On this day

1837 - Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to move into Buckingham Palace.

1943 - The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, involving some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft, ended in defeat for Germany.

1955 - Nightclub hostess Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain - executed at Holloway Prison for the murder of her lover David Blakely.

1985 - Two simultaneous 'Live Aid' concerts, one in London (Wembley Stadium) and one in Philadelphia, raised over £50 million for famine victims in Africa.

1991 - Bryan Adams went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with Everything I Do I Do It For You from the film Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. It stayed at No.1 for a record breaking 16 weeks, and was also a No.1 in the US and 16 other countries.

1766 - The official opening of the 137 mile long Grand Union Canal (Britain's longest canal) that links London to Birmingham.

1867 - Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel demonstrated dynamite for the first time, at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey.

1940 - World War II: Britain tackled the threat of a German invasion by forming the Home Guard - a part-time volunteer army, generally comprising men too old for national service.

1967 - Abortion was legalized in Britain.

971 - According to the legend of St. Swithin, if it rains today, it will be the start of forty days of rain. St Swithin was bishop of Winchester Cathedral, and asked to be buried outside it so that he would be exposed to ‘the feet of passers-by and the drops falling from above’. It's currently pissing down

1815 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte surrendered to Captain Maitland aboard the English ship Bellerophon, at Rochefort, before being sent into exile on the island of St Helena.

1912 - National Insurance payments began in Britain.

1948 - Alcoholics Anonymous, in existence in the USA since 1935, was founded in London.

1996 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana were granted a decree nisi. Princess Diana could no longer be addressed as Her Royal Highness but was to be known as Diana, Princess of Wales.

(14-07-2010 11:09 )skully Wrote:  1766 - The official opening of the 137 mile long Grand Union Canal (Britain's longest canal) that links London to Birmingham.

1867 - Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel demonstrated dynamite for the first time, at a quarry in Redhill, Surrey.

1940 - World War II: Britain tackled the threat of a German invasion by forming the Home Guard - a part-time volunteer army, generally comprising men too old for national service.

1967 - Abortion was legalized in Britain.

It was Bastille day in France yesterday, 14 July
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastille_Day

1439 - Kissing was banned in England because of the Plague.

1918 - Russia's Czar Nicholas II, his wife and their five children were executed by the Bolsheviks.

1945 - The leaders of the three Allied nations (Winston Churchill, Harry S Truman and Josef Stalin) gathered in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

1964 - The Rolling Stones had their first UK No.1 single with It's All Over Now.

1969 - Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the moon.

1453 - With the defeat of the English at the Battle of Castillon, the Hundred Years' War between France and England came to an end.

1917 - World War 1: The British Royal Family adopted the name of the House of Windsor in place of their German family name of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1964 - British speed pioneer Sir Donald Campbell set a new land speed world record of 429mph.

1975 - An Apollo spaceship docked with a Soyuz spacecraft in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind.

1872 - Britain introduced the concept of voting by secret ballot.

1920 - The unveiling of the Cenotaph War memorial in Whitehall, London to commemorate the war dead. It was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and takes its name from the Greek words kenos and taphos meaning empty tomb.

1998 - A 23-foot tsunami along the coast of Papua New Guinea killed nearly 3,000 people.

2009 - Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of the last surviving World War I servicemen, died, aged 113.

Happy Birthday Nelson Mandella, 92 years young today

1545 - The Mary Rose, the pride of Henry VIII's battle fleet, sank in the Solent with the loss of 700 lives.

1834 - Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist painter and sculptor, was born.

1837 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 236 ft steamship, the Great Western, was launched at Bristol.

1918 - The end of World War I approached as the German army began retreating across the Marne River in France.

1941 - Winston Churchill introduced his 'V for Victory" campaign which rapidly spread through Europe.

1969 - Apollo 11 and its astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin and Michael Collins, went into orbit around the moon.

2001 - Ex Conservative MP Lord Jeffrey Archer, was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and sentenced to four years in prison.

1837 - London's first railway station opened in Euston Grove.

1881 - Sioux Indian leader Sitting Bull surrendered to federal troops.

1944 - World War II: Adolf Hitler escaped death after a third attempt on his life when a bomb exploded in Rastenberg.

1969 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

2000 - Families of the victims of serial killer GP Harold Shipman won their High Court battle for an open inquiry into how their loved ones came to die.

1796 - Robert Burns, Scottish poet died, aged 37.

1897 - London's Tate Gallery, built on the site of the Millbank Prison, was opened, with 67 paintings.

2005 - London's underground network was plunged into chaos after explosions on two trains and a bus - exactly a fortnight after four suicide bomb blasted the capital.