1759 - Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and started brewing Guinness at the St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin. Ten years later Guinness exported his ale for the first time, when six and a half barrels were shipped to Britain.

1999 - George Harrison is stabbed in the chest when an intruder breaks into his home in Henley-on-Thames. Wife Olivia fights the attacker off by hitting him over the head with a lamp.

2013 - A painting bought for £400 and featured on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow was revealed to be a Van Dyck portrait worth about £400,000.

1915 - The British Cabinet decides to institute compulsory military service, with single men to be conscripted before married ones.

1977 - Thousands of people flocked to UK cinemas to watch the long-awaited blockbuster, Star Wars.

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.