This Day in History - 11th July

1274Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland was born. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while it is believed his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey. 

1576Yorkshire born explorer Martin Frobisher sighted Greenland. In all he made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage. He was later knighted for his service in repelling the Spanish Armada.

1656Ann Austin and Mary Fisher became the first Quakers to arrive in America and were promptly arrested. Five weeks later they were deported, back to England.

1776Captain Cook sailed from Plymouth in the Resolution, accompanied by the Discovery, on his last expedition. He was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him, including this one at Whitby where Cook served as a merchant navy apprentice.

1848London's Waterloo Station was officially opened. With over 91 million passenger entries and exits between April 2010 and March 2011, it is Britain's busiest railway station.

1859A Tale Of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, was published.

1859Big Ben, in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, tolled for the first time. In September it cracked under the hammer, a mere two months after it officially went into service. According to the foundry's manager, a hammer more than twice the maximum weight specified had been used and for three years Big Ben was taken out of commission.

1884Old Trafford (Manchester) became England's 2nd official Test Match cricket ground (after the Kennington Oval in London).

1930Australian cricketer Don Bradman scored a world record 309 runs in one day in a Test match against England, held at Headingley.

1950Puppets Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Loo first appeared on BBC TV. The episodes were repeated for more than 25 years, until the film wore out.

1974The World Football League played its first games.

1987War veterans returned to the scene of the bloodiest battle of World War I to commemorate its 70th anniversary. The fields of Passchendaele in Belgium claimed the lives of 250,000 troops of the British Commonwealth between July and November 1917.

1989Laurence Olivier, English actor and director died.

1991Labour MP Terry Fields was sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay his poll tax.

2013Greenpeace protesters climbed to the summit of London's Shard, the tallest building in western Europe at 1,016 ft and then unfurled a blue flag with 'Save the Arctic' written on it.