This Day in History - 27th November

27th November is Lancashire Day - to commemorate the day in 1295 when Lancashire first sent representatives to Parliament, to attend the Model Parliament of King Edward I.

1582 William Shakespeare, aged 18, married Anne Hathaway. They had a daughter in 1583 and a twin boy and girl in 1585. 

1811 The death of Andrew Meikle, a mechanical engineer credited with inventing the threshing machine to remove the outer husks from grains of wheat.

1874 The birth of Chaim (Azriel) Weizmann, first president of Israel, who was a chemistry professor in Geneva where he became active in the World Zionist Movement. After settling in Britain in 1904 he assisted the British munitions industry during the First World War when he devised a way of extracting acetone (needed for cordite) from maize. In return, the British government promised to help his cause and establish a Jewish state in Palestine.

1897 The death of James Bateman, British landowner and accomplished horticulturist. He created the famous themed gardens at Biddulph in Staffordshire. The garden is a rare survival of the interim period between the Capability Brown landscape garden and the High Victorian style. Bateman was also responsible for laying out the Arboretum at Derby, the first public park in England.

1914 Miss Mary Allen and Miss E F Harburn became the first two trained policewomen to be granted official status in Britain when they reported for duty at Grantham, Lincolnshire.

1920 The birth of Harry "Buster" Merryfield, English actor best known for starring as Uncle Albert in the BBC comedy series Only Fools and Horses.

1925 Ernie Wise, 'straight man' to comedian Eric Morecambe, was born.

1944 Between 3,500 and 4,000 tons of explosives stored in a cavern beneath Staffordshire detonated, killing 68 people and wiping out an entire farm. The explosion was heard over 100 miles away in London, and recorded as an earthquake in Geneva.

1966 The first Lancashire Day to commemorate the day in 1295 when Lancashire first sent representatives to Parliament, to attend the Model Parliament of King Edward I.

1967 President de Gaulle said ‘Non’ to British entry into the Common Market.

1975 Ross McWhirter, TV presenter and co-editor of The Guinness Book of Records, was assassinated by two Provisional IRA gunmen after he had offered a £50,000 reward for information leading to a conviction for several high-profile bombings.

1976 The four millionth 'Mini' car left the production line.

1987 A young man in Somerset tried seven times to kill himself following a row with his girlfriend. He threw himself in front of four cars, and jumped under the wheels of a lorry. He tried to strangle himself and jumped from a window. The real victims were a driver of one car who suffered a heart attack, a policeman who injured his back trying to restrain the man, and a doctor who was kicked in the face when the struggling man reached hospital.

1990 John Major won his second ballot for leadership of the Conservative Party and became Prime Minister. (Mrs. Thatcher had resigned as Prime Minister 5 days previously.)

2000 A 10-year-old schoolboy, Damilola Taylor, died after being stabbed in the leg by a gang of hooded attackers near his home in Peckham, south London.

2008 The Queen Elizabeth II liner (the QE2) retired from active Cunard service. It was planned for her to begin conversion to a floating hotel; however, she remains moored at Port Rashid (Dubai) facing an uncertain future.

2012 Police admitted that the late Sir Cyril Smith, former MP for Rochdale, was a sex abuser of boys in the late 1960s. Despite not being charged, after inquiries in 1970, 1998, and 1999, the CPS stressed that changes in procedure meant a prosecution would be pursued today. 

2013 The death of actor, Lewis Collins, aged 67. He was the quintessential British hard man, best known as Bodie in the TV the series 'The Professionals'.

2014 A new treatment for bladder cancer was shown to completely cure some people, in the first significant breakthrough in the disease for 30 years. Scientists from Queen Mary University of London discovered that an antibody allowed cancer cells to be picked up by the immune system and eradicated before they could spread.

2014 A consortium made up of 'Stagecoach' and 'Virgin' won the franchise to run the East Coast mainline rail route. The firms promised to invest £140m in the route over eight years, and to pay the government £3.3bn for the contract.

2014 Australian Test batsman Phillip Hughes died aged 25, two days after being struck on the top of the neck by a ball during a domestic match in Sydney. He also played for Hampshire, Middlesex and Worcestershire. His final innings score was adjusted to show him being 63 not out, after an update from Cricket Australia.

2014 The American wife of London financier Sir Chris Hohn was awarded £337m by a High Court judge in a divorce case. The sum was thought to be the biggest of its kind made by a judge in England. The couple separated following 17 years of marriage.

2014 The car registration plate "25 O" was sold at auction for £518,000, setting a new British record.

2014 The death, aged 94, of the acclaimed British crime writer PD James. Her books (e.g Death Comes To Pemberley) sold millions of copies around the world during her 50-year career, with many made into television films.