ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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On This Day 3rd February
1014 The death of Sweyn Forkbeard, son of Harald Bluetooth and Viking king of Denmark, Norway and England. He was proclaimed King of England on Christmas Day 1013, making him England's shortest-reigning king, with a reign of just 40 days. The Viking king ruled England from a fortification on the site of what is now Gainsborough's Old Hall (see ©BB picture) one of the best preserved medieval manor houses in England.

1399 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and father of King Henry IV, died.

1821 The birth, in Bristol, of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register.

1830 Birth of Lord Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquis of Salisbury and British Prime Minister.

1903 The birth of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, pioneering Scottish aviator. He was the eldest of four brothers who were to make military history by all being at the rank of Squadron Leader or above simultaneously at the outbreak of World War II. He was also the youngest Squadron Leader of his day and was chief pilot on the first flight over Mount Everest in 1933, making it the first detailed and scientific survey of the Himalaya region.

1928 The birth, in Liverpool of the singer Frankie Vaughan. He had than 80 recordings in his lifetime and was known as 'Mr. Moonlight' after one of his early hits.

1935 The first 'League of Ovaltineys' created by the manufacturer of the drink Ovaltine. It became a children's 'secret society', promoting high morals and consideration towards others. At the height of its popularity, there were over five million members and I was one of them! In 1975 the song 'We Are The Ovaltineys' came back to a new audience when it was used by Ovaltine in a TV advertisement and also released as a single record.

1949 In Britain, 23 year old Margaret Roberts (Thatcher) was adopted as Tory candidate in Deptford, but she later failed to win the seat at the General Election.

1954 The Queen visited Australia, the first reigning monarch to do so.

1957 The Lovell Telescope (see ©BB picture) at Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire, moved for the first time. The distance moved was an inch (2.5cm)!

1960 Prime Minister Harold Macmillan made his 'wind of change' speech to the South African parliament in Capetown. He talked of increasing national consciousness blowing through colonial Africa, signalling that his Government was likely to support decolonisation.

1963 Britain's worst learner driver, Margaret Hunter, was fined for continuing to drive on after her instructor jumped out of the car shouting 'This is suicide.'

1988 Nurses across the UK took part in a day of industrial action to secure more money for themselves and the NHS.

1989 BT banned chatlines because of the 'chatline junkie problem'. The company had been criticised following the widely reported case of a woman whose 12 year old son landed her a chatline bill of £6000.

2012 The Energy Secretary Chris Huhne resigned after being charged over allegations that he handed penalty points for a speeding offence to his then wife, economist Vicky Pryce.

2012 England football captain John Terry was stripped of the captaincy for the second time amid growing concern over his pending race abuse trial.

2013 The cost of cleaning up the Sellafield nuclear waste site reached £67.5bn with no sign of when the cost would stop rising, according to a report. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said that it was facing up to the challenges.

2015 The unauthorised biography 'Charles: Heart of a King' revealed that both Prince Charles and Princess Diana contemplated calling off their wedding, because each knew that their relationship was deeply flawed.

2017 The re-opening of the Tadcaster Bridge, which is believed to date from around 1700. The bridge collapsed on 29th December 2015 after flooding that followed Storm Eva. The loss of the bridge involved a 16 mile detour and loss of businesses in the town. This photograph (see ©BB picture) was taken just 5 days before the re-opening.

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On This Day 4th February
211 The death in York, (formerly know as Eboracum), of the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus whilst preparing to lead a campaign against the Caledonians. He left the empire in the control of his two quarrelling sons.

1868 The birth of Constance Georgine Markievicz, Irish Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist, suffragette and socialist. In December 1919, whilst in Holloway prison, she became the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons. As a Sinn Féin MP who was in prison at the time, she never took her seat in the House of Commons.

1905 The birth, in Farnworth near Bolton, Lancashire of Hylda Baker, British comedienne, actress and music hall star. Her most famous role was in the comedy series 'Nearest and Dearest' with comedian Jimmy Jewel. They bickered on screen as part of the script, but the insults continued off screen. The two disliked each other intensely and their arguments became showbiz legend.

1911 Rolls-Royce commissioned their famous figurehead ‘The Spirit of Ecstasy’ (see ©BB picture) by Charles Sykes. He used Lord Montague’s mistress, Eleanor Thornton, as his model. 60 years later to the day, Rolls-Royce was declared bankrupt due to a disastrous contract to supply aero engines to Lockheed. The British government came to its rescue.

1920 Norman Wisdom, actor & star of many comedy films, was born. In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and also Tirana in Albania where the population were devoted to him and referred to him as 'Pitkin'. He received an OBE in the same year and was knighted in 2000. He retired from acting at the age of 90 after his health deteriorated and died in October 2010.

1927 Malcolm Campbell reached 174.88 mph in Bluebird on Pendine Sands (see ©BB picture), a 7 mile stretch of beach on the shores of Carmarthen Bay on the south coast of Wales in south Wales, to set a new land speed record. A year later in 1928 at Daytona Beach, Florida, he reached 206.35 mph. Four years and one day later, in 1931, he reached a record-breaking 245 mph, again at Daytona Beach.

1962 The first colour supplement in Britain was published by The Sunday Times.

1968 The world's largest hovercraft, weighing 165 tonnes, was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The Hovertravel service from the mainland to the Isle of Wight (see ©BB picture) is the world’s longest running commercial hovercraft service and is now the only scheduled passenger hovercraft service in the Europe.

1974 The 'M62 coach bombing' when a Provisional IRA bomb exploded in a coach carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel and their family members. Twelve people (nine soldiers and three civilians, including children aged 5 and 2) were killed. This memorial to them (see ©BB picture) is at Hartshead Moor Services.

1975 Edward Heath withdrew from the Conservative party leadership after losing the first-round vote to Margaret Thatcher.

2002 Cancer Research UK was founded. It is the world's largest independent cancer research charity.

2008 The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme began to operate, with hefty fines for the owners of polluting vehicles.

2012 Fifty four year old Nottingham Forest owner Nigel Doughty was found dead at his home in Skillington, Lincolnshire. The life-long Forest fan was estimated to have invested more than £100m of his personal fortune into the football club.

2012 The death, aged 110, of Florence Green, the last surviving veteran of the First World War from any country.

2013 A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park in August 2012 was confirmed as that of English king Richard III. He was reintered at Leicester Cathedral on 26th March 2015 (see ©BB picture of the tomb) after experts from the University of Leicester said that DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.

2014 A new international study showed that British workers have the shortest retirements in any major EU country, despite significant improvements in life expectancy.

2015 An online fund, launched by Katie Cutler after the mugging of a Tyneside pensioner, was halted with donations totally £330,000. Her 'Help Alan Barnes' online donation page was launched after the frail and visually disabled 67-year-old had been attacked outside his Gateshead home. Richard Gatiss (25) was later arrested and given a four-year prison sentence for assault.

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On This Day 5th February
1782 The Spanish defeated British forces and captured the island of Minorca.

1788 The birth, in Bury, Lancashire, of Sir Robert Peel, the first commoner to become British Prime Minister, although he was hardly from humble beginnings, as his father was a cotton millionaire. This statue of Robert Peel (see  ©BB picture) is in Bury. Peel was the founder of the Metropolitan Police, first nicknamed ‘Peelers’, then ‘Bobbies’, after his name.

1811 The Regency Act was passed in Britain, allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father, King George III, was considered insane. He later became George IV.

1840 The birth of Scottish vet. John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic bicycle tyre which he tested on his son's tricycle and patented in 1888. Two years after he was granted the patent, Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid, as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847.

1852 The embankment of the Bilberry reservoir in West Yorkshire collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme and into Holmfirth, the ©BB location for the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine. It caused 81 deaths and is recorded as the 23rd most serious, worldwide, in terms of loss of life from floods and landslides.

1881 The death of Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher and a satirical writer who was considered one of the most important social commentators of his time. He was born in this room (see ©BB picture) in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire.

1918 The SS Tuscania was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland by the German U-boat UB-77. She sank with the loss of 210 lives and was the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.

1920 Founding of the RAF Training College at Cranwell, in Lincolnshire.

1924 The BBC time signals, ('pips' from Greenwich Observatory) broadcast on the hour, were heard for the first time.

1953 Sweets were taken 'off ration' in Britain, 8 years after the 2nd World War had ended.

1954 Britain opened its first atomic power station, at Harwell.

1958 Parking meters first appeared on the streets, in London's exclusive Mayfair district. The meters were first used in America in 1935.

1967 A ban by the Musicians' Union, 'in the cause of decency', stopped The Rolling Stones' latest record Let's Spend the Night Together, from being performed on television.

1968 Another trawler from Hull sank off the coast of Iceland. Over a period of three weeks 60 fishermen lost their lives in Iceland's worst storms since 1925.

1982 The small, independent Laker Airlines, created by former British pilot Sir Freddy Laker to cut prices and make air travel more accessible, collapsed with debts of £270m.

1993 In the Antarctic, British explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud broke the record for longest unsupported polar march.

1996 Two British supermarket chains (Safeway and Sainsbury) became the first to stock genetically modified food when they sold GM tomato puree.

1998 Prime Minister Tony Blair, announced that veteran US entertainer Bob Hope, who was born in England, would receive an honorary knighthood.

2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drowned when a group of 35 cockle-pickers were trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. See  ©BB picture of Morecambe Bay at sunset.

2014 Overnight storms caused the loss of the sea wall and railway line at Dawlish, between Exeter and Cornwall. Around 30 residents had to be evacuated from their homes in the seaside town, while beach huts that once stood on the sea wall were destroyed. The line reopened on 4th April 2014, in time for the Easter holidays.

2016 The general release of "Dad's Army", based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Much of it was filmed in Bridlington Old Town (see  ©BB picture) and at North Landing, Flamborough See  ©BB picture

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On This Day 6th February
1649 The claimant King Charles II of England and Scotland was declared King of Great Britain, by the Parliament of Scotland. This move was not followed by the Parliament of England nor the Parliament of Ireland.

1665 The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. She bore Prince George of Denmark 17 children, but 16 died in infancy and the remaining child died when aged 12. Her desire for national unity led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.

1685 Charles II, King of Great Britain and Ireland, died after several days of revelry with his concubines and his favourite mistresses. Charles acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses, but as illegitimate children were excluded from the succession, he was succeeded by his brother James. On his deathbed Charles asked his brother to look after his mistresses and told his courtiers: 'I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such a time a-dying.'

1783 Death of Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, the greatest English landscape gardener. His work lives on today throughout the great estates of England. He designed and assisted with many gardens, including Charlecote Park in Warwickshire (see  ©BB picture) and Wallington in Northumberland (see  ©BB picture).

1804 The death of Joseph Priestley (FRS) the 18th-century English theologian and chemist. Priestley is generally credited with the discovery of oxygen. He was born at Birstall, near Leeds. This statue (see  ©BB picture) of Priestley is in Leeds City Square.
1840 The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand.

1918 The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.

1931 Fred Trueman, Former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described him as the 'greatest living Yorkshireman', yet Trueman was omitted from numerous Test teams because he was frequently in conflict with the cricket establishment. This  ©BB statue of Fred (Freddie) Trueman is in the canal basin at Skipton, North Yorkshire, the town where he lived for many years.

1952 Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.

1958 Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured, but survived. Of the 44 passengers and crew on board, 8 United players were killed and there were 15 other fatalities, including 8 journalists.

1995 The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land.

1997 The Court of Appeal made an historic judgement in favour of Diane Blood to be allowed to be inseminated with her dead husband's sperm.

2005 Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10, making him the Labour Party's longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher's 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not!

2015 26 year old Royal Marine, Andy Grant, woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You'll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording "You'll Never Walk" as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run, won two gold medals at the Invictus Games, abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.

2017 Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. The Royal Mint is to mark the 65th anniversary of her accession with a range of specially designed Sapphire Jubilee commemorative coins, with the Royal Mail issuing a Sapphire Blue £5 stamp.

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On This Day 7th February
1301 Edward of Caernarfon (later King Edward II) became the first Prince of Wales, a title traditionally given to the English royal heir. He was born at Caernarfon Castle (see  ©BB picture)

1478 The birth of Sir Thomas More, English statesman and Lord Chancellor. He was executed by Henry VIII for refusing to deny Papal authority. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1935.

1812 Charles Dickens, English journalist and novelist was born. He is considered the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. He created characters such as Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby and David Copperfield and amongst his other works were The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Bleak House and many, many more.

1837 The birth of Sir James Murray, Scottish lexicographer. He was the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary from 1879 until his death.

1863 185 British sailors were killed when HMS Orpheus was wrecked off the coast of New Zealand.

1886 While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman, George Walker, found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.

1873 The birth, in County Down, of Thomas Andrews. Andrews was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic. He was travelling on board the Titanic during its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg on 14th April 1912 and was one of the 1,517 people who perished in the disaster. Titanic's engineers, who battled below decks to try and keep Titanic afloat are commemorated on this monument (see ©BB picture) in Southampton.

1937 Britain's first dive-bomber, the prototype B-24 Skua, made its maiden flight over Yorkshire, piloted by Dasher Blake.

1964 The Beatles pop group arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.

1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath announced a general election and appealed to the miners to suspend their planned strike.

1974 The island of Grenada, in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, gained independence from Britain.

1976 Joan Bazeley became the first woman to referee a men's football match and Diana Thorne became the first woman jockey to win under National Hunt Rules (on ‘Ben Ruler’ at Stratford).

1991 Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt, when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.

1992 The European Union was formed.

1994 It was reported that 13.1 million television viewers watched British boxer Chris Eubank beat German Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin. It was the most watched programme of the year.

2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur (born 8th July 1976) became the fastest person to sail solo around the world. Two months after her amazing feat she also became the youngest person to receive a damehood.

2006 The completion, in Cardiff Bay, of The Senedd (see  ©BB picture). It the main public building of the National Assembly, the main centre for democracy and devolution in Wales.

2015 Printing blocks from a typeface called 'Doves Type' were discovered in the River Thames. The font has not been used for nearly a century as the printing type blocks, used to print letters, were thrown into the river in 1917.

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On This Day 8th February
1587 After 19 years imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason at Fotheringhay Castle, Northamptonshire. She had been implicated in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1601 Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, rebelled against Queen Elizabeth I. The revolt was quickly crushed. Essex was found guilty of treason and was beheaded on Tower Green on 25th February 1601, becoming the last person to be beheaded in the Tower of London. It was reported to have taken three strokes by the executioner Thomas Derrick to complete the beheading.

1819 John Ruskin, English writer, artist and art critic, was born. He lived at Brantwood, (Coniston, Cumbria) from 1872 until his death in 1900. See  ©BB picture of Coniston Water from Brantwood. His watercolour of the view from St. Mary's Church in Kirkby Lonsdale was sold in 2012 for £217,250. In 1875, Ruskin described the panorama as ‘one of the loveliest views in England, therefore in the world’. You can view my less famous picture of Ruskin's View here - see  ©BB picture.

1836 The first London railway train ran from Spa Road to Deptford. There were fears that the 'great speed' of 16 miles an hour would break passengers' necks.

1855 The 'Devil's Footprints' mysteriously appeared in southern Devon when trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow. Estimates of the total distance covered by the prints ranged from 40 to 100 miles. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were allegedly travelled straight over, and the footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes with a diameter as small as 4 inches.

1886 A peaceful demonstration by unemployed people started in Trafalgar Square and turned into a riot with looting in Oxford Street and Pall Mall.

1952 Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith. Lords of the Council, numbering 150, representatives from the Commonwealth and officials from the City of London, including the Lord Mayor and other dignitaries witnessed the accession of the deceased king's eldest daughter.

1965 Health Minister Kenneth Robinson announced that cigarette advertisements were to be banned from British television.

1971 At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, a British plastics firm making educational toys was shown a board game which had been rejected by established companies. Invented by an Israeli telecommunications expert, Mordecai Meirowitz, the game, renamed ‘Mastermind’ by Invicta Plastics, sold over 55 million sets in some 80 countries, making it the most successful new game of the 70s. Whilst researching for this page we discovered that we had the original game, still unwrapped - see  ©BB picture.

1972 The Albert Hall management cancelled a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert because of the ‘obscene lyrics’ of one of their songs. Fans demonstrated outside the hall.

1973 Mohammed Shafiq became the first non-white P.C. to join the Lancashire Police.

1983 Shergar, the Aga Khan's Derby winner, was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million, which was never paid. The horse was never seen again.

1998 The death of the controversial politician, Enoch Powell, aged 85. He warned, in 1968, of the perils of high immigration with his 'Rivers of Blood' speech. See the transcript here on YouTube.

2012 The death, aged 74, of John Fairfax, British ocean rower and adventurer who, in 1969, became the first person to row solo (in 180 days) across the Atlantic Ocean. He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean (with Sylvia Cook) in 1971/2; with a row time of 361 days.

[THE FUGITIVE]

On This Day 9th February
1540 The first recorded horse racing meeting in Britain; held at the Roodeye Field, Chester. Chester Racecourse (see  ©BB picture) is, according to official records the oldest racecourse still in use in England and it is also thought to be the smallest racecourse of significance in England at 1 mile 1 furlong long.

1649 The funeral of the executed King Charles I. His personal dignity during his trial and execution had won him much sympathy and he was laid to rest at Windsor rather than Westminster Abbey to avoid the possibility of public disorder at his funeral.

1846 The birth, in Stafford, of Whitaker Wright, an exceptionally wealthy, but corrupt, English mining company owner. In1904 he was convicted of fraud and given a seven year prison sentence. He committed suicide immediately afterwards by swallowing cyanide in a court anteroom. The inquest also revealed that he had been carrying a revolver in his pocket, presumably as a backup.

1891 The birth, in Richmond, Surrey of actor Ronald Colman. He was nominated for four Academy awards and won the Award once and also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1947. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.

1942 World War Two: Soap rationing began in Britain.

1945 World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic �" HMS Venturer sank U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.

1964 Seventy three million Americans tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four youths from Liverpool (the Beatles) appear in America for the first time.

1966 The government announced that a £30M Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor would be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland. Minister for Technology Frank Cousins said the new reactors were 'the future'. Nuclear power generation at the site ended in 1994.

1972 The British Government declared a 'state of emergency' three months into a National Miners' Strike.

1979 Football club Nottingham Forest clinched Britain's first £1m transfer deal when England forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough's League and Cup winning side after eight seasons with Birmingham City.

1988 The House of Commons voted to allow experimental televising of selected debates.

1995 Dr. Michael Foale, originally from Lincolnshire, become the first British born American to walk in space. In April 1998 he was awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his subsequent four month mission (1997) to the Russian space station Mir.

1996 The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands, effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain.

2001 Lance Corporal Roberta Winterton became the first serving soldier to pose topless on Page Three of The Sun newspaper.

2002 The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, aged 71, died in her sleep after suffering a stroke and a heart attack. Her body was laid to rest at Kensington Palace in order for the Royal Family to pay their respects.

2006 The death of Freddie Laker, British airline entrepreneur. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the 'no-frills' airline business model that is now used worldwide with companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet.

2015 A tipper truck crash in Bath killed four people including Mitzi Rosanna Steady (aged 4). Her grandmother suffered life-changing injuries and three people in a car that was hit by the vehicle were killed. The truck driver, Philip Potter (19) had only qualified for his HGV licence five days before the tragedy. Mitzi's funeral was held at Bath Abbey on 23rd February.

2015 Seven straw houses went on sale at Shirehampton - Bristol, clad in brick to fit in with the surroundings. Declared to be safe from 'huffing and puffing' the prefabricated timber walls, filled with straw bales were said to be 90% cheaper in terms of heating costs than traditional brick houses.

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On This Day 10th February
1306 In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn, his leading political rival, sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence. See  ©BB picture of the exterior of Greyfriars Church

1355 The St. Scholastica's Day Riots began in Oxford when University students clashed with townspeople in a three-day street battle, following a dispute about beer in The Swindlestock Tavern. 64 students were killed and 30 locals. The dispute was settled in favour of the university with a special charter. Annually thereafter, on 10th February, the town mayor and councillors had to march bareheaded through the streets and pay to the university a fine of one penny for every scholar killed. The penance ended in 1825 when the mayor refused to take part. See  ©BB picture of Oxford and its students, during more peaceful times!

1567 An explosion destroyed the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland. The second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, (Lord Darnly) was found strangled, in what many believe to be an assassination.

1763 Following the Seven Years War, the Treaty of Paris was signed, with France ceding Canada to Britain.

1774 Andrew Baker demonstrated his practical diving suit in the River Thames.

1787 The birth of William Bradley, often known as Giant Bradley or the Yorkshire Giant. He was the tallest recorded British man, measuring 7 feet 9 inches (2.36 m) tall. He was born at this house in Market Weighton (see ©BB picture) - East Riding of Yorkshire. See also close up of the plaque ( ©BB picture) on his birthplace. This full size, oak statue of him (see ©BB picture) is close to the house where he was born.

1824 The birth of Samuel Plimsoll, British politician and social reformer. He devised the Plimsoll Line, to thwart unscrupulous ship owners who regularly overloaded their 'coffin ships'. His safe loading line painted on the ships acted as a regulation for the weight that ships could safely carry. Rope sandals for sailors were also named after him.

1840 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, both aged 20, were married in St James' Palace, London.

1846 The birth of Charles Beresford, British admiral and politician. He was a well-known and popular figure who courted publicity and was widely known to the British public as 'Charlie B'. He was considered by many to be a personification of John Bull and was normally accompanied by his trademark, a bulldog.

1884 The birth of Frederick William Hawksworth, locomotive designer and Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway.

1894 The birth of Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, who, as British Prime Minister after Eden’s resignation following the Suez crisis, claimed ‘You’ve never had it so good’ and warned South Africa that ‘the wind of change’ was blowing through the continent. He was nicknamed ‘Supermac’.

1906 Britain's first modern & largest battleship, HMS Dreadnought, was launched. It established the pattern of the turbine-powered, “all-big-gun” warship, a type that dominated the world's navies for the next 35 years.

1988 Sir John Gielgud made theatrical history when, after an absence of ten years from the stage, he played the longest role ever for an actor of his age. Just weeks away from his 84th birthday he played Sydney Cockerell in The Best of Friends by Hugh Whitmore at the Apollo.

2005 Clarence House announced the engagement of the Prince of Wales and his long-term partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

2013 The Department for Transport announced that TV advertisements, which have been shown since the 60s, with characters such as Tufty the squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man would no longer be broadcast because of 're-prioritised' budgets.

2014 Jenny Jones from Bristol won bronze in the women’s snowboarding slopestyle event. Not only was it Britain’s first medal of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, but it was Britain's first ever medal on snow. Aged 33 she was also the oldest in the competition.

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On This Day 11th February
1466www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII and mother of King Henry VIII. She died, on her birthday in 1503 aged 37. In the children's nursery rhyme, 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' Elizabeth is reportedly the queen in the parlour, while her husband, with a reputation for thrift, is the king counting his money.

1531www.beautifulbritain.co.ukHenry VIII was recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.

1542www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCatherine Howard, the fifth queen consort of Henry VIII, was confined in the Tower of London to be executed three days later. Henry learned that Catherine had had several affairs before their marriage and had Parliament declare it treason for an unchaste woman to marry the king. The night before her execution, Catherine spent many hours practising how to lay her head upon the block.

1800www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of William Henry Fox Talbot, English pioneer of photography. Talbot's technique involved the use of a photographic negative, from which multiple prints could be made. His photograph of the Oriel window at Lacock Abbey, is the earliest camera negative in existence. See the  ©BB picture of his famous picture of the window at Lacock Abbey, and my, (not quite so famous) digital picture, of the same window!

1895www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This record was equalled, also at Braemar on 10th January 1982. Minus 27°C was also recorded at Altnaharra (Highland) on 30th December 1995.

1908www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBirth of Sir Vivien Fuchs, English geologist and leader of the Commonwealth Antarctic Expedition (1956-8).

1932www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth in Clay Cross, Derbyshire of Dennis Edward Skinner, former NUM leader and Labour Member of Parliament for Bolsover since 1970. He is known for never missing a Commons session, for his left-wing views and his acid tongue that has led to him being suspended from Parliament on at least ten occasions, usually for 'unparliamentary language' when attacking opponents.

1934www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of the racing driver John Surtees. He remains the only person to have won World Championships on both two and four wheels.

1956www.beautifulbritain.co.ukTwo British spies, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean, who had vanished in mysterious circumstances five years previously, re-appeared in the Soviet Union.

The death, by suicide, of the 30 year old, Boston born poet and novelist Sylvia Plath. She was married to fellow poet Ted Hughes. Hughes served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. Sylvia Plath is buried (see  ©BB picture) in the extension to Heptonstall graveyard, West Yorkshire

1971www.beautifulbritain.co.ukEighty-seven countries, including the UK, the United States and the USSR, sign the Seabed Treaty. It outlawed nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMargaret Thatcher won the Conservative Party Leadership and became the first woman leader of a British political party.

1976www.beautifulbritain.co.ukJohn Curry became the first Briton to win a gold medal for men’s figure skating.

1983www.beautifulbritain.co.ukPolice launched a mass murder investigation in London after discovering human remains in drains. Civil servant Dennis Andrew Nilsen, 37, was later charged with 12 murders and sentenced to six life sentences.

1993www.beautifulbritain.co.ukQueen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales both volunteered to pay income tax and capital gains tax on their private income. The Queen also took over civil list payments to junior members of the royal family.

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On This Day 13th February
1542www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCatherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.

1692www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe massacre of the MacDonalds at Glencoe, for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange. See  ©BB picture of Glencoe. The massacre began simultaneously in three settlements along the glen - Invercoe, Inverrigan, and Achnacon, although the killing took place all over the glen as the fleeing MacDonalds were pursued. Thirty eight MacDonalds from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe were killed and another forty women and children died of exposure after their homes were burned.

1938www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Oliver Reed, English actor. His films included Oliver, Women in Love and The Three Musketeers. His final role was as the elderly slave dealer Proximo in Gladiator, in which he played alongside Richard Harris, an actor whom Reed admired greatly.

1945www.beautifulbritain.co.uk1400 RAF and 450 US Airforce planes bombed Dresden in three waves over a 14-hour period, devastating one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Over a three-day period, 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiaries reduced much of the city to smouldering rubble and killed between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians.

1948www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Science Museum in London announced that it would return the Wright Brothers’ biplane, Kitty Hawk, the first to fly, to the Smithsonian Institution. It had been sent to England in 1928 by Orville Wright when he found that the Smithsonian had labelled another plane as the first capable of sustained flight.

1969www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAn announcement stated that eggs removed from a woman volunteer had been fertilized in a test tube as a result of work done at Cambridge University in collaboration with Dr. P. Steptoe at Oldham General Hospital.

1974www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Robbie Williams, former member of the pop group Take That. After many disagreements, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career but he rejoined Take That in 2009 and left again in 2012. The group released a new album in November 2010 which became the second fastest selling album of all time in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish mineworkers' leaders agreed to accept the coal board's latest pay offer of up to 35%.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Ben Collins, British racing driver. On 1st September 2010 the BBC was refused a court injunction to prevent the revelation that 'Stig', Top Gear's 'tame racing driver' was, in fact Ben Collins. In future Top Gear programmes the team regularly referred to him as 'sacked Stig'.

1978www.beautifulbritain.co.ukTomorrow's World presenter Anna Ford was officially announced as ITN's first female newsreader.

1987www.beautifulbritain.co.ukLondon’s property boom resulted in a 5ft 6in x 11ft broom cupboard opposite Harrods being offered for sale at £36,500 - over £600 per square foot.

1988www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Canada. English ski-jumper and plasterer Eddie Edwards, became the surprise sensation of the Games. The fearless contestant came last, but won all the headlines and the nickname The Eagle. His life story was made into a film, Eddie the Eagle, in 2016

2001www.beautifulbritain.co.ukStephen Kelly, aged 33, went on trial in Glasgow for knowingly infecting a woman with the HIV virus in a case believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland. He was found guilty of 'culpable and reckless conduct' and was sentenced to five years in prison.

2015 PC Robert Brown, who joined the Metropolitan Police in the era of 'Dixon of Dock Green', retired after 47-years service. He was the country's longest serving policeman. In recognition of his service, he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal at Buckingham Palace, one of the highest honours bestowed on police officers.

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On This Day 14th February
The Feast Day of St. Valentine, patron saint of lovers. In fact there were fourteen Saint Valentines of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on 14th February nothing is known, except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome 'on this day'. The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. Gretna Green, (see ©BB picture) historically the first village in Scotland, has been performing weddings since 1754. They originated from cross-border elopements stemming from differences between Scottish marriage laws and those in neighbouring countries.

1477www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMargery Brews sent a letter to John Paston in Norfolk, addressed - Be my olde Valentine. It is the oldest known Valentine's Day message in the English language and was uncovered by the British Library. Read more on the BBC's website.

1556www.beautifulbritain.co.ukFormer Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, was declared a heretic. He was tried for treason and heresy after Mary I, a Roman Catholic, came to the throne. Although he apparently reconciled himself with the Roman Catholic Church, on the day of his execution, on 21st March 1556, he dramatically withdrew earlier statements and was thus a heretic to Roman Catholics and a martyr to others.

1779www.beautifulbritain.co.ukCaptain Cook, British explorer, navigator and cartographer, was stabbed to death on the beach at Kealakekua (Hawaii) by the Polynesian natives. Numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him, including this one at Whitby (see ©BB picture) where Cook served as a merchant navy apprentice.

1797www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Spanish fleet was defeated off Cape St. Vincent by Admiral John Jervis and Captain Horatio Nelson. Nelson was born here, see ©BB picture, at Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk and subsequently became a British national hero.

1852www.beautifulbritain.co.ukLondon’s famous children’s hospital in Great Ormond Street accepted its first patient, three year-old Eliza Armstrong. It was the first hospital in the English speaking world providing in-patient beds specifically for children.

1922www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMarconi began regular broadcasting transmissions from Essex.

1945www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: Prague was bombed, probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.

1946www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Bank of England was nationalized by the Atlee government.

1963www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish politician Harold Wilson was elected leader of the Labour Party following the death of former leader Hugh Gaitskell.

1975www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of the writer, Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, generally known as P.G. Wodehouse. His career lasted more than 70 years and included novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He wrote 15 plays and 250 lyrics for some 30 musical comedies, but is perhaps best remembered for his stories of the butler Jeeves and his master Bertie Wooster.

1984www.beautifulbritain.co.ukBritish ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won the ice dance gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, gaining maximum points for artistic expression.

1989www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe spiritual leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, condemned Salman Rushdie’s award-winning novel, The Satanic Verses, as an insult to Islam and issued a fatwa (edict) calling on Muslims to kill the author for committing blasphemy. Rushdie and his family went into hiding.

1995 Sizewell B nuclear processing plant in Suffolk, first synchronised with the national grid. It was the UK's only commercial pressurised water reactor (PWR) power station, with a single reactor.

2003www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, was put down after being diagnosed with a severe lung infection.

2006www.beautifulbritain.co.ukChip and PIN was introduced. UK cardholders had to use their PIN (Personal Identification Number) to be sure that they could pay for goods.

2014 The death (aged 91) of former Preston and England footballer Sir Tom Finney. Finney scored 210 goals in 473 league appearances for Preston North End between 1946 and 1960 and won 76 caps for England. He twice won the footballer of the year title, in 1953-54 and 1956-57. The Preston stadium is located on Sir Tom Finney Way and this statue (see ©BB picture) stands outside the ground, while inside, a stand was renamed in his honour in 1995.

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On This Day 15th February
1849www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Sir Rickman John Godlee, an English surgeon. In 1884, at the Epileptic Hospital, Regent’s Park, he became one of the first to surgically remove a tumour of the brain.

1874www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth, in Ireland, of Sir Ernest Shackleton, British Antarctic explorer. He went on Scott’s original expedition in 1901-4 before leading his own in 1907, which got within a short distance of the South Pole.

1901www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWinston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time, as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.

1928www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAfter some 70 years of work, the 1st Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed.

1928www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe death of the statesman and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. During his time in office (1908 - 1916) Asquith attempted to introduce home rule in Ireland, provoking fierce opposition in Ulster and amongst the Conservative opposition. Civil war over the issue in Ireland was only averted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.

1929www.beautifulbritain.co.ukGraham Hill, British motor racing world champion, was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport �" the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.

1942 www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.

1952www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Queen's father, King George VI, was was laid to rest in St .George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.

1955www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Government unveiled plans to construct 12 nuclear power stations in the following decade, at a cost of £300 million.

1971www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.

1978www.beautifulbritain.co.ukNew Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time, after 48 years of matches.

1981www.beautifulbritain.co.ukAn English Football League match was played on a Sunday for the first time.

1986www.beautifulbritain.co.ukEight police officers were injured in an outbreak of violence outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London. Similar mass protests had taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant since the start of a strike three weeks previously over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street.

2003www.beautifulbritain.co.ukProtests against the Iraq war occurred in over 600 cities worldwide. Estimates from 8,000,000 - 30,000,000 people took part, making it the largest peace demonstration ever.

2015 Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime, with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware, which lurked in the networks for months, gathering information and feeding it back to the gang. The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices, as they gathered the data they needed to steal.

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On This Day 16th February
1646www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Battle of Torrington, in Devon. It was the last major battle of the first English Civil War and marked the end of the Royalist resistance in the west country.

1659www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe first British cheque (for £10) was written by Nicholas Vanacker and is now in the archives of the National Westminster Bank.

1801www.beautifulbritain.co.ukPitt (the Younger) resigned as British Prime Minister when George III rejected his plans for the emancipation of Irish Catholics.

1923www.beautifulbritain.co.ukHoward Carter, having discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun 12 months previously, lifted the lid off the sarcophagus to reveal a golden effigy of the young king.

1927www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of actress June Muriel Brown, MBE. She is best known for her role as the busy-body, chain-smoking gossip Dot Cotton in the long-running British soap opera EastEnders.

1940www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWorld War II: In a daring night raid, known as the Altmark incident, a boarding party from HMS Cossack successfully rescued 299 British prisoners of war from the Altmark, a 12,000 ton German tanker, in Norwegian waters. The Altmark was returning to Germany with the merchant sailors who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

1946www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of actor Ian Lavender. His best remembered role was as Private Frank Pike, the youngest member and 'stupid boy' of the platoon in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army. Lavender has a 'cameo role' in the 2016 film adaptation of the series and the actor Frank William takes the role of the Reverend Timothy Farthing. The Dad's Army went on general release in cinemas on 5th February 2016.

1950www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe birth of Peter Hain Labour Party politician. He served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and as both Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Wales under Brown.

1957www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDeath of the politician Leslie Hore-Belisha, minister of Transport who introduced the driving test, the Highway Code and the Belisha beacon used at zebra crossings.

1965www.beautifulbritain.co.ukA 2nd report from British Railways' Board chairman Dr. Richard Beeching outlined transport needs for the following 25 years. The report followed his 1st controversial review of the state of the railways, published in 1963 in which he said the system was uneconomic and under-used, and recommended that a quarter of the railway system should be shut down.

1972www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMany homes and businesses were without electricity for up to nine hours a day from this day. Miners, into the sixth week of their strike over pay, picketed power stations and all other sources of fuel supply in an attempt to step up pressure on the Government.

1985www.beautifulbritain.co.ukMinistry of Defence assistant secretary Clive Ponting resigned from his post. He was charged with leaking two documents about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano in the 1982 Falklands War.

1989www.beautifulbritain.co.ukDr. Raymond Crockett, a Harley Street nephrologist, resigned as the director of the National Kidney Centre after revelations that kidneys had been purchased from impoverished Turks to be used in transplants for wealthy patients.

1990www.beautifulbritain.co.ukWives of Royal Navy seamen protested over a decision to allow WRENs (women sailors) to go to sea.

2005www.beautifulbritain.co.ukThe Kyoto Protocol that aimed to slow down global warming took effect, but the US and Australia refused to support it.

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This Day In History Updated Daily Today Is February 17, 2018 Find Out For Next 7 Days - February - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24


1967 - Beatle's Release Double A Side Single
1967 : The Beatles release the double A-sided single in the United States with Penny Lane ( Paul McCartney ) on one side and "Strawberry Fields Forever" ( John Lennon ) on the other side. Find More What happened in 1967

1992 - U.S.A. Jeffrey Dahmer
1992 : Jeffrey Dahmer, was sentenced today to 15 consecutive life sentences and will never be eligible for parole by a Wisconsin court, he had practiced necrophilia and cannibalism on 15 young men and boys. On November 28th 1994 he was murdered by a fellow inmate, who bludgeoned him to death with a metal bar.

17 Feb, 2003 - Chicago Nightclub Stampede
2003 : 21 people are killed in a stampede at the crowded "The Epitome" nightclub in Chicago.

Back In Time Gifts For All Occasions
1911 - U.S.A. Electric Start
1911 : The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac By GM. Up till this time and all cars needed to be started by cranking a starting handle which was hard work and caused multiple minor injuries when the car backfired during the starting process.

1911 - Italy Madame Butterfly
1911 : Puccini's opera 'Madame Butterfly' which tells the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly has its world premiere at La Scala in Milan, Italy.

1925 - The New Yorker
1925 : The New Yorker is published for the first time. The New Yorker is a weekly magazine with a focus on the cultural life of New York City.

Back In Time Gifts
1933 - U.S.A. Blaine Act
1933 : After many years of prohibition in the United States the senate passed the Blaine Act which would signal the end of prohibition after many dry years.

1937 - U.S.A. James Curley
1937 : James Curley had been let out of jail after the fourth jury ballot had taken place. He was originally charged of killing eight men and seven women on the evening of December 5th Although he was acquitted of murder charges, he faced jail for another reason. He was charged of illegally entering this country (the United States).

1938 - U.S.A. Farming Controls
1938 : On this day, a future date has been set for voting on cotton and tobacco farming controls. The voting for this legislation has been set for March 12, tentatively. Over two million farmers were expected to participate in a referendum regarding farming control. The referendum (yes or no) question that was to be presented to farmers was the following: “Do you favor marketing quotas for cotton (or tobacco) in 1938?” This referendum was intended to stop too much crop from being produced. A two-thirds majority would be needed to pass this law.

1947 - Russia Voice Of America
1947 : With the start of the cold war following World War II America introduced the transmission of Voice Of America to the Russian People as part of it's propaganda campaign against Communism and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

17 Feb, 1950 - British Spy
1950 : American businessman Robert A. Vogeler Jr’s assistant Edgar Sanders from Britain had pleaded guilty of espionage (spying activities) and sabotage. He was believed to be a spy for the British for about ten years (since 1940).

1956 - Canada St. Lawrence Seaway
1956 : With the construction of The St. Lawrence Seaway Continuing at an intense pace the Canadian Authorities are now facing the relocation of 6,500 people who lived in 1 town, 8 villages and 225 farms who live in the area where the Long Sault Dam will flood over 20,000 acres. They are committed to creating complete new villages for all these people as part of the project which when finished will be a truly great feat of construction and engineering expertise.

1965 - Gambia Independence
1965 : Gambia becomes the smallest sovereign state in Africa and the last of Britain's West African colonies to gain independence.

1972 - Germany Volkswagen Beetle
1972 : The 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle rolled out of the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, surpassing the Ford Model T's previous production record to become the most heavily produced car in history, By by June 23rd, 1992 there had been over 21 million Beetles produced. The Beetle is the world's best selling car design, but the Toyota Corrola has sold more ( currently over 30 million cars ) since introduced in 1966 but with many major design changes.

1979 - China Invades Vietnam
1979 : As of the Vietnam War was not enough, the country of China had invaded Vietnam during this year, on this date. Tensions between these two countries had increased dramatically since the end of the Vietnam War. A major reason for the increased animosity between these two nations was because of the strengthening of the ties between Vietnam and the Soviet Union (China’s enemy at the time). The Invasion of Vietnam by China was in reaction to an invasion of Cambodia initiated by Vietnam. The worst and bloodiest of fighting occurred within the first nine days of this battle. However, these countries remained cold towards one another for ten years after this fierce battle. China invaded Vietnam with 90,000 troops supported by tanks, the invasion was short lived and China withdrew from Vietnam within 1 month.

1986 - U.S.A. Ann Tyler
1986 : The National Critics Book Circle Award was given to Ann Tyler. She had written a book The Accidental Tourist, for which the award she received was given. This book was about the death of the son of the main character, and of his divorce. It was later made into a movie.

1987 - England Asylum Seekers
1987 : A group of Tamils from Sri Lanka seeking asylum in Britain protest at Heathrow airport by removing their clothes as they are about to be deported, The group were taken to a detention centre. They were eventually deported after a lengthy high court case back to Sri Lanka.

Back In Time Gifts
17 Feb, 1993 - Haiti Ferry Disaster
1993 : The Neptune, a passenger ferry, had sunk after it had overturned . Approximately 900 people had drowned.

1995 - U.S.A. Colin Ferguson
1995 : Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder for the Long Island Rail Road Commuter Train murders.

2006 - Philippine Mud Slide
2006 : A massive mudslide buries the village of Guinsaugonin in the Philippine province of Southern Leyte including burying the local elementary school with nearly 250 children, only one of the children was rescued alive. The number of deaths in total in the village and surrounding area is estimated at 1,100.

2006 - Palestinian Authority Asked to Return U.S. Aid
2006 : Washington has asked the Palestinian Authority to return $50 million of American aid. The State Department has said that it is unhappy with the aid going to the Hamas-led government that refuses to recognize Israel. The State Department later said that Mahmoud Abbas' caretaker government have agreed to return the money, which was given for infrastructure projects in the light of Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

2007 - Hillary Clinton Says Will Withdraw Troops from Iraq
2007 : Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a ninety-day deadline to start pulling American troops out of Iraq. Senator Clinton has been criticized by some members of her Party for supporting the war in 2002, and not renouncing her vote. 'Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in ninety days or Congress will revoke authorization for the war,' she said in the video that was on her campaign website. This is the second Democratic presidential hopeful to have called for a pull out of troops from Iraq following Barack Obama's call for U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq earlier in the week.

2007 - US Senate Blocks Vote on Iraqi Surge
2007 : The Senate has decided not to debate a resolution criticizing President Bush's troop surge in Iraq. The rare Saturday session followed a non-binding vote on the resolution in the House of Representatives. Seventeen Republicans had joined the majority Democrats to oppose the increase of 21,500 troops. Democrats needed the support of sixty of the one hundred senators to advance the same motion in the Senate, but they only managed to gain fifty-six votes in favor. Mr. Bush will still face a battle with Congress over funding for U.S. troops in Iraq.

2007 - Sylvester Stallone Held by Australian Customs
2007 : Customs officers in Sydney have freed actor Sylvester Stallone after holding him for several hours, and confiscating items from his staffs' suitcases. Officials have said that X-rays revealed banned products, but would not give any further details on them. Stallone dismissed his detention as 'a misunderstanding,' and said that the officers were 'doing a great job.' He was in Australia to promote Rocky Balboa.

2008 - Kosovo Declares independence
2008 : Kosovo's parliament has endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia. The Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, has promised a democracy that respects the rights of all ethnic communities, and the Serbian Prime Minister has denounced the United States for helping create a 'false state.' The Security Council was split on the issue, with Russia saying that there was no basis for changing a 1999 resolution that handed Kosovo to the U.N.
European Union foreign ministers have ended talks on Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia with member states being divided on their recognition of it. France said that it would recognize its independence, but several member states, led by Spain, were unhappy about the legal ramifications it held. President Bush has said that Kosovo's people were 'independent,' but stopped short of a formal recognition of the state. Russia backed Serbia in its refusal to recognize the secession.

2009 - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Becomes Law
2009 : President Obama signs the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) into law in Denver, Colorado. The plan is aimed at saving or creating 3.5 million jobs, boosting consumer spending and rebuilding the economy's infrastructure. Republicans have said that its tax cuts are insufficient, and that the economy will be saddled with debt for years to come.

2010 - Recriminations for Fake French Wine Sold to America
2010 : A dozen French winemakers and traders have been found guilty of a scam to sell 18 million bottles of fake Pinot Noir to a leading U.S. buyer. The judge in Carcassonne has said that the producers' and traders' actions had damaged the reputation of the Languedoc region of France. The guilty parties more than doubled their profits by falsely labeling the wine as a Pinot Noir, and selling it to the E & J Gallo winery. E & J Gallo, themselves, were not involved in the case, and some 13.5m litres of fake wine have been shipped to the United States. The French press have laughed at the Americans' inability to tell the difference between bouquets.

2011 - Tourist Boat Sinks in Vietnam
2011 : A boat carrying tourists across Halong Bay in Vietnam sank carrying over twenty-five passengers. Fifteen people were rescued while another twelve, including the tour guide, drowned.

2012 - Robbers Take Priceless Artifacts from Greek Museum
2012 : Thieves raided a Greek museum that showcased the history of the Olympics in the city of Olympia and stole dozens of priceless artifacts after overpowering the guard. Some officials have stated that recent cuts due to Greece's financial crisis have compromised the security of Museums and other places that showcase the historical treasures of the country.

2013 - Greece Attack on Gold Mine
2013 : Masked attackers raided the Hellas gold mine in Greece, dozens of people set fire to machinery and vehicles. The site had been a subject of protesters worried that it would damage the environment.

2014 - Saudi Arabia First Woman Newspaper Editor in Chief
2014 : The Saudi Gazette made Somayya Jibarti the newspaper's editor in chief, marking the first time a woman would hold such a position in the country. Her successor wrote about the decision to put her in charge and made sure to state that her position was granted solely on merit. The decision marked a huge moment for women's rights in Saudi Arabia.


Born This Day In History 17th February
Celebrating Birthdays Today
Patricia Routledge
Born: Katherine Patricia Routledge 17th February 1929, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England
Known For : Patricia Routledge is best known in Britain but if you watch PBS in the U.S. you will have seen and recognized her in a number of BBC series including as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances and the mystery drama Hetty Wainthropp Investigates. She is also a well respected West End Theatre and Broadway actress who has won a number of awards for her acting.
Barry Humphries
Born: 17th February 1934 Kew, Melbourne, Australia
Known For : Barry Humphries is best known for his role as the television alter ego Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. If you have never seen his character acting as Dame Edna, the chances are you will iether love him or hate him. Enjoy the video hope it tickles your fancy as the Brits say.

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This Week In History 7
Taken From Our This Day In History From
February 12th to February 18th
1911 The First Electric Self Start was installed in a Cadillac
1912 Hsian-T'ung, the last emperor of China Forced To Abdicate
1912 Arizona becomes the 48th state of the union
1921 South Africa Independence
1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen Opened
1924 Calvin Coolidge Gives First Presidential Radio Address
1925 The New Yorker is published for the first time
1929 Sir Alexander Fleming discovers Penicillin
1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre
1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th straight World Women's figure skating title in Montreal
1935 Bruno Hauptmann convicted of the Lindbergh baby murder
1937 Dust storms hit five states-in Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico
1939 Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon
1942 World War II Singapore Surrenders To Japanese
1945 World War II Dresdon Bombing
1948 NASCAR holds its first race for modified stock cars on a 3.2 mile-course at Daytona Beach
1958 The first Trans Atlantic passenger jetliner service
1959 Fidel Castro sworn in as prime minister of Cuba.
1960 France becomes the worlds fourth atomic power
1962 First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House shown on Television
1965 Canada adopts Maple Leaf For Canadian Flag
1965 Beeching Report on British Railways Closes 25%
1968 First 911 emergency telephone system in Haleyville, Ala
1971 England D Day introduces Decimal Currency
1972 British Miners Strike
1974 Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn Charged with treason
1975 British Coal Miners get 35% Pay Rise
1982 The world's largest oil rig ( The Ocean Ranger ) Sinks In North Atlantic
1989 Soviet troops withdraw from Afghanistan
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer, sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences
2001 Dale Earnhardt died in a crash during the Daytona 500
2005 The Kyoto accord Comes Into Force
2005 Fox hunting with dogs becomes illegal in England and Wales
2007 Trolley Square Mall Shooting
2008 Shooting At Northern Illinois University
2008 Kosovo Declares independence