You can find the latest video each day on the home page of this site. You can also find videos for previous days by clicking the articles in the left column of this page under “Recent Posts” or by clicking on the mauve headline at the top of the screen on the right, which will take you to yesterday’s selected video – and so on back to the start of the series in August. There is more about who we are and other things we do, at the foot of the page.
20 October 1905: What we believe is the earliest history of Royal Arsenal and Woolwich Arsenal to have been written was published in the part-work, the Book of Football. It was written by the club’s vice-chairman, Arthur Kennedy.
20 October 1906: A 1-0 win over Notts C gave Arsenal seven wins in the first nine; the club’s best first division start thus far.
20 October 1915: Women in Britain were officially permitted for the first time to act as bus and tram conductors.
20 October 1917: Arsenal drew 2-2 at Highbury with West Ham with a crowd of just 6000. It meant that after their flying start to the season Arsenal had now gone four games without a win. Meanwhile the London Council Council accepted the new education system which would give free schooling to all children up to the age of 14.
20 October 1919: The replay of the London FA Cup 2nd round resulted in Fulham 3 Arsenal 1. The local paper bemoaned Arsenal’s lack of “firing power”, Arsenal having only scored 16 league goals so far – not ideal, but there were six clubs in the league which had scored less.
20 October 1920: Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst was charged with sedition after calling upon workers to loot the London Docks.
20 October 1923: Arsenal were 20th in the league and for their away game against Bolton (who were 3rd) played, perhaps for the first time, an offside game, and surprisingly won won 2-1. According to reports the Bolton crowd got so fed up with Arsenal’s tactics they started chucking cinders from the track between the crowd and the pitch at Arsenal’s goalkeeper. The ref stopped the game and warned the crowd that he would abandon the match if this continued (which was pretty much what the crowd wanted) Arsenal moved up to 17th.
20 October 1927: Eddie Hapgood signed from Kettering for £1000. See also here. It was reported that Chapman’s interview of Hapgood included questions about smoking and drinking (he didn’t do either). After the interview he offered Kettering the fee plus performance bonuses and a friendly match in which Arsenal guaranteed to bring some of their star players.
20 October 1928: David Jack’s debut. Newcastle 0 Arsenal 3. (Thompson 2 and Brain scored).
20 October 1934: Arsenal had only won two of the last 13 games v Tottenham before this match in which Ted Drake became the first Arsenal player to score a hat trick against Tottenham. The crowd of 70,500 was a new Highbury record as Arsenal won 5-1. It was the third time Arsenal scored 5+ in Allison’s opening 11 games. See also here And again here
20 October 1936: The UK’s Prime minister Stanley Baldwin confronted King Edward VIII about his relationship with the married (but soon to be divorced) Wallis Simpson. The nation was agog.
20 October 1945: Arsenal 1 Charlton 2. The result meant that Arsenal had still only won two of the first 11 games of the final season of the wartime league.
20 October 1954: Arsenal beat Racing Club de Paris in the Armistice series of games originally instituted by Herbert Chapman.
20 October 1956: Manchester United were beaten on this day ending a run of 26 consecutive first division games without defeat. It was heralded for many years as a feat that could never be equalled.
20 October 1958: Cliff Holton sold to Watford for £10,000. Graham Taylor who was with Watford when Cliff Holton died, is quoted as saying, on hearing the news of Holton’s death, that “He looked younger [than his 67 years], fitter and there was so much to him…: an aura, a presence.”
20 October 1973: Arsenal drew 1-1 with Ipswich at Highbury, in front of 28,344. Nine of the Arsenal starting 11 were lads who joined the club from school.
20 October 1976: Arsenal lost 5-1 away to Aston Villa. Arsenal then went on and lost the next games 1-4 and 1-2. In the fourth game Arsenal beat Birmingham 4-0. See also here
20 October 1979: A pattern was emerging of lesser teams coming to Highbury with an 11 man defence. Bolton had recently done it and on this day Stoke copied the idea. As a result three of Arsenal’s last four league games had ended goalless. Since these teams bought virtually no away support, only the home crowd minded and it started to become the norm.
20 October 1984: Ian Allinson started a run of 8 goals in 9 games as Arsenal unveiled the first ever ‘big screen’ at an English ground. Arsenal beat Sunderland 3-2 to retain top position in the league.
20 October 1987: Steve Morrow played his first senior game for the “floodlight opening” match at Barnet. He went out on loan to Reading, Watford and Barnet, playing his first Arsenal game proper on 8 April 1992.
20 October 1990: Man U 0 Arsenal 1 – Arsenal deducted two points, after all the players except Seaman got involved in two minutes worth of pushing and shoving. For reasons that were never made clear Man U were only reduced one point, and the punishment was not used again for this type of “offence”.
20 October 1993: Arsenal 3 Standard Liege 0; CWC 2nd round. Wright (2) and Merson got the goals in front of 25,248.
20 October 2001: Arsenal 3 Blackburn 3. League match 9 of the third Double season. Pirès, Bergkamp and Henry scored. It was the seventh consecutive match unbeaten as Arsenal regained top position.
20 October 2007: Arsenal’s seventh straight win in the league beating Bolton 2-0. Rosicky and Toure scored. The unbeaten run lasted 15 games in all.
20 October 2009: AZ Alkmaar 1 Arsenal 1. The result ended a run of seven successive wins, and was part of a run of 11 wins and two draws.
20 October 2015: Arsenal 2 Bayern Munich 0 in a run of four successive league and Champions League victories. Unfortunately in the return match Arsenal lost 5-1 but still went through.
20 October 2016: Arsenal had a goalless draw with Middlesbrough, their second and last goalless draw of the season. Yet despite much moaning this was not a hopeless season for goalscoring, as Arsenal scored four goals five times, five goals three times, and six once. They also won the FA cup beating Chelsea.
For details of other recent anniversary posts see the articles on the top left under “Recent posts”
The Arsenal History Society is part of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association – a body which gives positive support to the club, and has regular meetings with directors and senior officials of the club to represent the views of its members to the club. You can read more about AISA on its website.
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100 Years in the First Division: the absolute complete story of Arsenal’s promotion in 1919.
