1900 – Coca Cola first went on sale in Britain, fourteen years after it was first sold in the U.S.A. Charles Chandler, the eldest son of the founder came to Britain with a jug of cola syrup. It proved so popular that five more gallons were ordered immediately from America. 

1908 – At the age of 60, and after a career spanning 43 years , the legendary English cricketer W.G. Grace retired from first class cricket. He had scored a total of 54,896 runs (including 126 centuries), taken 2,879 wickets and held 871 catches.

1913 – The birth of Sir Bernard Lovell, OBE, English physicist, radio astronomer and the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, Cheshire from 1945 to 1980. With University funding, he constructed the then-largest steerable radio telescope in the world, which now bears his name – the Lovell Telescope. Sir Bernard died on 6th August 2012.

1936 – The 1st woman TV announcer, Elizabeth Cowell, made her debut at Alexandra Palace.

1939 – Nazi forces, posing as Poles, mounted a staged attack on the German radio station at Gleiwitz, in Poland, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.

1962 – Mountaineers Chris Bonington and Ian Clough become first Britons to conquer the north face of the Eiger. The 13,040 ft. climb took them two days and was one of the fastest ever. Within three hours of reaching the summit they were back in their hotel room.

1968 – West Indian cricketer Gary Sobers becomes the first batsman to score six ‘sixes’ in one over while playing for Nottinghamshire against Glamorgan at Swansea. The unfortunate bowler was Malcolm Nash.

1986 – The death of Henry Moore, English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. See ©BB picture of ‘Draped Seated Woman’ at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

1989 – Buckingham Palace issued a brief statement stating that the Princess Royal, Princess Anne, was separating from her husband, Captain Mark Phillips.

1994 – The IRA agreed to a complete cessation of military operations.

1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul are killed when their car crashes in a Paris underpass while being pursued by paparazzi.

2013 – BT turned off its dial-up internet (DUN) access service. The best dial-up modems despatched data along telephone lines at speeds of up to 56 kilobits per second compared with most broadband technologies that work in the megabits per second range. In 2010, the last year for which figures were available, an Ofcom spokesman said that about 800,000 people in remote areas still used ‘dial-up’.

2013 – The death, at the age of 74, of veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost, after a heart attack while on board a cruise ship. His career spanned journalism, comedy writing and daytime television presenting, including The Frost Report.