21st July

[chenrezig]

1403 In the Battle of Shrewsbury, King Henry IV defeated rebels led by Henry 'Hotspur' Percy from Northumberland. It was the first battle in which English archers fought each other on English soil and demonstrated the deadliness of the longbow.

1545 The French invaded the Isle of Wight. However the French had little local knowledge and as the attacks were expected, local forces reached the high grounds to oppose them. The French had a long history of attacking the Island and this was their last attempt at capture.

1796 Robert Burns, Scottish poet died, aged 37.

1897 London's Tate Gallery, built on the site of the Millbank Prison, was opened, with 67 paintings.

1909 Six suffragettes, jailed for breaking windows in Whitehall, were released for insubordination, for kicking and biting female wardens and for going on strike.

1925 Sir Malcolm Campbell became the first man to break the 150 mph land barrier, at Pendine Sands in Wales when he drove a Sunbeam at a two-way average speed of 150.33 mph. His son, Donald Campbell, carried on the family tradition by later holding both land speed and water speed records.

1931 A Bill proposing the sterilisation of the mentally defective was defeated in the House of Commons.

1960 English yachtsman Francis Chichester docked in New York in his boat Gypsy Moth II - setting a new record of 40 days for a solo crossing of the Atlantic.

1962 British group The Rolling Stones made their first public appearance at the Marquee Club in London.

1972 'Bloody Friday' bombings by the Provisional IRA around Belfast in Northern Ireland killed 9 and seriously injuring 130. In all, 22 bombs were detonated.

1974 The Police national computer (PNC) began operating.

1976 The British Ambassador to Ireland, Christopher Ewart-Biggs, was killed by a terrorist car bomb in Dublin.

1982 The flagship of the British task force to the Falklands, HMS Hermes, arrived back in Portsmouth.

1994 Tony Blair, was confirmed as the new leader of the Labour Party following the unexpected death of John Smith.

2000 Downing Street insisted they would not intervene after Home Secretary Jack Straw's car was stopped by the police for speeding.

2001 Police met community leaders in Brixton after a demonstration against the fatal shooting by police of a man waving a cigarette lighter shaped like a gun.

2005 London's underground network was plunged into chaos after explosions on two trains and a bus - exactly a fortnight after four suicide bomb blasted the capital. All four bombs failed to detonate and all four suspected suicide bombers were captured and convicted.

2013 Britain's Chris Froome won the 100th Tour de France, making it Britain's second successive victory. Froome's Team Sky colleague Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first Briton to win the prestigious cycle race in 2012.

2014 Former Liverpool midfielder and England captain Steven Gerrard retired from international football, after a 14-year career representing his country and winning 114 caps.

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[Rosalind]

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