This Day in History - 9th May

1092Lincoln Cathedral was consecrated. For 249 years it was reputedly the tallest building in the world. Writer John Ruskin declared that "The cathedral of Lincoln is out and out the most precious piece of architecture in the British Isles and roughly speaking worth any two other cathedrals we have."

1386The Treaty of Windsor was ratified between England (succeeded by the United Kingdom) and Portugal. It is the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world that is still in force.

1662The first recorded Punch & Judy Show in Britain took place at Covent Garden in London.

1671Irishman Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the British Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Despite being caught red-handed, he was pardoned by King Charles II.

1874Howard Carter, the English Egyptologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen, was born, in Kensington, London.

1887Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show opened in London. His cowboy themed shows also toured Europe as well as the United States.Cody was an American soldier, bison hunter and showman and was one of the most colourful figures of the American Old West.

1896The first 'Horseless Carriage' Show opened at the Imperial Institute in London, when ten engine-powered models went on show to the public. This 1899 Daimler is an exhibit at the Hull Streetlife Museum. The car was built in Coventry in Britain's first ever car factory.

1904The steam locomotive City of Truro (engine number 3440), designed by George Jackson Churchward and built at the GWR Swindon Works, became the first steam engine in Europe to exceed 100 mph.

1930Britain appointed John Masefield as Poet Laureate.

1934Alan Bennett, English actor and playwright born, in Leeds.

1936Albert Finney, English actor (Murder on the Orient Express, Tom Jones) was born, in Pendleton, Salford.

1939British prime minister Winston Churchill urged military alliance with USSR.

1941World War II: The German submarine U-110 was captured by the Royal Navy. On board was the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later used to break coded German messages.

1945World War II: The Channel Islands were liberated by the British after five years of German occupation.

1960Start of the sexual revolution of the 1960s when the birth control pill went on the market.

1995Wayne Mills became the first soldier to win Britain's new gallantry award for courage (the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross) when he put his life in danger by protecting his comrades in Bosnia as they withdrew from a Serb attack.

1996The British House of Commons voted to maintain the Ministry of Defence ban on homosexuals serving in the armed forces.

2014Former cabinet minister Chris Huhne was ordered to pay £77,750 for the costs of his prosecution for passing speeding points to his then wife, the economist Vicky Pryce. Both Huhne and Pryce were sentenced to eight months imprisonment in March 2013.