14/09/2026
Today in History - 15 September
1666 - Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, wife of the future King George I and mother of King George II, is born in Celle, Germany.
Her marriage to George was an unhappy one. The couple were first cousins and their marriage was largely a political and financial arrangement, with Sophia bringing a substantial dowry. George openly criticised her and flaunted his numerous mistresses.
Sophia developed a close friendship, and possibly an affair, with the Swedish Count Philip Christoph von Königsmarck, whom she had known since childhood.
The relationship eventually became a major scandal. In 1694, after Königsmarck's disappearance and murder, George divorced Sophia and she was sent to Ahlden House, where she would remain under confinement for the rest of her life.
Königsmarck's body was never officially recovered, although it is widely believed that he was murdered and his remains disposed of in the River Leine.
1762 - A British force defeats a French force at the Battle of Signal Hill in Newfoundland.
The British assault forced the French to abandon their positions and retreat to Fort William. Three days later, the French garrison at St John's surrendered.
The battle was the last major engagement of the Seven Years' War in the North American theatre.
1773 - The immigrant ship Hector arrives at Pictou, Nova Scotia, carrying 189 Scottish Highland immigrants.
The ship had left Scotland carrying 23 families and 25 single men, most of whom came from the area around Loch Broom in Ross-shire. They had been promised free passage, a farm and free provisions for a year.
The voyage would be a terrible one.
The Hector was an old ship in poor condition and the crossing took 11 weeks. A severe storm off Newfoundland drove the ship backwards, delaying the voyage by around two weeks. Smallpox and dysentery broke out on board and 18 passengers, most of them children, died during the crossing.
When the Hector finally arrived at Pictou, the settlers discovered that many of the promises made to them had not been fulfilled.
The provisions they had been promised were not available and the land allocated to them was around three miles inland, covered by dense forest and completely uncleared.
With winter approaching, the settlers realised that they would have little chance of producing crops and would also be cut off from the harbour and its fish. They refused to move inland and instead began establishing themselves closer to the shore.
When provisions eventually arrived, the land company's agents refused to hand them over because the settlers had refused to take the land that had been allocated to them.
Driven to desperation, the settlers demanded the supplies that had been promised to them. Their arrival marked the beginning of a major wave of Highland Scottish immigration to Nova Scotia, with Pictou becoming an important centre of Scottish Gaelic culture in Canada.
1830 - George Stephenson's Liverpool and Manchester Railway is officially opened in a ceremony attended by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.
The day would also become infamous for the death of Member of Parliament William Huskisson.
As the locomotive Rocket approached Parkside, Huskisson attempted to cross the railway line. He was struck by the locomotive and suffered severe injuries. He was taken to Eccles Vicarage but died later that evening.
Huskisson is generally regarded as the first person to die after being struck by a railway locomotive.
His highly publicised death brought the dangers, as well as the possibilities, of the new railway age to the attention of people around the world.
1859 - Civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel dies in Westminster, London, aged 53.
One of the most innovative and prolific engineers of the 19th century, Brunel's designs would revolutionise engineering and public transport.
His work included the Great Western Railway, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and some of the largest and most technologically advanced ships of his era.
1916 - The first tanks are used in warfare during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette, part of the Battle of the Somme.
The British Mark I tanks were used in an attempt to break through the German defensive positions.
The results were mixed. Mechanical failures, difficult terrain and problems coordinating the tanks with the infantry severely limited their effectiveness. Of the 49 tanks originally intended for the attack, only 32 reached the starting area and just 18 actually went into action.
Despite their limited success, the appearance of the tanks marked the beginning of a completely new era in warfare.
1931 - Around 1,000 sailors of the British Atlantic Fleet, stationed in the Cromarty Firth near Invergordon, begin what would become known as the Invergordon Mutiny.
The mutiny was caused by proposed reductions in naval pay introduced as part of the government's attempts to reduce spending during the Great Depression.
The proposed cuts were particularly severe for lower-paid sailors, with some facing reductions of as much as 25%.
The ships involved included HMS Hood, the flagship of the Royal Navy, along with Adventure, Dorsetshire, Malaya, Norfolk, Repulse, Rodney, Valiant, Warspite and York.
Sailors refused to carry out certain duties and gathered on the decks of the ships, singing and cheering. The situation became increasingly serious as the men refused orders and some threatened to damage machinery.
Even Royal Marines aboard Hood joined the protest.
Rear Admiral Wilfred Tomkinson, who was temporarily in command of the fleet, realised that the situation could not be allowed to escalate further. He negotiated with the sailors and concessions were eventually made, including limiting the effective reduction to 10% and protecting marriage allowances.
After two days, the sailors returned to their duties and the ships left Invergordon for their home ports.
The mutiny caused panic in London and contributed to a run on the pound, adding to Britain's already serious financial problems.
One of the leaders of the mutiny was Len Wincott. He later defected to the Soviet Union in 1934. During the Second World War, he was arrested by the Soviet authorities and accused of being a British spy. He spent two years imprisoned in the USSR.
The Invergordon Mutiny remains one of the most serious examples of collective disobedience in the history of the Royal Navy.