This Day in History - 5th May

1215Rebel barons renounced their allegiance to King John; part of a chain of events that led to the signing of the Magna Carta.

1760The first public hanging took place at Tyburn in London. Earl Ferrers was executed after being convicted of murdering his valet. He was the first to be hanged by the new 'drop' which had just been introduced in the place of the barbarous cart, ladder and medieval three-cornered gibbet.

1904The birth of Sir Gordon Richards,the first jockey ever to be knighted. He was the first to ride 4,000 winners and his career total of 4,870 victories was a world record that stood until 1956 when it was broken by Johnny Longden of the United States.

1930British aviator Amy Johnson took off from Croydon Airport in her Gypsy Moth plane 'Jason'. She became the first woman to fly solo to Australia, arriving on 24th May.

1940World War II: Norwegian refugees formed a 'government-in-exile' in London. Governments in exile usually operate under the assumption that they will one day return to their native country and regain power.

1945World War II: Canadian and UK troops liberated the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation.

1955World famous American virologist Dr Jonas Salk witnessed a ceremonial polio vaccination in London when Margaret Jenkins from Kent became the 500,000th person in London to receive the vaccine to prevent the crippling disease poliomyelitis.

1964The first meeting of a 'Clean Up TV' campaign led by Norah Buckland and her friend Mary Whitehouse. The organization was later given the name of The National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association.

1967The first ever all-British satellite, Ariel 3, was successfully launched into orbit from the United States

1980The SAS stormed the terrorist-occupied Iranian Embassy at Knightsbridge in London. Four gunmen were killed in the attack and all 19 hostages were rescued.

2011The death (in Perth, Western Australia) of Claude Stanley Choules, the last World War I combat veteran and the last military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. He was born in Pershore, Worcestershire and was the last veteran to have served in both world wars, and also the last seaman from the First World War.

2014A police officer who handcuffed himself to a man on suspicion of assault locked his keys in his patrol car and found that he had no way of taking the pair of them to the police station. Undeterred he sheepishly knocked on the suspect’s door and asked the boy's mother if she would be willing to drive them to the station herself .....and she did.