1870 – The first British halfpenny postage stamp, in lilac, was issued. 

1906 – The first hot-air balloon race was staged at Whitley, Yorkshire and was won by US Army Lieutenant Frank Lahm.

1935 – Julie Andrews, English actress and singer was born.

1936 – The BBC began regular TV broadcasts from Alexandra Palace, north London.

1942 – The formation of REME, the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The 8000+ strong corps maintains the equipment that the Army uses and is described as the “British Army’s Professional Engineers”. It had the rare distinction of being honoured with the designation “Royal” from the day of its formation.

1943 – World War II: The Italian city of Naples fell to Allied soldiers.

1946 – Germany’s Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolph Hess – captured in Scotland on 10th May 1941, after mysteriously parachuting from a plane during World War II – was sentenced to life imprisonment by the the International Military Tribunal.

1954 – The UK Top 12 Pop Chart became a Top 20.

1957 – A vaccine against the strain of influenza that had been sweeping around the world was made available to the British public.

1974 – The first McDonalds restaurant opened in London.

1974 – British boxer John Conteh became Light Heavyweight Champion of the World.

1990 – A large explosion above the Pacific Ocean turned out to be a meteorite. It was originally thought to be a nuclear event; however, analysis concluded that the exploding object had been a stony, 100-ton asteroid.

1993 – RAC patrolman Mervyn Jacobs was called out to jump start a minesweeper. It was not a problem for him. He just ran a 50 foot lead from his van!

2012 – Surrey police confirmed that the late Sir Jimmy Savile was questioned over allegations of child sex abuse in 2007. In the aftermath, towns and organisations distanced themselves from their associations with the former TV presenter, commemorative plaques were removed and Savile’s triple gravestone was sent to a landfill site after being removed from a Scarborough cemetery.

2014 – The vehicle tax disc, first introduced in 1921, ceased to exist in paper form from 1st October, with a new electronic system being put in its place.

2015 – Smoking in ‘enclosed cars’ containing children under 18 was banned in England and Wales, with a fixed penalty fine of £50 issued to people who smoked or who failed to prevent another person from smoking.

2017 – Stephen Paddock shoots dead 58 people, injuring 489, at a concert in Las Vegas in the deadliest mass shooting in American history. On the same day, Catalonia holds an independence referendum on seceding from Spain. Also, O J Simpson is released from Nevada’s Lovelock Prison after less than nine years of a 33-year sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping.