23rd February

[chenrezig]

1633 The birth of Samuel Pepys, London diarist, Secretary to the Admiralty and creator of the modern Royal Navy.

1820 British police uncovered 'The Cato Street Conspiracy', planned by Arthur Thistlewood, to assassinate Cabinet ministers. Five of the eighteen conspirators were publicly hanged outside Newgate prison on 1st May 1820, six were transported to Australia for life, and the rest were either rewarded or released due to their status as spies, agent provocateurs, or men who had turned King's Evidence.

1821 John Keats, English poet, died in Rome, aged 25.

1863 Lake Victoria, in Africa, was declared to be the source of the River Nile by British explorers John Speke and J.A. Grant.

1874 Major Walter Clopton Wingfield patented an outdoor game he called ‘Sphairistike’, later known as lawn tennis. Eventually it was adopted by the All England Croquet Club which sponsored the first Wimbledon championships in 1877.

1920 The first regular broadcasting service in Britain started from Marconi’s studio in Writtle, near Chelmsford. The 30-minute programme was transmitted twice daily. Peter Eckersley opened with 'Hello! Hello! This is Two-Emma-Toc, Writtle testing.' Two-Emma-Toc stood for 2MT, the licence granted to Marconi by the General Post Office.

1934 Edward Elgar English composer, died. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations and the Pomp and Circumstance Marches.

1945 World War II: The German town of Pforzheim was almost completely destroyed in a raid by 379 British bombers. About one quarter of the town's population (over 17,000 people) were killed in the air raid. The town was thought by the Allies to be producing precision instruments for use in the German war effort and to be a transport centre for the movement of German troops.

1953 In Britain, an amnesty offered to World War II deserters brought in applications from more than 3000 servicemen.

1963 Peter Hicks, a farmer who electrified his car to ward off traffic wardens in London's Covent Garden had to wait nine months before police returned his electric device and told him they would not be prosecuting.

1965 The death of Stan Laurel, film comedian, born in Ulverston (which was then in Lancashire but now lies in Cumbria) in 1890. In 1961 Laurel was given a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award for his pioneering work in comedy. Ulverston has a Laurel & Hardy Museum.
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1998 Osama bin Laden published a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and "Crusaders". The term Crusaders is commonly interpreted to refer to the people of Europe and the United States.

2007 A train derailed on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, killing one person and injuring 22. The accident resulted in hundreds of points being checked throughout the UK as similar accidents had occurred on the Rail Network.

2012 Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland announced a full year loss of nearly £2bn, further fuelling the debate about bankers' pay and bonuses. Nevertheless, £390m in bonuses was still paid to RBS's 17,000 investment bankers.

2013 Prayers were said for Pope Benedict XVI during a mass at Westminster Cathedral, as the pontiff prepared to step down at the end of the month. He was the first pope to resign in nearly 600 years.

2014 The oldest known survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, Alice Herz-Sommer, died in London at the age of 110. She was an accomplished pianist and music teacher and a film about her life was nominated for the best short documentary at the Academy Awards. Born into a Jewish family in Prague in 1903, Ms Herz-Sommer spent two years in a Nazi concentration camp in Terezin.

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