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#OTD 1831

1/6 -Birth of Henry Labouchere, writer, publisher, theatre owner and radical Liberal MP for Windsor 1865-66, Middlesex 1867-68 and Northampton 1880-1906. Born into a Huguenot family and nephew of the prominent Whig politician of the same name, from whom he inherited...

5/6 - ...illiberal 'gross indecency' amendment to the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act which criminalised generations of gay men until its repeal in 1967. This led to the imprisonment of many men, including Oscar Wilde, who was sentenced to 2 years' hard labour.

6/6 - Later, the punishments for 'gross indecency' became even more draconian and included the use of chemical castration. This barbaric practice was most famously used on Alan Turing, who chose it as an alternative to prison.

#OTD 1973

1/4 - Alan Beith wins the Berwick-on-Tweed by-election by a majority of 57 votes, taking the seat from the Conservatives. The by-election was called following the resignation of Conservative MP Lord Lambton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, after...

3/4 - He was a local councillor and had contested Berwick in 1970. Although a gain the result was much narrower than expected and was something of a disappointment. It was the narrowest by-election result since Carmarthen in 1926 which the Liberals held by 47 votes.

4/4 - Despite his slim majority, Beith held the seat until he retired in 2015.

#OTD 1947

1/2 - Death of J E B Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone. Seely started out as a Conservative but crossed the floor and joined the Liberals in 1904. He was MP for the Isle of Wight 1900-06 and 1923-24, Liverpool Abercromby 1906- 10, and Ilkeston 1910-22.

2/2 - He served in Asquith's cabinet as Secretary of State for War. He was forced to resign following his handling of the 'Curragh mutiny'. He served with distinction in the First World War and later returned to government under Lloyd George.

#OTD 1870

1/4 - Birth of Herbert Samuel, Liberal leader 1931-35. Samuel was first elected to Parliament in 1902 for the Cleveland Division of Yorkshire. On the left of the party, Samuel was prominent in the Rainbow Club of Liberals and Socialists which included future...

3/4 - ... High Commissioner for Palestine and then chaired a Royal Commission on the coal industry. In 1929 Samuel returned to the House of Commons as MP for Darwen. He played a key part in the formation of the National Government , returning to his old post of Home Secretary.

4/4 - Following his defeat in the 1935 election, Samuel went to the House of Lords, serving as Liberal Leader in the Lords from 1944-55. He died in February 1963.

#OTD 1909

1/3 - The Liberal Party takes the extraordinary step of drafting a second Budget (Finance (Number Two) Bill) on the assumption that the radical 1909 People's Budget, introduced principally to raise taxes for the Liberal government's...

2/3 - ...social welfare programmes, is rejected. However, it decides a few days later not to present the alternative Budget, should the original one be rejected, as this would concede the right to decide on government finances to the House of Lords and...

3/3 - ... the party is becoming increasingly focused on the constitutional question of the peers versus the people.

#OTD 1897

1/2 - The Liberal, Alderman James Duckworth (1840-1915), gains the seat of Middleton in south east Lancashire from the Conservatives in a by-election caused by the death of the sitting Tory MP.

2/2 - His majority was exactly 300 votes. Commenting a few days later, Joseph Chamberlain said that '...a desire for change invariably existed among a proportion of the electorate and a government was liable to perish by its own virtues.'