Tag: This Day in History
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This Day in History | 1968 – Black athletes make silent protest
Two black American athletes have made history at the Mexico Olympics by staging a silent protest against racial discrimination. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and ... -
This Day in History | 1996 – Handguns to be banned in the UK
The British Government has announced plans to outlaw almost all handguns following the shocking massacre at Dunblane in Scotland. On 13 March Thomas Hamilton walked into ... -
This Day in History | 1964 Khrushchev ‘retires’ as head of USSR
Nikita Khrushchev has unexpectedly stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union. The official Soviet news agency, Tass, announced that a plenary meeting of the Communist ... -
This Day in History | 1954 Ethiopian emperor visits UK
Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie has arrived in Portsmouth on the cruiser the Gambia. His visit is part of a world tour, his first since his ... -
This Day in History | 1976 China’s ‘Gang of Four’’ arrested
The new chairman of China’s Communist Party, Hua Guofeng, has ordered the arrest of four leading radicals in Peking. It is a sign that China is ... -
This Day in History | 1999 Millennium Wheel edges upwards
Thousands have assembled to watch a giant Ferris wheel move into position as the new landmark on the London skyline. The engineering feat has taken all ... -
This Day in History | 1967 – Che Guevara ‘shot dead’
Marxist revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara has reportedly been killed during a battle between army troops and guerillas in the Bolivian jungle. A statement issued by the ... -
This Day in History | 2001 – US launches air strikes against Taleban
The United States has begun its military campaign, Operation Enduring Freedom, against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan. Cruise missiles and bombers have targeted the airports ... -
This Day in History | 1965 Immigrants feel at home with BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation has announced plans to introduce a new service for Asian immigrants starting next week. The programmes will go out every Sunday on ... -
This Day in History | 1957 British public gets ‘Asian Flu’ vaccine
A vaccine against the strain of influenza currently sweeping around the world has been made available to the British public. The so-called Asian Flu pandemic has ... -
This Day in History | 1994 – Sleepy Boris ‘snubs’ Irish leader
A meeting between two international statesmen in Ireland had to be cancelled – because one of them overslept. Russian President Boris Yeltsin had agreed to break ... -
This Day in History | 1968 – Musical Hair opens as censors withdraw
The American hippy musical “Hair” has opened in London – one day after the abolition of theatre censorship. Until yesterday, some of the scenes in the ... -
This Day in History | 1984 UK and China agree Hong Kong handover
Britain and China have finalised an agreement which will end more than 150 years of UK rule in Hong Kong. The proposal – which will hand ... -
This Day in History | 1950 – Seoul in UN hands
United Nations forces have taken control of the South Korean capital Seoul, three months after it fell to North Korea, the US Army has announced. The ... -
This Day in History | 1988 – Gold for Johnson in 100m sprint
Ben Johnson has won the 100m gold at the Seoul Olympics and reaffirmed his position as the world’s fastest man. The Canadian also smashed his own ... -
This Day in History | 1952 – Charlie Chaplin comes home
World famous film actor and director Charlie Chaplin has returned to England for the first time in 21 years. He arrived with his wife Oona – ... -
This Day in History | 1999 UN force arrives in East Timor
A multinational peacekeeping force has landed in East Timor in an attempt to restore law and order to the territory. The UN force has been sent ... -
This Day in History | 1987 – Superpower treaty to scrap warheads
The United States and the USSR are to sign an agreement later this year to reduce the number of nuclear missiles. US President Ronald Reagan announced ... -
This Day in History | 2001 – Workers return to Wall Street
New Yorkers have been returning to work six days after the terror attacks which devastated the heart of their city. Thousands are believed dead after hijackers ... -
This Day in History | 1992 – UK crashes out of ERM
The government has suspended Britain’s membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The UK’s prime minister and chancellor tried all day to prop up a failing ... -
This Day in History | 2001 US declares war on terror
The President of the United States has described the destruction caused in New York and Washington as an act of war against all freedom-loving people. In ... -
This Day in History | 2001 – US rocked by day of terror
The United States is in a state of shock after a day of attacks which have left thousands dead and New York’s World Trade Center destroyed. ... -
This Day in History | 1963 – American Express comes to Britain
American Express, one of the world’s largest banking houses, has opened a credit card service in Britain. Holders of the cards will be able to use ... -
This Day in History | 1976 Chairman Mao Zedong dies
The chief architect of the Chinese revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong, has died at the age of 82. His death – at 10 minutes past midnight – ... -
This Day in History | 1974 – President Nixon to resign from office
Richard Nixon has announced he is stepping down as president of the United States – the first man ever to do so. He has announced his ... -
This Day in History | 1961 – Russian cosmonaut spends day in space
The USSR has launched its second cosmonaut into space just four months after Yuri Gagarin made his historic venture. Major Gherman Titov, aged 25, has amazed ... -
This Day in History | 1963 – Kennedy: ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’
The US President, John F Kennedy, has made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 ... -
This Day in History | 1973 – Thousands strike over pay and prices
About 1.6 million workers joined the Trades Union Congress’ call for a one-day strike today in protest at the government’s pay restraint policy and price rises. ... -
This Day in History | 1952 – Anne Frank published in English
The moving diary of Anne Frank, a Jewish victim of the Holocaust, is now available in British book shops entitled The Diary of a Young Girl. ... -
This Day in History | 1955 – Albert Einstein dies
Albert Einstein has died in hospital in Princeton, New Jersey, aged 76. The eminent scientist and originator of the theory of relativity was admitted to hospital ... -
This Day in History | 1984 – Libyan embassy shots kill policewoman
A police officer has been killed and ten people injured after shots were fired from the Libyan People’s Bureau in central London. WPC Yvonne Fletcher had ... -
This Day in History | 1964 – ‘Great Train Robbers’ get 300 years
Some of the longest sentences in British criminal history have been imposed on men involved in the so-called “Great Train Robbery”. Sentences totalling 307 years were ... -
This Day in History | 1998 – Former Cambodian dictator dies
The former Cambodian dictator, Pol Pot, whose regime led to the deaths of millions of his people, has died. Journalists who were shown his body in ... -
This Day in History | 1975 – US pulls out of Cambodia
The US has admitted defeat in Cambodia and removed its remaining embassy personnel from the capital, Phnom Penh. Early this morning 276 people were airlifted from ... -
This Day in History | 1957 – Britain agrees to Singapore self-rule
The British government is to allow the island colony of Singapore to govern itself under a new constitution agreed in London. The Singapore Constitutional Conference ended ...
