2015 - Weeks of heavy rain led to the worst floods Hebden Bridge (West Yorkshire) had ever seen. 1600 businesses were affected. 45% of flooded premises suffered structural damage, 75% lost stock and 46% lost office equipment – almost double the losses faced after the floods in summer 2012. By early spring 2016 almost 40% of businesses in the town were still closed.

2021 - The James Webb Space Telescope was launched from the Guiana Space Center. Jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, the telescope is the most advanced infrared telescope ever built.

1914 - World War 1 – Not a shot was fired, as German & British soldiers played football & handed out drinks, cigars & souvenirs.

1972 - Sixteen plane crash survivors were rescued after being stranded in the Andes for seventy days. Although 33 of the 45 onboard survived the crash, injuries and severe weather conditions killed many more. Survivors had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

2010 - The Abbey Road zebra crossing in north London, made famous after appearing on a Beatles album cover was given Grade II listed status. The crossing, was being recognised for its "cultural and historical importance" following advice from English Heritage.

2020 - The death (aged 103) of RAF ‘Spitfire woman’ Eleanor Wadsworth. She was the last surviving of about 165 women to have taken on the task of transporting aircraft to the frontlines during World War II. The women operated out of White Waltham in Berkshire and flew without instruments, flying instructions or radios.

1928 - Harry Ramsden started his fish and chip restaurant in a hut at White Cross – Guiseley, near Bradford in West Yorkshire. It soon became the most famous fish and chip restaurant in the world.

1843 - English author Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol, which became one of the outstanding Christmas stories of modern literature. This popular novella sold out by Christmas Eve, selling 6,000 copies. Since then, “A Christmas Carol” has never gone out of print.

2018 - A meteor explodes in a huge fireball over the Bering Sea with 10 times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.