1958 - Prime Minister Harold Macmillan opened the Preston bypass in Lancashire. It was the first stretch of motorway in Britain and is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.

1952 - A lethal fog began to cover London, lasting for five days, causing the term “smog” to be termed – a combination of smoke and fog.

1926 - Agatha Christie disappeared from her Surrey home and was discovered on the 14th December staying under an assumed name at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate. She said she had no recollection of how she came to be in Yorkshire.

1697 - The rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral, the work of Sir Christopher Wren, was opened. The previous cathedral had been destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

2010 - Large parts of the UK were brought to a standstill by the early freeze. Temperatures plunged again overnight to -16C (3F) in the Scottish Highland after one of the coldest starts to December in more than 20 years.

1934 - The steam locomotive Flying Scotsman (Engine No. 4472) became the first to officially exceed 100mph. She recently underwent major restoration at the National Railway Museum in York.

1907 - British nurse Florence Nightingale, aged 87 (at the time of her presentation), was presented with the Order of Merit by Edward VII for her work tending the wounded during the Crimean War.

1935 - The Miles quadruplets (Ann, Ernest, Michael and Paul) were born in Cambridgeshire and were the first British quads to survive infancy.

1976 - The four millionth ‘Mini’ car left the production line. More than ten million Minis have been built and sold worldwide since 1959 and almost as many of the new ones have been built in the last 27 years under BMW.