On this day in...

1953 – The Reverend Chad Varah set up the Samaritans.

1982 – Channel 4 launched. On the first night, the first episode of Brookside aired.

1998 – The Eappen family launched a wrongful death lawsuit against Louise Woodward to prevent her from profiting from her account of the death of their baby, Matthew Eappen.

1998 – Railtrack reported that the weeds on train platforms were due to the “wrong type” of weedkiller.

2000 – Scientists set out to discover if there was any truth in the notion that penguins lose their balance and fall over when they look at planes passing overhead.

2001 – The Beard Liberation Front was asking Home Secretary David Blunkett to ban the burning of Guy Fawkes effigies as the practice encouraged “irrational prejudice” against people with beards.

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