5th December

[chenrezig]

1697 The first Sunday service was held in the new St Paul's Cathedral, London.

1766 James Christie, the founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London. Christie's main London salesroom is on King Street in St. James's, where it has been based since 1823.

1830 The birth of Christina Georgina Rossetti, the English poet who wrote a variety of romantic and children's poems. She also wrote the words of the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter.

1839 The postage rate in Britain was changed to a standard charge of 4d (4 old pence) a half ounce instead of being charged by distance.

1863 The rules of Association Football were published.

1899 The death of Lancashire businessman and philanthropist Henry Tate (sugar refining and the Tate Gallery)

1905 The roof of Charing Cross Railway Station in London collapsed, killing five people.

1913 Britain forbade the selling of arms to Ireland.

1928 England beat Australia by a record 675 runs in the Test at Brisbane.

1952 The Great Smog. A cold fog descended on London, combining with air pollution and killed at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that followed.

1956 Miss Rose Heilbron QC was appointed Recorder of Burnley to become Britain’s first woman judge.

1958 The Queen dialled Edinburgh and spoke to the Lord Provost from Bristol, to inaugurate the first direct dialled trunk call, known as STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling)

1958 Prime Minister Harold Macmillan opened the Preston bypass in Lancashire. It was the first stretch of motorway in Britain and is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.

1973 During a petrol shortage, the government imposed a 50mph speed limit to save fuel.

1989 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher defeated Sir Anthony Meyer in the first challenge to her leadership of the Conservative Party.

1991 Robert Maxwell's business empire collapsed with huge debts of more than £1bn and revelations about misappropriation of money in pension funds.

1993 The record by Mr Blobby, a pink-and-yellow spotted BBC television star, reached number one in the charts.

2005 The Civil Partnership Act came into effect in the United Kingdom. It gave same-sex couples rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage. In addition a formal process for dissolving partnerships was put in place, akin to divorce.

2012 The Audit Commission announced that English councils had increased their reserves by £4.5bn over the previous five years to £12.9bn despite cuts to funding. The money set aside was the equivalent of almost a third of their spending on services.

2013 Reforms in Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement included that those in their twenties would have to work until they were 70, under sweeping changes to the basic state pension.

2013 The death, aged 95, of Nelson Mandela, the towering figure of Africa's struggle for freedom and a hero to millions around the world.There are more streets named after Nelson Mandela in the UK than anywhere in the world outside South Africa. He also shares one of London’s most high profile public spaces in Parliament Square, with his statue alongside great figures from British history, such as former prime ministers Winston Churchill and Robert Peel.

2014 Scotland lowered the legal drink-drive limit in Scotland, from 80mg to 50mg in every 100ml of blood, lower than elsewhere in the UK.

[annie]

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[Rosalind]

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