1945 – William Joyce (known as Lord Haw-Haw) was charged with treason for his pro-German propaganda broadcasting during World War II, using the English language radio programme Germany Calling. He was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 3rd January 1946.

1963 – Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.

1965 – The government announced it would introduce a blood alcohol limit for drivers, with penalties for those caught above it.

1972 – A flight from London Heathrow to Brussels crashed minutes after take-off killing all 118 people on board.

1975 – The first North Sea Oil was pumped ashore in Britain.

2000 – Jamie Andrew, aged 30 years, became the first quadruple amputee to scale Ben Nevis when he reached the snow-covered peak after a climb of 6½ hours. He had lost his hands and feet from severe frostbite after being stranded in the Alps in a fierce blizzard in 1999.

2012 – It was announced that 55 year old Mick Philpott and his wife Mairead (31) whose six children were killed in a house fire in Allenton, Derby on 11th May would go on trial for their murder.

2016 – Tim Peake, the first British ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and the seventh UK-born person in space, returned to earth after his 186 day Principia mission working on the International Space Station. The Soyuz TMA-19M descent module was on display at York Railway Museum from 17th January until 8th March 2018.

2020 – The death, aged 103, of Dame Vera Lynn. She was known as “The Forces’ Sweetheart” and her songs helped raise morale in World War Two. Ahead of the 75th anniversary of VE Day in May 2020, Dame Vera spoke about the bravery and sacrifice that characterised the wartime nation and in the same month she became the oldest artist to get a top 40 album in the UK when her Greatest Hits album re-entered the charts at number 30. One of her best-known songs, We’ll Meet Again, was referenced by the Queen earlier in 2020, during a speech to Britons, separated from families and friends during the coronavirus lockdown. Dame Vera was also remembered for her songs The White Cliffs Of Dover, There’ll Always Be An England, I’ll Be Seeing You, Wishing and If Only I Had Wings.