1422 King Henry V of England died of dysentery whilst in France. His son, Henry VI, became King of England at the age of 9 months.
1688 The birth of John Bunyan, English Christian writer and preacher, who is best known for his book The Pilgrim's Progress.
1848 Accurate and scientific ' state of the weather' reports were first published by Charles Dickens's newspaper - The Daily News.
1888 The body of Mary Ann 'Polly' Nichols, the first victim of Jack the Ripper, was found mutilated in Buck's Row, London. The unidentified serial killer's attacks involved female prostitutes from the slums whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer possessed anatomical or surgical knowledge. In 2006, Jack the Ripper was selected by the BBC History magazine and its readers as the worst Briton in history.
1900 Coca Cola first went on sale in Britain, fourteen years after it was first sold in the U.S.A. Charles Chandler, the eldest son of the founder came to Britain with a jug of cola syrup. It proved so popular that five more gallons were ordered immediately from America.
1908 At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years , the legendary English cricketer W.G. Grace retired from first class cricket. He had scored a total of 54,896 runs (including 126 centuries), taken 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.
1913 The birth of Sir Bernard Lovell, OBE, English physicist, radio astronomer and the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire from 1945 to 1980. With University funding, he constructed the then-largest steerable radio telescope in the world, which now bears his name - the Lovell Telescope. Sir Bernard died on 6th August 2012.
1936 The 1st woman TV announcer, Elizabeth Cowell, made her debut at Alexandra Palace.
1939 Nazi forces, posing as Poles, mounted a staged attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, in Poland, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.
1962 Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger. The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever. Within three hours of reaching the summit they were back in their hotel room.
1968 West Indian cricketer Gary Sobers becomes the first batsman to score six 'sixes' in one over while playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea. The unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash.
1986 The death of Henry Moore, English sculptor and artist, best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures.
1989 Buckingham Palace issued a brief statement stating that the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, was separating from her husband, Captain Mark Phillips.
1994 The IRA agreed to a complete cessation of military operations.
1997 Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver were killed in a car crash in the Place de l'Alma underpass in Paris, France. Tests conducted by French police indicated that the driver was intoxicated, may have been travelling at over 100 mph and likely caused the accident while trying to escape the paparazzi photographers.
2013 BT turned off its dial-up internet (DUN) access service. The best dial-up modems despatched data along telephone lines at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second compared with most broadband technologies that work in the megabits per second range. In 2010, the last year for which figures were available, an Ofcom spokesman said that about 800,000 people in remote areas still used 'dial-up'.
2013 The death, at the age of 74, of veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost, after a heart attack while on board a cruise ship. His career spanned journalism, comedy writing and daytime television presenting, including The Frost Report.
