1916 – Tanks were used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme, during World War I. 

1940 – The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as “Battle of Britain Day”.

1960 – London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.

1966 The launch at Barrow of HMS Resolution, the first of a class of four nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) built for the Royal Navy as part of the UK Polaris programme. Her long period of sea trials culminated in the test firing of a Polaris missile from the USAF Eastern Test Range off Cape Kennedy at 11:15 on 15th February 1968. The class was part of the 10th Submarine Squadron, all based at Faslane Naval Base (Clyde) in Scotland.

1971 – Prince Charles joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, under the graduate entry scheme, as Acting Sub-Lieutenant. The Duke of Edinburgh, and his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, had both been at Dartmouth.

1981 – The death of the actor Harold Bennett, best remembered as ‘Young Mr. Grace’ in the 1970s British sitcom Are You Being Served? and as the character Mr. Blewitt in Dad’s Army from 1969 to 1977.

1984 – Prince Harry, 3rd in succession to the throne, was born.

1985 – Tony Jacklin’s team of golfers beat the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years.

2000 – The fuel protests which had paralysed Britain for seven days, ended.

2000 – Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that parents would not be allowed access to the sex offenders’ register.

2006 – The death of Raymond Baxter, television presenter and writer who is best known for being the first presenter of Tomorrow’s World, continuing for 12 years, from 1965 to 1977. He also gave radio commentary at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the funerals of King George VI, Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, and the first flight of Concorde.

2014 – Phones 4u, which had more than over 600 stores throughout the United Kingdom, went into administration after EE, Vodafone, Orange & O2, the company’s final remaining suppliers, ended their contracts.

2016 – The government gave the go ahead for a new £18bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset after imposing ‘significant new safeguards’ to protect national security. The new plant (Hinkley Point C) is to be financed by the French and the Chinese.

2019 – The UK’s prime minister Boris Johnson compared himself to The Hulk in his efforts to steer the country out of the European Union.