1630Charles II, king of England, was born.

1660Charles II marched into London and was restored to the throne, 11 years after the execution of his father Charles I.

1798The United Irishmen Rebellion against British Rule took place. Between 300 and 500 United Irishmen were massacred by the British Army in County Kildare, Ireland.

1829The death of Humphry Davy, the English scientist who invented a lamp for miners that enabled them to work safely in the presence of flammable gases.

1849 The death of John Fielden, British industrialist and Radical Member of Parliament for Oldham. John Fielden despaired that the concerns of the poor would never be given adequate attention and he and Lord Ashley passed 'The Ten Hours Act' to ensure that women and children only worked up to 10 hours a day in factories. Fielden was born in Todmorden, West Yorkshire and this statue of him (see picture) is in Todmorden Park.

1871Whit Monday became the first official Bank Holiday in Britain.

1874The birth of G.K. Chesterton, English writer.

1884The first steam cable tramway began operating, in London's Highgate.

1902The birth of Sir Leonard Huxley, English scientist who developed radar.

1914The ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland, sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence shortly after departing from Quebec for Liverpool. She collided, in thick fog, with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad and foundered in only 14 minutes. Although the ship was equipped with watertight compartments and, in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster two years earlier, she carried more than enough lifeboats for all onboard, 1,012 lives were lost - (840 passengers, 172 crew). It remains the worst disaster in Canadian maritime history.

1941The birth, in Nottingham, of Doug Scott, mountaineer noted for the first ascent of the south-west face of Mount Everest, (along with Dougal Haston), on 24th September 1975.

1953Sir Edmund Hillary and his sherpa Tenzing Norgay, became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas. The news of the British expedition broke in Britain on Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation Day, 2nd June. The Queen knighted Edmund Hillary later that year.

1954 Diane Leather, of Birmingham University, became the first woman to run a mile in under 5 minutes. Her time was 4 min 59.6 seconds.

1968Manchester United become the first English club to win the European Cup, beating Portuguese side Benfica by four goals to one.

1977Nigel Short, an 11 year old English schoolboy , qualified as the youngest ever competitor in a national chess championship. He had already beaten Viktor Korchnoi during an exhibition game.

1982In the first Papal visit to Britain since 1531, Polish born Pope John Paul II prayed alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first ever pontiff to visit the cathedral. He was acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century and was one of the most-travelled world leaders in history. He visited 129 countries during his pontificate, was the second-longest serving Pope in history and the first non-Italian Pope since 1523.

1984Police used riot gear for the first time since the miners' strike began , at a picket at Orgreave, near Sheffield.

198539 football fans were killed and at least another 400 injured when a wall collapsed during crowd violence at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, only minutes before the start of the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus.

2014Canoe fraudster John Darwin, who was found to have benefited from faking his own death in 2002, was ordered by a court to pay a £40,000 lump sum to the authorities after two of his pensions matured. A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Teesside Crown Court heard that Darwin had so far only paid back £121 of the £679,073.62 he was found to have benefited from his 'death'. Anne Darwin, now split from her husband, has repaid more than £500,000 under a separate Proceeds of Crime order after selling properties held in her name.

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