1940 – World War II: In a radio broadcast, Winston Churchill urged Britain to conduct herself so that this would be remembered as her finest hour.

1940 – World War II: The RMS Lancastria was sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France. Over 4,000 lives were lost making it the worst ever loss of life in the sinking of a single British ship, and the bloodiest single engagement for UK forces (in terms of lives lost) in the whole of World War II. The sinking claimed more lives than the combined losses of the Titanic and Lusitania.

1945 – The birth of Ken Livingstone, former Labour politician and the first Mayor of London.

1964 – The first purpose-built floating trade fair docked at Tilbury in London with 22,000 samples of Japanese goods on board.

1974 – An IRA bomb exploded at the Houses of Parliament, causing extensive damage and injuring 11 people.

1980 – The locations for the first US nuclear missiles to be stored on British soil (at Greenham Common and Molesworth military bases) were revealed by the government.

1982 – Manchester United footballer Norman Whiteside became the youngest player to appear in the World Cup finals – playing for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia in Spain. He was aged 17 years and 41 days.

1994 – Police captured O.J. Simpson for murder charges after a 90-minute police chase.

1999 – The death of Cardinal Basil Hume, Roman Catholic Cardinal and Archbishop of Westminster. He was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, where there is this statue in memory of him.

2013 – The 83 year old BBC broadcaster Stuart Hall was sentenced to 15 months in jail for sexually abusing girls, including one aged 9 years old. Hall admitted 14 offences that occurred between 1967 and 1985.

2014 – Blackpool sold off its 6,000 deckchairs that had been ‘mothballed’ since 2011. Quote – “We found that the majority of people would sit on the new benches or the Spanish steps and there was no longer a demand for the deckchairs.”