15th August

[chenrezig]

1842 The first regular British detective force was formed as a division of the Metropolitan Police, under the joint command of Inspector Pearce and Inspector John Haynes. In 1878 it became known as the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

1856 The birth of James Keir Hardie, Scottish politician. He founded the British Labour Party and was its leader from 1906.

1872 The first voting by ballot in Great Britain took place in a by-election at Pontefract, when Hugh Childers, a Liberal MP and minister was re-elected

1888 T.E. Lawrence, Welsh soldier and writer known as 'Lawrence of Arabia', was born, in Tremadog, Gwynedd.

1939 The Cunard liner Queen Mary recaptured the Blue Riband from the SS Normandie, crossing the Atlantic in 3 days, 22 hours and 40 minutes.

1941 Corporal Josef Jakobs was executed by firing squad at the Tower of London at 7:12 a.m. making him the last person to be executed at the Tower for treason.

1947 Pakistan was founded when British rule over the region ended. India gained independence from Britain, and the Union Jack was lowered in New Delhi for the last time. Pandit Nehru became India’s first Prime Minister.

1950 Princess Anne, Britain's Princess Royal was born.

1962 Unhappy with Pete Best's role in The Beatles, Brian Epstein and the other three members decided to sack him. He played his last gig at The Cavern, Liverpool, two years and three days after he first performed with them.

1963 The execution of Henry John Burnett, the last man to be hanged in Scotland and the first to be hanged in Aberdeen since 1891. Burnett was tried at the high court in Aberdeen in July and found guilty of the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyan.

1971 Controversial horse rider Harvey Smith was stripped of his £2,000 winnings and a major show jumping title for allegedly making a rude V-sign gesture.

1985 Richard Branson's speedboat Virgin Atlantic Challenger capsized off the south-west of England. He was just two hours short of completing the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing.

1987 Caning was officially banned in British schools (excluding independent schools).

1998 A bomb blast in Omagh, Northern Ireland, killed 28 people and injured more than 300 others. A 29th victim died a month later. It was the worst attack in 29 years of paramilitary violence in Ulster.

1988 Glasgow passport office started to issue the new EEC passports. It was the first office to be computerised to dispense the burgundy coloured documents, which replaced the traditional blue ones. Reception to them was mixed.

2011 A teenager who stole a laptop from a west London flat during the riots was traced on Facebook by the computer's owner. Greg Martin, an information security professional and former Nasa and FBI employee had installed a tracking device on the laptop and got the suspect's ID from the social networking site. The information included the man's name, school, address in west London and information about his wireless internet connection. Soheil Khalilfar, 18, was later charged with handling stolen goods.

2013 Google announced that it was to loan out its Trekker wearable backpack to the Canal & River Trust, who would use it to capture footage of some of most scenic parts of Britain's 200-year old waterway network.

[Rosalind]

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[annie]

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