1st August

[chenrezig]

1740 Rule Britannia was sung for the first time, for the then Prince of Wales's daughter's third birthday.

1774 English chemist Joseph Priestley identified oxygen, which he called 'a new species of air'.

1798 The English, under Nelson, destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, in Aboukir Bay, stopping Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade the Middle East.

1800 The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1831 New London Bridge was opened by King William IV. It lasted for 140 years and was sold and rebuilt in Arizona.

1834 Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force. An estimated 770 000 slaves were freed.

1883 Parcel post started in Britain.

1914 World War I began with Germany's invasion of Luxembourg. The same day, Germany and Russia declared war against each other.

1966 The British Empire officially came to an end as the Colonial Office closed its doors and lowered its flag, giving way to the Commonwealth.

1975 In Britain, cigarette advertising was banned on television.

1976 Elizabeth Taylor got her 6th divorce when she re-divorced Richard Burton.

1984 Commercial peat-cutters discovered the preserved body of a man they called Lindow Man, at Lindow Moss in Cheshire. It is thought that he was deposited some time between 2 BC and 119 AD.

1989 Britain's oldest person, Charlotte Marion Hughes from Cleveland, celebrated her 112th birthday.

1992 Linford Christie won the 100m gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.

1994 Norwich Central Library caught fire.

1999 Ronan Keating scored his first UK No.1 solo single with the song When You Say Nothing At All.

2001 Officers from Scotland Yard's Child Protection Team investigated a boy's claims that he was held captive in his own home for eight years.

2007 The worldwide centenary of Scouting took place at Brownsea Island, the largest of the islands in Poole Harbour in the county of Dorset. The first camp in 1907 is regarded as the real origin of the worldwide Scout movement.

2008 Barry George was found not guilty of the murder of BBC television presenter Jill Dando outside her London home. He was first convicted in 2001 but an Old Bailey retrial was ordered after doubt was cast on the reliability of gunshot residue evidence.

2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins and the women's rowing duo scooped Britain's first gold medals of the Olympic Games.

[annie]

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[JaneJ]

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