1852: The troopship HMS Birkenhead was en route to Cape Town when it hit an uncharted rock during the night, about three miles off the South African shore, near the appropriately named Danger Point.

Certainty is difficult given the loss of papers in the wreck, but the ship is believed to have had 638 passengers and crew aboard. These included 476 soldiers, from a number of different regiments of the British Army, on their way to reinforce the garrison in the Cape Colony, but also 7 women and 13 children.

The rock tore open the hull, and about 100 soldiers asleep below were drowned immediately. Everyone else mustered on deck, where it was clear the ship was sinking quickly. Only three lifeboats could be used; all the women and children were placed in these, with a few crew to man them. The senior army officer aboard, Lieutenant Colonel Seton of the 74th Foot, drew the soldiers up on parade on the deck, and emphasised the need for absolute discipline if the lifeboats were not to be swamped. Some cavalry horses aboard were freed and driven into the sea in the hope that they might be able to swim themselves ashore. The soldiers stood firm, even as a mast crashed down around them and the ship split in two.

She sank in less than 25 minutes. Only 193 people survived the ordeal - although the weather was excellent, sharks claimed many of the men in the water, as well as most of the horses.

The women and children first ethos was later called the 'Birkenhead Drill' and was celebrated in verse by Rudyard Kipling in Soldier an’ Sailor Too

To take your chance in the thick of a rush, with firing all about,
Is nothing so bad when you've cover to 'and, an' leave an' likin’ to shout;
But to stand an’ be still to the Birken’ead drill is a damn tough bullet to chew,
An’ they done it, the Jollies - 'Er Majesty’s Jollies - soldier an' sailor too!
Their work was done when it 'adn’t begun; they was younger nor me an' you;
Their choice it was plain between drownin' in 'eaps an' bein' mopped by the screw,
So they stood an' was still to the Birken'ead drill, soldier an' sailor too!

The bravery and discipline of the soldiers was admired around the world; indeed, an account was later read to every unit of the Prussian army, by order of the Kaiser, as an exemplar of military behaviour.

1903: The Kano-Sokoto expedition was mounted to extend British rule thoughout the northern territories of Nigeria, and in particular to suppress the slave trade. On 26 February, a small party of 45 locally recruited soldiers from the Northern Nigerian Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Wright, were attacked by no less than 3,000 tribesmen, including 1,000 cavalry. For two hours, the soldiers beat back repeated attacks, until eventually the tribesmen started to withdraw in good order. Lieutenant Wright then led his men forward in a charge, and succeeded in turning the withdrawal into a rout. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1915: During the continuing efforts of the Franco-British naval force at the Dardanelles to destroy the Turkish coastal defences, a small party of seamen was landed under the command of Lieutenant Commander Robinson, to demolish a battery at Kum Kale. They were met with heavy fire, and Robinson feared that the men's white uniforms made them too easy a target. He therefore ordered them to remain under cover, and went forward alone. Despite the enemy fire, he succeeded in reaching a gun whose crew had fled, and laid a demolition charge. That gun destroyed, he returned to his men, collected a further supply of explosives, and returned alone to destroy a second position. He subsequently played a leading role in four operations to clear minefields in the straits, and was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1935: RADAR was successfully demonstrated for the time. As Nazi Germany had grown more belligerent finally, and only after years of appeasement, improvements were being made to the state of Great Britain’s air defences

Robert Watson-Watt, a Scottish physicist, had been working on methods of using radio-wave detection to locate thunderstorms in order to provide warnings to airmen. Realizing that a similar system could be used to track enemy aircraft, he drafted a report titled "The Detection of Aircraft by Radio Methods," and presented it to the newly formed committee for the scientific survey of air defence.

Before committing resources to the idea, the Air Ministry insisted on a demonstration. On February 26, 1935, a trial took place using a British Broadcasting Service short-wave radio transmitter to track a Royal Air Force bomber. Encouraged by the success of the trial, the British military installed a chain of radio detection and ranging (RADAR) stations along the east and south coasts of England in time for the outbreak of war in 1939.

By providing crucial advance information about incoming German aircraft, the system enabled the outnumbered Royal Air Force to win the Battle of Britain and to prevent a German invasion. In recognition of the enormous importance of his RADAR, Robert Watson-Watt was knighted in 1942.

1942: Although the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen had succeeded in escaping from Brest to Germany in the Channel Dash, they remained priority targets. Gneisenau was spotted by reconnaissance aircraft in drydock in Kiel, undergoing repairs to the damage inflicted by a mine during the dash. 49 Bomber Command Wellington, Hampden and Halifax aircraft attacked, and a direct hit was scored on the battlecruiser, in the bows, killing 116 crew and causing such severe damage that she never returned to service. Three bombers failed to return.

1949: While HMCS Athabaskan was on fuelling stop at Manzanillo, Mexico, ninety Leading Seamen and below - constituting more than half the ship's company - locked themselves in their messdecks, and refused to come out until getting the captain to hear their grievances.

The captain acted with great sensitivity to defuse the crisis, entering the mess for an informal discussion of the sailors' grievances and carefully avoiding using the term "mutiny" which could have had severe legal consequences for the sailors involved. Specifically, while talking with the disgruntled crew members, the captain is known to have placed his cap over a written list of demands which could have been used as legal evidence of a mutiny, pretending not to notice it.

At nearly the same time, similar incidents happened on Crescent at Nanjing, China and on the the carrier Magnificent in the Caribbean, both of whose captains acted similarly to that of the Athabaskan.

Among the grievances was the assertion of "an uncaring officer corps harbouring aristocratic British attitudes inappropriate to Canadian democratic sensitivities".