1534 England's Parliament met and passed an Act of Supremacy which made King Henry VIII head of the English church, a role formerly held by the Pope. Many refused to accept the decision and between May 1535 and August 1540 eighteen Carthusian monks were executed for refusing to acknowledge the king as the head of the Church of England. Nine were starved to death in Newgate Prison, seven were hung, drawn and quartered at Tyburn and two were executed in York.

1718 The birth of John Montague, fourth Earl of Sandwich who gave his name to the Sandwich Islands, and (allegedly) to the 'sandwich' as a result of his reluctance to leave the gaming tables but requiring a quick and easy to eat snack.

1728 The explorer James Cook was baptised in the parish church of St. Cuthbert at Marton, near Middlesborough. Cook was also a Captain in the British Navy and a cartographer. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

1783 The highwayman John Austin was the last person to be publicly hanged at London's Tyburn gallows.

1838 The Times of India was founded, as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has the largest circulation among all English-language newspapers in the world,

1843 The statue of English Admiral Horatio Nelson was raised to the top of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. The operation was completed on the 4th when the statue’s two sections were assembled. (Note:- Nelson was born in Burnham Thorpe - Norfolk. His home was demolished in 1803, but was on this site (see picture and plaque) outside the village.

1906 The signing of an international radio agreement at Berlin approved SOS as the radio telegraph distress call for ships at sea, a distress signal that had been adopted by Germany on 1st April 1905. With multiple distress calls already in use, it took years for SOS to become the standard distress signal. Prior to the agreement, in 1904, the Marconi company suggested the use of CQD for a distress signal, a derivation of CQ commonly used by telegraphers and wireless operators to address all stations at once. CQ followed by D meant distress. A strict interpretation would be "All stations, Distress."

1919 The birth of Sir Ludovic Kennedy, Scottish born journalist, broadcaster, humanist and author, also known for his role in the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom.

1930 The birth, in Huddersfield, of Brian Robinson, former road racing cyclist of the 1950s and early 1960s. He was the first Briton to finish the Tour de France and the first to win a Tour stage. His successes paved the way for other Britons such as Tom Simpson.

1941 English broadcaster Roy Plomley conceived the idea for 'Desert Island Discs'. The programme was first broadcast on BBC Radio in January 1942.

1942 World War II: The Battle of El Alamein. The British Eighth Army, commanded by General Bernard Montgomery, broke through the German front line having taken 9000 prisoners and destroyed 300 tanks.

1948 Lulu (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie) the British actress and singer was born, in Glasgow.

1949 The BBC purchased the Shepherd's Bush Studios from the Rank Organisation.

1975 Queen Elizabeth II opened the North Sea pipeline - the first to be built underwater - bringing ashore 400,000 barrels a day to Grangemouth Refinery on the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

1976 The first £100,000 Premium Bond was won, by an anonymous person in Hillingdon.

1985 Two French agents in New Zealand pleaded guilty to sinking the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior and to the manslaughter of a photographer on board. They were sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.

1996 The death of Conservative MP Barry Porter narrowed to one seat the majority held by the Conservative Party in Parliament.

2002 Lonnie Donegan, singer, musician, and legendary skiffle king, died at the age of 71.

2014 Will Cornick, aged 16, who murdered Ann Maguire while she was teaching a Spanish lesson at Corpus Christi Catholic College in Leeds, showed no emotion as he was handed a minimum of 20 years in custody. Ahead of the killing in April 2014, he had also planned to murder two other teachers, including one who was pregnant.

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