1908 – The 1st Glasgow Boy Scout group, the first Scout group ever, was registered. Today, there are nearly 32 million members in 218 countries and territories and the movement is still growing. In the UK, the total membership is over 500,000. 

1910 – Police rescued the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, from a crowd of angry Suffragettes.

1922 – The birth of Michael Bentine, British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goon Show radio show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe.

1926 – John Logie Baird gave a special public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution in London. Baird’s invention used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses.

1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrived in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.

1950 – India became a Republic within the British Commonwealth.

1952 – At least 20 people were killed and hundreds injured in anti-British riots in Cairo.

1968 – The National Provincial Bank and the Westminster Bank merged to form the National Westminster (NatWest).

1982 – Conservative Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher was elected in 1979 on the slogan ‘Labour isn’t working’, yet the number of people out of work in Britain rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s.

1986 – The Sunday Times and News of the World were printed at Wapping for the first time as the nation’s presses moved away from Fleet Street.

1994 – A protester fired two blank shots from a starting pistol at Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, as he prepared to speak at an Australia Day rally in Sydney.

2014 – The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was named Honorary Australian of the Year for displaying ‘archetypal Aussie characteristics in abundance’.

2014 – Police stopped a learner driver for speeding on the M62 in West Yorkshire. She was accompanied only by her pet parrot. ‘Since parrots are not allowed to supervise learner drivers, her vehicle has been seized,’ police tweeted.

2015 – Australian PM Tony Abbott used the country’s national day (Australia Day) to announce a knighthood for Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, for his “long life of service and dedication”.

2015 – England’s first female bishop of the Church of England, Libby Lane, was ordained.

2020 – A helicopter carrying nine people, including Kobe Bryant and his daughter, crashed in California with no survivors.

2021 – Government figures showed a grim, new milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. 1,631 deaths were recorded in the UK today, with deaths from the disease now surpassing 100,000 since the first death was recorded on 2nd March 2020. A total of 100,162 deaths have now been recorded in the UK, making it the first European nation to pass the landmark, with the highest death total in Europe and the 5th highest death toll in the world.