1882 – An unsuccessful attempt was made by Scotsman Roderick Maclean to assassinate Queen Victoria. As she was leaving Windsor railway station he stepped forward from the cheering crowd, lifted a revolver and fired into her carriage. Before a second shot could be fired, he was overpowered by the crowd and arrested by Superintendent Hayes. Remaining calm, the Queen and her companions rode on to Windsor Castle.

1918 – The birth in Kenmare, Ireland, of Sir Peter O’Sullevan, horse racing commentator for the BBC for fifty years, from 1947 to 1997.

1930 – David Herbert Lawrence (known as D.H. Lawrence), novelist and poet, died from tuberculosis in Vence – France at the age of 44. His books included Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Women in Love and Sons and Lovers.

1947 – The birth of Harry Redknapp, former English footballer with a long career in football management, starting in 1983 with Bournemouth and manager of Tottenham Hotspur from 2008.

1958 – A British team, led by explorer Vivian Fuchs, completed the first crossing of the Antarctic. His 12-man party endured severe hardships to travel the 2,500 from the Filchner Ice Shelf to McMurdo Sound in just 99 days.

1969 – The maiden flight of Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airline. The Anglo-French plane took off from Toulouse and was in the air for just 27 minutes.

1970 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia, declared Rhodesia a republic, thereby severing its links with the British Crown.

1986 – The Queen signed the Australia Act in Canberra. The Act resolved the anomalous power of the United Kingdom’s parliament to legislate over the individual Australian states, a power that it had exercised since colonial times.

1988 – The Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party launched their new joint political party – the Social and Liberal Democrats.

1995 – British financial dealer Nick Leeson, who bankrupted Barings Bank, was arrested at Frankfurt Airport.

2000 – Chilean General Augusto Pinochet left Britain after UK Home Secretary Jack Straw told him that he was free to leave and declared that he would not be extradited to Spain to face charges of human rights abuses.

2001 – Joanne Kathleen Rowling (J. K. Rowling), author of Harry Potter, received an OBE from HRH Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.

2015 – Police were given new powers to catch motorists driving under the influence of drugs. The levels for the illegal drugs, including heroin, cocaine and cannabis, meant that there would be ‘virtually zero tolerance’ for drivers apprehended with these substances in their system.

2015 – The last surviving Dambusters pilot (Squadron Leader Les Munro) decided to sell his gallantry medals awarded for the famous raid and donate the proceeds to the newly-built Bomber Command Memorial in London, dedicated to the 55,573 airmen killed during the Second World War.