1852 Britain's first four pillar boxes came into service on the Channel Island of Jersey. The idea came from English novelist Anthony Trollope who worked for the General Post Office in London before becoming a writer.
1867 The Manchester Martyrs (William Philip Allen, Michael Larkin, and Michael O'Brien, all members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) were hanged in Manchester for killing a police officer whilst freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.
1887 Boris Karloff, English actor famous for his roles in horror films, was born.
1896 The first Royal Command Performance for the British Sovereign. The event was in the Red Drawing Room at Windsor Castle, before H.M. Queen Victoria.
1905 British Liberal Party leader Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman advocated Home Rule for Ireland, by instalments, in a controversial speech in Scotland.
1910 American born Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London after being found guilty of poisoning his wife and dismembering her body.
1915 ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’, the famous First World War song, was published, by Felix Powell and George Asaf, who were really two brothers from Wales.
1954 The birth of Ross Brawn, English motorsport engineer and Formula One team principal. He worked as the technical director of the championship-winning Benetton and Ferrari Formula One teams.
1962 British surgeon John Charnley developed a technique at Wrightington Hospital Lancashire that revolutionised hip replacement operations. He was later knighted for his efforts and his work became the standard procedure across the world.
1963 The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell as the Doctor, and Carole Ann Ford as his first female companion. It is the world's longest running science fiction drama.The producer, Sydney Newman, thought the Daleks, designed by Ray Cusick, were ‘bug-eyed monsters’ and totally wrong for the series.
1976 British comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth II. There is a statue of Eric Morecambe on the promenade at Morecambe, Lancashire.
1978 A Birmingham nightclub was ordered to open its doors to black and Chinese people.
1979 In Dublin, Thomas McMahon was found guilty of the murder of Lord Mountbatten, and given a life sentence.
1984 Almost 1,000 passengers were trapped in smoke filled tunnels for three hours after a fire at Oxford Circus underground station.
1993 English artist Rachel Whiteread won both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year. She was the first woman to win Turner prize. and 2001 she became the third artist to provide a sculpture for the empty fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, an inverted 11 ton resin cast of the plinth itself.Statistics: Posted by chenrezig — 23 Nov 2014, 06:31
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