1969 – Media on both sides of the Atlantic were running stories that said Paul McCartney was dead. He was supposedly killed in a car accident in Scotland on November 9, 1966 and that a double had been taking his place for public appearances.

1985 – The death, aged 60, of Laura Ashley, Welsh designer and fabric retailer.

1993 – The British National Party won its first council seat in a by-election in East London, provoking fear in the local Asian community.

1998 – There was chaos in Staffordshire, when animal rights activists release around 6,000 animals from a mink farm. Mink are now devastating British wildlife, so it was not a particularly wise or humanitarian move!

2000 – Paula Yates, television personality and former wife of Bob Geldof, was found dead in bed from a suspected drug overdose. She was 40 years old.

2001 – The New York Stock Exchange reopened for trading after the September 11 attacks. It was the longest the New York Stock Exchange had been closed since the Great Depression.

2001 – The opening of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge that spans the River Tyne between Gateshead’s Quays arts quarter on the south bank, and the Quayside of Newcastle upon Tyne on the north bank. The bridge is sometimes referred to as the ‘Blinking Eye Bridge’ due to its shape and its tilting method to let tall ships pass underneath.

2007 – Worried savers continued to flock to some Northern Rock bank branches to withdraw their savings when the bank applied to the Bank of England for emergency funds. Chancellor Alistair Darling appealed for calm, nevertheless £2bn was withdrawn from Northern Rock accounts in just 3 days.

2012 – Italy’s Chi magazine pushed ahead with its plan to publish a series of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, complete with a curt dismissal of the protests raised by the royal family.

2013 – A wedding service at Holy Cross Church in Sherston, Wiltshire, was delayed for an hour when an owl that was bearing the wedding rings fell asleep in the church roof.

2014 – A businessman gambled £900,000, the biggest amount of money ever staked on a political event, on Scotland staying in the United Kingdom. He called it an ‘investment’ rather than a gamble, with a profit of £193,333.33 in the event of a ‘No’ vote, and it was!

2019 – During the Senate climate crisis task force, climate change activity Greta Thunberg said, “You’re not trying hard enough. Sorry.” Thunberg’s speech was met with laughter and a round of applause to which the leader of the Senate task force, Ed Markey, vowed: “We hear you. We hear what you’re saying, and we will redouble our efforts.”