LiberalHistoryToday

Happy birthday to Sir Simon Hughes, born #OTD 1951, Liberal and Liberal Democrat MP for Bermondsey 1983-2015.

#OTD 2010: Special Conference in Birmingham approves the coalition agreement with the Conservatives paving the way for the Coalition Government.

#OTD 1730: Birth of Charles Watson Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, Whig statesman and Prime Minister. Rockingham was arguably the first leader of a political party, when in 1762 a group of young Whigs formed a club in opposition to the Earl of Bute.

#OTD 1976: Following the resignation of Jeremy Thorpe on 9th May, Jo Grimond succeeds him as temporary leader of the Liberal Party.

#OTD 1815: Birth of Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, Whig MP for Morpeth and then Lichfield. Granville was a fixture in every Whig and Liberal government from the 1840s to the 1880s, most known for his tenures as Foreign Secretary.

#OTD 1993: Death of Stephen Ross, Liberal MP for the Isle of Wight. Ross was a popular local figure on the Isle of Wight and was Leader of the Council there twice.

#OTD 1976: Jeremy Thorpe resigns as Liberal leader as scandal engulfs him.

#OTD 1918: The Maurice Debate takes place in the House of Commons, following allegations that the War Cabinet had deliberately held soldiers back from the Western Front and lied to Parliament about it. Asquith took up the allegations against David Lloyd George.

#OTD 1986: Elizabeth Shields wins the Ryedale by-election for the Liberal-SDP Alliance with 50.3% of the vote. Shields' time as an MP was a short one as the Conservatives recaptured the seat in the general election the following year.

#OTD 1882: The fatal stabbings of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, and Thomas Henry Burke, the Permanent Undersecretary, take place in Dublin.

Happy birthday to Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat MP for Carshalton and Wallington 1997-2019.

#OTD 2005: The Liberal Democrats under Charles Kenned win 62 seats in the 2005 general election, the largest number of Liberal MPs elected since 1923.

#OTD 1908: George Rennie Thorne (1853-1934) wins the Wolverhampton East by-election by just eight votes.

#OTD 2000: Liberal Democrat Sandra Gidley seizes the Hampshire seat of Romsey from the Conservatives, in the only by-election gain for any party during the 1997-2001 parliament. Charles Kennedy described it as 'a victory of the politics of hope over the politics of fear'.

#OTD 1935: Birth of Richard Livsey, Baron Livsey of Talgarth, respected Welsh agriculturist who famously won the Brecon and Radnor by-election for the Liberal Party in 1985 by just 559 votes but went on to hold the seat until 1992, then from 1997 to 2001.

#OTD 1997: The Liberal Democrats win 47 seats in the general election, their best showing since the 1920s, despite a drop in vote-share. The party adopting a target seat strategy, focusing campaigning and resources on a select number of winnable seats, paid dividends.

#OTD 1878: Alarmed at the prospect of war with Russia John Bright addresses an anti-war rally of 1,500 people to speak against Britain's potential involvement in the Balkans. The danger of war was ultimatelyy averted the following July with the Treaty of Berlin.