On this day in UK history – 28th February

On this day in UK history:

28^th February 2012 - Occupy London protesters evicted from St Paul's Cathedral.

On this day in UK history – 27th February

On this day in UK history:

27^th February 1981 - Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder record "Ebony & Ivory"

On this day in UK history – 26th February

On this day in UK history:

26^th February 1987 - The Church of England's General Synod voted by a huge majority to clear the way for the ordination of women priests.

On this day in UK history – 25th February

On this day in UK history:

25^th February 1570 - Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

On this day in UK history – 24th February

On this day in UK history:

24^th February 1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. 

On this day in UK history - 23rd February

On this day in UK history:

23^rd  February 1633 -  Samuel Pepys was born. He was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament. He is now most famous for the diaries he kept for a decade while he was still a relatively young man and also his quotes - for example:

"Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody"

On this day in UK history – 22nd February

On this day in UK history:

22^nd February 1997 - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and his colleagues announced that an adult sheep called Dolly had been successfully cloned. Dolly was actually born on July 5 1996 and was the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell. 

On this day in UK history – 21st February

On this day in UK history:

21^st February 1946 - Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born in Hammersmith – London – England.

Here are some of the movies he has starred in:

• Die Hard
• Truly Madly Deeply
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves     
• Sense & Sensibility
• Love Actually
• All the Harry Potter movies

On this day in UK history – 20th February

On this day in UK history:

20^th February 1673 - The first recorded wine auction took place in London. 

On this day in UK history – 19th February

On this day in UK history:

19th February 1995 - Linford Christie ran both an indoor World record 200m at 20.25 seconds and also an indoor European record 60m at 6.47 seconds in Lievin – France.

On this day in UK history – 18th February

On this day in UK history:

18^th February 1968 - David Gilmour replaced Syd Barrett in Pink Floyd. Barrett had checked himself into a psychiatric hospital and then gone into seclusion. 

On this day in UK history – 17th February

On this day in UK history:

17^th February 1795 - Thomas Seddal harvests a 8.3-kg potato from his garden in Chester – England.

On this day in UK history – 16th February

On this day in UK history:

16^th February 1824 – The Athenaeum club was founded in London.

The Athenaeum was a gentlemen’s club (originally) when it was founded in London in 1824. It has had many well known persons as members and today includes lady members.

The distinctive clubhouse is located at 107 Pall Mall (at the corner of Waterloo Place) and was designed by Decimus Burton. The club's facilities include an extensive library / a dining room known as the Coffee Room / a Morning Room / a Drawing Room on the first floor / a newly restored Smoking Room - where smoking is not permitted and a suite of bedrooms.

On this day in UK history – 15th February

On this day in UK history:

15^th February 1971 (otherwise known as Decimal Day) - the United Kingdom and Ireland decimalised their currencies.

Post-decimal money

Pre-decimal money 

On this day in UK history – 14th February

On this day in UK history:

14^th February 1970 - The Who taped a concert at Leeds University in Leeds (England) - for their forthcoming album "Live at Leeds." 

On this day in UK history – 13th February

On this day in UK history:

13^th February 1907 - English suffragettes storm British Parliament & 60 women are arrested.

On this day in UK history – 12th February

On this day in UK history:

12^th February 1994 – One hundred people made history by walking from France to England for the first time in millions of years. Each person represented a charity or voluntary organisation and walked the 31.4 miles of the Channel Tunnel. The walk took (on average) 13 hours to complete.

On this day in UK history – 11th February

On this day in UK history:

11^th February 1976 – John Curry (figure skater) won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics held at Innsbruck – Austria.

It was Britain's first Olympic gold in the sport - and the UK's first medal at the winter games for 12 years.

On this day in UK history – 10th February

On this day in UK history:

10^th February 1840 - Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha. 

On this day in UK history – 9th February

On this day in UK history:

9^th February 2006 - Freddie Laker British airline entrepreneur died.

Sir Freddie Alfred Laker was a British airline entrepreneur – he founded Laker Airways in 1966 (the company went bankrupt in 1982). Freddie Laker was a forward-thinking businessman and was one of the first airline owners to adopt the “no-frills” ethos that has since proven to be a very successful airline business model globally and used by companies such as: Ryanair / easyJet / Southwest Airlines (USA) & Virgin Australia.

On this day in UK history – 8th February

On this day in UK history:

8^th February 1975 - Queen's single "Killer Queen" was released. It was their first hit single. 

On this day in UK history – 7th February

On this day in UK history:

7^th February 1478 – Sir Thomas More was born.

Sir Thomas More – known to Roman Catholics as Saint Thomas More was an English lawyer / social philosopher / author / statesman and well-known Renaissance humanist.

He was an important councillor to King Henry VIII and was Lord Chancellor between October 1529 and May 1532. More was opposed to the Protestant Reformation – particularly the theology of Martin Luther and William Tyndale, burning their books and persecuting their followers.

In 1516 More’s book Utopia was published – the book was about the political system of an ideal and imaginary island nation.

More later opposed King Henry VIII’s separation from the Catholic Church and refused to accept him as the Supreme Head of the Church of England because it disparaged Papal authority and Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

More was tried for treason and convicted on perjured testimony and beheaded.

Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr of the split that separated the Church of England from Rome and in 2000 Pope John Paul II declared More the “heavenly Patron of Statesmen and politicians”. Since 1980 the Church of England as remembered More liturgically as a Reformation martyr.

In 2002 Thomas More was placed at number 37 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britains.

On this day in UK history – 6th February

On this day in UK history:

6^th February 1981 - Former Beatles: Paul McCartney / Ringo Starr and George Harrison teamed up to record a musical tribute to John Lennon. The song "All Those Years Ago" was the result. 

On this day in UK history – 5th February

On this day in UK history:

5^th February 1961 - The first issue of the "Sunday Telegraph" was published. Check out the following link for more information: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sunday-telegraph-at-50/8300953/The-Sunday-Telegraph-at-50.html

On this day in UK history – 4th February

On this day in UK history:

4^th February 1915 - Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom OBE was born. Norman was an English actor / comedian and singer-songwriter and best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin.

On this day in UK history – 3rd February

On this day in UK history:

3^rd February 1998 - Stamps commemorating Princess Diana went on sale in Britain

On this day in UK history – 2nd February

On this day in UK history:

2^nd February 1709 - British sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years - his story went on to inspire the book: "Robinson Crusoe". 

On this day in UK history – 1st February

On this day in UK history:

1^st February 1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle. 

On this day in UK history – 31st January

On this day in UK history:

31st January 1983 - The wearing of seat belts in cars became compulsory in Britain.