1930 – The birth, in Norfolk, of Bernard Matthews, the poultry industry figure. He won a scholarship to the City of Norwich School, but found it difficult to settle, regularly failed his exams and left school with no qualifications. Nevertheless, when he died, aged 80, in November 2010 he had amassed a fortune estimated at over £300m and a motor yacht, a Cessna private jet and a Rolls-Royce motor car.

1942 – World War II: The Allies bombarded Bangkok, leading Thailand to declare war against the United States and the United Kingdom.

1965 – Death of Sir Winston Churchill, aged 90, world famous soldier, politician, historian and Prime Minister of Britain. He was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the battle of Dogger Bank (see above). He had correctly predicted that he would die on the same date as his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died exactly 70 years previously.

1969 – Students protesting at the installation of steel security gates at the London School of Economics went on the rampage, with crowbars, pickaxes and sledgehammers.

1972 – Japanese Sgt Shoichi Yokoi was found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II. He was among the last three Japanese hold-outs to surrender after the end of hostilities in 1945, almost 28 years after the island had been liberated by allied forces in 1944.

1974 – The Commonwealth Games open in Christchurch, New Zealand.

1976 – Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, was dubbed ‘The Iron Lady’ in the Soviet newspaper ‘Red Star’ after her speech on the threat of Communism.

1976 – New Kettering Town player-manager and chief executive Derek Dougan signs a four-figure deal with Kettering Tyres for the first ever shirt sponsorship in football. On the same day, Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher win Golden Globes for their roles in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

1984 – Apple Inc unveils the Macintosh PC.

1986 – The beginning of the end for London’s Fleet Street, home to most of Britain’s national newspapers, when staff of the ‘Sun’ and ‘News of the World’ were told that they were moving to new premises at Wapping, in London’s Docklands.

1986 – Trade and Industry Secretary Leon Brittan becomes the second cabinet minister to resign over the Westland helicopter affair. On the same day, Voyager 2 makes the first fly-by of the planet Uranus. Also, sci-fi author and founder of the Church of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard dies aged 74.

2006 – Walt Disney announced it was going to buy Pixar. The sale of the computer animation film studio Pixar cost Disney $7.4 billion. The deal was approved the following day.

2014 – Somerset County Council and Sedgemoor DC declared a major incident throughout much of the Somerset Levels. The village of Muchelney was cut off by flood water from the River Parrett for almost 10 weeks.

2015 – A racehorse named Sir Winston Churchill netted a win, on the 50th anniversary of the wartime leader’s death, in the 3:25pm race at Uttoxeter racecourse.