On this day

1944-Iceland declares independence fom Denmark and becomes a republic.

1980 - Led Zeppelin began their last tour.

1995 - Rod Stewart set an attendance record for Wembley Stadium with a concert crowd of 90,000.

Cancel Christmas - Jesus was born June 17, say scientists
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...tists.html

1583 - The first Life Insurance policy was sold in London, and when a claim was eventually made, it was disputed.

1815 - The Battle of Waterloo:- Napoleon Bonaparte suffered defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington, bringing an end to the Napoleonic era of European history.

1817 - Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames was opened. Originally it was called Strand Bridge but was re-named in honour of the British victory at Waterloo in 1815.

1963 - Henry Cooper knocked Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the floor in round four at Wembley Stadium, London, but by the sixth, with Cooper badly cut, the fight was stopped and Clay remained world heavyweight boxing champion.

1975 - First North Sea Oil was pumped ashore in Britain.

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience made its debut performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in California.

1987 - A woman sued Motley Crue for $5,000 claiming that she lost her hearing because a concert was too loud.

1995 - Notorious B.I.G. (Christopher Wallace) was arrested in Camden, NJ, on robbery and aggravated assault charges.

1566 - King James VI of Scotland and I of England was born.

1917 - The British royal family renounced the German names and titles of Saxe-Coburg, (responding to anti-German sentiment) and became Windsor.

1970 - Edward Heath became the new British prime minister after a surprise victory for the Conservatives and the defeat of Labour leader Harold Wilson.

1975 - An inquest jury decided that the missing Lord Lucan murdered the 29-year-old nanny of his three young children.

1996 - Britain offered to slaughter up to 67,000 more cattle in an effort to end the ban on British beef.

1997 - William Hague became the youngest leader of the Conservative Party for 200 years. He beat Kenneth Clarke in the election following the resignation of John Major.

1837 - On the death of William IV, Queen Victoria, aged 18, acceded to the throne.

1887 - Britain's longest railway bridge over the River Tay opened. The first had collapsed in 1879 whilst the Edinburgh to Dundee train was crossing, killing over 90 people.

1906 - Catherine Cookson, English novelist, was born.

1984 - The biggest exam shake up for over 10 years was announced with O Level and CSE exams to be replaced by new examinations, to be known as GCSEs.

1675 - The laying of the foundation stone of the new St Paul's Cathedral in London The cathedral was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the site faced that of the church destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666.

1854 - The first Victoria Cross, Britain's highest medal for bravery, was awarded to Charles Lucas, who was awarded it during the Crimean War for conspicuous bravery. The medal was made from metal from a cannon captured at Sebastopol.

1919 - German sailors scuttled 72 warships at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys even though Germany had surrendered. It was the greatest act of self-destruction in modern military history.

1937 - First televising of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

1948 - The first stored programme to run on a computer was put through its paces on the Small Scale Experimental Machine, known as Baby, at Manchester University.

1996 - Britain and other members of the EU reached an agreement for the phased lifting of the ban on British beef. French farmers, however, blockaded two channel ports.

1377 - At the age of 10, Richard II became King of England following the death of his grandfather Edward III, the previous day.

1611 - Henry Hudson, English navigator, was cast adrift with some of his crew after a mutiny in the bay that now bears his name.

1910 - The birth of John Hunt, English mountaineer and explorer. He led the 1953 expedition on which Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain (29,035 feet).

1984 - The first Virgin Atlantic flight left Gatwick for New York, with a planeload of passengers who had paid just £99 for their tickets.

1986 - The 'Hand of God' football match. England were beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Mexico. Both Argentine goals were scored by Diego Maradona - the first with the deliberate use of his hand which went unseen by the referee.

1757 - British troops, commanded by Robert Clive, won the Battle of Plassey in Bengal - laying the foundations of the British Empire in India.

1894 - Birth of Edward, Duke of Windsor who was King Edward VIII from 20th January to 10th December 1936 before abdicating to marry twice-divorced Mrs. Wallis Warfield Simpson.

1970 - The world’s first all-metal liner, Brunel’s 'Great Britain' returned to Bristol from the Falkland Islands where it had lain rusting since 1886.

1985 - A passenger jet disintegrated in mid-air off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board.

1986 - Brighton bomber Patrick Magee, found guilty of planting the bomb at the Grand Hotel, Brighton during the Conservative Party Conference in 1983, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years.

1994 - It was announced that the Royal Yacht Britannia would be sold or scrapped.