1931 The birth in Carnforth, Lancashire of Cecil Parkinson, Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister. Parkinson was forced to resign in October 1983 after it was revealed that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was carrying his child.

1939 At dawn on 1st September, Germany made a massive invasion of Poland and bombed Warsaw at 6am, beginning World War II in Europe. The service to 2,000 televisions also ceased in Britain. There would be no more TV for seven years.

1951 The Premier supermarket opened in Earl’s Court, London; the first supermarket in Britain.

1958 Iceland expanded its fishing zone, putting it into conflict with the United Kingdom and the beginning the Cod Wars.

1960 The Government announced that Britain's first betting shops would be allowed to open for business from May 1961.

1971 The British penny and the threepenny piece coins ceased to be legal tender as decimalization continued.

1973 The rescue of former British Royal Navy officer Roger Mallinson and engineer Roger Chapman after their Vickers Oceanics small (6ft diameter) submersible Pisces III was trapped on the seabed at a depth of 1,575 ft (480 m), 150 miles off Ireland in the Celtic Sea. The rescue, by British, American and Canadian dive teams had taken 76 hours and resulted in the deepest sub rescue in history. It was later determined that there was just 12 minutes of oxygen left aboard.

1976 The first of 11,500 standpipes were connected in Yorkshire as local reservoirs reached their lowest levels in years.

1981 Garages in Britain began selling petrol in litres.

1982 Former Ipswich manager Bobby Robson was appointed England football manager.

1985 After 73 years the wreck of the liner 'Titanic' was found, by Dr. Robert Ballard.

1989 In Britain, the Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher began the controversial privatisation of the public water authorities.

2000 Channel services were disrupted after two separate groups of stowaways jumped from freight trains as they arrived in Kent.

2001 England beat bitter rivals Germany 5-1 in the World Cup qualifying tie, with Michael Owen scoring a hat-trick.

2001 The death of Brian Moore, sports commentator and television presenter who covered nine World Cups, six European Championships and every FA Cup Final on ITV from 1969 to 1988 and again in 1998.

2011 The introduction of an EU-wide ban on the manufacturing and importing of 60W incandescent clear light bulbs, in favour of energy-saving fluorescent and halogen bulbs and LED lights.

2013 Real Madrid broke the world transfer record to sign Tottenham forward Gareth Bale for £85.3m. It eclipsed the £80m Real paid Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

Natalie

Bassingthwaighte

Megan

Nicole

Zendaya

Coleman

Taylor

Blackwell

Cassady

McClincy

1974

Clare Kramer

Not Rated

1981

Fearne Cotton

Not Rated

2000

Ashley Boettcher

●●●●●

1982

Sarah Solemani

Not Rated

1996

Victoria Moroles

Not Rated

1998

Elizabeth Elias

Not Rated

2000

Ruby Stokes

Not Rated

1958

Roxann Dawson

Not Rated

1961

Virginia Madsen

Not Rated

2001

Mackenzie Aladjem

Not Rated

1906 The opening of the Newport Transporter Bridge in south east Wales. Only eight such bridges remain in use worldwide and this is the oldest and largest of the three historic transporter bridges which remain in Britain. Vehicles are transported on the 'gondola' across the River Usk.

1908 The marriage of Winston Churchill to Clementine Hozier.

1936 Britain’s Fred Perry won the US Tennis Championships against Donald Budge. Britain had to wait a further 76 years for a male singles champion and on 11th September 2012 Andy Murray won the US Open, beating Novak Djokovic.

1960 Ministry of Transport (MoT) tests on motor vehicles were introduced in the UK.

1970 The supersonic Concorde passenger jet landed at Heathrow Airport for the first time to a barrage of complaints from nearby residents about noise.

1972 Two British trawlers were sunk by Icelandic gunboats during the 'cod war'

1987 The BBC filmed the first 'Top of the Pops' to be sold in America.

2000 Britain was brought to a standstill as fuel tax protesters, backed by tanker drivers, caused petrol shortages.

2005 England took the Ashes from Australia for the first time since 1987.

2012 After three years reviewing 450,000 documents, including those relating to former prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Merseyside police, the Hillsborough Independent Panel published its report. The report exposed the police campaign to blame Liverpool fans for the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster which saw the death of 96 fans. It led to a new criminal inquiry into the disaster and an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

2014 The death, aged 88, of Dr. Ian Paisley, the former firebrand Democratic Unionist Party leader. For decades he was the face of opposition to compromise with the IRA in Northern Ireland. Friends and one-time foes described him as a 'colossus' and 'big man of Irish politics'.

2021 All Britain's major newspapers carried the story of unseeded 18 year old Emma Raducanu winning the US Open, after beating Leylah Fernandez in straight sets. She did not drop a set through qualifying or the main draw, was the first qualifier to ever win a Grand Slam and was the first British woman to win a Grand Slam trophy since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977.

Lauren

Stamile

Emmy

Rossum

Alexia

Fast

Sydney

Sweeney

1996

Lili Reinhart

Not Rated

1901 The birth of Sir Donald Bailey, English civil engineer who invented the Bailey bridge, a wood and steel bridge small and light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into place by hand, yet strong enough to carry tanks. Field Marshal Montgomery is recorded as saying that without the Bailey bridge, we would not have won the war.

1916 Military tanks, designed by Ernest Swinton, were first used by the British Army, in the Somme offensive.

1940 The tide turned in the Battle of Britain as the German air force sustained heavy losses inflicted by the Royal Air Force. The defeat was serious enough to convince Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to abandon his plans for an invasion of Britain. The day was chosen as "Battle of Britain Day". See ©BB picture of a Spitfire at the RAF Museum in Cosford, Shropshire.)

1960 London introduced Traffic Wardens onto the streets of the capital.

1966 The launch at Barrow (see ©BB picture of BAE Systems' Devonshire Dock Hall, Barrow) of HMS Resolution, the first of a class of four nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) built for the Royal Navy as part of the UK Polaris programme. Her long period of sea trials culminated in the test firing of a Polaris missile from the USAF Eastern Test Range off Cape Kennedy at 11:15 on 15th February 1968. The class was part of the 10th Submarine Squadron, all based at Faslane Naval Base in Scotland.

1971 Prince Charles joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, under the graduate entry scheme, as Acting Sub-Lieutenant. The Duke of Edinburgh, and his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, had both been at Dartmouth.

1981 The death of the actor Harold Bennett, best remembered as 'Young Mr. Grace' in the 1970s British sitcom Are You Being Served? and as the character Mr. Blewitt in Dad's Army from 1969 to 1977.

1984 Prince Harry, 3rd in succession to the throne, was born.

1985 Tony Jacklin's team of golfers beat the United States in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 28 years.

2000 The fuel protests which had paralysed Britain for seven days, ended.

2000 Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that parents would not be allowed access to the sex offenders' register.

2006 The death of Raymond Baxter, television presenter and writer who is best known for being the first presenter of Tomorrow's World, continuing for 12 years, from 1965 to 1977. He also gave radio commentary at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the funerals of King George VI, Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, and the first flight of Concorde.

2014 Phones 4u, which had more than over 600 stores throughout the United Kingdom, went into administration after EE, Vodafone, Orange & O2, the company's final remaining suppliers, ended their contracts.

2016 The government gave the go ahead for a new £18bn nuclear power station at Hinkley Point (see ©BB picture) in Somerset after imposing 'significant new safeguards' to protect national security. The new plant (Hinkley Point C) is to be financed by the French and the Chinese.

Sophie

Dahl

Emma

Fuhrmann

1955

Janet Ellis

Not Rated

1976

Tina Barrett

Not Rated

1981

Fan Bingbing

Not Rated

1984

Katie Melua

Not Rated

1985

Madeline Zima

Not Rated

1995

Victory Van Tuyl

Not Rated

2002

Holly Barrett

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1996

Ella Purnell

Not Rated

1979

Alison Lohman

Not Rated

1987

Danielle Panabaker

Not Rated

1988

Katrina Bowden

Not Rated

2003

Lily Chee

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1995

Sammi Hanratty

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1963

Lysette Anthony

Not Rated

1985

Talulah Riley

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1971

Amanda Detmer

Not Rated

1972

Gwyneth Paltrow

Not Rated

1984

Avril Lavigne

Not Rated

2002

Jenna Ortega

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1987

Hilary Duff

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1990

Kirsten Prout

Not Rated

2000

Brenna D'Amico

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1982

Amy Williams

Not Rated

1967

Andrea Roth

Not Rated

1982

Lacey Chabert

Not Rated

1982

Michelle Marsh

Not Rated

1984

Keisha Buchanan

Not Rated

2002

Maddie Ziegler

Not Rated

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Updated - 15/09/2025