On this day: Nudist beach opens at Brighton

On this day in 1980, Brighton opened a nudist beach. Picture: Getty

April Fool’s Day; in Scots, Hunt-the-Gowk.

1764: The famous race horse Eclipse was foaled during an eclipse. He was unbeaten in 26 outings, could run four miles in eight minutes, yet had a career of just 17 months before being put to stud. When Eclipse died at 25, his heart was found to weigh nearly 14lb.

1817: Blackwood’s Magazine started publication as Edinburgh Monthly Magazine.

1852: Second Burmese War broke out after British ultimatum to King of Burma.

1867: East India Company rule in Malay Straits Settlements ended, and they became Crown Colony of Britain.

1902: The use of the treadmill in British prisons was finally suspended.

1918: The Royal Air Force was formed by the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service.

1933: Persecution of Jews began in Germany.

1945: United States started invasion of Okinawa in final Far East campaign of Second World War.

1947: School-leaving age was raised to 15 years in Britain.

1948: Britain’s electricity industry was nationalised.

1948: Berlin blockade began with Soviet troops interfering with road and rail traffic between Berlin and the Allied Western Zone. To solve the problem the Allies mounted, on 24 June, 1948, an unprecedented airlift. It lasted until 12 May, 1949.

1960: America launched the first meteorological satellite, Tiros 1.

1960: South African government banned African National Congress and Pan-African Congress.

1965: Greater London came into being, comprising the City of London plus 32 Metropolitan boroughs.

1973: Value Added Tax was introduced.

1979: The last Royal Navy warship left Malta, ending British military ties with the island.

1980: Brighton opened a nudist beach.

1990: The longest prison riot in British history began at Strangeways, Manchester, and lasted until 25 April. One remand prisoner died.

1991: Military side of Warsaw Pact was disbanded.

1991: Diego Maradona fled to Argentina before the Italian football authorities suspended him for taking drugs.

1993: A poll of Australians showed that 69 per cent wanted the country to become a republic.

2001: Same-sex marriage became legal in the Netherlands; the first country to allow it.

2006: The Serious Organised Crime Agency, dubbed the “British FBI”, was created in the UK.

2009: A Super Puma helicopter crashed into the North Sea about 15 miles off Peterhead, killing all 16 people on board. The crashed helicopter was returning from BP’s Miller field, 168 miles north east of Aberdeen.

2014: Keane Wallis-Bennett, a 12-year-old first-year pupil, was killed when an internal wall collapsed at Liberton High School in Edinburgh.