5th July

[chenrezig]

1295 Scotland and France formed an alliance, the so-called 'Auld Alliance', against their common enemy - England.

1610 John Guy, English merchant adventurer and politician, set sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists, bound for Newfoundland. He became the first Proprietary Governor of Newfoundland and led the first attempt to establish a colony on the island.

1687 Isaac Newton published his 'Principia', stating Newton's laws of motion, Newton's law of gravitation, and a derivation of Kepler's laws of the motion of the planets. The Principia is regarded as one of the most important works in the history of science.

1817 The first gold coin sovereigns were issued in Britain.

1841 Thomas Cook, a Baptist cabinet maker, founded the first travel agency. The first official 'Cook's Tour' involved almost 600 teetotallers taking the train from Leicester to Loughborough to attend a temperance meeting.

1853 The birth of Cecil John Rhodes, English colonialist and financier. Rhodes was noted for his commercial exploitation of southern Africa, where he gained control of the world’s major diamond and gold mines. He took part in the notorious Jameson Raid, an attempt to overthrown the Boers in the gold-rich Transvaal, and the incident led to his resignation as Prime Minister. He expanded further north and formed the country of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which was named after him.

1865 The Locomotives and Highways Act in Britain introduced a speed limit for road vehicles of 4 mph in rural areas and 2 mph in urban areas.

1888 Three match girls were fired at the Bryant and May match factory in London for giving information about working conditions. The other 672 employees went on strike, a landmark for women workers in Britain that led to the formation of a Matchgirls' Union.

1945 Churchill lost the General Election after leading Britain throughout World War II. Attlee’s Labour Party won 393 seats to the Tories’ 213.

1948 Britain's National Health Service came into operation.

1954 The BBC broadcast its first daily television news programme.

1969 The Rolling Stones gave a free concert in Hyde Park, London, two days after the death of guitarist Brian Jones. It was attended by 250,000 people.

1979 The Queen presided over the 1000th annual open-air sitting of the Isle of Man's Parliament, Tynwald.

1991 The Bank of England closed down UK branches of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International over allegations of fraud.

1997 The birth of Dolly, possibly the world's most famous sheep. She was cloned by scientists in Edinburgh in what was hailed as one of the most significant breakthroughs of the decade. The cell used as the donor for the cloning was taken from a mammary gland, so she was named after Dolly Parton!

2012 The Shard, Europe's tallest building to date and 'a gleaming feat of glass and gravity-defying engineering', was oficially unveiled in London. It stands at 309.6 metres tall, cost £1.5bn and was 12 years in the making.

[wendy]

Happy 66th birthday to our wonderful NHS