1903 – It became known that the government would reject proposals to introduce driving tests, vehicle inspections and penalties for drunken drivers.

1939 – The government announced that all infants and nursing mothers would get fresh milk free or at no more than two pence a pint.

1940 – World War II: Britain tackled the threat of a German invasion by forming the Home Guard – a part-time volunteer army, generally comprising men too old for national service.

1958 – Iraq became a republic after the assassination of King Faisal.

1962 – The Beatles played their first gig in Wales when they appeared at The Regent Dansette Theatre in Rhyl.

1967 – Abortion was legalized in Britain.

1991 – British troops protecting the Kurdish population in Iraq began to pull out of the region.

1996 – A bomb exploded in a hotel at Enniskillen in Northern Ireland in which 40 people were injured. It was the first bomb in the province for two years.

1997 – Convicted murderer and former London gangster Reggie Kray married Roberta Jones at Maidstone Prison in Kent.

2001 – British tourists Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees are allegedly attacked while driving in the Northern Territory of Australia. Falconio’s body is never found but Lees later identifies Bradley Murdoch as the attacker and he is subsequently found guilty, although documentary makers and forensic experts continue to cast doubt on the conviction.

2005 – The death of Dame Cicely Saunders, English nurse, physician and writer. She helped the dying and terminally ill to end their lives in the most comfortable way possible and is best known for her role in the birth of the hospice movement.

2006 – After an investigation into Italian match-fixing and bribing referees, Juventus are relegated to Serie B and stripped of the Italian championship titles they had won in 2004/05 and 2005/06.

2014 – The Church of England General Synod approved women bishops. The announcement was followed by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, leading the General Synod in a rendition of ‘We are Marching in the Light of God’. The Rt. Rev. Libby Lane became the first female Church of England bishop, when she was consecrated Bishop of Stockport in a ceremony at York Minster.