1927 – A telephone service began operating between London and New York. A three-minute call cost £15. Nevertheless 31 different people made a call on the first day.  

1945 – Second World War – General Montgomery held a press conference in which he claimed credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge (also known as the Ardennes Offensive). The defeat left many German units severely depleted of men and equipment. America suffered 89,000 casualties, their bloodiest battle of World War II

1965 – Identical twin brothers Ronald and Reginald Kray were in custody, charged in connection with running a protection racket. When they died (1995 and 2000 respectively) their funerals were like those of royals, rather than those of notorious criminals.

1976 – The Ministry of Defence claimed that a British naval frigate, HMS Andromeda, had been deliberately rammed into by an Icelandic gunboat in the Atlantic. The ‘attack’ was one of several incidents between Britain and Iceland with regard to disputed fishing territory.

1994 – After a wait of 800 years, girls were invited to join the Cathedral Choir at Wells in Somerset.

1994 – Oasis started recording their debut album Definitely Maybe at Monnow Valley Studio in South Wales. On the same day, the US female Figure Skating championship is won by Tonya Harding after her rival Nancy Kerrigan had to withdraw due to an attack by a man who hit her on the knee with an iron bar.

1998 – Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs an affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton.

1999 – President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial begins in the US Senate after the House voted to impeach him for lying about his affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

2000 – Former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken was released from jail after serving less than half of his 18-month sentence. He had been imprisoned for perjury and perverting the course of justice after his libel case against the Guardian Newspaper and Granada Television collapsed.

2012 – Casualty, the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world, was broadcast from Cardiff’s Roath Lock studios in the Porth Teigr area of Cardiff Bay for the first time. For 25 years the fictional Holby City Hospital’s emergency department had been staged in studios in Bristol.

2014 – The Royal mail issued a series of stamps celebrating characters from more than 60 years of children’s television. Characters ranged from Andy Pandy (screened in 1950) to Peppa Pig (who celebrated her 10th anniversary in 2014).

2014 – Figures from ‘Care for the Wild’ showed that pilot culls of badgers in Somerset and Gloucestershire had cost more than £7m – equivalent to more than £4,000 per badger killed. The government scheme was to test how effective, humane and safe a cull could be in their attempt to stop the spread of bovine TB.