ON THIS DAY

JUNE 1

1880: The first telephone box for public use, in New Haven, Connecticut, went into service.

1911: Britain’s first electric trolley buses began operating in Bradford and Leeds. 1935: Driving tests were introduced and L plates made compulsory in Britain. 1946: The first TV licences were issued in Britain, at a fee of £2.

1957: The first Premium Bond prize winners were drawn by the computer ERNIE, with a first prize of £1,000.

1958: The Clean Air Act came into force. 1966: Folk fans at the Royal Albert Hall booed Bob Dylan for performing with an electric guitar.

JUNE 2

1868: The first Trades Union Congress was held in Manchester.

1896: Marconi patented his broadcasting system using electromagnetic waves.

1946: Italy abolished its monarchy and became a republic, forcing King Umberto II and Queen Marie José into exile.

JUNE 3

1899: England cricket captain WG Grace played his final Test match, aged 50, against Australia at Trent Bridge.

1946: The first bikini bathing suit was unveiled in Paris, invented by Louis Reard, a former motor engineer.

1956: Third class rail travel was abolished in Britain and renamed second class.

1978: The Guinness Book of Records went into the Guinness Book of Records – as the most stolen book from British libraries.

JUNE 4

1832: The Great Reform Bill, an electoral measure which disenfranchised rotten boroughs, became law.

1913: Suffragette martyr Emily Wilding Davison died after flinging herself under the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby. 1946: Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1977: Damage estimated at £15,000 was caused when fans dug up the Wembley pitch after Scotland beat England 2-1. 1989: More than 2,000 people died in Tiananmen Square, Peking, when troops opened fire on protestors.

JUNE 5

1947: US Secretary of State George Marshall announced the Marshall Plan to help Europe recover from near-bankruptcy following the war.

1963: War minister John Profumo resigned, admitting he misled the House of Commons about his relationship with Christine Keeler.

1975: Egyptian president Sadat reopened the Suez Canal to all but Israeli shipping, after eight years of closure. 1975: In Britain’s first referendum, a large majority voted to stay in the Common Market – more than 17 million voted Yes and almost 8.5 million voted No. 1989: In Poland, Solidarity defeated the Communists in the first free elections since the end of the Second World War.