1940 - The German Luftwaffe began a series of daylight air raids on Britain and so began The Battle of Britain which would continue into the following October.

1995 - British athlete Jonathan Edwards twice broke his own world triple jump record, becoming the first man to clear 18 metres - whilst winning the gold medal in the World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg.

2012 - Pioneering astronomer and physicist Sir Bernard Lovell, the founder of University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory died, aged 98.

1996 - It was reported that the long running UK TV music show "Top Of The Pops" had hit rock bottom with it's lowest audience ever - only two and a half million viewers. In its heyday the show attracted over 17 million viewers each week.

2012 - The annual stinging nettle-eating competition, started in 1986, was held at The Bottle Inn pub at Marshwood near Bridport in Dorset. The current record at the event for the most amount of nettles eaten in one hour is 76ft (23m).

1926 - Manually operated three-colour traffic lights were first used in Piccadilly, London with automatic traffic lights making their first appearance on an experimental basis in Princes Square, Wolverhampton, during November 1927.

2014 - 49 year old Stuart Kettell completed his challenge to push a Brussels sprout up Snowdon using his nose. It took him 3 days and he raised more than £6000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

2017 - The reopening, after a £19 million restoration, of the Piece Hall in Halifax, one of Britain’s most outstanding Georgian buildings. Originally built in 1779 to support the trading of cloth, it has been a meeting point of Halifax’s commercial, civic and cultural life for almost 250 years.

1970 - The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy. The centuries-old tradition of issuing alcohol to the sailors of British warships came to the end with the final tots of rum being handed out that morning in ships and establishments around the world.