July 4

1954 Fourteen years of food rationing in Britain is over as restrictions on the sale and purchase of meat, and bacon in particular, are lifted.



1968 Round-the-world yachtsman Alec Rose receives a hero's welcome as he sails into Portsmouth after his 354-day trip.



1976 In a dramatic raid Israeli commandos fly to Uganda to save 100 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers at Entebbe airport.



1977 Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty is sacked by the club's directors.



1985 Child prodigy Ruth Lawrence achieves a starred first in Mathematics at Oxford University.



1995 The Prime Minister, John Major, wins his battle to remain leader of the Conservative party.

July 5

1959 The BBC broadcasts its first daily television news programme.



1975 American tennis player Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles' championship.



1981 Up to 30 police officers are injured by bricks and other missiles as rioting and looting breaks out in Toxteth, Liverpool.



1989 Former White House aide Oliver North escapes jail for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.



1991 The Bank of Credit and Commerce International closes UK branches over fraud allegations.

July 6

1952 After nearly a century of service the tram has made its final appearance in London.



1978 A blaze on the Penzance to Paddington sleeper train leaves 11 dead and 17 injured.



1988 An out-of-control fire on a North Sea oil rig is feared to have claimed the lives of most of those on board.



1992 The French Government mobilises the army and police to remove the lorries blocking the nation's major roads.



1997 Nasa scientists free a robot from space probe Mars Pathfinder, allowing it to begin exploring the Red Planet.



2000 The Prime Minister Tony Blair's eldest son, Euan, is arrested for being drunk and incapable.



2005 The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London, the International Olympic Committee announces.

July 7

1969 Former Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones, drowned after taking a cocktail of drink and drugs, an inquest is told.



1976 Ugandan authorities deny knowledge of the whereabouts of missing British-Israeli citizen Dora Bloch.



1985 Tennis unknown Boris Becker becomes the youngest player ever to win Wimbledon at the age of 17.



2001 Two people are stabbed and many more injured in running battles between white and Asian gangs in Bradford.



2005 A series of bomb attacks on London's transport network kills more than 30 people and injures about 700 others.

July 8

1965 Ronald Biggs who was serving a 30-year prison sentence for his part in the Great Train Robbery escapes from Wandsworth prison.



1971 Two men are killed by the British army in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.



1996 Three young children and four adults are attacked by a man with a machete at an infant school in Wolverhampton.



2000 The latest story about boy wizard Harry Potter breaks all publishing records.



2003 Conjoined Iranian twins who volunteered to go ahead with a major operation to separate them both die during surgery.



2005 The G8 summit in Gleneagles ends with a deal to boost aid for developing countries by $50bn.

July 9

1973 Prince Charles enjoys the Bahamas' last day as a British colony.



1982 A man breaks into Buckingham Palace and spends ten minutes talking to the Queen in her bedroom.



1984 A massive fire devastates large parts of York Minster causing an estimated £1m damage.



1991 The closure of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International loses about 20 local councils up to £30m in investments.



2001 A Californian University throws more light on why the Big Bang theory works after nearly 40 years of world-wide research.

July 10

1940 The German air force, the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the south-east coast of England at the start of the battle to save Britain from invasion.



1943 British, Canadian and American troops arrive on the Mediterranean island of Sicily - largely unopposed.



1972 The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw is involved in secret talks with the provisional IRA in London.



1985 The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior is blown up in Auckland harbour, New Zealand.



1996 The battered bodies of Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan are found near their home in Kent.



2000 One in four British homes is now using the internet according to figures released by the government.

Hadn't noticed this thread before. it looks good and i'll enjoy going through it!

Thanks Stevo, hope you enjoy it

July 11

1977 The Gay News and its editor is found guilty of blasphemous libel in the first case of its kind for more than fifty years.



1979 The space laboratory, Skylab I, plunges to Earth scattering debris across the southern Indian Ocean and the sparsely populated Australian desert.



1987 Veterans return to the scene of the bloodiest battle of World War I to commemorate its 70th anniversary.



1991 Labour MP Terry Fields is sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay his poll tax.



1995 The Bosnian Serb army seizes control of the United Nations "safe area" of Srebrenica after Dutch peacekeepers are forced to withdraw.



2000 The World Aids Conference in South Africa announces trials for a new HIV vaccine will begin in Britain.

July 12

1974 The manager of Liverpool football club, Bill Shankly, is retiring from his post.



1986 Dozens are injured in the second consecutive night of violence in Portadown, County Armagh, in Northern Ireland.



1990 Boris Yeltsin resigns from the Soviet Communist Party, bringing the radical-conservative split into the open.



1998 Three young brothers are murdered in a loyalist arson attack as the stand-off between Orangemen and police at Drumcree continues.



2000 The British Foreign Office is severely criticised over plans to back a new dam in Turkey.

July 13

1955 Convicted murderer Ruth Ellis is hanged at Holloway Prison, London.



1971 Ten army officers involved in an aborted coup in Morocco have been executed.



1985 The Live Aid concert for the starving in Africa, the world's biggest rock festival held in London and Philadelphia, raises £30m.



1993 Officials in Manchester bidding to hold the 2000 Olympic Games have been told their chances are "very, very high"



2001 The family of a mentally ill man shot dead by police in Liverpool last night demands a public inquiry.

July 14

1958 A military revolt in Iraq overthrows the monarchy and prompts King Hussein of Jordan to call for British and US military help to avert a similar rebellion in his country.



1971 Police in Cheshire call off the hunt for the murderer of three French tourists after another body is found.



1989 About 500 people are involved in scuffles as Parisians celebrate the bicentenary of the French Revolution.



1991 British troops protecting the Kurdish population in Iraq begin to pull out amid fears of reprisal.



2001 Six days of crisis talks to save the Northern Ireland peace process end in deadlock.

July 15

1966 A West Indian refused a job at Euston Station will now be employed there after managers overturn a ban on black workers.



1971 The British Government endorses a cull of baby seals in the Wash.



1995 Thousands of Muslim refugees flee the captured "safe area" of Srebrenica - forced out by the Bosnian Serbs.



1997 Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead on the steps of his Miami mansion.



2000 Two men caught on camera for dangerous driving escape prosecution in a landmark case.