On 21 April 1955 a strike which had paralysed Fleet Street ended, the Electricians and Engineers Union, seeking a rise of £2 per week had stopped all publications from the famous newspaper street. The only unaffected paper was the Guardian produced in Manchester. Big news events the Fleet Street papers have missed included Sir Winston Churchill’s resignation and the announcement of a general election.

On 21 April 1834 saw a meeting on Copenhagen Fields, Islington protesting against the deportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to Australia

One for the Road and On the Waggon derive from condemned prisoners going to Tyburn being given a drink at the Angel PH St Giles High Street

On 21 April 1933 The Rum Quay West India Docks caught fire burning for 4 days. 6,500 puncheons (3.1 million litres) of rum kept it going

On 21 April 1926 The Queen (Elizabeth II) was born at 21 Bruton Street, Mayfair, eldest daughter of George VI & Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

The clock at Horse Guards has a black square on the dial denoting the time King Charles I was executed outside Banqueting House opposite

The location shots in the 1950s film Passport to Pimlico were shot not in affluent Pimlico but poorer Lambeth and Vauxhall in south London

On 21 April 1964 BBC2 was launched; however, a fire at Battersea Power Station caused power cuts and only brief news’ updates were shown

In 1895, an American visitor demonstrated a new type of basketball where the girls played with wastepaper baskets at both ends of the hall. This was the first game of netball to be ever played in the UK. The rules were codified in 1901

The first man ever to fly from London to Manchester did so by following the whitewashed sleepers of the London and North Western Railway

Established in 1805 Truefitt and Hill of St. James’s Street remains the world’s oldest barbershop having served nine consecutive Monarchs

Only members of the Royal Family are allowed to drive through the central arch at Horse Guards – Kate Middleton did so after her marriage

Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.

On 14 April 1471 the decisive battle of The Wars of the Roses was fought in Arkley, north of Barnet between Edward IV of the House of York and Henry VI who led the House of Lancaster. The battle lasted from two to three hours, most of it in thick fog. Contemporary sources say that at least 10,000 men died in the battle. The subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury would ensure the House of York was victorious.

On 14 April 1913 The Royal Geographical Society opened their new premises at Kensington Gore. Now known as ‘Hot and Cold Corner’ for the Livingstone and Shackleton statues

Magpie and Stump pub until 1868 would charge extra for drinks taken upstairs where punters could enjoy viewing the public hangings at Newgate

At 141ft, Adelaide House was the tallest office block in London when it was completed in 1925 and was the first office building in England to have electric and telephone connections on every floor

Now located in Beckenham, King’s College London Institute of Psychiatry was originaly named bedlam, meaning uproar and confusion

The future Mary II is said to have wept for a day and a half when she was told that she would have to marry William of Orange in 1677

Off Greville Street, Clerkenwell is the cobbled Bleeding Heart Yard mentioned by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit

The world’s oldest public zoo opened in London in 1828 it was initially known as the ‘Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London’

Greyhound racing’s first superstar ‘Mick the Millar’ was so popular his stuffed body was put on display at the Natural History Museum

The Peter Lodge recording of “Mind the Gap” is still in use, but some lines use recordings by a Manchester voice artist Emma Clarke

Tesco was founded in 1924 when Jack Cohen and T. E. Stockwell sold tea in bulk opening a store in Tooting

The corgis also have hot scones every afternoon, served with butter and crumbled onto the kitchen floor by the Queen herself

Trivial Matter: London in 140 characters is taken from the daily Twitter feed @cabbieblog.
A guide to the symbols used here and source material can be found on the Trivial Matter page.