1355 the St Scholastica’s Day riot began in Oxford, with opposing forces of town and gown on the rampage for three days.
•
1837 Alexander Pushkin, Russian writer, died following a duel with his wife’s admirer.
•
1931 ceremonies began to inaugurate New Delhi as the capital of India (in place of Delhi).
•
1962 Gary Powers, the US pilot of a U2 spy plane shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, was exchanged in Berlin for a KGB agent.
•
1964 the Great St Bernard Tunnel under the Alps between Switzerland and Italy was opened to traffic.
11 FEBRUARY (#ulink_3f59975c-b8bd-5da4-bdf2-6831c6654460)
1852 the first flushing public lavatory for women opened in Bedford Street, London.
•
1858 a 14-year-old French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed that a beautiful lady, later identified as the Virgin Mary, appeared to her near Lourdes.
•
1878 the first weekly weather report was issued by the Meteorological Office.
•
1975 Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party.
•
1977 the heaviest recorded crustacean, a lobster weighing 44lb 6oz, was caught off Nova Scotia in Canada.
•
1990 Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa after 27 years in captivity.
12 FEBRUARY (#ulink_7556f9d2-5995-510f-9787-4e8fbd91faa8)
1554 Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for nine days, was executed aged 16.
•
1809 Charles Darwin, naturalist, was born in Shrewsbury.
•
1809 Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the US, was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
•
1818 Chile proclaimed its independence from Spain.
•
1912 Hsuan-t’ung (Pu-Yi), the last emperor of China, was forced to abdicate.
•
1924 Calvin Coolidge became the first US president to deliver a political speech on radio.
•
1986 the Channel Tunnel treaty was signed between United Kingdom and France.
•
2001 NEAR Shoemaker touched down on 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
13 FEBRUARY (#ulink_c92baa7f-a46d-5793-835f-132aca684ebd)
1542 Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, was executed for adultery.
•
1601 John Lancaster led the first East India Company voyage from London.
•
1689 William III and Mary II acceded to the throne of England.
•
1692 the MacDonalds were massacred by the Campbells at Glencoe.
•
1917 the spy Mata Hari was arrested by the French.
•
1945 Dresden was devastated when RAF bombers attacked the city.
•