1908 – The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book, was published. It has never been out of print in its entire history. 

1915 – The Battle of Loos, one of the fiercest of World War I, ended with virtually no gains for either side. Almost 430,000 French, British and Germans were killed. The British used poison gas for the first time in the battle.

1928 – The birth of the actor Bill Maynard. He appeared with comedians Terry Scott and Ronnie Barker, played in some of the Carry On films and for 9 years he was the old rogue Claude Jeremiah Greengrass in the popular and long-running television series Heartbeat.

1929 – Betty Boothroyd, former Speaker of the House of Commons, was born.

1952 – 112 people were killed and 340 injured when two express trains collided at Harrow & Wealdstone, in NW London, and a third train ran into the wreckage. The driver of the Perth train had passed a caution signal and two danger signals before colliding with the local train, which accelerated the introduction of a system that warned drivers that they had passed an adverse signal.

1965 – London’s Post Office Tower, once Britain’s tallest building, opened. Prime Minister Harold Wilson made the first telephone call.

1967 – A motorist in Somerset becomes the first person to be breathalysed in Britain.

1967 – Clement Atlee died, aged 84. As Prime Minister he introduced radical reforms of the social welfare system and introduced the National Health Service.

1973 – London Broadcasting Company, Britain’s first legal commercial radio station, began transmitting.

1980 – British Leyland launched the Mini Metro.

1987 – The coroner’s inquest into the capsizing of the Herald of Free Enterprise returned verdicts of unlawful killing. The ferry disaster, in March, killed 187 people.

1990 – Hectic trading in the City marked Britain’s first day as a full member of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System.

1990 – Women were first deployed to sea in the Royal Navy, setting sail on HMS Brilliant (a type 22 frigate) during the Gulf War.

1994 – The Sunday Times alleged that Margaret Thatcher’s son Mark, had received £12 million commission from a £20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, negotiated whilst she was Prime Minister.

2015 – The FIFA Ethics Committee bans Sepp Blatter, UEFA president Michel Platini and FIFA’s secretary general Jérôme Valcke from all football activity for 90 days.

2017 – Northern California’s wine country was devastated by sweeping wildfires. The fires lasted through to October 15, killed 44 people, and 192 others were hospitalised.