1912 The opening of Peasholm Park in Scarborough, the vision of Harry Smith, Borough Engineer from 1897 – 1933. Underneath the lake lie the remains of a medieval manor, once owned by the future King Richard III. The layout was designed to echo the Willow Pattern china plate of 1780. In 1999 Peasholm was included on the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

1917 – The British royal family renounced the German names and titles of Saxe-Coburg, (responding to anti-German sentiment) and became Windsor.

1961 – Kuwait declared its independence from the United Kingdom after which the state’s oil industry saw unprecedented economic growth. In 1990, Kuwait was invaded and annexed by neighbouring Iraq.

1970 – Edward Heath became the new British prime minister after a surprise victory for the Conservatives and the defeat of Labour leader Harold Wilson.

1975 – An inquest jury decided that the missing Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children.

1978 – Cricketing star Ian Botham became the first man in the history of the game to score a century and take eight wickets in one innings of a Test match.

1980 – Three gunmen who attacked the British embassy in Baghdad were shot dead by Iraqi security forces.

1996 – Britain offered to slaughter up to 67,000 more cattle in an effort to end the ban on British beef after cattle had become infected with BSE.

1997 – The US fast-food chain McDonalds won a two-year libel case in Britain against two environmental campaigners who claimed that the company caused environmental damage and exploited workers in the Third World.

1997 – William Hague became the youngest leader of the Conservative Party for 200 years. He beat Kenneth Clarke in the election following the resignation of John Major.

1999 – The wedding of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex ( the fourth, and youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh) and Sophie Rhys-Jones. The wedding took place at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

2012 – Isle of Man based Excalibur Almaz announced details of a plan to take people to orbit the moon for the first time since 1972, but budding space-travellers would have to find around £100m first. Excalibur said it was confident that its recycled Russian equipment would be enough to attract the handful of multi-millionaires it needed to fund and crew its lunar orbit.

2014 – 63 year old Jeremy Paxman presented his last edition of the BBC Two programme ‘Newsnight’, after 25 years at the helm.