October In British History
1st
October 1870:
The first postcard was made in
Britain by the Post Office. The halfpenny postage stamp was
introduced at the same time.
1st October 1974:
McDonald's opens its first British outlet
in London.
1st
October 2000: Last commercial Hover
Craft flight across the English Channel.
2nd October 1925:
The first of London's traditional red buses -
with roofed- in upper decks - goes into service after the
lifting of restrictions that had prevented such buses being used
in the capital city.
2nd October 1952:
Britain becomes the world's third nuclear power
by testing a bomb off Trimouille Island near Australia.
3rd October 1990:
East and West Germany re-united and became one
country.
5th October 1962:
The Beatles first hit song, Love Me Do,
was released in the UK.
5th
October
1936:
The Jarrow
March
begins when 200 men from impoverished Tyneside march to lobby
parliament for work.
6th October 1769:
Captain James Cook, onboard his ship the
Endeavour, discovers New Zealand.
8th
October
1973:
Britain's first commercial radio station, LBC,
goes on air, breaking the BBC's 50-year radio monopoly.
8th
October 1990:
Britain joins the Exchange Rate Mechanism,
designed as a first step to European monetary union.
10th
October 1903: Emmeline Pankhurst
forms the Women's Social and Political Union to fight for
women's rights in Britain.
10th October 1881:
The Savoy Theatre, Britain's first building to be
lit by electricity, opens with a performance of Gilbert and
Sullivan's Patience.
11th October 1982:
The Mary Rose, Henry VIII's flag ship, was
raised from its position on the bed on the Solent, 437 years
after sinking while still in harbour.
12th October 1915:
British nurse Edith Cavell is shot by the Germans
for aiding the escape of Allied prisoners of war.
13th
October
1884:
Greenwich is voted the universal meridian of
longitude by an international conference in Washington, US.
14th
October 1066: William, Duke of Normandy, defeats
and kills Harold II of England at the
Battle of
Hastings.
16th
October
1834:
The Houses of Parliament burn down during a fire
probably started by porters burning used tally sticks.
16th October 1958:
Blue Peter, Britain's most popular
children's programme, is first broadcast on BBC TV. The first
presenters are Leila Williams and Christopher Grace.
17th
October 1777: The British are defeated at the
Battle of Saratoga, a turning point in the
American War
of Independence.
18th October 1860:
British troops occupy Beijing, effectively ending
the Second Opium War and humiliating the Qing dynasty.
19th
October
1781:
The British army surrenders at Yorktown,
Virginia, effectively ending the
American War
of Independence.
21st
October 1805: The Royal Navy defeats the
Franco-Spanish fleet at the
Battle of
Trafalgar,
but Nelson is killed.
23rd
October
1642:
Royalist forces defeat the Parliamentarians at
Edgehill, the first major battle of the
English Civil War.
24th
October
1945:
The United
Nations
comes into existence with Britain as a founder member, and 22
other ratifying nations.
25th October 1854:
A British attack into the Russian guns at
Balaclava is immortalised as the 'Charge of the Light Brigade'.
25th
October 1415:
Henry V's
outnumbered English army defeats the 'flower of French chivalry'
at the Battle of Agincourt.
26th
October
1951:
Winston Churchill becomes prime minister for the
second time, with a narrow victory over Labour.
27th
October
1908:
Parliament approves old age pensions by passing
the Old Age Pension Act, championed by the Liberals.
29th
October
1618:
English explorer
Sir Walter Raleigh
is executed for treason under a sentence passed 15 years earlier.
The
custom of 'trick or treat' originated in Britain as
'Mischief Night' when children declared one 'lawless night'
of unpunished pranks (usually May Day eve or Halloween). In
the late 19th century, the Irish belief that
'the little people' or fairies played pranks on
Halloween led boys and young men to carry out practical
jokes on that night.
The
practice of carving Jack-o'-lanterns started in Ireland. It
goes back to the Irish legend of Jack, a lazy but shrewd
farmer who tricked the Devil into a tree, then refused to
let the Devil down unless the Devil agreed to never let Jack
into Hell. The Devil agreed, but when Jack died, he was too
sinful to be allowed into Heaven, and the Devil wouldn't let
him into Hell. So, Jack carved out one of his turnips, put a
candle inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth
for a resting place. He was known as Jack of the Lantern, or
Jack-O'-Lantern.
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