What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history?

7th Nov 1770 Thomas Sharp, Coventry antiquarian, born in Smithford Street. 7th Nov 1831 700 weavers gathered by Mill Dam and speeches were made as to the state of the industry, reduced prices, the growing unemployment and the threat of the steam powered loom to the artisan weaver. Josiah Beck's steam looms were destroyed during the riots.

8th Nov 1832 Drapers' Hall in Bayley Lane was opened with a celebratory ball. The building was designed by Messrs. Rickman and Hutchinson in a Grecian style. 8th Nov 1940 The RAF bombed Munich using Coventry made Whitley bombers - the punishment for which was the Blitz, 6 days later.

9th Nov 1458 During a council meeting in Coventry a brawl broke out during which one of the Earl of Warwick's men injured one of the Queen's men. An attempt on Warwick's life was made later when he arrived. 9th Nov 1737 A new clock was ordered to be fitted on the steeple of Holy Trinity church.

10th Nov 1863 The opening of the School of Art in Ford Street. 10th Nov 1917 George Henry Smith, of Shakleton Road, Earlsdon, won the Military Medal for bravery in battle. On the exact same day one year later he was killed in France - on the day before the Great War ended.

11th Nov 1847 The opening of the London Road Cemetery, designed by Joseph Paxton. 11th Nov 1918 All the factory sirens in Coventry were sounded to celebrate Armistice Day, the end of WW1. A holiday was declared and thousands gathered in the city centre to celebrate as the mayor declared the Peace.

12th Nov 1859 John Kington murdered his wife, Elizabeth, near Paynes Lane, in a particularly grisly manner, by attempting to sever her head with a knife.

13th Nov 1002 Danes in Coventry would've fallen victim to the massacre of Danes on the night of St. Brice's Day, ordered by King Aethelred the Unready and celebrated by 'Hock Tuesday'.

14th Nov 1940 The Blitz! 11 hours of aerial bombardment lay a square mile in the centre of Coventry to ruin.

15th Nov 1940 Shortly after 6am the 'All Clear' sounded on the few sirens still with power. Thousands of citizens crawled out of their shelters to find out if loved ones were still alive and if their homes and businesses were still standing. The shock of losing so much of our city was, understandably, not possible to hide, and caused much concern among official statisticians. By the next day, however, people started to rally, helped enormously by one very high ranking visitor....

16th Nov 1641 The Puritans ordered that the organ of Holy Trinity be removed into the vestry until it could be sold. The puritans had at last silenced the 'squeaky abomination'. A new organ wasn't re-instated in the church until 1684. 16th Nov 1940 King George VI visits the ruins of blitzed Coventry.

17th Nov 1941 The Midland Daily Telegraph newspaper changes name to the Coventry Evening Telegraph. 17th Nov 1962 The Beatles, not quite famous yet, make their first Coventry appearance at The Matrix Hall. 17th Nov 1963 Exactly one year to the day since their first appearance in Coventry, The Beatles appear for their last time at Coventry Theatre.

18th Nov 1655 Mayor Robert Beake set a man in the stocks for travelling from Allesley on the Lord's Day. (Again, thank goodness we live in more enlightened times now!) 18th Nov 1972 Princess Margaret and Glenda Jackson are at Coventry Theatre for a charity concert.

19th Nov 1655 Entry in Mayor Robert Beake's diary: "3 Quakers for travelling on the Lord's Day were set in the cage. Memorandum: it grieved me that this poore deluded people should undergoe punishment of such a nature." 19th Nov 1662 Having been removed by Cromwell's 'Puritan Revolution', the font was set up once again in St. Michael's now that the monarchy had been restored.

19th Nov 1967 I wonder what the Puritans would have thought of the show at the Coventry Theatre, headlining Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd along with the Nice, the Move, Outer Limits and Eire Apparent, all for 10/6d.

20th Nov 1459 "Parliamentum Diabolicum" held by King Henry VI in Coventry until December 20th (also known as the "Parliament of Devils"). Having fled London, Henry was temporarily using Coventry as the capital city. Probably the proper beginning of the War of the Roses. 20th Nov 1940 The first mass funeral at the London Road Cemetery for 172 civilians killed in the Blitz.