3rd January
1911 Police, with the army in attendance, stormed a house in London's East End where it was thought a gang of wanted anarchists were hiding. Newspapers dubbed the incident 'The Siege of Sidney Street'. When the fugitives shot at police, the Scots Guards were summoned from the Tower of London, and Winston Churchill, who was then Home Secretary, arrived on the scene to find the house in flames. No firefighters were sent in to put out the blaze, and the house eventually collapsed, burning the anarchists to death.
1940 Unity Mitford, a member of the aristocratic Mitford family, returned to England after an unsuccessful suicide attempt in Munich. She had been greatly attracted to Fascism and idolized Hitler. When Britain declared war she was so distraught that she shot herself in the head with a pearl-handled pistol, given to her for protection by Hitler himself. She eventually died in Oban, in 1948, of meningitis caused by the cerebral swelling around the bullet.
1946 William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) was hanged for treason, in London. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he had broadcast propaganda from Nazi Germany during the Second World War to both Britain and the United States. The broadcasts started on 18th September 1939 and continued until 30th April 1945, when Hamburg was overrun by the British Army.
1961 The production of the millionth Morris Minor, designed by the Greek born Sir Alec Issigonis. He considered the Morris Minor to be a vehicle that combined many of the luxuries and conveniences of a good motor car, but at a price suitable for the working classes.
