History UK and The Republic Of Ireland

18/10/2026

17/10/2026

On This Day 18th October in British History

~1016 Canute the Great completes his conquest of England in the Battle of Assandun.

~1541 The death of Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scotland; the elder of the two surviving daughters of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, the elder sister of Henry VIII, wife of James IV of Scotland and mother of James V.

~1674 The birth of Richard ‘Beau’ Nash, English gambler who made Bath a city of fashion; improving its streets and buildings.

~1826 Britain's last state lottery was held, prior to the launch of the National Lottery in 1994.

~1851 Herman Melville's book Moby-Dick was first published as 'The Whale' by Richard Bentley of London.

~1865 British Tory politician Lord (Pumice-stone) Palmerston died in office. His abrasive and arrogant style earned him his nickname.

~1871 The death of Charles Babbage, English mathematician, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. He is considered a 'father of the computer' as he is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex designs.

~1910 The trial of English murderer Dr Crippen began at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London.

~1922 The British Broadcasting Corporation was officially formed, to operate from Marconi House in London, under the management of John Reith. It established a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

~1963 Harold Macmillan resigned as Prime Minister because of ill health. Sir Alec Douglas-Home became Prime Minister.

~1966 The Queen granted a royal pardon to Timothy Evans, wrongly convicted and hanged in 1950 for the murder of his wife and child. The real murderer was John Reginald Christie who had been hanged for mass murder in 1953.

~1977 Hilary Bradshaw became the first woman to referee a rugby match when Bracknell played High Wycombe.

~1978 The birth of Mike Tindall, an English rugby player who has captained the England team and is married to Zara Phillips, the daughter of the Princess Royal and the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II.

~1987 Nigel Mansell won the Mexican Grand Prix.

~1988 British Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, banned all broadcasts involving terrorist spokesmen. IRA spokesmen could be seen, but not heard, although their statements could be reported by the media.

~1995 Red Rum, three times winner of the Grand National at Aintree, died at the age of 30, an exceptional age for a horse. He was buried at Aintree.

~1998 Richard Bacon, presenter of the BBC TV programme 'Blue Peter' was sacked for taking co***ne.

~2014 A flock of sheep was left feeling rather woolly-headed after accidentally munching on £4,000 worth of cannabis plants that had been dumped in their field, at the edge of Fanny’s Farm in Merstham, Surrey. By the time that the police arrived, much of the evidence had been eaten.

17/10/2026

October Autumnal Milky Way over Stonehenge 🤩

It's my favourite time for shooting the milky way at Stonehenge, as soon as astronomical darkness arrives it's ready to shoot in the vertical position with one of the monuments best views from next to the Hell Stone 😍

I collected around 80 minutes of star tracked data for this one on my Canon R5a coupled with the trusty Sigma Art 28mm

17/10/2026

On this day 17th October 1346 At the Battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, the Scots were routed and King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.

•Here's a few good articles about the Battle of Neville's Cross:
http://www.battlefieldsofbritain.co.uk/battle_nevilles_cross_1346.html

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=28

http://www.medievalists.net/2015/09/23/the-battle-of-nevilles-cross-as-told-in-the-lanercost-chronicle/

Images:
•Illustration of Battle of Neville's Cross from a 15th-century Froissart manuscript (BN MS Fr. 2643), Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Neville%27s_Cross

•Location of Neville’s Cross to Durham: https://maps.app.goo.gl/suEkkHBmkixGx1jk9?g_st=ic

•The remains of Neville's Cross, on Crossgate in Durham, Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Neville%27s_Cross

16/10/2026

On This Day 17th October in British History

~1091 A tornado struck London. It was Britain's earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city of London was badly damaged. Other churches in the area were demolished, as were over 600, mostly wooden, houses.

~1346 At the Battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, the Scots were routed and King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.

~1727 The birth of John Wilkes, English political agitator and advocate of press freedom who, despite being elected to Parliament four times, was not allowed to take his seat. Eventually, working, and middle-class support secured him his rightful entry to Parliament where he fought for reforms and religious tolerance.

~1814 Eight people die in the London B**r Flood.

~1860 The world's first professional golf tournament was held, at Prestwick in Scotland.

~1928 The death of Frank Dicksee, English painter and illustrator (b. 1853)

~1936 Newspaper owner Lord Beaverbrook promised King Edward VIII that he would arrange for the British press to remain silent on the subject of his relationship with American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson.

~1956 Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in Cumbria - Britain's first large scale atomic energy station.

~1958 The death of Charlie Townsend, English cricketer and lawyer (b. 1876)

~1973 The start of a major world oil crisis when oil producing Arab states increased prices by 70 per cent and cut production in protest at US support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

~1978 Public pressure led ministers to reduce the number of grey seals to be culled in Scotland.

~1980 The Queen made history by becoming the first British monarch to make a state visit to the Vatican, when she met Pope John Paul II.

~1985 The House of Lords, in the Gillick case, permitted doctors to prescribe oral contraceptives to girls aged under 16 without parental consent.

~1991 Four independent television companies: TV-am, Thames, TVS and TSW lost their licences to broadcast following a 'sealed bid' system of awarding the franchises by the Independent Television Commission.

~1996 England international footballer Paul Gascoigne was accused of beating up his wife Sheryl at a hotel in Scotland.

~2000 Four people were killed when a high speed passenger train derailed in Hatfield, just north of London. The accident was a defining moment in the subsequent collapse of Railtrack.

~2012 Colin Farmer, aged 61 and a blind stroke victim said that he thought he was going to die when he was shot in the back in Chorley town centre with a 50,000-volt Taser stun gun fired by a police officer who mistook his white stick for a Samurai sword.

15/10/2026

On This Day 16th October in British History

~1396 The birth of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, English admiral, who from 1443 to 1450 dominated the government of the weak king Henry VI (ruled 1422–61 and 1470–71), (d. 1450).

~1430 The birth of James II of Scotland. James was born in Holyrood Abbey. He was the son of King James I and Joan Beaufort (d. 1460).

~1461 the Battle of Twt Hill, was a Yorkist victory that ended open Lancastrian resistance to Edward IV in most of Wales, leaving only Harlech in Lancastrian hands.

~1555 English bishops Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley were burnt at the stake for heresy. The Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was burnt five months later on 21 March 1556.

~1803 The birth of Robert Stephenson, the English civil engineer who built railways and bridges. A replica of Robert Stephenson's Rocket is on view at the York Railway Museum.

~1834 The original Houses of Parliament were almost completely destroyed by fire. The blaze, which started from overheated chimney flues, spread rapidly throughout the medieval complex and developed into the biggest conflagration to occur in London since the Great Fire of 1666. Westminster Hall and a few other parts of the old Houses of Parliament survived the blaze and were incorporated into the New Palace of Westminster, which was built over the following decades.

~1847 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was published under her pseudonym Currer Bell.

~1869 Girton College, Cambridge was founded and became England's first residential college for women.

~1881 The first edition of The People' - later renamed 'The Sunday People'.

~1902 Britain opened its first 'Borstal' detention centre, at the village of Borstal in Kent. The institution was designed to keep boys, especially first offenders, away from adult criminals in prisons; to teach them a trade and to reward good behaviour.

~1920 Gordon Richards, 26 times a champion jockey, had his first ride, at Lingfield Park.

~1958 Britain's most popular children's television programme 'Blue Peter' was first broadcast on BBC TV. The first presenters were Leila Williams and Christopher Trace.

~1964 Harold Wilson became Prime Minister of a Labour Government. He was the first Labour PM in 13 years.

~1974 Three prison staff were taken to hospital and dozens of prisoners were injured after rioting and fires at the Long Kesh Maze prison, Belfast.

~1987 Southern Britain began a massive clear-up operation after the worst night of storms in living memory. BBC Weatherman Michael Fish faced criticism, as he had reassured viewers that the worst of the stormy weather would be across Spain and France.

~1996 British Home Secretary Michael Howard announced stringent new gun controls following the mass shooting in March 1996 of children at a school in Dunblane, Scotland.

~1998 Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and the SDLP leader John Hume were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their part in forging the Northern Ireland Agreement which was signed in April of the same year.

~2001 Government special adviser Jo Moore apologised for sending an e-mail in which she suggested 11th September (the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York) was a good day to 'bury bad news'.