1455In the Wars of the Roses, Richard of York and the Nevilles attacked the court at St Albans, capturing Henry VI and killing Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

1623British Forces made a treaty with the 'Potomac River tribes' proposing a toast to perpetual friendship. The Indian chief and 200 men then dropped dead from poisoned wine.

1795The Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, set sail on his first voyage to Africa which he would later relate in his book 'Travels in the Interior of Africa'.

1807Most of the town of Chudleigh in Devon was destroyed by a fire that started in the bakery. After the fire, only the church and seven houses were left standing.

1816A mob in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, rioted over high unemployment and rising grain costs. The rioting spread to Ely (6 miles away) the next day.

1840Britain ended the practice of sending convicts to the penal colony of Australia.

1859The birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, novelist who created the detective Sherlock Holmes.

1897The official opening of the Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames in London.

1907Laurence Olivier, English actor was born.

1915The worst rail disaster in Britain took place at Quintinshill (Gretna Green) in Scotland, killing 227 people and injuring 246. The accident happened here (see picture) and involved a special troop train carrying a Royal Scots battalion, two goods trains, a local train and an express from London Euston. The cause of the accident was poor working practices on the part of the two signalmen involved, which resulted in their imprisonment for culpable homicide. This commemorative plaque (see picture) is on the bridge that overlooks the site.

1923Stanley Baldwin formed a Conservative ministry, with Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor of Exchequer.

1927The world’s first ‘open plan’ zoo, Whipsnade, opened in Bedfordshire.

1930The birth of Kenny Ball, English jazz musician, best known as the lead trumpet player in Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen.

1936Aer Lingus was founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.

1946George Best, former Northern Ireland and Manchester United football player was born. When he was once asked what happened to the money he had earned, Best replied - 'I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.'

1970Under pressure from the Home Secretary James Callaghan, the Cricket Council reversed a decision to allow South African cricketers to tour England.

1981Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, was sentenced to life imprisonment after the judge described him as 'an unusually dangerous man'. He was found guilty of killing 13 women and the attempted murder of 7 others.

1998Northern Ireland voted 'Yes' to a new peace agreement designed to end 30 years of violence between Protestants and Catholics.

2013British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby was attacked and killed near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich. Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, British and of Nigerian descent, ran the off duty soldier down with a car, then used knives and a cleaver to hack him to death. The two men made no attempt to flee, encouraged people to take pictures of them and their victim and told passers-by that they had killed a soldier to avenge the killing of Muslims by the British armed forces. This bronze plaque and drum (see picture) commemorating Lee Rigby were unveiled on 29th March 2015 at the Middleton Memorial Gardens, in his home town of Middleton, Greater Manchester.

2014More than 15 million British users of the auction site eBay and 233 million eBay users worldwide were warned that they could be at risk of identity theft after their personal data (passwords, names, addresses and telephone numbers) were stolen in the world’s biggest online security breach.

2017 Twenty two people were killed and more than 200 injured when a shrapnel-laden homemade bomb was detonated as people were leaving Manchester Arena following a concert by the American singer Ariana Grande. The youngest victim, Saffie Roussos, was just eight years old. It was the deadliest terror attack on British soil since the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005.

2019 British Steel was placed in compulsory liquidation, putting 5,000 jobs at risk and endangering 20,000 in the supply chain.

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