Britain On This Day

Britain's history on this day.

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1305: William Wallac was hung drawn a quartered in London.

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1485: The battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III of England was defeated and killed in which would be the last battle of the Wars of the Roses between the Houses of Lancaster and York.

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1464: The Battle of Hexham in Northumberland. York beat Lancaster.

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1820: King George III died aged 81, he had reigned monarch for 59 years.

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1823: The death of Edward Jenner, the pioneer of smallpox vaccine and all vaccines after that. Nowadays his practices would be deemed most unethical.

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2012: St James's Palace announced that the Duchess of Cambridge was expecting a baby, the baby would ascend the throne, but that isn’t history....yet

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1894: The death of Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist of Treasure Island, Kidnapped and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. Died aged 45 on the island of Samoa.

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1656 The birth of Edmond Halley, English astronomer & mathematician. He produced the first meteorological chart & has a comet named after him.

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1605: Guy Fawkes was discovered in a cellar under parliament with 30 barrels of gun powder. This was considered very bad form.

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1843 Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square was finally completed. It commemorates Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

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1346: The Battle of Neville's Cross, near Durham, Edward III defeated the Scots and King David II of Scotland was captured and imprisoned for 11 years in the Tower of London.

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1399: Henry IV was crowned king of England. The first king of Lancaster.

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1216: King John crosses the wash, East Anglia and lost his Crown Jewels and the treasury in the mud.

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1200: Isabella of Angoulême was crowned Queen consort of England. She was married to King John until his death ,1216 and had 5 children including Henry III.

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1580: Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, in the Golden Hind, after sailing around the world.

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1641: The Merchant Royal, a 17th century English merchant ship was lost off Land's End. On board was approx 100,000lb of gold, 400 bars of Mexican silver & 500,000 pieces of eight. The wreck remains undiscovered.

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1422: King Henry V of England died in France. His son, Henry VI, became King of England at 9 months of age.

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1588: The Spanish Armada was sighted off the coast of Cornwall.

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2013: The birth of Prince George, son of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and the third in line to the throne.

[Britain On This Day @BritHistory2day]

2012: Bradley Wiggins became the first British cylist to win the Tour de France.