement.

1836The birth, in York, of Joseph Rowntree, Quaker philanthropist, social reformer and chocalatier businessman.

1895The actor Henry Irving became the first person from the theatre to be knighted. On his death he was cremated and his ashes buried in Westminster Abbey, thereby becoming the first person ever to be cremated prior to interment at Westminster.

1901Seventy eight miners died in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.

1930Amy Johnson landed at Darwin, Australia and became the first woman to fly from England to Australia.

1941World War II: The German battleship Bismarck sank the Royal Navy's largest warship HMS Hood off Greenland with the loss of more than 1,400 lives. The ship exploded when a German shell hit the Hood's ammunition store.

1969The Black and White Minstrel Show, at London's Victoria Palace, closed after completing 4,354 performances over a period of seven years.

1976British Airways and Air France Concordes arrived at Dulles International Airport, Washington D.C. having made their first commercial crossing of the North Atlantic.

1978Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II was divorced from her husband, Lord Snowdon, after 18 years of marriage.

1988 Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 was enacted; a controversial amendment stating that a local authority could not intentionally promote homosexuality.

1989A jury at the High Court in London awarded £600,000 damages to Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, against the satirical magazine Private Eye.

1995The death of Harold Wilson, Huddersfield born Labour politician and Prime Minister from 1964-1970 and again from 1974-1976. This statue of him, (see picture) outside Huddersfield railway station in St George’s Square, was unveiled in July 1999 by the then Prime MInister Tony Blair.

2003Britain's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest failed to score a single point, a fact later blamed on the UK's stance during the Iraq conflict.

2019At just after 10:00am Theresa May announced that she would stand down as Conservative leader on 7th June, over her failure to deliver Brexit and after losing the support of her own MPs. She continued to serve as Prime Minister while a Conservative leadership contest took place.

2020 At the Government's daily coronavirus briefing, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave full support to his adviser Dominic Cummings, who had driven 250 miles to his parents’ house in Durham after strict lockdown rules had been imposed on the UK. Cummings said that he travelled to Durham to self isolate whilst he was recovery from coronavirus. Further allegations were made that Cummings left isolation to go 30 miles to a popular tourist town and that he also made a second trip to Durham during the lockdown period. Johnson said the Cummings had acted 'responsibly, legally and with integrity' at a time when others were being told they must stay at home to protect lives.

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