On this day

[Tony]

8th September
1921 Sir Harry Secombe, entertainer and singer was born.

Ahh, Harry Secombe,  My cousin once told me ...

Not to forget Neddie Seagoon

Announcer: Ten miles he swam. The last three were agony.
Neddie: They were over land. Finally I fell in a heap on the ground. I've no idea who left it there.

[K.H]

9th September
1087 William the Conqueror died in Maine (France) from injuries he sustained after a fall from his horse.

1513 The Scots were heavily defeated by the English at the Battle of Flodden Field and James IV was killed, along with all his nobles. Flodden Field is close to the village of Branxton, Northumberland. The slain, including King James IV were taken to Branxton Parish Church.

1543 Mary Stuart, at just nine months old, was crowned 'Queen of Scots' in the Scottish town of Stirling.

1754 Birth date of William Bligh, British naval officer who was the victim of two mutinies, the most famous on the HMS Bounty which was taken over by Fletcher Christian.

1855 Crimean War: The Siege of Sevastopol (Sebastopol) came to an end when Russian forces abandon the city. Although defended heroically and at the cost of heavy Allied casualties, (almost 130,00 in total), the fall of Sevastopol led to the Russian defeat in the Crimean War.

1911 The launch of the first airmail service in England, between Hendon and Windsor.

1949 The birth of John Curry, English figure skating champion and 1976 Olympic and World Champion.

1958 There were race riots in London's Notting Hill Gate, with television crews accused of encouraging the rioting by staging reconstructions in the streets.

1960 The birth of Hugh Grant, English actor and film producer who achieved international stardom after appearing in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

1963 Scotsman Jim Clark became the youngest person to win the world motor racing championships, driving Colin Chapman’s Lotus. He was aged 27 and 188 days. The youngest winner to date is Sebastian Vettel (in 2010), aged 23 years and 133 days.

1985 Champion jockey Lester Piggott announced his retirement, having won more than 5,000 races around the world. In 1987 he was jailed following an investigation over tax evasion, but resumed his career following his release and rode his last winner in October 1994.

1987 Twenty five English football fans involved in the Heysel stadium disaster were extradited to Belgium.

1988 The Indian cricket tour was cancelled as English cricket captain Graham Gooch and seven other members of his squad were refused visas to travel to India.

1996 The European Court of Human Rights agreed to hear a case in which a 12-year old boy was challenging British laws allowing parents to use corporal punishment on their children.

2001 Days before Home Secretary David Blunkett met his French counterpart, he admitted Britain was "particularly attractive" to asylum seekers.

[K.H]

10th September
1224 The Franciscans, founded in 1209 by St. Francis of Assisi, first arrived in England. They were originally called Grey Friars because of their grey 'habits'.

1515 Thomas Wolsey was invested as a Cardinal. When Wolsey failure to secure Henry VIII's annulment to Catherine of Aragon it caused his downfall and arrest and he was stripped of his government office and property, including Hampton Court.

1547 The Duke of Somerset led the English to victory over the Scots at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, Musselburgh. It was the last full scale military 'pitched battle' confrontation between England and Scotland and is seen as the first modern battle in the British Isles.

1813 The first unqualified defeat of a British naval squadron in history took palace when US Captain Oliver Hazard Perry led a fleet of nine American ships to victory over a squadron of six British warships at the Battle of Lake Erie.

1891 Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-E, the most popular song in Victorian England in the 1890s was written by former Canadian bandsman Henry J Sayers. Sayers later admitted to copying an Austrian song after hearing the tune being played in a brothel.

1897 George Smith, a London cab driver, became the first person to be convicted for drunken driving. He was fined £1.

1933 English tennis player Fred Perry became the first Briton to win the US Open Championship since 1903.

1939 World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley was mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and became the Royal Navy's first loss. There were only two survivors.

1942 In a single raid, the RAF dropped 100,000 bombs on Dusseldorf.

1960 A goal-less draw between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers became the first English League game shown live on TV.

1963 American Express opened a credit card service in Britain.

1967 Almost 100 per cent of the voters of Gibraltar rejected Spanish rule in favour of retaining British sovereignty.

1973 Scotland Yard began hunting for a teenage suspect after two bombs at mainline stations injured 13 people and brought chaos to central London.

1987 Hypnotist Andrew Newton was permitted to perform on stage, as Westminster Council lifted a 35 year ban on acts of that type. Doctors raised objections to lifting the ban, but Newton was not allowed to demonstrate regression on stage (taking hypnotized people back to their childhood).

2001 Charles Ingram won one million pounds on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He was later accused of cheating by having his wife, Diana, and an accomplice, Tecwen Whittock, cough as Ingram announced the correct answer from the available choices. The Ingrams and Tecwen Whittock were convicted, on 7th April 2003, by a majority verdict of 'procuring the execution of a valuable security by deception'. All three were fined and given suspended prison sentences. In October 2004 Diana and Charles Ingram were declared bankrupt.

[K.H]

11th September
1297 Scottish hero William Wallace defeated the English at Stirling Bridge. The Wallace Monument at Stirling. Wallace's statement before the battle was - 'We come here with no peaceful intent, but ready for battle, determined to avenge our wrongs and set our country free.'

1777 American troops led by George Washington were defeated by the British at the Battle of Brandywine Creek, in the American War of Independence.

1836 Register Office marriages were introduced in Britain.

1841 The London to Brighton commuter express train began regular service, taking just 105 minutes.

1879 268 miners died in an explosion at the Prince of Wales Colliery, at Abercarn, South Wales.

1885 D H Lawrence, controversial English author of Sons and Lovers, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley's Lover, was born.

1895 The prestigious FA Cup trophy was stolen from football outfitters William Shillock of Birmingham. 68 years later an 83 year old man confessed he'd melted it down to make counterfeit halfcrown coins.

1915 The opening of Britain’s first Women’s Institute at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Anglesey, Wales. (Llanfair PG sign)

1950 Barry Sheene, British racing motor cyclist was born.

1962 The Beatles completed the recording of their first single 'Love Me Do' at the Abbey Road Studios in north London.

1968 The housing charity, Shelter, said up to three million people in Britain were living in damp, overcrowded slum conditions.

1987 Four men were arrested on charges of plotting to steal a dolphin worth £25,000 from the Marineland Oceanarium in Morecambe, Lancashire.

1997 In a national referendum on devolution, the people of Scotland voted 'Yes' to creating their own Parliament, for the first time in more than 300 years.

2001 The '911' terrorist attacks in New York. In the aftermath, Prime Minister Tony Blair deployed British troops in the invasion of Iraq (March 2003), supporting the US President George Bush and his 'War on Terror'. On This Day hijackers crashed two airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and thousands of those working in the buildings. Both towers collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. A third airliner was crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth plane was redirected towards Washington, D.C., targeting either the Capitol Building or the White House, but it crashed in a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control of the airliner. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

2012 25 year old tennis player Andy Murray finally emulated Fred Perry's 1936 achievement and became the first British player to win the US Open in 76 years when he beat Novak Djokovic. Murray also reached the 2012 Wimbledon final and won Olympic gold in the same year.

[K.H]

12th September
1440 Eton College was founded by Henry VI. Prefects were warned to look out for "ill-kempt heads and unwashed faces."

1609 English explorer Henry Hudson sailed his ship 'Half Moon' into New York harbour and 150 miles further inland to Albany, along the waterway now called Hudson River.

1846 Poet Elizabeth Barrett eloped to Italy with poet Robert Browning to escape Elizabeth's domineering father who disapproved of marriage for any of his children. Mr. Barrett then disinherited Elizabeth, as he did for each of his children who married:

1852 The birth of Herbert Henry Asquith, British Liberal Prime Minister. It was Asquith who introduced old age pensions and Lloyd-George was his Chancellor of the Exchequer.

1878 Cleopatra's Needle, the obelisk of Thothmes II, was erected on London's Embankment.

1885 The Scottish football team of Arbroath beat Bon Accord (from Aberdeen) by 36 goals to nil in the first round of the Scottish Cup, making it a record breaking score for professional football. Thirteen goals were scored by centre-forward John Petrie.

1890 Salisbury, Rhodesia, was founded as a military fort by by Cecil Rhodes. They originally named the city Fort Salisbury after the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then British prime minister.

1908 The marriage of Winston Churchill to Clementine Hozier.

1936 Britain’s Fred Perry won the US Tennis Championships against Donald Budge, the first non-US player ever to win. Britain had to wait a further 76 years for a male singles champion and on 11th September 2012 Andy Murray won the US Open, beating Novak Djokovic.

1960 Ministry of Transport (MoT) tests on motor vehicles were introduced in the UK.

1963 The Beatles had their second UK No.1 single with She Loves You.

1970 The supersonic Concorde passenger jet landed at Heathrow Airport for the first time to a barrage of complaints from nearby residents about noise.

1972 Two British trawlers were sunk by Icelandic gunboats during the 'cod war'

1987 The BBC filmed the first 'Top of the Pops' to be sold in America.

1988 Roger Hargreaves, author and creator of the Mr. Men books died.

2000 Britain was brought to a standstill as fuel tax protesters, backed by tanker drivers, caused petrol shortages.

2005 England took the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1987.

2008 XL Leisure Group (the UK's third largest package holiday group)was placed into administration and left 90,000 stranded abroad.

2012 It was announced that a new inquest and possible criminal prosecutions of key figures in the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster were likely to be mounted after the extent of the establishment cover-up in the wake of the event which saw the death of 96 fans.

[K.H]

13th September
1759 British troops, under the command of General Wolfe, secured Canada for the British Empire after defeating the French at the Battle of Quebec. Wolfe and the French commander were killed during the battle.

1806 The English statesman Charles James Fox was taken ill and died at his home in London, just as he was about to introduce a bill abolishing slavery.

1894 The birth of John Boynton Priestley, the English author generally referred to as J.B. Priestley. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions (1929), as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls (1945).

1902 The first conviction in Britain using finger-prints as evidence was in the case against Harry Jackson by the Metropolitan Police at the Old Bailey. He had left his thumbprint in wet paint on a window sill and was tracked down through it. He was sentenced to seven years.

1916 The birth, in Wales, to Norwegian parents of the author Roald Dahl. Some of his notable works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine and The BFG (Big Friendly Giant).

1938 John Smith, former leader of the Labour Party was born.

1940 Buckingham Palace was hit by a bomb during 'The Blitz'.

1944 The birth of Carol Barnes, British television newsreader and broadcaster who worked for ITN from 1975 to 2004. In 1994 she was voted Newscaster of the Year at the TV and Radio Industries Club Awards

1957 The Mousetrap became Britain's longest running play, reaching its 1,998th performance.

1958 Cliff Richard made his British TV debut on Jack Good's Oh Boy, performing Move It.

1970 In Colombia, en route to the World Cup finals in Mexico, the captain of the England football team, Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a diamond bracelet from a shop. After being kept under house arrest, he was released and all charges were dropped.

1980 Hercules, the bear who went missing on Benbecula (in the Outer Hebrides) while being filmed for a Kleenex television commercial, was recaptured after 24 days 'on the run'.

1988 Medina Perez, a Cuban diplomat opened fire in a crowded London street because of an American plot to make him defect, (his government said).

1989 Britain's biggest ever banking computer error gave customers an extra £2 billion in a period of 30 minutes; 99.3 per cent of the money was reportedly returned.

2001 Iain Duncan Smith became the new leader of the Tory party.

2001 British defence experts said that forces could be involved in retaliatory strikes against those responsible for the US terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Centre two days previously.

2012 Jo Shuter, head teacher since 2001 of Quintin Kynaston School in St John's Wood, north-west London was suspended after an investigation into its finances. (Shuter resigned on August 28th when it was announced that she had spent £30,000 of public money on luxury hotels, flowers and her 50th birthday party.) She had earlier had been credited with turning around a school's fortunes, was named head teacher of the year at the 2007 Teaching Awards and was awarded a CBE in June 2010.

[K.H]

14th September
1607 The 'Flight of the Earls' from Lough Swilly, Donegal, in Ireland took place when Hugh Ó Neill (the earl of Tyrone) and about ninety followers left Ireland for mainland Europe following their earlier defeat in battle. They hoped to recruit an army for the invasion of Ireland with Spanish help, but King Philip III of Spain wanted to preserve the recent peace with England under its new Stuart dynasty so it was all to no avail. Nevertheless he persisted with the invasion plan until his death in exile in 1616.

1682 Bishop Gore School, in Swansea was founded. It is one of the oldest schools in Wales and its most famous former pupil is almost certainly the poet, playwright and author Dylan Thomas who, it is said, was not a distinguished pupil . His father was Senior English Master at the school, which was then known as Swansea Grammar School.

1752 The 3rd of September became the 14th as the Gregorian Calendar was introduced into Britain. Crowds of people rioted on the streets demanding, 'Give us back our 11 days.'

1759 The earliest dated board game in England was sold on this day by its inventor John Jeffreys, from his house in Chapel Street, Westminster. The game was called 'A Journey Through Europe', or 'The play of Geography'.

1852 The Duke of Wellington, victor at Waterloo, died aged 83.

1868 At the Open Championships at Prestwick, the legendary Scottish golfer Tom Morris scored the first recorded hole-in-one, on the 8th hole (166 yards).

1891 The first penalty kick in an English League football game was taken by Heath of Wolverhampton Wanderers against Accrington.

1909 Peter Scott, British artist and ornithologist was born.

1910 The birth of the actor Jack Hawkins. He mostly appeared in character roles, often in epic films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Zulu, The Cruel Sea and Lawrence of Arabia. A 60 a day smoker, Hawkins began experiencing voice problems in the late 1950s. His entire larynx was removed and his performances were dubbed. Hawkins continued to smoke after losing his voice and died aged 62.

1951 Prime Minister Clement Attlee opened the largest oil refinery in Europe, at Fawley on Southampton Water.

1964 The British daily newspaper, the Daily Herald, ceased publication and was replaced by the Sun.

1974 Two giant pandas, Chia-Chia and Ching-Ching, arrived at London Zoo.

1981 A teenage boy who fired blank shots at the Queen in June 1980, pleaded guilty to a charge under the 1848 Treason Act.

1988 A London taxi reached New Delhi with the meter showing a fare of £13,200. It was part of a six-man expedition on the way to Sydney.

1997 Pete Townshend unveiled an English Heritage Blue Plaque at 23, Brook Street, Mayfair, London to mark where Jimi Hendrix had lived in 1968-69. He was the first pop star to be commemorated with the plaque.

2001 Offices, shops and factories across the UK fell silent for three minutes as the nation mourned the victims of the US terrorist attacks.

[K.H]

15th September
1830 George Stephenson's Manchester and Liverpool railway opened. During the ceremony, William Huskisson, MP, became the first person to be killed by a train when he crossed the track to shake hands with the Duke of Wellington.

1859 The death of the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He was involved in dock design, railway engineering and marine engineering. He built the Great Western (1837), Great Britain (1843) & Great Eastern (1858), each the largest in the world at launch date.

1871 The first British-based international mail order business was begun by the Army and Navy Co-operative. They published their first catalogue in February 1872.

1890 Agatha Christie, English detective novelist was born.

1901 The birth of Sir Donald Bailey, English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge, a wood and steel bridge small and light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into place by hand, yet strong enough to carry tanks. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that without the Bailey bridge, we would not have won the war.

1916 Military tanks, designed by Ernest Swinton, were first used by the British Army, in the Somme offensive.

1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered, by accident, a bacteria killing mould growing in his laboratory, that later became known as penicillin.

1940 The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as "Battle of Britain Day". (A picture of a Spitfire at the RAF Museum in Cosford, Shropshire.)

1960 London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.

1966 HMS Resolution, Britain’s first nuclear submarine, was launched at Barrow.

1981 The death of the actor Harold Bennett, best remembered as 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s British sitcom Are You Being Served? and as the character Mr. Blewitt in Dad's Army from 1969 to 1977.

1984 Prince Harry, 3rd in succession to the throne, was born.

1985 Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beat the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years.

2000 The fuel protests which had paralysed Britain for seven days, ended.

2000 Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that parents would not be allowed access to the sex offenders' register.

2006 The death of Raymond Baxter, television presenter and writer who is best known for being the first presenter of Tomorrow's World, continuing for 12 years, from 1965 to 1977. He also gave radio commentary at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the funerals of King

[K.H]

16th September
1387 King Henry V was born at Monmouth Castle. He went on to win the Battle of Agincourt against the French on St Crispin’s Day.

1485 The Yeoman of the Guard, the bodyguard of the English Crown - popularly known as 'Beefeaters' - was established by King Henry VII.

1701 James Francis Edward Stuart, sometimes called the 'Old Pretender', became the Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England and Scotland.

1785 Birth of Thomas Barnes, editor of The Times. Barnes took over the editorship in 1817 and did much to improve it. The newspaper was nicknamed ‘the Thunderer’ because of the forcefulness of its content.

1847 The United Shakespeare Company bought the house in which playwright William Shakespeare was born at Stratford Upon Avon in Warwickshire for £3,000. It became the first building in Britain to be officially preserved.

1859 British explorer Dr. David Livingstone discovered Lake Nyasa - now Lake Malawi, in central Africa.

1861 The Post Office Savings Banks opened in Britain.

1888 Walter Bentley, British car designer, was born.

1945 World War II: Japanese troops in Hong Kong surrendered. The surrender was accepted by Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

1947 John Cobb set a world land speed record of 394.2mph.

1947 The birth of Russ Abbot, musician, comedian and actor who first came to public notice during the 1970s as the singer and drummer with the British comedy showband the Black Abbots. He later forged a solo career as a television comedian with his own weekly show on British television.

1960 Donald Campbell destroyed Bluebird in a crash at 350mph. He was only slightly hurt.

1968 Britain introduced a 'two tier' postal system - First and Second Class. Letters and parcels bearing the more expensive 1st class stamps would be given priority of delivery.

1981 Two British political parties - the SDP and the Liberals - voted for an alliance.

1992 Black Wednesday, when the GB Pound Sterling was forced out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by currency speculators and was forced to devalue against the German mark.

2000 Cyclist Jason Queally claimed Britain's first medal of the Sydney Olympics.

2002 The world's first self cleaning glass was launched after being developed by scientists at the leading glass company of Pilkington's in St Helens.

[K.H]

17th September
1701 King James II of England died whilst in exile in France.

1745 The Jacobite supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied Edinburgh.

1827 'Wides' in cricket were first scored in the Sussex v Kent game at Brighton.

1877 William Henry Fox Talbot, English photographic pioneer, died. He made the earliest known surviving photographic negative in the late summer of 1835, with a photograph of the oriel window at his home at Lacock Abbey. Click here to see his famous picture of the window at Lacock Abbey, and my, (not quite so famous) picture, of the same window!

1901 The birthday of Sir Francis Chichester, British yachtsman and aviation pioneer. He made a solo circumnavigation of the world at the age of 65 in his yacht Gipsy Moth IV.

1929 Stirling Moss, English racing driver, was born.

1939 World War II: A German U-boat U 29 sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous. She sank in 20 minutes with the loss of 519 of her crew.

1944 Blackout regulations eased in Britain to allow lights on buses, trains and at railway stations for the first time since the beginning of World War II in 1939.

1956 Norman Buckley, a 48-year-old solicitor from Manchester broke the one-hour world water speed record in his motorboat, Miss Windermere III when he averaged 79mph during his hour on the course on Lake Windermere.

1961 Police made 1,314 arrests during sit-down demonstrations by CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) members in Trafalgar Square, London.

1985 The death, aged 60, of Laura Ashley, Welsh designer and fabric retailer.

1993 The British National Party won its first council seat in a by-election in East London, provoking fear in the local Asian community.

1998 There was chaos in Staffordshire, when animal rights activists release around 6,000 animals from a mink farm. Mink are now devastating British wildlife, so it was not a particularly wise or humanitarian move!

2000 Paula Yates, television personality and former wife of Bob Geldof, was found dead in bed from a suspected drug overdose. She was 40 years old.

2007 Worried savers continued to flock to some Northern Rock bank branches to withdraw their savings when the bank applied to the Bank of England for emergency funds. Chancellor Alistair Darling appealed for calm, nevertheless £2bn was withdrawn from Northern Rock accounts in just 3 days.

2008 Lloyds TSB announced that it was in advanced merger talks with HBOS to create a UK retail banking giant worth £30bn.

2012 Italy's Chi magazine pushed ahead with its plan to publish a series of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, complete with a curt dismissal of the protests raised by the royal family.

2013 It was announced that the abandoned NHS patient record system has so far cost the taxpayer nearly £10bn. The project would have been the world's largest civilian computer system, with the final bill likely to be several hundreds of millions of pounds higher.

2013 A wedding service was delayed when an owl that was bearing the wedding rings fell asleep in the church roof. Darcy the barn owl was meant to fly down the aisle at Holy Cross Church in Sherston, Wiltshire, and deliver rings to Sonia Cadman and Andrew Matley but flew into the church roof to roost. It took about an hour to get her down, using a long ladder.

[K.H]

18th September
1709 Dr Samuel Johnson, English writer and compiler of the first English dictionary was born. Published in 1755, Johnson’s dictionary was the definitive reference for over a century.

1809 The Royal Opera House opened, in Covent Garden, Central London. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1857.

1879 The famous illuminations in Blackpool were switched on for the first time, a month before electricity was generally available in London. The first display was known as 'Artificial sunshine', and consisted of just eight Arc lamps which bathed the Promenade.

1894 Blackpool Tower was officially opened.

1911 Britain's first twin-engined aeroplane, the Short S.39, was test flown.

1914 The Irish Home Rule Act (intended to provide self-government for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) became law, but was delayed until after World War I.

1939 William Joyce, whose upper-class accent earned him the nickname Lord Haw-Haw, made his first Nazi propaganda broadcast from Germany to the UK.

1944 World War II: The British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoed Junyō Maru, a Japanese cargo ship used to transport prisoners. It was the world's greatest sea disaster at the time with 5,620 dead. 723 survivors were rescued, only to be put to work in conditions similar to those of the Burma Railway where death was commonplace.

1949 Peter Shilton, English footballer was born.

1949 The British pound was devalued by 30% by Chancellor Sir Stafford Cripps.

1949 Mo Mowlam, former Northern Ireland Secretary and Labour MP, was born. She was the Member of Parliament for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and her time as Northern Ireland Secretary saw the signing, in 1998 of the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement. She died in 2005, aged 55, from a brain tumour.

1972 The first Ugandan refugees fleeing the persecution of the country's military dictatorship arrived in Britain.

1994 Warwickshire became the first side to win the County Cricket Championship, the Benson and Hedges Cup and the Sunday League title in one season.

1995 A Carlisle motorist was fined £140 for throwing a doughnut at a traffic warden.

1997 In Britain, a controversial portrait of Moors murderer Myra Hindley at the Royal Academy in London was damaged by protesters.

2000 Survivors of the Southall and Ladbroke Grove rail crashes that killed 39 and injured more than 650, accused Railtrack of putting costs before safety.

2012 Two unarmed female police officers PC Nicola Hughes (23) and PC Fiona Bone (32) were killed in a gun and grenade ambush attack in Mottram - Greater Manchester. It led to the arrest of a wanted man Dale Cregan. Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said it was one of the force's 'darkest days'.

2014 A referendum is being held in Scotland, with one single question on the ballot paper - "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

[K.H]

19th September
1356 Led by Edward, the Black Prince, the English defeated the French, and captured the French king, John II at the Battle of Poitiers in the Hundred Years' War. The battle resulted in the second of the three great English victories of the Hundred Years' War, the other two being Crécy, and Agincourt.

1839 Birth of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer. A Quaker, he believed in taking care of the welfare of his workforce, and he created a model village for his employees at Bournville, Birmingham.

1851 Birth of William Hesketh Lever. He changed the process of soap manufacture by using vegetable oils instead of tallow. Like George Cadbury he cared about the welfare of his workers, and established the new town of Port Sunlight, Merseyside, to house them.

1905 Thomas John Barnardo, British philanthropist (Barnardo's Children's Homes), died.

1934 The birth of Brian Epstein, best known for being the manager of The Beatles until his death in 1967. Decca declined to sign the Beatles to a contract and after approaching nearly all of the major recording companies in London and being rejected, Epstein met a record producer, George Martin, who offered a contract on behalf of EMI's small Parlophone label.

1945 The Nazi propaganda broadcaster William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was sentenced to hang for treason.

1946 The Council of Europe was founded following a speech by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich. It promotes co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation.

1949 The birth of the model Twiggy. She became an icon of the 'swinging sixties' and in 1966 was voted British Woman of the Year.

1952 The United States prevented the English born film legend Charlie Chaplin from returning to his Hollywood home until he was investigated by the Immigration Services.

1960 The new traffic wardens issued the first 344 parking tickets in London. Britain's first parking ticket was issued to Dr. Thomas Creighton, who had parked his car outside a London hotel while treating a patient.

1970 The first Glastonbury Festival was held at Michael Eavis's farm in Glastonbury, starring T. Rex. The first festivals in the 1970s were influenced by hippie ethics and the free festival movement.

1975 The first episode of comedy show Fawlty Towers was broadcast by the BBC.

1986 Two passenger trains crashed in Staffordshire, killing two people and injuring almost a hundred more.

1997 An Intercity 125 ploughed into a freight train in Southall, west London, killing six and injuring more than 150.

1998 Robbie Williams scored his first solo UK No.1 single with Millennium.

2000 Chancellor Gordon Brown rejected a 60-day deadline to reduce petrol tax set by fuel price protesters.

2014 The result of yesterday's Scottish Referendum - "Should Scotland be an independent country?" was a victory for the "No" campaign which won 55% of the votes cast. Scotland is to remain a member of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Turnout was more than 84%. It was anticipated that by the end of Friday's trading that the Financial Times Share Index would rise to its highest ever level in response.

[Tony]

1839 Birth of George Cadbury, the chocolate manufacturer. A Quaker, he believed in taking care of the welfare of his workforce, and he created a model village for his employees at Bournville, Birmingham.

If you're going to be remembered for something, that's certainly a legacy worth leaving

[K.H]

20th September
1258 The consecration of Salisbury Cathedral.

1854 The Russian army was defeated by the British and French at the Battle of Alma, considered to be the first battle of the Crimean War. The first six Victoria Crosses to be awarded to the British Army for acts of bravery during the fighting were won at this battle.

1860 The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) visited the United States. It was the first tour of North America by an heir to the British throne. The four-month tour throughout Canada and the United States considerably boosted Edward's self-esteem, and had many diplomatic benefits for Great Britain.

1906 The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania was launched at the Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson shipyard in Newcastle upon Tyne. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. She captured the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing during her 1907 inaugural season and held the speed record for twenty-two years.

1911 White Star Line's RMS Olympic collided with British warship HMS Hawke. Olympic was the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners, that also consisted of the Titanic and Britannic. The fact that Olympic endured such a serious collision and stayed afloat, appeared to vindicate the design of the Olympic-class liners and reinforced their 'unsinkable' reputation.

1917 The first RSPCA animal clinic was opened, in Liverpool.

1930 Edward Elgar's Fifth Pomp and Circumstance March was performed for the first time.

1931 Devaluation set in when Britain came off the gold standard to prevent foreign speculation against the pound. It sparked off strikes, and in Scotland the crews of 15 navy ships nearly mutinied.

1932 Four branches of Methodism in England united to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain and Ireland. These were the Wesleyan Methodists, the Primitive Methodists, the United Methodist Free Churches and the United Methodists.

1964 The Beatles' first US tour ended with a charity concert in New York.

1967 The liner Queen Elizabeth II (QE2) was launched at Clydebank, Scotland by ...... Queen Elizabeth II.

1978 Police launched a massive manhunt for the killers of 13 year paperboy Carl Bridgewater. He had been shot in the head at close range at an isolated farmhouse near Stourbridge in Staffordshire.

1997 Elton John started a six week run at No.1 in the UK singles chart with "Candle in the Wind '97'' as a tribute to Princess Diana. It became the best-selling single of all time.

2001 The Government was considering 'targeted support' for airlines after British Airways axed 7,000 jobs in the wake of the US terrorist attacks.

2004 Legendary former Nottingham Forest and Derby County boss Brian Clough died from stomach cancer at the age of 69.

2012 Apple's new mapping service for iPhone users was launched, with many errors. It relocated London - England to London - Ontario, Paddington station vanished and Dublin was gifted a previously undiscovered airport on a 35 acre working farm. Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon, was nowhere to be found while the Welsh town of Pontypridd was transplanted six miles north-west and placed where Tonypandy should have been.

2013 The RAF's last Vickers VC10 jetliners completed their final mission after 47 years of service when they took off from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, at 10:00 BST

[K.H]

21st September
1327 Deposed King Edward II of England was murdered, with a red hot poker in Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire by order of his wife, to ensure the succession of his son Edward III.

1411 The birth of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York and claimant to the English throne. Although he never became king he ultimately governed the country as Lord Protector during Henry VI's madness. His conflicts with Henry's court were a leading factor in the political upheaval of mid-fifteenth-century England, and a major cause of the Wars of the Roses.

1745 Bonnie Prince Charles and his Jacobite army defeated the English at the Battle of Prestonpans, in Scotland.

1746 After a short siege the French, under Admiral La Bourdonnais, captured Madras, India, from the English.

1756 John Loudon McAdam, the engineer who invented and gave his name to macadamised (tarmac) roads, was born in Ayr, Scotland.

1776 Part of New York City was burned shortly after being occupied by British forces.

1866 H G Wells, English writer, was born. His books included The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds.

1874 The birth, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire of the composer Gustav Holst, most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets.

1915 Stonehenge was sold at auction to Mr C H Chubb for £6,600 as a present for his wife. Mr Chubb presented it to the nation three years later as his wife didn't think it suited her.

1949 The Republic of Ireland beat England 2-0 at Goodison Park - England's first home defeat by a foreign football team.

1955 The Admiralty announced that Britain had formally claimed uninhabited Rockall, a rocky islet 300 miles west of Scotland, to stop the Soviets spying on missile tests.

1962 Bamber Gascoigne's University Challenge was screened for the first time.

1964 Malta became independent from Britain. The island became a republic in 1974, but retained membership of the Commonwealth.

1965 BP found oil in the North Sea.

1972 The birth of Liam Gallagher (born William John Paul Gallagher) musician and singer-songwriter. He was formerly the frontman of the rock band Oasis until the band split up in 2009 and he formed Beady Eye.

1979 An RAF Harrier plane crashed onto houses in a Cambridgeshire town, killing two men and a young boy.

1984 Police and miners clashed at a pit in Maltby, South Yorkshire, in one of the biggest pickets since the miners' strike began.

1985 Madonna scored her first UK No.1 album with Like A Virgin, ten months after its release.

1986 Prince Charles admitted that he talked to his plants.

2012 50 year old Jessica Harper, a former Lloyds Bank worker in charge of online security was jailed for five years for fraud. She submitted 93 false and doctored invoices to pay herself £2,463,750, giving large sums to friends and her three brothers to invest in property.