On 2 May 1997 at 43 years of age, Tony Blair became the youngest British prime minister since 1812 and moved into Downing Street. By September he attained early personal popularity, receiving a 93 per cent public approval rating, after his public response to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. After winning 3 terms he stepped down on 24 June 2007 for Gordon Brown, after his popularity had waned.

On 2 May 1952 the first jet airliner, Britain’s De Havilland Comet I, made its maiden flight from London Airport to Johannesburg

On 2 May 1905 at Old Bailey brothers Albert and Alfred Stratton became the first in Britain convicted of murder based on fingerprint evidence

English Heritage have recorded over 600 garden squares in London, more than 400 are protected by the London Squares Preservation Act of 1931

On 2 May 1975 Footballer David Beckham was born at Whipps Cross Hospital. He lived at 150 Norman Road, Leytonstone as young boy

On 2 May 1536 Mary Queen of Scots was sent to The Tower she was subsequently executed her little dog was later discovered under her skirts

In 1898 the Gramophone Company opened the first British studio on Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, producing some of the world’s earliest recordings

On 2 May 1953 Elizabeth II attended her first Wembley FA Cup Final as Queen. Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3. In February 2010 the boots worn by Stanley Matthews in the match were auctioned for £38,400

On 2 May 1964 West Ham won the FA Cup but as the Hammers celebrated manager Ron Greenwood and the disguised FA Cup headed home on the tube!

Described as ‘gloriously ugly’, with disgusting toilets and limited parking, Thurrock Services was voted the worst motorway stop in Britain

In 1855 Robert Yeates of 233 Hackney Road give us a dedicated tool for opening the tins. Before that the instructions had read: ‘Cut around the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer.’

On 2 May 1933 the Inverness Courier reported a London tourist sighting a strange spectacle in Loch Ness. The legend had begun

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 25 April 1719, what many regard to be the first work of realised fiction, a novel in the English language, was published in London by W. Taylor. Many of its readers believed Daniel Defoe’s story of a castaway called Robinson Crusoe who spends 27 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad encountering cannibals, captives and mutineers before being rescued to be a autobiographical travelogue.

On 25 April 1682 a severe storm flooded St. James’s Park, it was recorded that a skiff could be rowed up Brentford High Street

Tests conducted in the Thames discovered weight loss in eels from ingesting cocaine, the highest concentrations were outside Parliament

King William Walk, Greenwich named after the statue at its southern end is London’s first in granite which originally stood at London Bridge

Chelsea Physic Garden founded in 1673 to train apothecaries, sent cotton seeds from the garden as the nucleus of Georgia’s cotton plantations

On 25 April 1660 The Convention Parliament voted for the restoration of King Charles II to the throne, the act forgave and pardoned people for past actions and it allowed the new monarch a fresh start

Fassett Square was the model for the fictional Albert Square in the BBC’s Eastenders, in fact two Albert Squares are to be found in London

The “local palais” lyrics in the Kinks’ Come Dancing was The Athenaeum, Fortis Green Road replaced by a Sainsbury’s store in 1966

Millwall (Rovers) were formed in the summer of 1885 by workers at Morton’s Jam Factory on the Isle of Dogs

Only five London Underground stations lie outside the M25 motorway, Amersham, Chalfont & Latimer, Chesham, and Chorleywood on the Metropolitan line and Epping on the Central Line

Julian Lloyd Webber is rumoured to have been the London Underground’s first busker, it’s not known if he managed to make a living busking

In 1886 a visiting group of Americans gifted a piece of Plymouth Rock, the Founding Fathers landing spot, to the Union Chapel, Islington

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.