August 12th – On This Day
1964 - A massive manhunt got under way across Britain after Charlie Wilson, one of the gang involved in the Great Train Robbery, broke out of the high-security Winson Green prison in Birmingham.
August 11th – On This Day
2016 - Scientists discovered the oldest living Greenland Shark, with an estimated age of 392 years old. The international team of scientists declared the shark the longest-living vertebrate in the world.
August 10th – On This Day
2017 - A century-old fruit cake was discovered in Antarctica that was “almost edible.” The cake was found wrapped in paper inside a tin, and it is believed to have been made by the British biscuit company Huntley & Palmers.
August 9th – On This Day
1984 - Daley Thompson of Great Britain scores 8,797 points to win the Olympic decathlon in Los Angeles and broke the world record for the event four times. He was unbeaten in competition for nine years.
August 8th – On This Day
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.
August 7th – On This Day
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.
August 6th – On This Day
2012 - Pioneering astronomer and physicist Sir Bernard Lovell, the founder of University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory died, aged 98.
August 5th – On This Day
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.
August 4th – On This Day
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).