What happened this day in history: October 17
1346 '“ King David II of Scotland was captured by the English near
Durham, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 11 years.
1662 - King Charles II sold Dunkirk to France for £40,000.
1814 - Eight people died in the London Beer Flood.
1860 - The first professional golf championship took place at
Prestwick in Scotland.
1888 - Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).
1931 - American gangster Al Capone was sentenced to 11 years in Alcatraz for income tax evasion. It was the only charge that could be sustained against him
1956 - The Queen opened Britain’s first nuclear power station,and the world’s first full-scale nuclear power station, at Calder Hall in Cumberland.
1962 - The Beatles made their first television appearance, on Granada’s ‘People and Places’.
1979 - Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
2000 - Four people died when a high speed passenger train derailed in Hatfield, just north of London,
leading to the collapse of Railtrack.