1840 – The Treaty of Waitangi was signed, giving Britain sovereignty over New Zealand. 

1918 – The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.

1931 – Fred Trueman, Former Yorkshire and England cricketer was born. Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968. He represented England in 67 Test matches and was the first bowler to take 300 wickets in a Test career. British Prime Minister Harold Wilson described him as the ‘greatest living Yorkshireman’, yet Trueman was omitted from numerous Test teams because he was frequently in conflict with the cricket establishment.

1952 – Queen Elizabeth succeeded to the British throne. The Queen and Prince Philip were on tour in Kenya when they heard the news of the death of her father, King George VI.

1958 – Seven Manchester United footballers (Busby’s Babes) died in their Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador when the plane crashed in thick snow on the runway at Munich airport during its third attempted take off. The team had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup quarter-final. Duncan Edwards survived the crash but died 15 days later in hospital. Manager Matt Busby was seriously injured, but survived. Of the 44 passengers and crew on board, 8 United players were killed and there were 15 other fatalities, including 8 journalists.

1995 – The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land. (Additional notes : In February 2002 the Scottish Parliament voted by eighty three to thirty six to pass legislation to nationally ban hunting with hounds. The Act came into effect on 1st August 2002. In September 2004 reports that of the ten Scottish hunts, nine survived the ban, using the permitted exemption allowing them to use packs of hounds to flush foxes to guns.)

1997 – The Court of Appeal made an historic judgement in favour of Diane Blood to be allowed to be inseminated with her dead husband’s sperm.

1998 – Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys dies aged 51 after a long battle with lung cancer. On the same day, Austrian singer Falco (Johann Holzel) is killed when his car collides with a bus. Also, former teacher Mary Kay LeTourneau, 36, is sentenced to seven years in prison for violating probation by seeing the 14 year-old father of her baby,

2005 – Tony Blair marked 2,838 days in his post at Number 10, making him the Labour Party’s longest-serving prime minister. He would only surpass Margaret Thatcher’s 11 years if he was still Prime Minister at the end of 2008 and he was not!

2015 – 26 year old Royal Marine, Andy Grant, woke up from an operation to remove his leg below the knee and found a key word missing from his You’ll Never Walk Alone tattoo. He used the new wording “You’ll Never Walk” as the inspiration for his rehabilitation. The marine learnt to walk and run, won two gold medals at the Invictus Games, abseiled the Shard and went on to work as a motivational speaker.

2017 – Queen Elizabeth II became the first British Monarch to reach her Sapphire Jubilee. The Royal Mint is to mark the 65th anniversary of her accession with a range of specially designed Sapphire Jubilee commemorative coins, with the Royal Mail issuing a Sapphire Blue £5 stamp.