1857 – James Townsend Saward, alias ‘Jim the Penman’, the most notorious forger of his age, was convicted of forging cheques. Saward was a respected solicitor with chambers in the Temple. He and his accomplices were sentenced to transportation to Australia.

1900 – The British Government was offered peace proposals to end the Boer War, but rejected them.

1936 – The British fighter plane Spitfire made its first test flight from Eastleigh, Southampton, powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and was the fighter plane that helped to win the Battle of Britain. Mitchell died in 1937 without ever knowing how successful his aircraft would become. The Spitfire was first put into service with the Royal Air Force in 1938 and they remained in active service (as photo reconnaissance planes) with the Royal Air Force until 1954.

1943 – The first flight of the Gloster Meteor jet aircraft. It was the first British jet fighter and the Allies’ first operational jet. The Meteor’s development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, developed by Sir Frank Whittle.

1946 – Prime Minister Winston Churchill coined the phrase ‘The Iron Curtain’ as the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.

1948 – The birth of Elaine Paige, singer and actress. Her debut was in the 1968 production of Hair. She played Eva Perón in the first production of Evita in 1978 which won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a Musical.

1966 – BOAC Flight 911 (Speedbird 911), a round-the-world flight operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation disintegrated and crashed on Mount Fuji, Japan, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members. It was the third fatal passenger airline accident in Tokyo in a month.

1977 – The death (aged 27) of Thomas “Tom” Pryce, British racing driver and the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race. During the practice session for the 1977 South African Grand Prix, Pryce was faster than everyone, including world champion drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt. During the race, a safety marshal ran into the path of Pryce’s car and both men were killed.

2001 – PC Alison Armitage (aged 29) became the first female officer in the Greater Manchester Police force to be killed in the line of duty since it was formed in 1974.

2002 – Prime Minister Tony Blair was urged by 39 MPs not to back military action in Iraq.

2014 – Birmingham city council announced the sell-off of four of its hugely popular venues, including the National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

2019 – Second-ever person “cured” of HIV after stem cell transplant treatment in London. On the same day, Kylie Jenner becomes the youngest ever billionaire at 21.