On this day, in Coventry . . .

Hello folks! As part of a small project hoping to help towards our City of Culture bid, I've been trying to put together an "On this day" list. The plan is to find at least one significant event to have occurred for every single day of the year. Initially this is very easy - scan a few good books, and virtually every event with a known date can be plonked straight onto the list. We have royal & celebrity visits, famous births & deaths, sporting events & records, city charters, murders & hangings (nice!), number 1 hits, wartime events, founding or opening of well known local pubs, shops, schools & other places, manufacturing landmarks.... oh so many different types of things that have happened in Coventry over the last thousand or more years. However, once I got it half full, it started to get gradually more difficult to find an event for a date that wasn't already filled in - in fact for some dates I've listed two or three events, as it wasn't possible to leave certain ones out. And now I've managed to get it up to 325 days.... well, there are a few elusive dates that I'm struggling with. So this is where our fantastic membership comes in - I wonder, if I list the "missing" days below, can any of you help find something? Here they are.... Jan 5th, 9th, 18th, 30th Feb 5th, 6th, 18th, 22nd, 29th Mar 11th Apr 4th May 15th, 17th Jun 26th Jul 4th, 5th, 10th, 13th, 15th Aug 2nd, 4th, 5th, 21st Sep 14th Oct 31st Nov 15th, 27th Dec 5th, 9th, 18th, 29th (Dates adjusted 5-6-2017) Thank you and good luck!

Here's 29th September for you, Sir! Rugby Advertiser, Friday 28 September 1928 Speedway Thrills on a Real Speedway. FASTEST IN BRITAIN. FIRST SPEEDWAY MEETING AT BRANDON MOTORDROME, To-Morrow (Saturday) at 3 p.m. Gates Open 2.15. POPULAR PRICES 1/2 and 2/4 (including Tax). Children Half-Price. Refreshments obtainable on Ground. Famous International Speedway Riders. First Time in Coventry. Coventry, Birmingham, London, and Australian Riders in Opposition. Midland Red Ruses will run from Coventry and Rugby direct to the Ground. Reduced Train Fares.— Rugby (L.M.S.) to Brandon, 2.17, return 6.30. A Real Speedway.— As will be seen from our advertisement columns, the first Speedway Meeting on the new track at Brandon Motordrome will held to-morrow (Saturday). The track, which is reputed to be the fastest in Britain and the first of the D shape in this country, measures, outside 462 yards and inside, 352 yards – 40 feet wide on the straights and 60 feet wide at corners. A new patent safety fence device has been erected, and in future meetings will be held at night by electric light. Some very high speeds have been attained by local riders, and thus real thrills are assured the spectators, as famous international riders will be competing. There will be special bus facilities from Rugby and Coventry, and reduced train fares to Brandon Station.

Arthur Hutt VC was born on 12 February 1889

Fantastic stuff, thank you so much for getting the ball rolling! These are exactly the sort of things we're looking for!

June 13th 1964. Bas Heatley broke the 'world record' for the marathon when winning the Polytechnic Marathon which qualified him to represent GB in the Tokyo Olympics where he won the Olympic Silver Medal

Absolutely wonderful, thank you Harrier - I knew our members were the best! I've just updated the list and also made an "online" version, which you can all now view via the "Members' articles" button on the left. Who knows, the events currently listed might inspire more ideas to fill in the remaining few. And if anyone spots any errors (there are bound to be some), please feel welcome to let me know. While researching for this list I occasionally came across events that had been listed as different dates in different sources, so I sometimes had to try and work out which was correct - not an easy task, and one or two might still be either incorrect or unproven.

14th January 1665 the spire of Trinity steeple was blown down by a tempest which broke down a great part of the church. Large sums of money given in the parish ensured that it was built up better than before.

Excellent work Annewiggy, thank you! In locating the burial record of the poor little lad who was killed by the falling spire, you appear to have corrected a long standing incorrect date quoted in many history books, which said it was the 24th.

The dates could be different due to the changeover to the UK's change to the Gregorian Calendar in the 18th century. Add 10 days to the 14th and you get the modern date of 24th. (To make it more confusing, different countries changed so documents dated in the UK will show different dates to, say, Italy, that may actually be the same date.) Edited by member, 21st May 2017 5:59 pm

It was eleven days in the 18th century, but I think if you're looking at dates pre-1700 then you subtract 10 days. There were stories of riots when it happened!

Apparently the Specials Single collection was released on 9/1/91, Frank Ifield born 30/11/37, Dave Moorcroft won gold in 5k mens 1982 Commonwealth games on 7/10/82 3/11/70 Coventry beat Bayern Munich in European Fairs Cup Double one - John Bradbury (Specials drummer) born 16/2/53, died 28/12/15 24/7/51 Lynval Golding born 23/9/05 First gig at Ricoh Arena by Bryan Adams. Not happened yet but Robbie is due to play there 13/6/17 Thrust SSC arrived in Coventry 29/8/01