9th February

[chenrezig]

1649 The funeral of the executed King Charles I. His personal dignity during his trial and execution had won him much sympathy and he was laid to rest at Windsor rather than Westminster Abbey to avoid the possibility of public disorder at his funeral.

1891 The birth, in Richmond, Surrey of actor Ronald Colman. He was nominated for four Academy awards and won the Award once and also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1947. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for motion pictures and one for television.

1942 World War Two: Soap rationing began in Britain.

1945 World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic – HMS Venturer sank U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat.

1964 Seventy three million Americans tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show to watch four youths from Liverpool (the Beatles) appear in America for the first time.

1966 The government announced that a £30M Prototype Fast Nuclear Reactor would be built at the Dounreay power station in a remote part of Scotland. Minister for Technology Frank Cousins said the new reactors were 'the future'. Nuclear power generation at the site ended in 1994.

1972 The British Government declared a 'state of emergency' three months into a National Miners' Strike.

1979 Football club Nottingham Forest clinched Britain's first £1m transfer deal when England forward Trevor Francis signed for Brian Clough's League and Cup winning side after eight seasons with Birmingham City.

1988 The House of Commons voted to allow experimental televising of selected debates.

1996 The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands, effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain.

2001 Lance Corporal Roberta Winterton became the first serving soldier to pose topless on Page Three of The Sun newspaper.

2002 The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, aged 71, died in her sleep after suffering a stroke and a heart attack. Her body was laid to rest at Kensington Palace in order for the Royal Family to pay their respects.

2006 The death of Freddie Laker, British airline entrepreneur. Laker was one of the first airline owners to adopt the 'no-frills' airline business model that is now used worldwide with companies such as Ryanair and EasyJet.

[annie]

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[Rosalind]

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