1940 – World War II: Italy officially declared war on Britain and France.

1942 – World War II: The Czech village of Lidice was destroyed and every man in it killed in reprisal for the assassination of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. Women and children were deported.

1965 – A de Havilland jet airliner made the first automatic landing, relying entirely on instruments, at Heathrow Airport.

1977 – An elusive goldfish eating perch with a prodigious appetite was finally netted after two years on the rampage in a Kent pond. The fish, nicknamed Jaws, was caught by two Southern Water Board engineers equipped with a rowing boat, a fishing net and a 240v stun rod. Jaws was accused of eating 3,000 goldfish in a breeding lake near Canterbury.

1986 – Patrick Joseph Magee was found guilty of planting the Brighton bomb which had killed five people two years previously.

1986 – Bob Geldof, the Irish-born singer and charity fund raiser and US citizen John Paul Getty II, were both made honorary knights by Queen Elizabeth II.

1989 – After an era of 157 years, Britain’s last manned lightvessel (Planet LV23, built 1959) was towed away from her position north-west of the Channel Island of Guernsey. She became a cafe / bar and museum in Liverpool docks and in 2014 Planet became the base for a re-creation of Radio Caroline North, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Radio Caroline pirate radio station. In 2016 she was repossessed by bailiffs for non-payment of mooring fees and was towed from Liverpool to a mooring in Bristol.

1990 – A British Airways pilot survived after being partly sucked out of the cockpit at 23,000 feet above London.

1993 – The death of Manchester born comedian Les Dawson. He is remembered for his deadpan style, grumpy on stage personality, and jokes about his mother-in-law and wife.

2000 – London’s new Millennium Bridge was closed for safety checks after large crowds caused it to sway violently.

2012 – Hundreds of tourists were left to survey the wreckage of their holiday homes after floodwater devastated campsites and villages around Aberystwyth. The heavy rain continued throughout the summer, making 2012 the second wettest year in the UK since records began in 1910 and the wettest ever in England. Scotland fared much better as it was only their 17th wettest.

2013 – A Dornier 17 German World War II bomber was raised from the bottom of the English Channel. The aircraft was shot down off the Kent coast during the Battle of Britain and is believed to be the only intact example of its kind in the world.