On 17th October…

1931 - Thomas Edison, the American inventor of the lightbulb and the phonograph died. When he died, he held a record 1,093 patents either by himself or with partners. (A patent registers your invention and stops other people from copying or stealing your idea.)

1967 - Walt Disney’s animated version of The Jungle Book was first released in cinemas in the U.S.A. It reached Britain on Christmas Eve of the same year.

On 19th October…

1914 - The first Battle of Ypres began in World War I near the town of Ypres in Belgium.

On 20th October…

1632 - Christopher Wren, the English architect, was born in Wiltshire, England. One of his famous buildings is St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

1822 - The Sunday Times newspaper was first published in London.

1968 - Dick Fosbury, an American athlete, won the gold medal in the high jump at the Mexico City Olympics. His different style of jumping has become accepted as the most efficient technique for the high jump- the ‘Fosbury Flop’.

On 21st October…

1805 - Admiral Horatio Nelson died at sea in the Battle of Trafalgar. He was a famous Commander of the Royal Navy who led the British to victory in many battles, including Trafalgar which was also won on this day. His statue stands 51.6m high in the centre of Trafalgar Square in London.

1833 - Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes was born in Stockholm, Sweden.

1966 - A major disaster struck the Welsh mining village of Aberfan when a colliery spoil tip slid downhill and covered a local primary school. The spoil tip full of coal slurry (a mixture of crushed coal and water) was nearly 35 metres tall and contained nearly 230,000 cubic metres of waste. It became more and more dangerous following days and weeks of heavy rain which caused the spoil tip to collapse and form a landslide. The landslide rushed down the mountainside and towards the school destroying two farm cottages along the way. In total 144 people died in the tragedy, 116 of them were children.

On 22nd October…

1877 - Disaster struck at the Blantyre Mine in Scotland. High Blantyre was a mining village near to Glasgow whose mine suffered a huge explosion which killed over 200 men and boys leaving behind 106 widows, 300 fatherless children and 50 dependent relatives. It remains the worst mining disaster in Scottish history.

On 23rd October…

1940 - Edson Arantes do Nascimento better known as Pele was born in Brazil. He was voted Footballer of the Century and scored 1,281 goals in 1,363 games.