was born. He wrote the classic spy yarn The Riddle Of The Sands but after joining the IRA he was arrested and executed for being in possession of unauthorised weapons. 1876: Custer’s Last Stand took place at Little Big Horn, Montana.The Sioux Indians, led by Crazy Horse, killed Custer and all 264 soldiers of his 7th US Cavalry.
march of 40,000 through Kent to London to protest about laws of Henry VI. He was later beheaded.
1693:The Ladies’ Mercury, the first magazine for women, was published.
1746: Fresh from his defeat at Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped over the sea to Skye, disguised as Irish maid Betty Burke. Flora MacDonald was with him. 1844: Joseph Smith, the American founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in 1830, was killed in Carthage Jail in Illinois.
1945:The United Nations Organisation was founded.
1968: Comedian Tony Hancock killed himself in a hotel bedroom in Sydney,Australia.
1969: Pancho Gonzalez and Charlie Pasarell played a record 112-game singlesmatch on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, lasting five hours 12 minutes. Gonzalez, aged 41, won. 1990: 7,000 king penguins killed themselves on uninhabited sub-Antarctic Macquaine Island. Bodies were piled four deep in this bizarre mass suicide, and the reason remains a complete mystery. 2009:Tributes from the world of music, film and celebrity flooded in following the death of 50-year-old “King of Pop” Michael Jackson.
1954:The first nuclear power station opened at Obninsk in Russia.
1967: Britain’s first cash dispenser was opened by Barclay’s Bank in Enfield.
1971:The first national Scrabble competition was held in London and was won by teacher Stephen Haskell.
1976: Six Palestinian terrorists hijacked an Air France Airbus from Athens and forced it to fly to Entebbe in Uganda.
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1990: In Brussels, the European Commission ordered the Government to force British Aerospace to repay #44.4 million of “sweeteners” tied to the sale of the Rover Group.
1830: King George IV – England’s fattest king – died aged 67. His favourite breakfast was two pigeons, three beefsteaks, a bottle of Moselle, a glass of Champagne, two glasses of port and one of brandy. 1857:The first investiture ceremony of Victoria Cross medals took place in Hyde Park. Queen Victoria awarded 62 servicemen this highest military honour. 1906:The first Grand Prix took place at Le Mans and was won by Hungarian Ferenc Szisz, driving a Renault at an average speed of 63mph.
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1491: Henry VIII, English monarch best known for his six wives and religious split from Rome, was born.
1838: Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey, aged just 19. During the ceremony,Austrian composer Johann Strauss conducted his orchestra outside the London Reform Club, playing God Save The Queen. 1914:Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated with his wife in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo by terrorist Gavrilo Princip, lighting the touchpaper to the First World War. 1919:A Peace Treaty between German representatives and Allied powers was signed in the Palace of Versailles in northern France, officially ending the First World War.
1909:The Victoria and Albert Museum first opened its doors to the public.
1917: King George V dropped the German titles from the royal family, and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha became Windsor.The name Battenberg was changed to Mountbatten. 1939:The first National Serviceman, number 10000001, Private Rupert Alexander, signed up with the Middlesex Regiment. 1962:A young American tennis player, Billie Jean Moffitt, 18, knocked out top seed Margaret Smith – the match that began Billie Jean King’s long reign at Wimbledon. 1991:After battling for 15 years to prove their innocence, the “Maguire Seven” were cleared of running an IRA bomb factory in England.
1930: Frank Whittle (later Sir) patented the jet engine.
1935:The first Rupert Bear cartoon was drawn by Alfred Bestall and appeared in the Daily Express. Bestall had taken over from Rupert’s creator Mary Tourtel.
1950:The United States humbled England 1-0 in a World Cup match in Brazil.
1984:After 104 years, the British magazine Tit-Bits stopped publishing.
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1450: Jack Cade, Irish-born physician, led an insurrection
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