On this day.

1969: Sex and Violence, the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus was broadcast on BBC. Gaping viewers here had a chance to meet a hungry pram and to follow Deirdre and Arthur Putey as they visited the marriage guidance counsellor. Three of the six circus performers - Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin - had already worked together on the BBC children's series Do Not Adjust Your Seat in 1968, but not until 1969 did all the five mad Britons and the one just as mad American all work together.

The sextet was initially supposed to produce only 13 episodes of the show, but the success of the surreal and absurd humour resulted in four seasons of madness, turning out 45 memorable episodes, which have now been broadcast in most of the laughing world.

1914: First air battle took place between German and French aircraft; 1930: The British airship R101 crashed at the edge of a French wood near Beauvais killing 48 of the 54 passengers; 1936: Unemployed shipyard workers began the Jarrow March to deliver a petition with 11,500 signatures to the government in London; 1952: Tea rationing ended in Britain; 1982: Sony began marketing two-inch flat pocket television screens; 1983: Trade & Industry Secretary Michael Parkinson offered his resignation after admitting an affair with his secretary Sara Keays who was expecting his child.