On this day
» 1306: Robert Bruce was crowned King of Scots at Scone.
» 1655: Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, was discovered by Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens.
» 1807: The Slave Trade Act became law. The act abolished the slave trade in Britain and Ireland.
» 1843: The Thames Tunnel, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened to pedestrians between Rotherhithe and Wapping in London.
» 1957: Six nations (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) signed the Treaty of Rome to create the European Economic Community.
» 1969: John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their week-long ‘bedin’ peace protest at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.
» 1975: Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal was assassinated by his nephew Prince Faisal Ibu Musaed, who was later executed for the killing.
» 1980: Robert Runcie was enthroned as the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury.
» 1980 The British Olympic Association announced it would defy the government and send athletes to the Olympic Games in Moscow despite the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, which caused a United States-led boycott of the Games.
» 1989: The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race crews both had women coxes for the first time. Oxford won by two-and-ahalf lengths.
» 1992: Pakistan beat England by 22 runs to win the ICC Cricket World Cup in Melbourne, Australia.
» 1996: The EU’s Veterinarian Committee banned the export of British beef and its by-products due to fears over mad cow disease (BSE).
»
The eight pallbearers who carried the Queen’s coffin were awarded the silver Royal Victorian Medal in recognition of the important role they played at her funeral.