1885 – It snowed in London – the earliest recorded winter fall despite reports that on 12th June 1791 snow was sighted over the capital.

1897 – The start of Britain’s first motorized (as opposed to horse-drawn) bus service, in Bradford.

1929 – Comedian Ronnie Barker was born. TV programmes included – Porridge, Open all Hours and The Two Ronnie’s.

1944 – World War II: Surviving elements of the British 1st Airborne Division withdrew from Arnhem in the Netherlands, thus ending the Battle of Arnhem and Operation Market Garden. It was the largest airborne operation up to that time.

1956 – A Transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated. It consisted of 4,500 miles of cable, laid in waters up to 2.5 miles deep between Gallanach Bay, near Oban and Clarenville, Newfoundland and initially carried 36 telephone channels.

1967 – Britain, France and West Germany signed an agreement to co-operate on an ‘airbus’ airliner, intended to rival American production.

1977 – In Britain, independent airline owner Freddie Laker took on the main commercial airlines with his first ‘Skytrain’ service between London and New York.

1983 – Thirty eight republican prisoners, armed with 6 handguns, hijacked a prison meals’ lorry and smashed their way out of the Maze prison in County Down, Northern Ireland, considered one of the most escape-proof prisons in Europe. The escape was the biggest in British history, and the biggest in Europe since World War II when 76 Allied POW’s managed to escape from German Stalag Luft III.

1996 – The last of the ‘Magdalene Asylums’ closed in Waterford, Ireland. The asylums, for ‘fallen women’ and others believed to be of poor moral character, such as prostitutes, operated for much of the 19th and well into the 20th century.

1997 – The British Thrust SCC car, driven by RAF pilot Andy Green, set a new world record land speed record of 714.44 mph at Black Rock Desert in Nevada. On October 15th in the same year, Thrust SSC became the first land vehicle to exceed the speed of sound when it achieved 763 mph (Mach 1.020), also at Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Thrust SSC remains the world’s first and only supersonic car.

2010 – Ed Miliband won the Labour leadership after narrowly beating brother David in a dramatic run-off vote ahead of the party’s conference.

2012 – In what was claimed to be a world first, the Tullibardine whisky distillery in Perthshire signed a deal to turn by-products from their distillery into butanol to power cars.

2017 – Uber’s licence to operate is not renewed by Transport for London.

2018 – Comedian Bill Cosby is sentenced to 3-10 years in jail for sexual assault.

2019 – Parliament resumed (11:30am) after the previous day’s unanimous decision by 11 Supreme Court judges that Prime Minster Boris Johnson’s recent decision to prorogue (suspend parliament) for five weeks was wrong and unlawful, as it would stop MPs carrying out their duties in the run-up to Brexit on 31st October. Johnson said that he strongly disagreed with the ruling but that he would respect it.