1900 - Charlotte Cooper from Ealing in Middlesex won a gold medal in the women’s tennis singles tournament in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. She also won a gold medal in the mixed doubles, making her the first individual female Olympic champion.

1940 - World War II: The first in a long series of German bombing raids against Great Britain, as the Battle of Britain, which lasted three and a half months, began.

1984 - A significant fire, initiated by a lightning strike, caused substantial damage to York Minster, with estimated repair costs exceeding £2.25 million. The fire, which began in the early hours of July 9th, ravaged the south transept, requiring over four years for restoration.

1996 - A patent was filed by two British scientists to use genetically engineered mosquitoes to immunize their victims against malaria by transferring a protein in their saliva.

2013 - Andy Murray won his first Wimbledon title and ended Britain’s 77 year wait for a men’s champion with a victory over world number one Novak Djokovic. The Scot won 6-4, 7-5 and 6-4.

1988 - An explosion aboard the North Sea oil rig Piper Alpha, off the coast of Aberdeen, resulted in the loss of 167 lives. It is the world’s deadliest ever oil rig accident.

2012 - The Shard, Western Europe’s tallest building to date standing at a height of 309.6 meters (1,016 feet) and ‘a gleaming feat of glass and gravity-defying engineering’, was officially unveiled in London.

1990 - Paul Gascoigne collected a booking against West Germany, which would have ruled him out of the FIFA World Cup final if England got there. This resulted in the famous on pitch crying scenes.

1954 - The end of food rationing in Britain, almost 9 years after the end of World War II. Smithfield Meat Market in London opened at midnight instead of 6am to cope with the demand for beef.