1901 – Winston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time, as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.

1928 – After some 70 years of work, the 1st Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. Originally, the Philological Society predicted that the dictionary would take about 10 years to complete. Twenty-seven years later, the editors had successfully reached the word ant. Knowing it would be a while until a completed book was ready, they began publishing unbound editions of the work-in-progress in 1884. The first full volume was eventually published in 1928, more than 70 years after the society first came up with the idea.

1928 – The death of the statesman and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith. During his time in office (1908 – 1916) Asquith attempted to introduce home rule in Ireland, provoking fierce opposition in Ulster and amongst the Conservative opposition. Civil war over the issue in Ireland was only averted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914.

1929 – Graham Hill, British motor racing world champion, was born. He won the Formula One World Championship twice and was the only driver to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport — the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500 and the Formula One World Championship. Graham Hill and his son Damon are the only father and son pair to have both won the Formula One World Championship. Hill and five of his team members died in 1975 when the aeroplane he was piloting crashed in foggy conditions near Arkley golf course in London.

1942 – World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrendered. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war. It was the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.

1952 – The Queen’s father, King George VI, was was laid to rest in St .George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

1955 – The Government unveiled plans to construct 12 nuclear power stations in the following decade, at a cost of £300 million.

1971 – The British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.

1978 – New Zealand won a Test Series against England for the first time, after 48 years of matches.

1981 – An English Football League match was played on a Sunday for the first time.

1986 – Eight police officers were injured in an outbreak of violence outside the News International printing plant in Wapping, east London. Similar mass protests had taken place regularly outside the Wapping plant since the start of a strike three weeks previously over new working conditions and the move from Fleet Street.

2003 – Protests against the Iraq war occurred in over 600 cities worldwide. Estimates from 8,000,000 – 30,000,000 people took part, making it the largest peace demonstration ever.

2015 – Investigators uncovered what is thought to be the biggest ever cybercrime, with more than £650 million going missing from banks around the world. British banks were thought to have lost tens of millions of pounds after a gang of Russian based hackers infiltrated the bank’s internal computer systems using malware, which lurked in the networks for months, gathering information and feeding it back to the gang. The illegal software was so sophisticated that it allowed the criminals to view video feeds from within supposedly secure offices, as they gathered the data they needed to steal.