On 21st October…

1805 - Admiral Horatio Nelson died at sea in the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was a famous Commander of the Royal Navy, he led the British to victory in many battles, including the Battle of Trafalgar which was won on this day. A famous staute of him 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 village school destroying two farm cottages along the way. In total 144 people died in the tragedy, 116 of them were children who were in school at the time.

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 grew up to become their most famous footballer Pele was voted Footballer of the Century and scored 1,281 goals in the 1,363 games he played.

On 24th October…

1945 - The United Nations charter came into effect. The United Nations are a group of 193 Member States that join together to take action on issues such as peace and security, climate change, disarmament, and humanitarian and health emergencies around the world.

On 25th October…

1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet and author of ‘The Canterbury Tales’ died. The Tales are about a group of pilgrims who gathered at an Inn in London and agreed to a story telling contest as they travelled to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury.

1881 - The famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain.

On 26th October…

On 27th October…

1644 - The second Battle of Newbury took place during the English Civil War. The English Civil War was a series of battles between King Charles I and his supporters (Royalists or Cavaliers) and Parliament (Parliamentarians or Roundheads) over the governance of England.