1954 – All Comet airliners were grounded. The day before, 35 people had died in a mysterious crash off the island of Elba. In 1953, another Comet had crashed inexplicably near Calcutta when ‘it fell out of the sky for no apparent reason’. The cause was finally traced to a structural fault, with serious consequences for British aviation.

1954 – George Cowling, a 34-year-old meteorologist, gave the first televised weather broadcast.

1973 – The first 867 graduates from the Open University were awarded their degrees after two years studying from home.

1980 – Nigel Short, age 14, from Bolton, Lancashire, became the youngest International Master in the history of chess. Participating in four World Junior Championships, from 1980–1983, Short achieved his best result during his first attempt, in which he was placed second to Garry Kasparov. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1984, aged nineteen, the world’s youngest grandmaster at that time.

1981 – A British team led by Ranulph Fiennes completes the longest and fastest crossing of Antarctica, reaching Scott base after 75 days and 2,500 miles.

1984 – French farmers hijacked British lorries in a dispute against meat imports.

1993 – British Airways was forced into an embarrassing climb-down in relation to a campaign of ‘dirty tricks’ it had launched against rival airline Virgin Atlantic. BA was forced to pay damages to both Virgin Atlantic and its boss Richard Branson.

1994 – The Duchess of Kent announced that she was converting to Catholicism, the first member of the Royal Family to become a Roman Catholic since James II in the 17th century.

2000 – The Solway Harvester, a scallop dredger from Kirkcudbright, sank off the coast of Ramsey, in heavy storms with the loss of all seven crew members.

2000 – Seven young fishermen drown off the Scottish coast after the disappearance of their scallop dredger in force nine gales. Their bodies are found three weeks later.

2002 – Mickey Finn percussionist in Tyrannosaurus Rex (T. Rex), died of kidney and liver problems aged 55.

2014 – Three Britons made the shortlist of just over 1,000 who want to take part in the Dutch project ‘Mars One’. It hopes to send 24 people from around the world on a one way trip to settle on Mars, after going through a seven-year training course, commencing in 2018.

2015 – The Muslim Charities Forum, that was given a £250,000 taxpayer-funded contract to run a major faith project, was stripped of state funding after links were uncovered to a group alleged to fund Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood political movement.