| 30 May 1593 |
After a night of drinking, Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe is killed in the boarding house of Eleanor Bull. The official determination is that Ingram Frizer stabbed Marlowe in the head while they were fighting over the bill. |
| 1665 |
Bubonic Plague sweeps London, killing 6,000 people per week at its height and leaving over 100,000 dead once it subsides. |
| 7 Jul 1665 |
King Charles II and his entourage flee London, a city suffering the ravages of the black plague. At this point, about 2,000 Londoners are dying weekly. |
| 2 Sep 1666 |
A kitchen fire breaks out in Thomas Farynor's bakery on Pudding Lane, unleashing four days of destruction. 436 acres in the city are converted to ash, including 13,200 homes. 200,000 residents are rendered homeless by what comes to be known as the Great Fire of London. |
| 23 May 1701 |
Captain William Kidd is hanged in London. Afrer the first attempt fails when the rope snaps, Kidd is brought right back to the gallows and the process repeated. After death, the body is slathered in tar, chained up, and suspended over the Thames where it remains for years as an example to others considering a life of piracy. |
| 24 Nov 1740 |
William Duell, murderer, hanged at Tyburn in London. He is not killed immediately, though this is not noticed by the executioner. Deull later awakes on the dissection table. |
| 9 Dec 1783 |
Executions begin at Newgate Prison, London, replacing the previous gallows at Tyburn. |
| 2 Feb 1793 |
Czech composer Franz Kotzwara, who penned "The Battle of Prague," dies from autoerotic asphyxiation in a London brothel. |
| 2 Feb 1852 |
The first public toilet is inaugurated, located at 95 Fleet Street in London, by the Society of Arts. |
| 4 May 1854 |
Joseph Tussaud returns to London with the well-used blade of the guillotine he purchased from Clement Sanson, the last in a line of Sansons who held the office of Executioner of Paris for over 150 years. The blade is now part of Tussaud's Wax Museum collection. |
| 12 Sep 1878 |
The magnificent phallic symbol Cleopatra's Needle is erected in London on the bank of the Thames. It doesn't really have anything to do with Cleopatra. The obelisk has a twin in New York's Central Park, also named Cleopatra's Needle. It has nothing to do with Cleopatra, either. |
| 14 Mar 1883 |
Karl Marx dies of bronchitis in London. |
| 1 Jan 1886 |
Edwin Bartlett dies in London of chloroform poisoning. In the spring his wife Adelaide and her lover, Wesleyan minister Reverend George Dyson, are tried and found innocent of the crime. The crime and
trial become a spectacular event in London.
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| 17 Aug 1896 |
Bridget Driscoll, a 44-year-old mother of two, becomes the world's first automobile fatality when she steps in front of a car outside the Crystal Palace in London. At the coroner's inquest, Arthur Edsall states he had been driving at only 4 mph. The motorist also claims that when he saw the pedestrian, he rang his bell and shouted "Stand back!" For whatever reason, the coroner accepts Edsall's preposterous story. |
| 23 Jun 1912 |
Alan Mathison Turing born, London. |
| 14 Aug 1941 |
The last prisoner of the Tower of London, a German spy, is executed. |
| 13 Jun 1944 |
The Third Reich fires eleven V-1 flying bombs at England from France. Only four of the Buzzbombs actually strike London, but the Germans will eventually follow that up with another 9,000. |
| 3 Jan 1946 |
William Joyce hanged at Wandsworth Prison in London; later that same day he is buried inside the prison. |
| 21 Jan 1950 |
Author George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm, dies of a tubercular hemorrhage in London. |
| 3 Aug 1963 |
Almost a year after the world barely averted World War III during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Hotline between the Pentagon and the Kremlin goes live. The system consists of two teletype machines, with a full-time communications link routed through London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Helsinki. |
| 2 Dec 1964 |
Beatle Ringo Starr has his tonsils removed at University College Hospital in London, causing him to miss part of the Scandinavian and Far East tour. |
| 18 Mar 1965 |
The Rolling Stones are fined 5 UKP for urinating on a Stratford garage wall at the ABC, Romford. |
| 18 Dec 1966 |
Kiefer Sutherland born to actress Shirley Douglas and actor Donald Sutherland, London. |
| 12 Feb 1967 |
Police in London arrest Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithful after they discover amphetamine pills, cannabis resin, and Marianne scandalously naked but for a fur rug. The two Rolling Stones received jail sentences which were successfully appealed. |
| 8 Jul 1967 |
Actress Vivien Leigh dies of chronic pulmonary tuberculosis, sprawled on the floor with her lungs filled with fluid, at her home in London. |
| 24 Aug 1967 |
The Beatles are introduced to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London. |
| 17 Jul 1968 |
Premiere of the drug-induced, Big Blue Meanie-infested cartoon Beatle film Yellow Submarine, at the London Pavilion. |
| 22 Jun 1969 |
Judy Garland dies of a barbiturate overdose in her London apartment, either by accident or suicide. Quote from Judy: "When I die I have visions of fags singing 'Over the Rainbow' and the flag at Fire Island being flown at half mast." |
| 18 Sep 1970 |
Jimi Hendrix dies in London, having overdosed on a combination of barbituates and alcohol. |
| 29 Jul 1974 |
Mama Cass Elliot, a very large part of The Mamas and the Papas, dies in London. Although initial reports ascribe the cause of death to choking on a ham sandwich, in actuality it was a heart attack. |
| 31 May 1975 |
Wembley Stadium, London. Evel Knievel crashes after clearing 13 double decker buses. Despite a broken pelvis, he gets on his feet to reach the microphone and announce he will never jump again. |
| 27 Nov 1975 |
Members of the Provisional IRA kill Ross McWhirter, founder of the Guinness Book of World Records, London. |
| 14 May 1976 |
Keith Relf, former vocalist of the Yardbirds, is electrocuted in his London home while either tuning or playing a guitar belonging to either him or his son, in either the basement or the bathtub. Details are sort of sketchy, resulting from the family's reticence to describe the death scene. |
| 6 Jun 1976 |
American expatriate J. Paul Getty, named the richest man in the world in 1957, dies in London at age 83. According to the oil baron, "If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars." |
| 7 Sep 1978 |
Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, dies in his London residence from an overdose of chlormethiazole edisylate, a prescription drug used to treat alcoholism. Moon's flat, #12 Curzon Place, was the same spot where Mama Cass died of a heart attack in 1974. |
| 24 Jul 1980 |
Comedic actor Peter Sellers dies of a heart attack in the Dorchester Hotel, London. |
| 1 Sep 1981 |
Albert Speer dies in a London hospital of a cerebral hemorrhage. |
| 19 Jun 1982 |
Roberto Calvi, chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, is found hanging from Blackfriar's Bridge in London. His death is initially ruled a suicide, though it is quite obviously murder; that assessment is later overturned. Calvi may have been killed because of his involvement in the laundering of drug money through the Vatican Bank. |
| 9 Jul 1982 |
Michael Fagan, dressed in jeans and a dirty t-shirt, and bleeding from a fresh cut on his hand, walks into the private bedroom of Queen Elizabeth II while she is asleep and her personal guard out walking her dogs. Fagan had scaled the wall surrounding Buckingham Palace and gained entry without triggering any alarms. The two carry on a 12-minute conversation, while the intruder holds a jagged broken ashtray, before somebody finally apprehends him. |
| 29 Aug 1982 |
Actress Ingrid Bergman dies of breast cancer diagnosed seven years earlier, on her 62nd birthday, London. |
| 17 Apr 1984 |
London police officer Yvonne Fletcher is shot dead and ten bystanders are wounded when a gunman in the Libyan Embassy opens fire on a crowd of protestors gathered outside. One week later, the British government cuts off all diplomatic relations and the Libyans are deported. The Libyan Government finally "accepts general responsibility for the behaviour of its diplomats inside its London Embassy at the time of the shooting" in July 1999, and pays an undisclosed sum to Fletcher's family.
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| 10 Jul 1984 |
British customs officials in London open a large wooden crate marked "diplomatic baggage" because of its extremely odd odor. Inside they discover Alhaji Umaru Dikko, Nigeria's former Minister of Transport and Aviation. He had been abducted, drugged, and bound for Nigeria to face trial for embezzlement. |
| 20 May 1987 |
Conservative British MP Harvey Proctor pleads guilty to committing acts of gross indecency against minors—paying rent boys to spank them in his London flat. |
| 18 Nov 1987 |
A fire at the King's Cross Underground stop kills 30. |
| 24 Apr 1993 |
An IRA bomb causes $1.5 billion of damage in central London when it destroys several square blocks. One person is killed and 40 injured. |
| 8 Sep 2002 |
Jerry Lewis collapses backstage at the Palladium in London, according to a Press Association report quoting Steve Green. |
| 20 Aug 2003 |
Pro skater and Jackass daredevil Bam Margera gets kicked out of a London hotel for urinating in the lobby. |