ON THIS DAY

MAY 3

1903: The first electric train ran through the Mersey Railway tunnel between Liverpool and Birkenhead.

1952: Newcastle United became the first team since 1891 to win two English FA Cup Finals in succession by beating Arsenal 1-0.

1968: The first heart transplant in Britain was carried out at the National Heart Hospital, Marylebone, London.

2013: A Theropod dinosaur, dating from 161 million years ago was discovered in China.

MAY 4

1471: The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians at the Battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses.

1780: The first Derby was run at Epsom. 1926: The General Strike began, the first in British history. It was called off on May 12.

1979: Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first woman prime minister.

2000: Ken Livingstone became the first Mayor of London.

MAY 5

1760: The first hanging took place at Tyburn in London. Earl Ferrers was executed for murdering his valet.

1821: Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St Helena. 1930: Amy Johnson left Croydon in Gypsy Moth “Jason” to become the first female to fly solo to Australia.

1941: Emperor Haile Selaisse returned to Ethiopia from exile in England after liberation of his country by British forces. 1980: The SAS stormed the terroristoccupied Iranian Embassy in Knightsbridge, killing four gunmen and rescuing 19 hostages.

MAY 6

1626: Manhattan island was bought from local Indians by Dutch settler Peter Minuit for trinkets worth about 25 dollars.

1840: The first postage stamp – the Penny Black – was issued by the Post Office for use.

1851: American inventor Linus Yale patented the lock which bears his name. 1954: Roger Bannister ran the first subfour-minute mile on the Iffley Road track in Oxford, in three minutes 59.4 seconds. 1966: Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, the Moors murderers, were found guilty at Chester Assizes and sentenced to life imprisonment.

MAY 7

1765: HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship, was launched at Chatham having cost £363,176 and three shillings.

1915: The Cunard liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine off Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives.

1973: The Washington Post won the Public Service Pulitzer Prize for the work of its reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate scandal.

2007: The tomb of Herod the Great was discovered by Israeli archaeologists south of Jerusalem.