All Episodes

16th September 1978: Filming begins on Monty Python’s Life of Brian after George Harrison steps in to provide funding

15th September 1959: Nikita Khrushchev became the first Soviet leader to visit the United States

14th September 1814: USA’s national anthem lyrics written as the poem “Defence of Fort M’Henry”

13th September 1501: Michelangelo begins work on his statue of David

12th September 1940: Prehistoric cave paintings discovered at Lascaux, in the Dordogne region of southwestern France

11th September 1978: Janet Parker becomes the last recorded person in the world to die from smallpox

10th September 1919: Austria signs the Treaty of Saint-Germain at the end of the First World War

9th September 1513: Battle of Flodden marks the largest battle to ever take place between Scotland and England

8th September 1941: Start of the Siege of Leningrad

7th September 1940: The Nazi German Luftwaffe launches The Blitz

6th September 1914: First Battle of the Marne begins with a French counter-offensive against the advancing German army

5th September 1698: Peter the Great of Russia imposes a tax on beards

4th September 476: End of the Western Roman Empire when Romulus Augustulus is overthrown by the barbarian general Odoacer

3rd September 1260: Battle of Ain Jalut allows the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt to permanently halt the Mongol advance

1st September 1604: The Sikh Adi Granth first installed at the Golden Temple

31st August 1907: The Anglo-Russian Entente is signed, forming the Triple Entente

30th August 1813: Red Stick Creek warriors attack Fort Mims in the Mississippi Territory

29th August 1842: The First Opium War ends when Britain and China sign the Treaty of Nanking

28th August 1955: The murder of black teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi

27th August 1916: Romania enters the First World War by declaring war on Austria-Hungary

26th August 1789: Adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in France

25th August 1875: Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel

24th August 1814: The Burning of Washington sees British forces during the War of 1812 capture and set fire to many principal public buildings

23rd August 1944: King Michael of Romania leads a coup d’etat against Ion Antonescu

22nd August 1791: Start of the Haitian Revolution in the French colony of Saint-Domingue

21st August 1945: The Demon Core fatally irradiates physicist Harry Daghlian during an experiment at Los Alamos Laboratory

20th August 1940: Leon Trotsky attacked with an ice axe in Mexico

19th August 1989: The Pan-European Picnic opens the Cold War border between Hungary and Austria

18th August 1940: “The Hardest Day” of the Battle of Britain during the Second World War

17th August 1836: Parliament passes the 1836 Marriage Act, allowing non-Anglican ceremonies

16th August 1858: Queen Victoria sends the first transatlantic telegram

15th August 1969: Woodstock Music and Art Fair opens on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm near Bethel in New York

14th August 1941: Roosevelt and Churchill issue the Atlantic Charter

13th August 1876: The premiere of Wagner’s complete Ring cycle takes place in Germany

12th August 1977: Space Shuttle Enterprise completes the first free flight of the Space Shuttle programme

11th August 1919: The Weimar Republic officially established when Friedrich Ebert signs the new constitution into law

10th August 1793: The Louvre museum in Paris opens to the public for the first time

9th August 1944: Smokey Bear, the forest fire prevention mascot, first appears on a poster in the United States

8th August 1969: The Beatles pose for an album cover on the Abbey Road zebra crossing

7th August 1909: Alice Ramsey makes the first female transcontinental car journey

6th August 1965: Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act into law during the height of the Civil Rights movement

5th August 1305: William Wallace captured by English troops at Robroyston

4th August 221: The death of Lady Zhen of the Three Kingdoms

3rd August 1914: Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary, remarked that “The lamps are going out all over Europe…”

2nd August 216 BCE: Hannibal defeats the Roman army at the Battle of Cannae

1st August 1714: George, Elector of Hanover, becomes King George I of Great Britain

31st July 1971: David Scott and James Irwin drive the first Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission

30th July 1792: La Marseillaise, the future French national anthem, first sung in Paris by a group of volunteer soldiers from the city of Marseille

29th July 1567: James VI crowned king of Scotland at just 13 months old

28th July 1755: Expulsion of the Acadians agreed by British Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council

27th July 1940: Bugs Bunny makes his cartoon debut in A Wild Hare

26th July 1745: First ever women’s cricket match played near Guildford

25th July 1792: Brunswick Manifesto during the French Revolution threatened retaliation if the royal family was harmed

24th July 1927: Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing unveiled in the Belgian city of Ypres

23rd July 1943: Archibald Brown blown up by an anti-tank grenade placed under his seat

22nd July 1894: World’s first organised automobile race takes place between Paris and Rouen

21st July 1925: ‘Monkey Trial’ finds John T. Scopes guilty of teaching evolution

20th July 1969: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin successfully land on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission

19th July 1843: The ship SS Great Britain designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched in Bristol

18th July 1976: Nadia Comăneci scores the first ever Olympic gymnastic ‘perfect 10’

17th July 1453: The Battle of Castillon, widely accepted as last conflict of the Hundred Years’ War

16th July 1661: Europe’s first banknotes issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco

15th July 1834: Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition, formally known as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition

14th July 1789: Storming of the Bastille marks the start of the French Revolution

13th July 1930: Inaugural FIFA World Cup begins in Uruguay during the centenary of the country’s first constitution

12th July 1561: The consecration of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

11th July 1922: The Hollywood Bowl opens in Los Angeles

10th July 1991: Boris Yeltsin is inaugurated as the first elected President of Russia

9th July 1971: Henry Kissinger makes a secret diplomatic trip to China

8th July 1932: Dow Jones falls to its lowest point during the Great Depression

7th July 1937: Marco Polo Bridge Incident acts as a trigger for the Second Sino-Japanese War

6th July 1947: The Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle goes into production in the USSR

5th July 1948: Launch of the National Health Service in England and Wales

4th July 1776: United States Declaration of Independence adopted unanimously by the Second Continental Congress

3rd July 1938: World speed record for steam locomotives set by Number 4468 Mallard at just under 126mph

2nd July 1964: Civil Rights Act signed into law by US President Lyndon B. Johnson

1st July 1569: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth created with the signing of the Union of Lublin

30th June 1934: Hitler purges the Nazi party in the Night of the Long Knives

29th June 2008: Apple release the iPhone

28th June 1838: Queen Victoria crowned at Westminster Abbey following the death of her uncle, William IV

27th June 1905: Mutiny on board the Russian battleship Potemkin

26th June 1974: World’s first barcode scanned on a pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum

25th June 1967: Our World, live global television production, broadcast using satellite technology

24th June 1374: Dancing Plague breaks out in the German city of Aachen and continues for many weeks

23rd June 1314: The Battle of Bannockburn begins, resulting in a victory for Robert the Bruce against Edward II

22nd June 1941: Operation Barbarossa begins as German forces and their allies invade the Soviet Union during the Second World War

21st June 1919: German High Seas naval fleet scuttled in Scapa Flow, resulting in 52 ships being sunk

20th June 1789: Tennis Court Oath sworn by the French National Assembly in which they vowed not to separate until a written constitution had been established

19th June 1846: First officially recorded baseball game takes place in Hoboken, New Jersey

18th June 1815: Battle of Waterloo heralds the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte

17th June 1885: Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbour on board the French steamship Isère

16th June 1824: Reformers meet in London to establish what becomes the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

15th June 1215: Magna Carta approved by King John at Runnymede near Windsor in England

14th June 1645: The Battle of Naseby fought in the English Civil War

13th June 1917: The deadliest air raid on London of the First World War conducted by German Gotha bombers

12th June 1987: Ronald Reagan calls on Mikhail Gorbachev to ‘Tear down this wall!’

11th June 1837: Broad Street Riot takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, between Irish immigrants and existing American citizens

10th June 1605: False Dmitry I enters Moscow and is recognised as tsar following the death of Boris Godunov

9th June 1815: ‘Final Act’ of the Congress of Vienna signed, nine days before Napoleon’s final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo

8th June 793: Viking raiders attack Lindisfarne in Northumbria

7th June 1788: Day of the Tiles breaks out in the French city of Grenoble, serving as an early precursor to the French Revolution

6th June 1944: D-Day landings launched by the Allied forces of the Second World War in Normandy

5th June 1967: Start of the Six Day War as Israel launches air strikes against the Egyptian air force

4th June 1916: Russian Army begins the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front of the First World War

3rd June 1989: Tiananmen Square protesters fired on by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army

2nd June 1946: Italians vote in a referendum to abolish the monarchy and turn their country into a republic

1st June 1980: CNN begins broadcasting as the first 24-hour news channel

31st May 1981: Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka burnt down during a violent attack

30th May 1431: Joan of Arc executed in the French city of Rouen for heresy

29th May 1854: Paddington Station opens as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway

28th May 1987: Mathias Rust, an 18-year-old amateur pilot from West Germany, illegally landed a private aircraft near Moscow’s Red Square

27th May 1199: King John of England crowned at Westminster Abbey in London

26th May 1972: The United States and the Soviet Union sign the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty at the Moscow Summit

25th May 1961: US President John F. Kennedy announces his plans for a manned moon landing before the end of the decade

24th May 1956: First Eurovision Song Contest takes place in Lugano, Switzerland

23rd May 1701: Captain Kidd, the Scottish privateer, executed in London after being convicted of piracy and murder

22nd May 1455: Wars of the Roses begin at the First Battle of St Albans between Richard, Duke of York, and King Henry VI

21st May 1972: Laszlo Toth attacks and seriously damages Michelangelo’s Pietà statue

20th May 325: First Council of Nicaea brings together bishops from across the early Christian world

19th May 1536: The execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife and mother of the future Elizabeth I

18th May 1291: The Siege of Acre saw the Muslim forces of the Mamluk Sultan Al-Ashraf Khalil seize control of the Crusader-controlled city

17th May 1954: U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional

16th May 1966: Start of the Cultural Revolution in China when Mao releases the ‘May 16th Notification’

15th May 1928: Mickey and Minnie Mouse appear in their first cartoon to be shown to a cinema audience

14th May 1932: “We Want Beer” parade takes place in New York City to protest against prohibition

13th May 1950: First #Formula1 World Championship Grand Prix race at Silverstone

12th May 1949: The Soviet Union ends its blockade of West Berlin

11th May 1981: The musical Cats opens at the New London Theatre in London’s West End

10th May 1941: Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer of the German Nazi Party, flew from Germany to Scotland on a mission to strike a peace deal with the British government

9th May 1887: Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show opened in London at the American Exhibition in West Brompton

8th May 1429: Siege of Orléans lifted by French forces, marking a turning point in the Hundred Years’ War

7th May 1915: RMS Lusitania sunk by the German U-Boat, U-20

6th May 1937: Hindenburg Disaster sees the German passenger airship LZ 129 engulfed in flames following a mid-air explosion

5th May 1862: Mexican forces defeat a French army at the Battle of Puebla, commemorated annually as Cinco de Mayo

4th May 1932: Al Capone begins life as a convict in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary

3rd May 1830: World’s first steam-powered passenger service begins operating on the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway

2nd May 1982: Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano sunk by British submarine HMS Conqueror during the Falklands War

1st May 1952: The first Mr Potato Head ‘funny face toy’ goes on sale

30th April 1963: The Bristol Bus Boycott against discriminatory recruitment begins

29th April 1992: Los Angeles riots begin following the acquittal of four police officers charged with the beating of Rodney King

28th April 1923: Wembley Stadium in London opens with the ‘White Horse Final’ of the FA Cup between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United

27th April 1906: The Russian Empire’s State Duma meets for the first time

26th April 1925: Paul von Hindenburg elected President of the Weimar Republic

25th April 404 BCE: Sparta defeats Athens in the Peloponnesian War

24th April 1916: Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions set off in James Caird, a recovered lifeboat, to sail from Elephant Island to South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean

23rd April 2005: “Me at the zoo” is the first video to be uploaded to YouTube

22nd April 1884: Thomas Stevens begins the first round-the-world cycle ride

21st April 1918: Manfred von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron, shot down and killed

20th April 1968: Enoch Powell delivers his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech on immigration

19th April 1839: The Treaty of London establishes an independent Belgium

18th April 1506: Construction begins on Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome

17th April 1951: Peak District in northern England formally designated the United Kingdom’s first National Park

16th April 1922: Former WW1 enemies Germany and Russia sign the Treaty of Rapallo

15th April 1755: Samuel Johnson publishes ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ in London

14th April 1935: Stresa Front signed between the United Kingdom, France, and Italy

13th April 1919: British troops commit the Amritsar Massacre

12th April 1945: Harry S. Truman becomes the 33rd President of the United States when his predecessor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, dies while having his portrait painted

11th April 1979: The rule of Idi Amin in Uganda ends when opposing forces capture the capital city of Kampala

10th April 1858: Big Ben, the bell inside the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster, was cast

9th April 1767: John Hancock forcibly removes British customs officials from his ship

8th April 1820: Venus de Milo statue discovered on the Greek island of Milos in the Aegean Sea

7th April 1498: Savonarola takes part in a failed trial by fire that was intended to test his holiness

6th April 1896: The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens.

5th April 1958: Ripple Rock underwater mountain destroyed in one of the largest ever non-nuclear explosions

4th April 1968: Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 39

3rd April 1860: The first Pony Express service goes into operation

2nd April 1968: Science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey receives its world premiere in Washington, D.C.

1st April 1924: Adolf Hitler found guilty of treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch and sentenced to five years in jail

31st March 1905: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany lands in Morocco where his speech prompts the First Moroccan Crisis

30th March 1981: Attempted assassination of US President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C.

29th March 1974: Discovery of the Terracotta Army in Xi’an, China

28th March 1871: The Paris Commune proclaimed, and Council met for the first time

27th March 1958: Nikita Khrushchev consolidates his power over the USSR as Chairman of the Council of Ministers

26th March 1945: Battle of Iwo Jima ends after US Marines officially secure the island from the Japanese Imperial Army during the War in the Pacific

25th March 1957: Treaty of Rome signed, which laid the foundations for the European Economic Community

24th March 1882: Robert Koch announces his discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis

23rd March 1806: The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins its return journey

22nd March 1621: Hugo Grotius, the Dutch legal scholar, escapes imprisonment in Loevestein Castle concealed inside a book chest

21st March 1804: The Napoleonic Code, officially known as the Civil Code of the French, comes into effect in France

20th March 1890: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany formally accepts Otto von Bismarck’s resignation

19th March 1962: Bob Dylan, the American singer-songwriter, releases his eponymous debut album

18th March 1965: Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first person to conduct a spacewalk

17th March 1992: White South Africans vote to end apartheid in a referendum

16th March 1968: My Lai Massacre committed by US soldiers from Company C of the Americal Division’s 11th Infantry Brigade

15th March 1917: Tsar Nicholas II abdicates the Russian throne, ending more than three centuries of Romanov rule

14th March 1950: The FBI first publishes its list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

13th March 1881: Tsar Alexander II of Russia assassinated in a St Petersburg street by a member of the People’s Will revolutionary movement

12th March 1933: The first “fireside chat” delivered by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the radio

11th March 1702: First edition of the Daily Courant, the first daily English-language newspaper

10th March 1876: Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call when he contacts his assistant, Thomas Watson

9th March 1945: USAF begin Operation Meetinghouse, the firebombing of Tokyo in the most destructive bombing raid in history

8th March 1950: Volkswagen Type 2 ‘Camper’ van enters production, also known as the Transporter or Bus

7th March 1900: First ship-to-shore wireless message sent by SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse

6th March 1820: The Missouri Compromise passed by the United States Congress to resolve disagreements over slavery in the western territories

5th March 1046: Persian poet Nasir Khusraw’s 7-year journey through the Islamic world results in the Safarnama

4th March 1789: US Congress meets for the first time, and the United States Constitution goes into effect

3rd March 1878: Treaty of San Stefano lays the foundations for modern Bulgaria by ending five centuries of Ottoman control

2nd March 1965: The United States begins Operation Rolling Thunder alongside the Republic of Vietnam Air Force

1st March 1692: Salem witch trials begin in Massachusetts

28th February 202 BCE: The Han dynasty formally established in China by Liu Bang, later known as Emperor Gaozu

27th February 1933: Reichstag building in Berlin set on fire in an arson attack

26th February 1870: Beach Pneumatic Transit opens in New York as the first successful underground railway in the United States

25th February 1956: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivers his ‘secret speech’ announcing the start of de-Stalinization

24th February 1848: King Louis Philippe of France abdicates the throne amidst revolutions that were beginning to sweep across the continent

23rd February 1905: The world’s first Rotary Club founded in Chicago, Illinois, by Paul P. Harris

22nd February 1943: First three members of the White Rose resistance group put on trial and executed by guillotine in Nazi Germany

21st February 1848: The Communist Manifesto anonymously published in London by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

20th February 1962: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth aboard the spacecraft Friendship 7

19th February 1985: EastEnders, the BBC’s flagship soap opera, broadcast for the first time

18th February 1930: Nellie Jay, better known as Elm Farm Ollie, becomes the first cow to fly and be milked in an aeroplane

17th February 1913: The Armory Show, officially called the International Exhibition of Modern Art, opens in New York City

16th February 1923: Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings

15th February 1971: Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and Ireland as they abandon their old currency of pounds, shillings and pence

14th February 1949: The first Knesset, the parliament of the State of Israel, convenes for the first time in Jerusalem

13th February 1689: William and Mary become the new co-regents of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland after agreeing to the Declaration of Right

12th February 1429: Battle of the Herrings in the Hundred Years’ War fought between French and English forces near the French village of Rouvray

11th February 1929: The Lateran Treaty signed between the Italian state and the Roman Catholic Church

10th February 1906: Edward VII launches HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary new type of battleship that made all other ships obsolete

9th February 1969: First test flight of the Boeing 747 ‘Jumbo Jet’ at Paine Field in Washington State

8th February 1867: The Ausgleich, or the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, establishes the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary

7th February 1495: Savonarola’s Bonfire of the Vanities

6th February 1958: Munich Air Disaster kills 23 members of the Manchester United football team after BEA flight 609 crashes at Munich-Riem airport

5th February 1597: The Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan executed in Nagasaki

4th February 1945: Yalta Conference begins, attended by the ‘Big Three’ of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin

3rd February 1961: Operation Looking Glass begins its 29-year Cold War flight above the USA

2nd February 1887: First officially recorded Groundhog Day observance takes place in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

1st February 1960: Start of the Greensboro sit-ins to protest segregation

31st January 1990: McDonald’s opens its first fast food restaurant in the Soviet Union on Moscow’s Pushkin Square

30th January 1975: Rubik’s Cube first patented by Hungarian architect and designer Ernő Rubik

29th January 1856: The Victoria Cross medal for valour introduced by Queen Victoria

28th January 1986: NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger breaks apart 73 seconds after launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida

27th January 1973: Paris Peace Accords end direct United States military involvement in the Vietnam War

26th January 1564: Pope Pius IV confirms the decrees of the Council of Trent

25th January 1890: American journalist Nellie Bly arrives in New Jersey after completing a 72-day solo journey around the world

24th January 1890: The Shigir Idol, the oldest wooden sculpture in the world, discovered in Russia

23rd January 1556: The deadliest earthquake ever recorded hit the Chinese province of Shaanxi and surrounding areas

22nd January 1808: Portuguese royal court relocates to Brazil

21st January 1968: United States B-52 bomber carrying four thermonuclear bombs crashes near Thule Air Base in Greenland

20th January 1850: Robert McClure departs on the first expedition to transit the Northwest Passage

19th January 1915: Two German Zeppelin airships drop bombs on the Norfolk towns of Great Yarmouth and Kings Lynn in Britain’s first experience of an air raid

18th January 1778: Captain James Cook becomes the first known European to encounter the Hawaiian Islands

17th January 1991: Combat phase of the Gulf War begins when Operation Desert Storm is launched

16th January 27 BCE: The Roman Senate grant Octavian the titles Augustus and Princeps

15th January 1867: 40 people die when ice on the boating lake in Regent’s Park breaks while they are skating

14th January 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill meet at the Casablanca Conference in Morocco

13th January 1935: The Territory of the Saar Basin voted in a plebiscite to reunite with Germany

12th January 1913: The name “Stalin” meaning “man of steel” first used in print by Joseph Dzhugashvili

11th January 1923: French and Belgian troops marched into Germany and occupied the industrial Ruhr area

10th January 49 BCE: Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon River on his march to Rome

9th January 1806: State funeral of Admiral Horatio Nelson takes place in London, following his death at the Battle of Trafalgar

8th January 1918: United States President Woodrow Wilson outlines his principles for world peace, known as the Fourteen Points

7th January 1979: Pol Pot of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Cambodia) overthrown when Vietnamese forces capture the capital city Phnom Penh

6th January 1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt sets out the “Four Freedoms” in his State of the Union address

5th January 1968: The Prague Spring begins with Alexander Dubček becoming the new leader of Czechoslovakia

4th January 1642: Charles I of England attempts to arrest the Five Members of Parliament, prompting the English Civil War

3rd January 1868: Meiji Restoration begins in Japan when loyalists seize control of the Kyoto Imperial Palace

2nd January 1980: Jimmy Carter instigates the end of détente after the USSR invades Afghanistan

1st January 1942: Declaration by the United Nations agreed and signed by the four major Allied nations during the Second World War

31st December 1853: New Year’s Eve dinner takes place inside a model of an Iguanodon at the Crystal Palace Park in south London

30th December 1922: Foundation of the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

29th December 1890: Lakota Sioux massacred at Wounded Knee

28th December 1537: Francis I of France establishes the first legal deposit for books under the Ordonnance de Montpellier

27th December 1929: Stalin calls for the ‘liquidation of the kulaks as a class’

26th December 1991: Soviet Union dissolved in the final meeting of the Supreme Soviet

25th December 800: Charlemagne crowned emperor by Pope Leo III during Christmas Mass at St Peter’s Basilica

24th December 1955: Colorado Springs Continental Air Defense Command first gives children the location Santa as he delivers presents

23rd December 1750: Ben Franklin accidentally shocks himself while trying to electrocute a turkey

22nd December 1964: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird strategic reconnaissance aircraft makes its first flight

21st December 1913: First modern crossword puzzle printed in the New York World newspaper, created by Arthur Wynne

20th December 1917: Establishment of the Cheka, the Russian Bolshevik secret police

19th December 1777: George Washington leads the Continental Army into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

18th December 1892: Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker receives its première performance at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg

17th December 497 BCE: The first Saturnalia festival celebrated in ancient Rome

16th December 1431: Henry VI became the only English monarch to be crowned King of France

15th December 1851: The Forest Creek Monster Meeting of Australian gold miners protests taxes

14th December 1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole

13th December 1577: Francis Drake departs Plymouth on his circumnavigation of the globe

12th December 1935: The Lebensborn registered association established in Nazi Germany by the SS

11th December 1936: King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom announces his abdication in a worldwide radio broadcast

10th December 1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris

9th December 1921: Lead identified as a fuel additive to reduce engine knocking in automobiles

8th December 1980: John Lennon murdered outside his New York apartment block by Mark David Chapman

7th December 1995: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft becomes the first to enter orbit around Jupiter

6th December 1956: The ‘Blood in the Water’ Olympic water polo match between the USSR and Hungary

5th December 1934: The Walwal Incident lays the foundations for the Abyssinia Crisis

4th December 1676: Battle of Lund fought between Denmark–Norway and Sweden, one of the bloodiest battles in Scandinavia

3rd December 1910: The world’s first neon light was turned on for the public at the Paris Motor Show

2nd December 1804: Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

1st December 1934: Assassination of Sergei Kirov, one of the most prominent figures in the Soviet Communist Party

30th November 1982: Michael Jackson releases Thriller, the best-selling album of all time

29th November 1850: The Declaration of Olmütz signed by Prussia and Austria

28th November 1660: The Royal Society founded at Gresham College in London by a group of notable natural philosophers

27th November 1809: The Berners Street hoax causes chaos in central London

26th November 1922: Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon enter the tomb of Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings

25th November 1940: Nikolai Yezhov, former head of the Soviet secret police, executed in Moscow

24th November 1859: Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, considered by many to be the foundation of evolutionary biology

23rd November 1450: Ottoman forces abandon the First Siege of Krujë, after being unable to defeat Skanderbeg’s forces

22nd November 1987: Max Headroom signal hijacking takes control of two Chicago television stations

21st November 1974: The Birmingham pub bombings kill 21 people and injure 182

20th November 1945: The first of the Nuremberg Trials begin in the aftermath of the Second World War

19th November 2006: Nintendo release the Wii console that includes motion-sensing technology

18th November 1916: Battle of the Somme ends with a German withdrawal

17th November 1903: The Bolshevik-Menshevik split within the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party

16th November 1938: Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann synthesizes lysergic acid diethylamide, later known as LSD

15th November 1969: 500,000 people march on Washington in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam

14th November 1990: Margaret Thatcher’s fifteen year leadership of the British Conservative Party challenged by Michael Heseltine

13th November 1833: Great Meteor Storm brings tens of thousands of meteors per hour to the North America sky

12th November 1990: The World Wide Web formally proposed by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee

11th November 1918: WW1 Armistice of Compiègne is signed

10th November 1898: Wilmington Massacre sees an armed white mob overthrow the elected government of Wilmington, North Carolina

9th November 1989: Berlin Wall opened by the East German government after Günter Schabowski mistakenly announced that GDR citizens could cross to West Berlin with immediate effect

8th November 1923: Adolf Hitler leads the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, alongside General Ludendorff

7th November 1874: Elephant first appears as a symbol of the Republican Party in Thomas Nast’s political cartoon Third Term Panic

6th November 1975: The Sex Pistols play their first gig at St Martin’s College of Art in London

5th November 1940: President Roosevelt elected for an unprecedented third term

4th November 1852: Count Camillo Benso di Cavour appointed Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia

3rd November 1957: Laika the dog becomes the first animal to enter orbit around the Earth

2nd November 1795: The Directory established in France following the Thermidorian Reaction

1st November 1938: American racehorse Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral in a direct contest between the two horses

31st October 1517: Martin Luther reputedly nails his Ninety-five Theses to a church door in Wittenberg, laying the foundations of the Protestant Reformation

30th October 1961: The Tsar Bomba detonated by the USSR

29th October 1923: Republic of Turkey formally proclaimed under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

28th October 1971: Prospero, the only British satellite launched with a British rocket

27th October 1960: American singer Ben E. King records the renowned song ‘Stand By Me’

26th October 1861: Pony Express officially ends, only nineteen months after its first service began

25th October 1415: English king Henry V defeats the numerically superior French army at the Battle of Agincourt

24th October 1926: Harry Houdini performs his final show despite suffering from acute appendicitis

23rd October 1956: Hungarian Revolution begins in Budapest against Soviet control and the Hungarian People’s Republic

22nd October 1797: The first high altitude parachute descent

21st October 1805: The Battle of Trafalgar sees the British Navy under the command of Nelson defeat the combined fleets of France and Spain

20th October 1973: Sydney Opera House officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II

19th October 1935: League of Nations imposes sanctions on Italy for the invasion of Abyssinia

18th October 1565: European and Japanese naval forces fight for the first time

17th October 1943: The Thailand–Burma ‘Death’ Railway completed using forced labour including Allied prisoners of war

16th October 1846: First public demonstration of ether anaesthesia

15th October 1923: Rentenmark introduced in Weimar Germany in an attempt to stop the hyperinflation crisis

14th October 1892: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle first published, containing 12 stories

13th October 54: The Roman Emperor Claudius dies, supposedly after being poisoned

12th October 1915: British nurse Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad

11th October 1986: Reykjavík Summit takes place between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev

10th October 1957: Eisenhower apologises to Ghanaian minister for racism in Delaware restaurant

9th October 1967: Execution of Marxist revolutionary icon Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara in Bolivia

8th October 1856: Second Opium War begins after the arrest of the crew of the Arrow, a Chinese-owned but British-registered cargo boat

7th October 1949: The creation of East Germany, formally known as the German Democratic Republic

6th October 1683: Germantown founded in the Pennsylvania Colony

5th October 1914: First recorded aerial combat victory takes place when a French Voisin shoots down a German Aviatik aircraft

4th October 1936: The Battle of Cable Street took place in London’s East End

3rd October 1990: East and West Germany reunified when the German Democratic Republic joins with the Federal Republic of Germany

2nd October 1766: Nottingham Cheese Riot takes place at the city’s Goose Fair, triggered by rising food prices

1st October 1928: The USSR introduces the first five-year plan under Joseph Stalin

30th September 737: Umayyad Caliphate defeated in the Battle of the Baggage

29th September 1916: John D. Rockefeller becomes the first billionaire according to newspapers in the USA

28th September 1066: William of Normandy lands in England

27th September 1908: First Model T Ford automobile rolls out of the Piquette Avenue factory in Detroit

26th September 1687: An explosion rips through the Parthenon in Athens while it’s being used as a gunpowder magazine

25th September 1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa becomes the first European to reach the Pacific Ocean from the New World

24th September 1789: The Judiciary Act becomes law in the United States of America

23rd September 1862: Otto von Bismarck appointed Minister-President of Prussia by King Wilhelm I

22nd September 1888: First edition of National Geographic Magazine published

21st September 1937: J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel The Hobbit first published in the United Kingdom

20th September 1378: Western Schism divides the Catholic Church after the contested election of Antipope Clement VII

19th September 1970: First Glastonbury Festival took place at Worthy Farm in Somerset, known at the time as the Pilton Festival of Pop, Folk, and Blues

18th September 1932: Actress Peg Entwistle’s body found after jumping from the Hollywood sign

17th September 1908: Lieutenant Thomas E. Selfridge of the U.S. Army becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash

16th September 1955: Uprising that topples Juan Perón from power in Argentina begins

15th September 1935: Nazi Germany introduces the discriminatory ‘Nuremberg Laws’

14th September 1741: George Frideric Handel, a German-born composer who had settled in London, completed his oratorio Messiah

13th September 1985: Super Mario Bros. video game first released in Japan

12th September 1977: Steve Biko dies of injuries sustained in police custody

11th September 1792: Theft of the French Blue diamond, later known as the Hope Diamond, during the French Revolution

10th September 1991: Nirvana release ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’

9th September 1947: First literal computer ‘bug’ found in the Harvard Mark II electromechanical computer

8th September 1878: “The Great Herding” of sheep to Santa Cruz departs Fortín Conesa on the southern frontier of Argentina

7th September 1497: Perkin Warbeck claims he is English King Richard IV during the Second Cornish Uprising

6th September 1522: Victoria becomes the first ship to circumnavigate the world

5th September 1945: Defection of Igor Gouzenko to Canada exposes a Soviet espionage network in the West

4th September 1882: Thomas Edison opens the world’s first power plant on Pearl Street in New York

3rd September 1939: Second World War officially begins when France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany alongside Australia and New Zealand

2nd September 1192: Treaty of Jaffa signed between Richard I of England and Saladin, ending the Third Crusade

1st September 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland, triggering the Second World War

31st August 1854: Cholera outbreak in London’s Broad Street leads to John Snow’s investigation into germ-contaminated water

30th August 1918: Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, survives an assassination attempt