The most famous June event in British History was, of course, The Battle of Waterloo, which Maureen Mackay so eloquently presented last week. The wars had dragged on for decades.  It is interesting to note that in the years that followed the emperor’s defeat significant firsts include things considerably more peaceful in nature.

June 22, 1814, (with Napoleon in exile on Elba) The Marylebone Cricket Club (which had formalized the rules of the game in 1797) and Hertfordshire played the first-ever cricket match at England’s Lord’s Cricket Ground.

June 10, 1829, The Oxford team won the first-ever Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race, aka “The Boat Race.” Cambridge won the 168th this past March.