1881 – The birth, in Winsford, Somerset of Ernest Bevin, one of the founding leaders of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), which soon became Britain’s largest trade union. He was Minister of Labour during the Second World War and created ‘Bevin Boys’; young men chosen by ballot to work down the mines as part of their war service.

1891 – Four days of storms began off England’s south coast, sinking 14 ships.

1925 – The start of Pink’s War, an air to ground bombardment carried out by the Royal Air Force, under the command of Wing Commander Richard Charles Montagu Pink, against the tribesmen in north west Pakistan. It was the first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army and Royal Navy.

1946 – fans were killed and hundreds injured when a barrier collapsed at the Bolton Wanderers’ football ground. The dead and injured were taken from the stand, with those who had perished lain along the touchline and covered in coats. Incredibly, a little under half an hour after leaving the pitch, the game was restarted, with a new sawdust lined touchline separating the players from the bodies. It was the deadliest football stadium-related disaster in British history until the Ibrox Park disaster in 1971.

1950 – Timothy Evans was hanged for the murder of his wife. Three years later John Christie admitted killing her and several other women.

1952 – Bill Beaumont, former British Lions and England international rugby captain was born.

1956 – British authorities deported Archbishop Makarios from Cyprus in an attempt to restore law and order to the island. He was accused of supporting terrorists.

1973 – Northern Ireland voted in favour (90:1) of staying in the United Kingdom.

1981 – John Lambe who became known as the M5 Rapist was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was given a life sentence on each of 12 counts of rape and a six year sentence (concurrent) on four charges of attempted rape.

1994 – IRA terrorists launched a mortar attack on Heathrow Airport. All the missiles failed to explode.

1995 – The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Northern Ireland, their first visit since the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires of 1994.

2015 – Dr Tim Stowe, the RSPB’s international director, called on the Ministry of Defence to do more to stop local poachers, after almost a million birds were illegally killed in just two months on a British military base (British Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area) in Cyprus the previous year.

2015 – Archaeologists began excavating up to 3,000 skeletons from a burial ground under London’s Liverpool Street station. The Bedlam burial ground was used from 1569 to at least 1738 and included bodies belonging to victims of the Black Death. The site is to serve the cross-London Crossrail line, due to open in 2018.