1945 - Captain H J Wilson became the first man to exceed 600 miles per hour (970 km/h), flying a Gloster Meteor jet fighter at Herne Bay. The aircraft was powered by two 3,500 lb thrust Rolls Royce Derwent V turbojets.

1975 - UK punk rock group, the Sex Pistols, gave their first public performance at London’s St Martin’s College of Art. College authorities cut the concert short after a mere 10 minutes.

1605 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested in the cellars of the Houses of Parliament, where he had planted gunpowder in an attempt to blow up the building and kill King James I of England.

2001 - The first Harry Potter film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” premiered in Leicester Square, London introducing young stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.

1957 - The Soviet Union sent a dog into space aboard spacecraft Sputnik II. The dog called Laika was the first living organism to be sent into orbit from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

2012 - It was announced that more than 100 post boxes, painted gold to celebrate the success of Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes, would remain gold on a permanent basis.

1611 - William Shakespeare had his first known performance of “The Tempest.” The performance was at the Whitehall Palace and performed for James I and his English Royal Court.

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.