March 23rd - 29th
On 23rd March…
1929 - Roger Bannister the first man to run a mile in under 4 minutes was born in Harrow, Greater London. In 1954 he completed the race in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. At the time it was thought to be impossible to run that far in less than 4 minutes, but today top athletes regularly beat the 4-minute mile. Hicham El Guerrouj from Morocco is the current record holder, his time stands at 3 minutes 43.13 seconds (3:43.13) and hasn’t been beaten since 1999.
2020 - Following the worldwide pandemic outbreak of the Covid-19 virus, the first Lockdown in the UK began. The government hoped it would stop the spread of the virus and save lives. People were told to stay at home; schools, shops, offices, bars and restaurants were all closed. How did the lockdown make you feel? Were you scared or worried for relatives? Or did you enjoy being at home with your family and having on-line school lessons?
Did you know that schools also closed during the outbreak of Spanish flu in 1918? People had to stay at home back then too, everyone was told to wear a handkerchief over their face to stop them from catching the flu.
On 24th March…
Death of Queen Elizabeth I
1603 - Queen Elizabeth I died bringing an end to the Tudor reign of England.
Elizabeth had no children and left no heir to the throne, so King James VI of Scotland, her second cousin and closest relative, became King James I of England; with his rule, the reign of the Stuarts began.
On 25th March…
A new king for Scotland
1306 - Robert the Bruce became King Robert I of Scotland. At his lowest point he hid out in a cave after being defeated in battle; the story goes that he was about to give up when he saw a spider try and fail and try again to build a web. This inspired him to regroup his troops and march into battle once more with the now famous phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.”
1807 - The slave trade was abolished in the UK. This meant that anybody transporting or selling slaves was breaking British law although slavery itself wasn’t abolished in the UK until 1834.
On 26th March…
1945 - David Lloyd George, the politician who was Prime Minister of Britain during World War I died of cancer.
Burial fit for a king
2015 - King Richard III’s body was buried in Leicester Cathedral. The king had died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and his body had lain in an unmarked grave that was found underneath a car park in Leicester. DNA testing proved the skeleton to be that of King Richard III and he was finally given a proper burial with all the grandeur fit for a king.
On 27th March…
Charles I became King of England
1625 - King Charles I became King of England when his father king James I died. Charles I is the only English monarch to have been tried and executed for treason.
1968 - Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, crashed and died whilst on a training flight.
On 28th March…
Vikings attacked Paris
845 - Vikings attacked the city of Paris on Easter Sunday. They arrived in a fleet of about 120 ships with about 4,000 men and plundered and ransacked Paris until the king gave them 7,000lbs (about 3175kg) of silver to leave.
On 29th March…
Battle of Towton
1461 - The bloodiest battle ever to take place on British soil occurred during a snowstorm in freezing temperatures. Around 28,000 men were killed at the Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses. The Wars were battles between cousins over who was the rightful king of England; Richard Duke of York, and then his son Edward of York (whose emblem was the white rose) fought King Henry VI of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose). This particular battle was won by Edward who rode into York and removed the head of his dead father from the city gates. Richard had been defeated in a battle three months earlier and his head had been stuck on a spike as a warning to others. Things were definitely very messy back then.
1981 -The first ever London Marathon took place. Out of the 7,741 runners who started the race only 6,255 people finished. In 2024 over 53,000 runners completed the London marathon.