1999 - British balloonist Brian Jones and Swiss physicist Bertrand Piccard became the first to fly a hot-air balloon non-stop around the world. They eventually landed in the Egyptian desert after a 45,755-kilometer (28,431-mile) flight lasting 19 days, 21 hours, and 47 minutes.

1969 - The 385-metre-tall (1,263 ft) TV-mast at Emley Moor transmitting station, United Kingdom, collapses due to ice build-up. The falling mast caused damage to a chapel and the transmitter building, but thankfully, no one was injured.

1960 - The steam locomotive, Evening Star (No. 92220), the last steam locomotive built by British Railways was named at Swindon Works after the name was chosen from a competition in the BR Western Region Staff Magazine.

2015 - The UK's first Bio-Bus, nicknamed 'the poo bus' was officially launched in Bristol as "Service Number 2". Powered entirely on gas generated by human and food waste, it went into regular service on 25th March.

1689 - The 23rd Regiment of Foot (later known as the Royal Welch Fusiliers) was founded to oppose James II and the imminent war with France.

1909 - Selfridges store (named after its owner Harry Gordon Selfridge) was opened in London’s Oxford Street. In September 1997 they opened their first store outside London when the Trafford Centre (Manchester) opened.

1945 - The 617 Dambuster Squadron of the RAF dropped the heaviest bomb of the war (the 22,000-pound "Grand Slam") on the Bielefeld railway viaduct in Germany.

2015 - Lesley Simpson became the first female Guizer Jarl (chief Viking) in the 130-year history of Shetland’s world famous fire festivals. The event is one of several Viking-themed torchlit processions that are held on Shetland every year.

1941 - Islanders on the Hebrides hid thousands of bottles of shipwrecked whisky from government officials. The episode was celebrated in the film "Whisky Galore."