1091 A tornado struck London. It was Britain's earliest reported tornado. The wooden London Bridge was demolished, and the church of St. Mary-le-Bow in the city of London was badly damaged. Other churches in the area were demolished, as were over 600, mostly wooden, houses.
1346 Battle of Neville's Cross: King David II of Scotland is captured by Edward III of England at Calais and imprisoned in the Tower of London for 11 years.
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On October 17th 1660, Colonel John Jones (often referred to as Jones Maesygarnedd) was executed for regicide (killing the king). A staunch parliamentarian at a time when most of Wales was Royalist, during and after the English Civil War (1642–1651), Jones, a brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell, was one of the fifty-nine signatories to King Charles I’s death warrant (a group referred to as the regicides). He was therefore in grave danger when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 and was described as “‘the most hated man in North Wales”. Jones was arrested, found guilty of regicide and on October 17th, was hanged, drawn and quartered, a fate which, he faced with considerable bravery. It is reported that throughout his trial, he conducted himself in a dignified manner and when the Judge pronounced a sentence of death, he bowed and prayed that the Lord would give him the strength to face his fate in such a manner as becomes a Christian. Nor could he at the scaffold be induced to retract his words, saying instead that Charles I had betrayed his country and was deserving of death. Jones had been a captain in the parliamentarian army and was involved in the storming of Laugharne castle, the siege of Chester and the surrender of Anglesey. After the war, he served in Cromwell's paliament as MP for Merioneth, an alderman of Denbigh, commissioner for North Wales and one of three commissioners to Ireland. ….
1814 London Beer Flood: A burst vat at Meux & Company Brewery floods city streets with over 300,000 gallons of porter ale, killing eight, with a possible ninth later from alcohol poisoning.
… 17th October 1879 saw the official opening of the Severn Railway Bridge (destroyed in 1960).
The Severn Railway Bridge crossed the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney and was built by the Severn Bridge Railway company to transport coal from the Forest of Dean on the Severn and Wye Railway.
The bridge predated the construction of the Severn Tunnel, which is situated around 12 miles downstream, by seven years, after which it was used as a diversionary route when the tunnel was closed for engineering work and became known by locals as 'The White Elephant'.
More on the bridge in eight days. …
1914 German U-boats raided Scapa Flow, the main base of the British Grand Fleet, off the north coast of Scotland in the Orkney Islands.
17th October 1948 saw the opening of the Hoover washing machine factory at Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil.
1957 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visit the White House and meet President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie Eisenhower.
1962 The Beatles make their live television debut, appearing on Manchester's local "People And Places" program, performing "Some Other Guy" and their new single "Love Me Do"
1963 The Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at EMI Studios in London
If those are beer gallons that's 1 386 cubic metres! A vat 11 m on each side and 11 m deep! That's bigger than my house!
How did they shift that much porter? A big brewer's dray could carry 24 barrels of 36 imperial gallons (according to Duck AI). That's about 4 000 litre, or 4 m3. So it would need about 350 journeys by the biggest dray to empty it.
