History UK and The Republic Of Ireland

25/08/2026

On This Day 26th August in British History

~1346 The English, led by Edward III and his son Edward the Black Prince, won the Battle of Crécy against Philip VI of France.

~1676 Sir Robert Walpole was born. He was a Whig politician who became the first Prime Minister. He was also the first Lord of the Treasury and the first Chancellor of the Exchequer.

~1819 Prince Albert, (Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and consort to Queen Victoria, was born in Bavaria. He persuaded Victoria towards more progressive views in some areas, took a keen interest in the arts, and organized the Great Exhibition of 1851 in the Crystal Palace.

~1936 Over 7,000 people queued to see the first high definition television pictures on sets at the Olympia Radio Show, west London. The pictures were transmitted by the BBC from Alexandra Palace, introduced by Leslie Mitchell, their first announcer.
https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/entertaining-the-nation/saturday-night/gallery

~1942 World War II: The beginning of the Holocaust in western Ukraine. The German security police evicted Jews from their houses, divided them into groups of 120, packed them in freight cars and deported 2000 to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick, along with children, were murdered on the spot.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/ukraine-holocaust

~1959 British car manufacturers Austin and Morris launched a small family car - the 'Mini'.

~1959 The Radio Show opened at Earls Court in London, with the appearance of some of the first 'transistor' radios.

~1967 The birth of Michael Gove, former Secretary of State for Education and Conservative Party Member of Parliament for the Surrey Heath constituency. He is also an author and former Times journalist who remains on friendly terms with proprietor Rupert Murdoch.

~1981 Steve Ovett recaptured the mile-run record which had been taken from him just a week earlier by Sebastian Coe. Ovett's new world record time was 3:48.40.

~1994 A man was given the world's first battery-operated heart in a pioneering operation in Britain. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/26/newsid_2535000/2535661.stm

~2001 It was announced that thousands of patients facing long delays in British hospitals could have the chance to be treated abroad in a Government bid to reduce waiting lists.

~2011 The death of John McAleese, British Army soldier and leader of the SAS team that assaulted the Iranian Embassy in London in May 1980 to end the Iranian Embassy siege.

25/08/2026

On This Day 25th August in British History

~1282 The death of Thomas de Cantilupe, English bishop and saint.

~1482 The death of Margaret of Anjou (b. 1429).

~1537 The Honourable Artillery Company was formed. after receiving a Royal Charter from Henry VIII. The Artillery Company can trace its history Back as far as 1087.

~1554 The death of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and politician, Lord High Treasurer (b. 1473).

~1688 The death of Henry Morgan, Welsh admiral and politician, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica (b. 1635).

~1776 The death of David Hume, Scottish economist, historian, and philosopher (b.1711).

~ 1804 Alicia Meynell rode Vingarillo over a four-mile racecourse at York to become the first recorded woman jockey. She was in the lead most of the way against only one other contestant, but lost.

~1819 The death of James Watt, Scottish-Watt was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, renowned for his improvements in steam engine technology (b. 1736).

~1867 The death, aged 75, of the English scientist Michael Faraday. His inventions formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became viable for use in technology.

~1919 The first regularly scheduled airline service between London and Paris begins, with the British Aircraft Transport and Travel company flying a de Havilland DH.16 between Hounslow Heath Aerodrome and Paris - Le Bourget Airport.

~ 1928 The opening of the famous Kop End at Liverpool Football Club's ground at Anfield. It was most likely named after the Battle of Spion Kop during the Boer War, the word 'Kopje' meaning 'small hill'.

~1931 Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government.

~1939 Britain and Poland formed a military alliance in which the UK promised to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power.

~1940 The RAF made the first air raid on Berlin.

~1942 The Duke of Kent, youngest brother of King George VI, was killed in a plane crash during a war mission to Iceland. He was the first member of the Royal family to be killed on active service.

~1944 World War II - The Allies liberated Paris.

~1988 The first GCSE results were published.

~1988 Romanian Chess master Mihai Suba & his son defected to the West during an international tournament in London.

~2009 The British Steam Car, driven by Charles Burnett III, broke the existing land speed record by a steam powered vehicle with an average speed of 139.843 mph over two consecutive runs over a measured mile at the Edward's Air Force Base in California, USA.

~2009 A man was stabbed in the chest during "large-scale trouble" involving hundreds of fans at West Ham's Carling Cup match against Millwall. Fights were still raging five hours later.

~2010 Gareth Williams, 30, an MI6 worker was found in a holdall in the bath at his central London flat. Police believed that he may have been murdered two weeks previously.

23/08/2026

On This Day 24th August in British History

~1113 The birth of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, married to Empress Matilda, daughter and heiress of Henry I of England and father to Henry II of England, (d. 1151).

~1198 The birth of Alexander II of Scotland (d. 1249).

~1200 King John of England married Isabella of Angouleme in Bordeaux Cathedral.

~1217 Battle of Sandwich sees an English fleet fend off an attacking French fleet to defend the throne of the young Henry III. Quick lime was thrown into the wind to blind French sailors, and Eustace the Monk, a fascinating character, was amongst those killed.

~1482 The town and castle of Berwick upon Tweed were captured from Scotland by an English army. The border town has remained English ever since.

~1662 The second statute of the Act of Uniformity required England to accept the Book of Common Prayer in religious service. Upwards of 2000 clergy refused to comply with the act, and were forced to resign.

~1680 The death of Colonel Blood, an Irish adventurer who stole the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London in 1671. He had been captured after the theft, but insisted on seeing King Charles II, who pardoned him.

~1759 William Wilberforce, English philanthropist, was born. He campaigned for many important causes, most notably the abolition of slavery in Britain and its colonies.

~1787 The birth of James Weddell, Belgium born British explorer. He explored the edge of the Antarctic, reaching the most southern point at that time, three degrees below Cook’s furthest journey. The Weddell sea, originally named after King George IV was renamed in Weddell's honour in 1900.

~1812 Peninsular War: A coalition of Spanish, British, and Portuguese forces succeed in lifting the two-and-a-half-year-long Siege of Cádiz.

~1814 British forces captured Washington DC and set the White House on fire.

~ 1875 Matthew Webb (Captain Webb) started his attempt from Dover England to become the first person to swim the English Channel. He reached Calais, France at 10.40 am the following morning, having been in the water for 22 hours.

~1903 Graham Sutherland, painter of the tapestry in Coventry Cathedral,was born.

~1947 The first Edinburgh Festival was held.

~1967 Two penguins from Chessington Zoo were taken on a day trip to a local ice-rink to cool off during sweltering London temperatures.

~1975 The first ever n**e performance in a British opera took place at Glyndebourne.

~1981 American Mark Chapman was given a 20 year sentence for shooting John Lennon, the former member of the British group, The Beatles - in New York. Chapman's eighth parole application was denied on 22nd August 2014. His next scheduled parole hearing will be in August 2016.

~1985 Five year old John Shorthouse was shot dead in Birmingham after armed officers stormed into his house looking for his father.

~1998 Britain, the United States and the Netherlands agreed to put two Libyans on trial for planting the bomb which blew up a Pan Am airliner over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all those on board and several on the ground.

22/08/2026

On This Day 23rd August in British History

~1305 Scottish patriot William Wallace was hanged, drawn and quartered in London. His head was placed on London Bridge, and his limbs displayed in Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling and Perth. His barbaric murder came as a result of Wallace's efforts to free Scotland from the occupying English forces.

~1617 The first one-way streets were introduced in London.

~1839 Britain captured Hong Kong as a base as it prepared for war with China. The ensuing 3 year conflict was later to be known as the First O***m War.

~1858 The Round Oak rail accident occurred in Brierley Hill in the Black Country. At the time, the Board of Trade inspector said 'It is decidedly the worst railway accident that has ever occurred in this country.' 14 were killed and 50 injured and the guard, who had six passengers drinking and smoking with him in the rear van was convicted of manslaughter as they had broken the train couplings whilst playing around with the train's brakes.

~1914 World War I: The Battle of Mons the first major battle of World War I.

~1938 England's Test cricketer Len Hutton scored what was then a new world record test score of 364 against Australia at the Oval.

~1961 Police launched a murder hunt after a man was found shot dead and his companion seriously wounded in a lay-by in Bedfordshire. Valerie Storie, who survived the shooting, identified James Hanratty as her attacker. Hanratty was convicted of the murder in 1962 and sentenced to death, becoming one of the last people to be hanged in Britain before capital punishment was abolished.

~1962 John Lennon, founder-member of The Beatles, married his childhood sweetheart Cynthia Powell.

~1965 Security guards at a Manchester TV Studio hosed down 200 Rolling Stones fans who broke down barriers while waiting for the band to arrive for a performance.

~1977 New, smaller pound notes, were introduced into the UK.

~1990 Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein appeared on state television with western hostages, provoking a storm of outrage.

~2005 Hilary Lister, from Kent, became the first quadriplegic sailor to cross the English Channel. She achieved this by using controls powered by her breath to navigate her boat and made the crossing in six hours thirteen minutes.

~2010 Publisher Harper Collins and the BBC began a court battle over a book that revealed the identity of Top Gear's The Stig to be the former Formula Three driver Ben Collins. Henceforth Collins was always referred to by the Top Gear presenters as 'Sacked Stig'.

~2012 Former fugitive Asil Nadir (71) was jailed for 10 years for the theft of almost £29m from his Polly Peck empire more than 20 years previously. The company collapsed in 1990 after a Serious Fraud Office investigation.

~2013 A Super Puma helicopter crashed off Shetland killed 4 of the 18 on board. In 2012 two helicopters had ditched in the North Sea only six months apart in incidents which were found to be caused by gearbox problems. Super Puma EC 225s were grounded in the wake of the two earlier accidents but were given approval to fly again and services had only resumed on 7th August 2013.

22/08/2026

The crowd at Peterloo did not hear Hunt’s famous oratory, as the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry stormed the rally in an attempt to execute a warrant for his arrest. The meeting disintegrated into chaos and bloodshed with, it is now thought, 18 civilian deaths and over 600 wounded. The fatalities included John Lees, a former regular soldier, who had served at Waterloo. The ill-trained part-timers of the yeomanry suffered mainly cuts and bruises.

Established to counter French invasion and domestic unrest, the yeomanry were increasingly used in suppressing workers, leading to some of the clearest examples of class warfare in early 19th-century Britain.

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22/08/2026

On This Day 22nd August in British History

~565 St. Columba reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness. It was the first reported sighting of the monster. The loch is Scotland's second largest loch by surface area after Loch Lomond, but, due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume.

~1138 The English defeated the Scots at Cowton Moor. Banners of various saints were carried into battle, which led to its being called the Battle of the Standard.

~1485 Richard III of England was defeated and killed at The Battle of Bosworth Field, in the last of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York. He was the last English king to die in battle.

~1642 The English Civil War began, between the supporters of Charles I (Cavaliers) and of Parliament (Roundheads), when the king called the English Parliament traitors and raised his standard at Nottingham.

~1711 Britain's Quebec Expedition loses eight ships and almost nine hundred soldiers, sailors and women to rocks at Pointe-aux-Anglais.

~ 1780 James Cook's ship HMS Resolution returned to England; Cook having been killed on Hawaii during the voyage.

~1788 The British settlement in Sierra Leone was founded, the purpose of which was to secure a home in Africa for freed slaves.

~1922 Irish republican Michael Collins, the founder of Sinn Fein, was assassinated by extremist republicans in County Cork.

~1925 The birth of Honor Blackman, English actress best known for her role of Cathy Gale in The Avengers and as the Bond girl P***y Galore in Goldfinger (1964).

~1932 The BBC began its first experiments with television broadcasting.

~1957 The birth of Steve Davis, professional snooker player. He has won more professional titles in the sport than any other player, including six World Championships during the 1980s, when he was the world number one for seven years.

~1962 The first live TV appearance of the Beatles was recorded by Granada, in a lunchtime session at The Cavern Club, Liverpool.

~1963 William Richard Morris, British car manufacturer died.

~1985 Following an aborted take-off, a Boeing 737 burst into flames on the runway at Manchester Airport, killing 55 people.

~1986 Deputy chief constable of Greater Manchester police John Stalker was cleared of misconduct. It had been alleged that he was associating with criminals.

~1989 British Telecom launched the world's first mobile phones.They had a very limited operating range that restricted their use to 100 yards from a public base station.

~1998 The Republican terrorist group the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) announced a 'complete ceasefire'.

~2012 Tony Nicklinson, a man with locked-in syndrome who lost his High Court case on 12th August to allow doctors to end his life, died after refusing food following the Court's judgement.