On this day...... 4 August

1265: Henry III's son Edward, subsequently Edward I, defeated the rebel army of Simon de Montfort near Evesham.  De Montfort was expecting to be reinforced by his son, also named Simon, but was unaware that he had been defeated at Kenilworth two days earlier.  Prince Edward's army advanced carrying the younger de Montfort's captured standards, and trapped the rebels outside Evesham Abbey. In a thunderstorm which turned the battlefield to mud, de Montfort's outnumbered troops went down fighting, with no quarter offered.  De Montfort, in some regards the founder of representative Parliament, but equally an extreme and unpleasant zealot, was killed and his body mutilated as a traitor.

1347: After a siege lasting exactly eleven months, Edward III captured Calais.  Although Edward famously spared the burghers of the city at the request of his wife, the French inhabitants were expelled and replaced by English settlers, and the town remained an English possession for over two centuries until recaptured by the French in 1558.

1914: Great Britain entered the First World War after Germany refused to guarantee Belgian neutrality.  Over the next four years, Britain lost some 888,000 men, while the Empire and Dominions also suffered heavy losses: India had 72,000 killed, Canada 65,000, Australia 62,000, New Zealand 18,000, South Africa 9,300, and Newfoundland 1,250.  A further two million personnel from Britain and the Empire are believed to have been wounded.

1918: British troops occupied Baku.

1940: Luftwaffe activity proved very limited, with no combat resulting.  The day's events are recorded on the RAF's Battle of Britain website.

1944: Flying Officer Dean of 616 Squadron RAF was successful in the first ever jet-jet combat, destroying a jet-propelled V-1 flying bomb whilst flying a Meteor Mark I jet fighter.  However, the means of destruction was somewhat less high-tech - Dean's cannon having jammed, he destroyed the V-1 by tipping it with his wing so that it fell to earth.

Across the Channel, Bomber Command attacked a pair of V-1 launch sites.  Approaching one of the targets, a Lancaster of 635 Squadron, piloted by Squadron Leader Bazalgette, was hit by anti-aircraft fire and set on fire, wounding two crew members.  However, the crew managed to complete their bombing run, but shortly afterwards the aircraft plunged out of control.  Bazalgette managed to regain control long enough to allow his uninjured colleagues to bail out safely, then crash-landed the aircraft to save the two casualties who could not jump.  He brought the aircraft safely to rest but it exploded before he could get the wounded men clear; all three were killed.  Bazalgette was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.