#Onthisday in 1840 the "Mad Duke" who created Southport died in jail. William Sutton, a publican in North Meols, had the crazy idea of building a bathing house and hotel in what was then the middle of nowhere. The place thrived and a town sprung up around, but Sutton died in a prison for debtors.

Tragedy struck at Speke airport #onthisday (21 May) in 1956 as Léo Valentin, the French birdman who flew with wooden wings, plunged to his death at an air show. In the horrified crowd of 100,000 were 3 kids who went on to fame: writer Clive Barker & future Beatles George Harrison & Paul McCartney.

#Onthisday (20 May) in 1872, Liverpool's greatest park was officially opened despite public outcry about the £250,000 it cost. Designed by Frenchman Édouard André (and fabulously named local architect Lewis Hornblower), the park is named after the man who once owned the land: the Earl of Sefton.

Andy Burnham may soon become only the 2nd ever prime minister from Liverpool. The 1st one died #onthisday (19 May) in 1898. William Ewart Gladstone was born into a slave-owning Scottish merchant family at 62 Rodney St and grew up in Seaforth. He served as PM a record 4 times between 1868 and 1894.

#OnThisDay in 1958, Howard Gayle, #Liverpool's first black player, was born in Toxteth. He only played 5 times for the Reds but helped them win the '81 European Cup. In 2016, he rejected an MBE because of 'all of the Africans who have lost their lives, or who have suffered as a result of Empire.'

#Onthisday (17 May) in 1832, the UK's first cholera epidemic reached Liverpool. Over the next 4 months, nearly 5,000 cases were reported, with 1,523 deaths (a 31% mortality rate). Most of the dead were poor people living in cellars in the slums, with Irish immigrants particulary badly affected.

Which Liverpool monument is made from melted-down French cannons from the Battle of Waterloo? It is the 25ft statue of the Duke of Wellington, which has looked down over the city from his column on the corner of Lime St and William Brown St for 166 years today. #liverpool #history #onthisday

#Onthisday (15 May) in 1926, two of Britain's best screenwriters were born to a Jewish family living at 55 Croxteth Rd, Liverpool 8. Peter Shaffer won an Oscar for his most famous work, Amadeus (1984). His twin Anthony was best known for three '70s films: Sleuth, The Wicker Man + Death on the Nile.

#Onthisday (14 May) in 1966, Bob Dylan was in Liverpool on tour, playing the Odeon on London Rd. That afternoon, he wandered round the city and this iconic photograph of him surrounded by local kids was taken on Dublin St, near the docks. #liverpool #bobdylan #itsalrightlaimonlybleedin'

#onthisday in 1872 the feminist, social reformer, pro-refugee, anti-Nazi MP Eleanor Rathbone was born. The first woman on Liverpool city council, she also campaigned successfully nationally for universal women's suffrage, family allowances paid to mothers, divorce law reform and widow's pensions.

Do you know the Liverpool connection with the only British prime minister ever to be assassinated? On this day in 1812, Tory prime minister Spencer Perceval was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. The assassin, John Bellingham was a disgruntled merchant who lived on Duke St in town.

40 years ago yesterday (10th May 1986) was the first all-Merseyside FA Cup final. Gary Lineker opened the scoring for Everton, but Liverpool came back to win 3-1 and leave this writer in tears in the back garden where we were watching the game (I was only seven at the time). #football #EFC #LFC

#Onthisday (9 May 1936), Glenda Jackson was born in Birkenhead. She grew up in Hoylake and went on to win two Oscars as an actress and serve for 23 years as a Labour MP. Another celebrity born on the Wirral on this day is Paul Heaton, singer of the Beautiful South (born in Bromborough in 1962).

#Onthisday in 1941, the Mersey ferry Royal Daffodil II was sunk by German bombs during the May Blitz, the worst bombing Liverpool ever endured. In July 1942, the ship was salvaged and it returned to ferry service the next year: a symbol of the spirit of the city.

On this day (7 May 1915): German u-boats sunk the passenger ship Lusitania en route from New York to Liverpool, killing 1,197 of the people onboard. The ship's captain (who survived) was from Liverpool as were many of the 405 crew who died. The attack ultimately contributed to the US joining WWI.

On this day in 1991, John Parrott became the only Scouser to ever win the World Snooker Championship. It was some redemption for the man who later became Duncan Ferguson's brother-in-law, his 18-3 defeat in his previous final (1989) remains the heaviest in the history of the tournament. #snooker

Another on this day in Liverpool history for May 5, the birth of Echo and the Bunnymen's singer Ian McCulloch in 1959. #liverpool #history #echoandthebunnymen

On this day (5 May), Dixie Dean scored his 60th league goal of the 1927-28 season for champions Everton, setting a record that remains unbroken. Dean needed a hattrick vs Arsenal to beat the previous record (59) and completed it with a header 8 minutes from time. #everton #football #footballhistory

Today's #Liverpool vs #ManchesterUnited game comes almost exactly 132 years after their first encounter, a playoff at Ewood Park in 1894 that saw Liverpool's splendidly mustachioed team beat United (then called Newton Heath) 2-0 to win their first promotion to Division 1 and relegate their rivals.

#Onthisday in 1941, the worst attacks in Liverpool's history began. During the 8-night May Blitz, German bombers dropped 100s of tonnes of high explosives in their most concentrated attack on any British city outside London. 1,900 people were killed, 1,450 seriously wounded and 70,000 made homeless.

#Onthisday in 1881 the great Victorian poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, serving at St Xavier's Church in Everton, attended the Liverpool parade of horses. The poet was no fan of the city though, "Liverpool is of all places the most museless. It is indeed a most unhappy and miserable spot." #poetry

Did you know that one of the first people in the world to have gender reassignment surgery was a Scouser? Born George Jamieson in #Liverpool #onthisday in 1935, she became April Ashley in 1960 and modelled for Vogue before being outed as a transgender woman by the Sunday People newspaper in 1961.

On this day in 1956 the first modern container ship left New Jersey for Texas. The Liverpool connection? Container ships, which can be unloaded in hours by cranes rather than in days by humans are the main reason why our docks, which employed tens of thousands in the '50s employ a few hundred today.

On this day in 1916, Ireland's #EasterRising began as rebels seized Dublin's General Post Office (GPO) and declared independence from the UK. What's the #Liverpool connection? At least 50 rebels were from our city, including the man who some say first flew the Irish flag over the GPO: Joe Gleeson.

What links this lot? Harold Wilson & Edward Heath; Mr Kite, the Hendersons & Pablo Fanque; Edgar Allan Poe; Sir Walter Raleigh; Mao Zedong; Elmore James; Charles Hawtrey; BB King, Doris Day, Georgie Wood & Matt Busby. They're the only real people named in #Beatles lyrics who weren't band associates

23rd April is the anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and death. What's the Merseyside connection? Ferdinando Stanley of Knowsley Hall was patron of Lord Strange's Men, a troupe of actors Shakespeare may have joined which was the first group to perform his first play: Henry VI. #scouseshakespeare

On this day (23 April) in 1977, one of the most controversial Merseyside derbies ever saw referee Clive Thomas wrongly disallow a late #Everton winner in an FA Cup semi-final at Maine Road. #Liverpool went on to win the reply 3-0, but they ended up losing the final 2-1 to Manchester United.

On 22 April 1858 James Baines, "the most perfect ship afloat", burned down in Liverpool's Huskisson Dock shortly after returning from India. The loss cost its owner, Mr James Baines, £170,000 (c.£20 million in today's money) because its insurance policy had expired 3 days earlier. #liverpoolhistory

20 April 2005 saw the world premiere in Helsinki of Barlinnie Nine, a piece of classical music by Finnish composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä paying tribute to the #Everton striker #DuncanFerguson. Coincidentally, on the same night, Ferguson scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Manchester United.

On 19th April 1883, businessman Thomas Agnew founded the Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the first such society in Britain. Other cities followed his lead, and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) was founded in 1889 #liverpool #history