1886 – While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman, George Walker, found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.

1873 – The birth, in County Down, of Thomas Andrews. Andrews was the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic. He was travelling on board the Titanic during its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg on 14th April 1912 and was one of the 1,517 people who perished in the disaster.

1922 – The birth of the comedy actress Hattie Jacques. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, but also appeared in three highly popular radio series – with Tommy Handley in It’s That Man Again, with ventriloquist Peter Brough on Educating Archie and then with Tony Hancock on Hancock’s Half Hour. She was married to the actor John Le Mesurier (Sergeant Wilson in the BBC TV comedy Dad’s Army) from 1949 until their divorce in 1965.

1937 – Britain’s first dive-bomber, the prototype B-24 Skua, made its maiden flight over Yorkshire, piloted by Dasher Blake.

1964 – The Beatles pop group arrived in New York at the start of their first tour of the United States.

1974 – Prime Minister Edward Heath announced a general election and appealed to the miners to suspend their planned strike.

1974 – The island of Grenada, in the south-eastern Caribbean Sea, gained independence from Britain.

1976 – Joan Bazeley became the first woman to referee a men’s football match and Diana Thorne became the first woman jockey to win under National Hunt Rules (on ‘Ben Ruler’ at Stratford).

1991 – Prime Minister John Major and senior Cabinet Ministers escaped unhurt during an apparent assassination attempt, when the IRA fired three mortar shells at 10 Downing Street from a van parked several streets away in the centre of London.

1992 – The European Union was formed.

1994 – It was reported that 13.1 million television viewers watched British boxer Chris Eubank beat German Graciano Rocchigiani in Berlin. It was the most watched programme of the year.

2005 – Britain’s Ellen MacArthur (born 8th July 1976) became the fastest person to sail solo around the world. Two months after her amazing feat she also became the youngest person to receive a damehood.

2006 – The completion, in Cardiff Bay, of The Senedd. It is the main public building of the National Assembly, the main centre for democracy and devolution in Wales.

2015 – Printing blocks from a typeface called ‘Doves Type’ were discovered in the River Thames. The font has not been used for nearly a century as the printing type blocks, used to print letters, were thrown into the river in 1917.