1917: Germans unleash U-boats
On 31 January 1917, Germany announces the renewal of unlimited submarine warfare in the Atlantic. German torpedo-armed submarines prepare to attack any and all ships, including civilian passenger carriers, said to be sited in war-zone waters.
Germany had suspended its unrestricted U-boat attacks in 1915 after the United States protested about the sinking of the Lusitania ocean liner and other unarmed vessels with Americans aboard. Three days after the renewal of unlimited submarine warfare in 1917, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and hours after that the American merchant liner Housatonic was sunk by a U-boat. None of the 25 Americans on board were killed - a British steamer later picked them up.
Within two months, US President Woodrow Wilson and an outraged Congress declared war on Germany, giving the Allies a major boost in morale and reinforcements.
2006
The hundredth British soldier is killed in Iraq since the invasion in 2003.
2005
Robert McCartney dies from stab wounds in Belfast. McCartney’s family, who blame the IRA for the killing, subsequently launch a high profile campaign to obtain justice for Robert.
2004
British Airways and Air France cancel five flights to Washington DC and Miami in America, due to fears that terrorists are targeting the flights.
2001
In the Netherlands, a court convicts one Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2000
In Britain, GP Harold Shipman is jailed for life after murdering fifteen of his patients.
1996
91 people are killed and 1,400 injured when Tamil Tiger guerrillas explode a lorry bomb in the centre of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.
1990
The first McDonalds’s restaurant opens in Moscow, Russia.
1983
In Britain, it becomes compulsory to wear a seat belt in a car if you are driving or sitting in the front seat.
1968
The Vietnam War: Viet Cong soldiers seize control of the American embassy in Saigon for six hours before being defeated.
1961
Ham the chimpanzee successfully returns from a space flight. The US had sent him into space to test whether a human being could survive a space flight.
1953
A car ferry, The Princess Victoria, sinks in the Irish Sea, drowning 130 people.
1950
President Truman announces America’s decision to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1945
World War II: Pvt. Eddie Slovik becomes the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
1606
Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators in the 'Gunpowder Plot', to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, are executed after being found guilty of treason.