17th April

[chenrezig]

1397 Geoffrey Chaucer told the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. The tales (mostly written in verse although some are in prose) were told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travelled together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.

1860 The first world title boxing match took place near Farnborough, Hampshire, when Briton Tom Sayers took on American John Heenan. Despite being 46 lb lighter, Sayers forced a draw after 42 rounds of bare-knuckle fighting.

1888 The formation of the English Football League took place at a formal meeting in the Royal Hotel, Manchester.

1940 The birth, in Liverpool, of Billy Fury. He equalled The Beatles' record of 24 hits in the 1960s, and spent 332 weeks in the UK charts, without ever reaching Number One. In 2003 a bronze statue of Fury was unveiled at the Albert Dock, Liverpool.

1949 At midnight 26 Irish counties officially left the British Commonwealth. A 21-gun salute on O'Connell Bridge, Dublin, ushered in the Republic of Ireland.

1951 The entire 75 strong crew of the British submarine Affray died after it went missing off the south coast of England. It was the worst British submarine accident since the 2nd World War.

1951 The Peak District became the United Kingdom's first National Park.

1956 Premium Bonds were introduced into Britain by the Conservative Chancellor, Harold Macmillan. They were described as a ‘squalid raffle’ and as a ‘cold, inhuman activity’. 750,000 Methodists were urged by their church leaders to boycott the scheme.

1963 The opening of the Hilton Hotel in London.

1964 The British pop group The Rolling Stones released their first album. The debut album was called ......... The Rolling Stones! It was released a month later in the US with the title 'England’s Newest Hit Makers'.

1969 A 21-year-old woman, Bernadette Devlin, was voted in as Britain's youngest ever female MP and the country's third youngest ever.

1969 The age at which a person was eligible to vote in Britain was lowered from 21 to 18.

1979 British tennis star John Lloyd married the American tennis star Chris Evert.

1984 WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead during an anti Gadaafi protest outside the Libyan People’s Bureau in London. Ten others were wounded and the events led to an 11-day siege of the building. Diplomatic relations with Libya were severed on 23rd April and her killer escaped under the cloak of diplomatic immunity.

1986 British journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped in Beirut. He was not released until August 1991.

1986 El Al security officials at Heathrow Airport, London foiled an attempt to smuggle a bomb on board an airliner with 360 passengers. The bomb was found in the baggage of a pregnant, Irish woman duped by her Jordanian boyfriend. He was arrested the following day.

2013 The funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and to date the only woman to have held the office. She was born in this shop in Grantham, Lincolnshire that was formerly her father's grocery shop. There is commemorative plaque on the building.

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