ON THIS DAY

DECEMBER 7

1783: William Pitt the Younger became the youngest of Britain’s prime ministers – he was 24.

1817: Captain Bligh, captain of mutiny ship The Bounty, died in London.

1941: The Japanese attacked the US fleet in Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

1982: Charles Brooks Jnr, a prisoner at Fort Worth, was executed by a lethal injection, the first to die by this method in the US.

DECEMBER 8

1542: Mary, Queen of Scots, was born at Linlithgow Palace.

1733: A Dorset man reported seeing a polished silver disc in the sky – the first known sighting of an Unidentified Flying Object, or UFO.

1864: The Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon at Bristol, designed by Brunel, was opened.

1941: Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.

1980: John Lennon was shot dead in New York by Mark David Chapman.

DECEMBER 9

1783: The first executions took place at Newgate Prison.

1884: Roller skates were patented by a Mr L Richardson of Chicago.

1886: Clarence Birdseye, American pioneer of the frozen food company, was born. 1917: Jerusalem, held by the Turks, surrendered to General Allenby.

1960: The first episode of Coronation Street was televised – although it was not networked until spring 1961. It was originally called Florizel Street.

1990: Solidarity leader Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland.

DECEMBER 10

1868: London’s first traffic lights were installed in Westminster, to help MPs get to the House of Commons.

1868: Whitaker’s Almanack was published for the first time.

1869: Wyoming became the first American territory to grant women the vote.

1896: Alfred Bernhard Nobel, Swedish chemist and industrialist who invented dynamite, died. On this day in 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. 1936: Edward VIII signed the Instrument of Abdication. He choose his love of American divorcee Wallis Simpson over his royal duty.

DECEMBER 11

1894: The first motor show opened in Paris, with nine exhibitors.

1936: Edward VIII abdicated as King after a reign of 325 days, in favour of his brother, the Duke of York, who became King George VI. The announcement was made on BBC radio at 10pm. 1967: The prototype of the world’s first supersonic airliner, Concorde, was revealed.

1988: An Ariane-4 rocket, carrying the Astra 1A satellite to bring 16 television channels to Britain, was launched from Kourou, French Guiana.