This Day In History
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1996 Huge explosion rocks central Manchester
A massive bomb has devastated a busy shopping area in central Manchester. Two hundred people were injured in the attack, mostly by flying glass, ... -
1964 Nelson Mandela jailed for life
The leader of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, has been jailed for life for sabotage. Seven other defendants, including the former ... -
1955 Le Mans disaster claims 77 lives
Seventy-seven people have been killed and 77 others injured when two cars collided on the race track and crashed into the spectators’ stand at ... -
1986 Magee convicted of Brighton bombing
A man has been found guilty of planting the Brighton bomb which killed five people and nearly wiped out most of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet ... -
1995 First man jailed for male rape
A man with a history of sex offences has been jailed for life for the attempted rape of another man, in the first case ... -
1982 Fifty die in Argentine air attack
Up to 50 British servicemen have died in an Argentine air attack on two supply ships in the Falklands. Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram ... -
1989 Election boost for Solidarity
Solidarity, Poland’s anti-communist party, looks set to claim a remarkable success in the country’s elections, with initial results suggesting it has done much better ... -
1977 Greece releases UK plane-spotters
Five British plane-spotters imprisoned in Greece for spying have been released after 10 weeks in jail. An Athens appeal court last week reduced their ... -
1957 Noel Coward comes home
Noel Coward has returned to Britain from the West Indies amid criticism that he is living abroad to avoid paying income tax. He arrived ... -
1966 First US space probe lands on Moon
The United States has landed its first spacecraft on the Moon. Scientists were surprised and delighted that Surveyor 1 – America’s first attempt at ... -
1985 Hippies clash with police at Stonehenge
More than 300 people have been arrested after an attempt by police to prevent a convoy of hippies reaching Stonehenge led to a violent ... -
1968 Manchester Utd win European Cup
Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup by beating Portuguese side Benfica 4-1. Ten years after the Munich air ... -
1959 Monkeys survive space mission
Two monkeys have become the first living creatures to survive a space flight. Able, a seven-pound female rhesus monkey, and Baker, a one-pound female ... -
1994 Dissident writer Solzhenitsyn returns
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has flown back to his native Russia after 20 years of exile in the United States. His plane touched down in the ... -
1998 Veterans reject Japanese ‘sorrow’
Emperor Akihito of Japan has spoken of his “deep sorrow and pain” over the suffering inflicted by his country during World War II, but ... -
1969 Apollo 10 gets bird’s eye view of Moon
Two US astronauts aboard Apollo 10 are on their way back to the safety of their mother ship after their lunar module came to ... -
1991 Bomb kills India’s former leader Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi, the 46-year-old former Indian prime minister, has been assassinated. He was campaigning for the Congress Party on the second day of voting ... -
1973 Royal Navy moves to protect trawlers
Britain has sent in Royal Navy ships to protect trawlers in the disputed Icelandic 50-mile zone as the so-called “cod war” escalates. Three frigates ... -
2004 Angry dads hit Blair with purple flour
Protesters have hurled condoms full of purple flour at British Prime Minister Tony Blair as he addressed MPs in the House of Commons, prompting ... -
1944 Monte Cassino falls to the Allies
The Polish flag is flying over the ruins of the ancient Italian monastery which has been a symbol of German resistance since the beginning ... -
1954 Queen returns after lengthy voyage
The Royal Family has returned safely from their six-month tour of the Commonwealth to a rapturous welcome in London. Thousands flocked to the banks ... -
1991 Mandela’s wife jailed for kidnaps
Winnie Mandela, the wife of anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela, has been given a six-year prison sentence for her part in the kidnap of four ... -
1981 Thousands see Pope shot in Rome
The Pope has been shot four times as he blessed the crowds in St Peter’s Square in Rome. Surgeons have performed a five-hour operation ... -
1971 Row rocks Rolling Stone wedding
The Rolling Stones singer, Mick Jagger, has married his fiancée Bianca Pérez-Mora Macias at the town hall in the French Mediterranean town of St ... -
1985 Fans killed in Bradford stadium fire
At least 52 people are known to have died and many are missing after fire engulfed the Bradford City football stadium. Hundreds of people ... -
1984 Moscow pulls out of US Olympics
Twelve weeks before the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the USSR has announced it is boycotting them. It is expected most ... -
1965 Huge Rhodesia election win for Smith
White voters in the African colony of Rhodesia have overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front which is demanding independence from the UK. ... -
1994 President and Queen open Chunnel
The Queen and France’s President Francois Mitterrand have formally opened the Channel Tunnel during two elaborate ceremonies in France and Britain. After travelling through ... -
1981 Bobby Sands dies in prison
Hunger striker Bobby Sands has died in prison 66 days after first refusing to eat. The 27-year-old republican spent the last days of his ... -
1945 Germany announces Hitler is dead
Adolf Hitler has been killed at the Reich Chancery in Berlin, according to Hamburg radio. At 2230 local time a newsreader announced that reports ... -
1958 Historic Sheerness docks to close
The government has announced the closure of one of the oldest naval dockyards in the UK. All 2,500 jobs at Sheerness Docks on the ... -
1958 My Fair Lady dazzles London
The Broadway musical My Fair Lady has opened for its first night in London, to a rapturous reception. The event, at the Drury Lane ... -
1945 Italian partisans kill Mussolini
Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy until his downfall in 1943, has been killed by partisans along with his mistress, Clara Petacci, and some close ... -
1961 Sierra Leone wins independence
Sierra Leone has become the latest West African state to win independence, after more than 150 years of British colonial rule. The new nation ... -
1975 Baader-Meinhof blow up embassy
A tense stand-off at the West German embassy in Stockholm has ended in violence, with the death of at least three people. Five Baader-Meinhof ...
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