1848 - WH Smith opened its first railway bookstall, at Euston Station in London. These bookstalls become outlets for cheap editions of publications produced for railway travellers, the popular 'yellowbacks'.

The Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “SAH-win”), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts.

1990 - English and French tunnellers met for the first time underneath the English Channel during the construction of the Channel Tunnel.

2013 - The Lonely Planet Guide named Yorkshire as one of the top places in the world to visit. It put the area third in the top 10 world regions, behind destinations in India and Australia.

1959 - The first use of a car phone, with a call from Cheshire to London. A mere twenty five people had paid the astronomical sum of £200 each for one of the phones.

2016 - A letter John Lennon wrote to the Queen explaining why he was returning his MBE was found tucked in a record sleeve from a £10 car boot haul. It was later valued at £60,000.

1918 - Stonehenge was given over to the British Government by its private landowner. Cecil Chubb donated the monument to the government and was the last private individual to own Stonehenge.

1964 - The Beatles won five UK Ivor Novello Awards – 1963’s Most Broadcast Song, and Top-Selling Single ‘She Loves You’, Second Best-Selling Single ‘I Want to Hold your Hand’, Second Most Outstanding Song ‘All My Loving’, and the Most Outstanding Contribution to Music.

2003 - The legendary supersonic aircraft, Concorde, landed for the final time amid emotional scenes at Heathrow airport. The final transatlantic flight, ending 27 years of supersonic history, carried 100 celebrities from New York.