In 1996 Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and their teaching on a shooting spree at an Infants school in Dunblane, Scotland. The spree lasted just three minutes and in that time Hamilton killed 17 and injured another twelve (one of which died in hospital of his injuries), he then killed himself.  Hamilton had a total of six hand guns which were all licensed. Public outcry and a massive campaign later led to a new law being passed making it illegal to posses a hand gun in the United Kingdom.

In 1881 Russian leader Tsar Alexander II is assassinated on the streets of St. Petersburg. He was blown up in an explosion caused by the “People’s Will” group that sought to overthrow the Tsarist regime. Tsar Alexander II became emperor of Russia on the 2^nd of March 1855 and was one of the most liberal Tsars Russia had known. He made many reforms to improve life for the Russian people and these reforms (which included the emancipation of serfs in 1861 giving 23 million people their freedom) would earn him the name as ‘Alexander the Liberator’. Despite this he made other reforms which were not so popular including, after his authority was challenged, tightening his control and preventing other political party reforms. This was the main reason for the assassination attempts by the “peoples Will”. On this day in 1881 Alexander II had signed a new reform to allow for more political freedom but due to his assassination the new reform was rejected by his Successor and son Alexander III. The Assasins were hung and the ‘Peoples Will’ disappeared for a while. They soon returned being instrumental in the Russian Revolution of 1917 that would remover the Tsars from power and lead to the Communist revolution in ‘Red October’ of 1917.

In 1781 William Herschel discovers the seventh planet now known as Uranus. William Herschel was born in Hanover, Germany on the 15^th of November 1738.He moved to England at the age of nineteen with his brothers after serving in the German army. He became an accomplished composer and could play many instruments. His love of music led him to maths, then into the construction of telescopes (building over 400) and in inevitably into astronomy. On a Newtonian telescope, partly made by him, he began studying twin stars and catalogued many new discoveries. One object he studied, believing it to be a star, seemed to move in planetary orbit and once this was confirmed that is was a planet just out from Saturn, Herschel named it ‘Georgium Sidus’ or Georgian Star after King George III of England. The Name was not accepted by many, particularly France who named the Planet ‘Herschel’ and later German Astronomer Johan Bode suggested the name ‘Uranus’, following the tradition of mythical gods. Herschel also discovered two of Uranus’s moons, Titania and Oberon, on 11th of January 1787 as well as two of Saturns moons, Enceladus and Mimas on the 28th of August 1789 and 17th of September 1789 respectively. He also calculated that the Milky Way was disc shaped and made many more discoveries.