31st January

[chenrezig]

1606 Guy Fawkes, one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot, was hanged, drawn and quartered. Known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, Guy Fawkes was born at Stonegate in York, in April, 1570.

1788 Death, in Rome, of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie).

1858 The Great Eastern, the five-funnelled steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Scott Russell, was launched at Millwall. At the time, it was the world's largest ship.

1867 The four bronze lions at the base of Nelson's Column were completed.

1918 A series of accidental collisions on a misty night, off the Isle of May at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, led to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines and damage to another five British warships. In all 270 people lost their lives.

1931 Christopher Chataway, former British athlete & Conservative MP, was born.

1981 Former British MP John Stonehouse, famous for faking his own death, married his former secretary Sheila Buckley.

1983 It became compulsory in Britain to wear car seat belts.

1994 German based BMW bought the Rover Group from British Aerospace for for £800,000,000 (£800M) then sold Land Rover alone for £1,800,000,000(£1.8Bn).

2000 Family GP Dr. Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific convicted serial killer. An official inquiry concluded that Shipman may have killed as many as 250 patients over 23 years.

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