1723 – The birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds, an influential English painter, specialising in portraits. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. King George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.

1902 – Eight bills for the building of London underground lines received their second reading in the House of Commons.

1915 – The American born writer Henry James became a British citizen, to highlight his commitment to England during the first World War.

1945 – The world’s first nuclear explosion occurred on July 16, 1945, when a plutonium implosion device was tested at a site located 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico.

1945 – The leaders of the three Allied nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1955 – Stirling Moss won the British Grand Prix at the Aintree track near Liverpool – the first time an Englishman had triumphed in the race. His success in a variety of categories placed him among the world’s elite and he is often called ‘the greatest driver never to win the World Championship’.

1964 – The Rolling Stones had their first UK No.1 single with It’s All Over Now, although their American tour, just a month earlier had been, in Bill Wyman’s words, ‘a disaster’,

1970 – Prime Minister Edward Heath declared a state of emergency following the start of a national dock strike – the first state of emergency issued in Britain since 1926.

1980 – Republican Party in Detroit nominated Ronald Reagan for US president.

1987 – The two biggest airlines in the UK (One time rivals British Caledonian and British Airways) merged in order to compete with America’s giant air corporations.

1988 – Lord Harewood, the Queen’s cousin, brought in police to investigate the theft of the world’s smallest horse, Pernod, a 27-inch-high Shetland stallion.

1993 – Britain’s internal security service, MI5, held the first photocall in its 84-year history when Stella Rimington (Director General) posed openly for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisation’s activities.

1996 – Diana, Princess of Wales, announced that she was severing links with more than 100 charities.

2000 – Footballer George Best’s doctor begged every barman in Britain to refuse to serve alcohol to the footballing legend to help him beat his addiction. Best was controversially granted an NHS liver transplant in 2002 and died in 2005, aged 59, due to complications from a drug used to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs.

2001 – Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that public services could not be transformed totally within the coming Parliament.

2001 – The Labour Government was defeated in the House of Commons for the first time since it came to power in 1997.

2017 – Jodie Whittaker is announced as the first female Doctor Who.

2018 – 12 new moons are discovered orbiting Jupiter bringing planet’s moon total to 79.