1953 - Gordon Richards became the first jockey to be knighted. Six days later he won the Derby at his 28th attempt. On This Day in 1977 and 1983, Lester Piggott won his eighth and ninth Derbys.

1859 - The clock in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament was started, with the bell (Big Ben) sounding for the first time on 11th July.

1914 - The new, and at that time the largest Cunard ocean liner, RMS Aquitania weighing 45,647 tons, set sails on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City.

1954 - Diane Leather, of Birmingham University, became the first woman to run a mile in under 5 minutes. Her time was 4 min 59.6 seconds.

1951 - BBC radio broadcast the first edition of The Goon Show, starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.

1852 - The opening of Grimsby Royal Dock. Grimsby once had the largest fishing fleet in the world. Albert, Prince Consort laid the first stone on 17th April 1849.

1897 - Dracula, a novel by Irish author Bram Stoker was published. The town of Whitby in North Yorkshire, has associations with Bram Stoker as he based much of his Dracula novel here whilst staying in Whitby in 1890.

1967 - Glasgow Celtic became the first British football club to win the European Cup beating Inter Milan 2-1 in Lisbon.

1891 - Princess Alexandrina Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London, the only daughter of the Duke of Kent. As Queen Victoria, she reigned for 63 years, from 1837 until her death in 1901.