1996: Handguns to be banned in the UK.
The British Government announces plans to outlaw almost all handguns following Dunblane massacre in March.

1956 Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall in Cumbria - Britain's first large scale atomic energy station.

1967: Soviets glimpse beneath clouds of Venus.
The Soviet Union sends a space probe beneath the cloud cover around Venus for the first time.

1970 British Petroleum announced the first major discovery of oil under the British sector of the North Sea.

1946 'Muffin the Mule', a wooden puppet operated by Annette Mills (sister of actor Sir John Mills) first appeared in a children's television programme on BBC TV

1805 Battle of Trafalgar.
In one of the most decisive naval battles in history, a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, fought off the coast of Spain.At sea, Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy consistently thwarted Napoleon Bonaparte.

1879 After 14 months of testing, Thomas Edison first demonstrates his electric lamp, hoping to one day compete with gaslight.

1906 In Britain, women suffragettes, campaigning for the right to vote, held a demonstration at the House of Commons. Ten were arrested and sent to prison.

1945 The United Nations was formed with the aim to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.'

1945 The United Nations was formed with the aim to 'save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.'

1839 Bradshaw's Railway Guide, the world's first railway timetable, was published, in Manchester.

On this day in 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone.

The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, is dedicated in New York Harbour by President Grover Cleveland.

1986 The final section of the M25 was opened. The motorway around Greater London was designed to relieve traffic congestion within the capital.

Orson Welles causes a nationwide panic with his broadcast of “War of the Worlds”—a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion of Earth.