1958 – The first women peers were introduced into the House of Lords. 

1966 – 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed in the small Welsh mining village of Aberfan when tons of slush, from a nearby coal slag tip weakened by rain, slid downhill and engulfed the village school, a farm and a row of terraced houses. The tragedy occurred at the beginning of the school day and on the day before the school closed for the half-term holiday. The children are buried in Aberfan’s cemetery, on the hillside above the valley.

1975 – Britain’s unemployment figure reached 1,000,000 for the first time since World War II.

1982 – Gerry Adams & Martin McGuinness made history by becoming the first members of Sinn Fein to be elected to the Ulster Assembly.

1985 – In one of Britain’s worst motorway crashes, 13 people were killed on the M6 motorway in Lancashire.

1990 – Apple Day started in Covent Garden, London. The annual event is a huge celebration of apples with cooking demos, games, juice and cider, and the hundreds of apple varieties on sale.

1996 – Frances Lawrence, widow of headmaster Phillip Lawrence who was stabbed to death by a group of teenagers outside his school gates, launched a ‘better citizenship campaign’ to promote good behaviour in schools.

1997 – ‘Candle in the Wind’ – the re-working of the hit single Elton John sang live at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was declared the biggest selling single in music history.

2001 – The benefit concert “United We Stand” led by Michael Jackson took place to stand up against terrorism.
Many top artists performed, including Mariah Carey, Al Green, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Goo Goo Dolls, Backstreet Boys, Usher, Pink, NSYNC, and more.

2011 – St Paul’s Cathedral was closed to visitors for the first time since World War II because of anti-capitalist demonstrators (the ‘Occupy London Stock Exchange’ movement) ‘camping on its doorstep’. The Right Reverend Graeme Knowles said that the decision had been taken with a heavy heart, for health and safety reasons.

2012 – The death (aged 99) of William Walker, the oldest surviving pilot from the Battle of Britain, who was shot down in his Spitfire and wounded in 1940.

2019 – The oldest natural pearl discovered off the Abu Dhabi coast was estimated to be 8,000 years old.

2021 – Alec Baldwin accidentally used a live firearm during a movie rehearsal, during which he shot and killed a cinematographer.