23rd August

[chenrezig]

1305 Scottish patriot William Wallace was hanged, beheaded, and quartered in London, and his body parts were later displayed in different cities. His barbaric murder came as a result of Wallace's efforts to free Scotland from the occupying English forces. The National Wallace Monument is on the outskirts of Stirling.

1617 The first one-way streets were introduced in London.

1650 Colonel George Monck of the English Army formed Monck's Regiment of Foot, which later became the Coldstream Guards.

1839 Britain captured Hong Kong as a base as it prepared for war with China. The ensuing 3 year conflict was later to be known as the First Opium War.

1858 The Round Oak rail accident occurred in Brierley Hill in the Black Country. At the time, the Board of Trade inspector said 'It is decidedly the worst railway accident that has ever occurred in this country.' 14 were killed and 50 injured and the guard, who had six passengers drinking and smoking with him in the rear van was convicted of manslaughter as they had broken the train couplings whilst playing around with the train's brakes. (Note: The worst rail disaster in Britain to date took place at Quintinshill (Gretna Green) in Scotland on 22nd May 1915, killing 227 people and injuring 246.)

1914 World War I: The Battle of Mons - the first major battle of World War I.

1938 England's Test cricketer Len Hutton scored what was then a new world record test score of 364 against Australia at the Oval.

1940 The German Luftwaffe began night bombing London.

1961 Police launched a murder hunt after a man was found shot dead and his companion seriously wounded in a lay-by in Bedfordshire. Valerie Storie, who survived the shooting, identified James Hanratty as her attacker. Hanratty was convicted of the murder in 1962 and sentenced to death, becoming one of the last people to be hanged in Britain before capital punishment was abolished.

1962 John Lennon, founder-member of The Beatles, married his childhood sweetheart Cynthia Powell.

1965 Security guards at a Manchester TV Studio hosed down 200 Rolling Stones fans who broke down barriers while waiting for the band to arrive for a performance.

1977 New, smaller pound notes, were introduced into the UK.

1990 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared on state television with western hostages, provoking a storm of outrage.

2001 J. K. Rowling (Harry Potter creator) was given the Walpole Medal of Excellence for promoting British Excellence.

2005 Hilary Lister, from Kent, became the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the English Channel. She achieved this by using controls powered by her breath to navigate her boat and made the crossing in six hours thirteen minutes.

2010 Publisher Harper Collins and the BBC began a court battle over a book that revealed the identity of Top Gear's The Stig to be the former Formula Three driver Ben Collins. Henceforth Collins was always referred to by the Top Gear presenters as 'Sacked Stig'.

2012 Former fugitive Asil Nadir (71) was jailed for 10 years for the theft of almost £29m from his Polly Peck empire more than 20 years previously. The company collapsed in 1990 after a Serious Fraud Office investigation.

2013 A Super Puma helicopter crashed off Shetland killed 4 of the 18 on board. In 2012 two helicopters had ditched in the North Sea only six months apart in incidents which were found to be caused by gearbox problems. Super Puma EC 225s were grounded in the wake of the two earlier accidents but were given approval to fly again and services had only resumed on 7th August 2013.

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[wendy]

[Rosalind]

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