1816 – Sir Humphry Davy tested his Davy safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery. In January 1819, Davy was awarded a baronetcy, at the time the highest honour ever conferred on a man of science in Britain. A year later he became President of the Royal Society.

1854 – Birth of Jenny, Lady Randolph Churchill, wife of Lord Randolph and mother of Winston.

1854 – The first free lending Library opened, on Marylebone Road, London.

1888 – The London Financial Guide was launched. It became The Financial Times on 13th February.

1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, planted the British flag 112 miles from the South Pole, the furthest anyone had ever reached at that time.

1929 – Alexander Fleming successfully treated his assistant Stuart Craddick’s infection with a penicillin broth, at St Mary’s, Paddington.

1957 – Sir Anthony Eden resigned as prime minister of Britain due to ill health, after just one year and 279 days in the post. He was succeeded by Harold Macmillan.

1960 – Building begins on the Aswan Dam in Egypt.

1972 – The Queen Elizabeth, the liner that had been turned into a sailing university, caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbour. She had been the world’s largest passenger liner for over thirty years.

1972 – British miners began their first strike since 1926, campaigning for improved pay and conditions. A season of power cuts followed.

1997 – Lone yachtsman, Tony Bullimore, feared drowned after his boat capsized in the Southern Ocean, is found safe and well. On the same day, Frank Sinatra suffers a heart attack.

1998 – Northern Ireland Secretary Dr. Mo Mowlam made a controversial visit to the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland to talk to Loyalist and Republican terrorists.

2007 – The iPhone is announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

2014 – The closure of Clerkenwell fire station, close to King’s Cross in London. Built in 1872, it was the UK’s oldest fire station.

2015 – A New York judge sentenced the extradited radical preacher Abu Hamza to life in prison for supporting terrorist organisations. The Muslim cleric rose to prominence for his fiery sermons at a north London mosque prior to the protracted extradition battle. The US justice department and Theresa May, the UK home secretary, hailed the sentence.

2015 – Wing Commander Nikki Thomas became the first woman to command an RAF fast jet squadron, taking charge of the newly reformed No. 12 Squadron at RAF Marham in Norfolk.

2016 – The Flying Scotsman, (engine no. 60103) and the first steam engine to be officially recorded at 100mph carried its first passengers, after a 10 year restoration that cost £4.2M. Test run services were carried out on the East Lancashire Railway, between Bury and Rawtenstall, for two successive weekends.